By Aristide Bance
In an age of social media exploitation, show-off, self-assurance and assurance plus acceptance from friends and total strangers, many people can not resist the temptation to post or do something that will be captured by others and might even go viral. Many people have and continue to use social media as a platform to showcase, talents, or lack of talents, scandals, funny stuff as well as sad and not so appropriate stuff to the public to consume.
As I write this article, I am not sure what motivated our Lusaka Mayor to start piggy-backing people in the ‘SEASONAL LUSAKA FLOODS.’I have deliberately bolded and capitalised ‘SEASONAL LUSAKA FLOODS’ to convey a strong message. I can only assume a couple of things as to what motivated the Mayor.
Firstly, it may have been a poorly calculated strategy to appear as a humble mayor. This is why I think this is wrong. It is a shame for the Mayor to be doing what he is doing because he should be seeking a long lasting solution to the ‘SEASONAL LUSAKA FLOODS.’ The Mayor’s Public Relations team here miscalculated and should have advised the Mayor against this so called act of humility.
Secondly, the Mayor may have been doing this as a stunt to appear humble. Well, this may have worked with the people he assisted and the small crowd that may have appeared to witness the ‘act. ‘ For all we know, the Mayor may have gone there with his own team to record the act. Again, this is very wrong and as I mentioned earlier, he should be seeking permanent solutions to the ‘SEASONAL LUSAKA FLOODS’.
Thirdly, which I strongly suspect may also have been a motivation for this act was the insatiable nature and characteristic that has now consumed a lot of people…… assurance plus acceptance from friends and total strangers. The mayor may have thrived on the fact that his social media platforms will be abuzz with his ‘act of humility.’ This insatiable thirst for acceptance and assurance through social media has consumed the modern world. While many people have used social media for good and upliftment of their lives for example, John Legend who works alongside Teach for America, Teach for All, Harlem Village Academies, and New Profit. Legend also addresses issues in the criminal justice system that affect the poor and disadvantaged through media platforms like podcasts and social media. Another person of note, Alicia Keys who works with her organisation, Keep a Child Alive and her support for HIV/AIDS programmes. ON her social media, not only does she shed light on the organizations, but she’s also known to Instagram motivational quotes and promote work she believes in. I can go on and on but that is not within the scope of this article. Our Lusaka Mayor on the other hand decided to do what he did. What a shame. Lastly, I also suspect the mayor decided to do what he did for political mileage and public popularity. Here is the thing in life, to quote Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States of America, “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”
The age of populist electioneering that is, to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups is what politicians should avoid. When you do that as a politician, it is easy for people to point out the populist ideas you thrived on to be in power. People are awake and in the wake of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the information highway is beyond many people’s control and that is why it is futile for those in power to seek to control that (Note to the Communications Minister who sees it as a need to respond to what every one says about her Government).
Miles Sampa should re-position himself more strategically and not use the populist approach he used, that is my advice. In fact he should be ashamed of being part of a city that always has floods year in and year out. We are crying about lack of rainfall but as soon as it rains we have other issues such as floods and water-borne diseases like cholera and for your information cholera is medieval disease with early texts from India by Sushruta Samhita in the 5th century B.C. documenting it. It is a shame that in the 21st century we are still battling cholera. Mr. Mayor, instead of piggy-backing people, my advise to you is, if you want to seek another term in office, try to work and find solutions otherwise, most of us are not fooled by your antics.
This guy Miles is sick in the head…he looks like he has developed some mental illness
This is the best you found in pf. Imingulu shekasheka
And we complain when they call our countrys shiiithole…..imagine thats even the Capital city of Zambia …full of filth and you expect other Presidents to listen to Lungu at UNGA…busy stealing and wasting resources….just how much did the trip to Lumezi cost the tax payers…probably more than nonsensical nursing school he went to commission
I can’t look at the picture twice, that filthy muddy water in the CBD of our capital is something any sane city manager should even keep away from the cameras, alas he even decided to wad in the same muddy water like a duck, the only thing we seeing in the city center after a heavy downpour is concrete and green lawns not those muddy pools.
Act of humility or clowning?
Difference is… Alicia keys, Oprah and all those other famous charity people – they have better publicity teams. Miles’ publicity team is amateur. But they all fit into the same name&fame seeking basket.
That Miles’s styupid behavior is like Tayali’s marriage or ACC “arresting” PF ministers and State House staff, just for show.
Outbreak of idyots in Lusaka.
Only HH has serious mental illness! This one is mild.
Well this guy doesn’t seem to know that as Mayor, it’s his responsibility to ensure the drainage in Lusaka is functional, the garbage is collected,
the bylaws are obeyed and that we don’t have outbreaks of cholera every year.
If he was serious with his job he would have had the line departmental heads disciplined for failure in their duties.
He thinks he is a movie star. He should be ashamed of being a mayor of a dirt city!
Hehehehehehe
Miles is having fun.
I can smell it.
Nice photo regardless of what the story is trying to concoct.
BANANA REPUBLIC…
Is the above article written by a white man?
He is in a public office and was connecting with his constituency. He did not harm anyone. Why the hate?
Tosh.
@abena when your yard is flooded your job isn’t to play with the children in the dirty water your job is getting rid of the dirty water and or stopping the children from playing in the water. WHAT THE MAYOR IS DOING SENDS ONLY ONE MESSAGE THERE IS NO ONE FIXING THE DRAINAGES ANYTIME SOON SO MIGHT AS WELL GET USED TO IT. THIS IS LIKE A DOCTOR COMING TO SEE A PATIENT AND HELPS THE PATIENT GO TO THE TOILET IT’S A COMMENDABLE ACT BUT WE EXPECT THE DOCTOR TO BRING SOLUTIONS NOT TO MAKE THE PATIENT COMFORTABLE WITH HIS SICKNESS.
If Sampa was to attempt to fix the drainage don’t be surprised if the pf kaponyas attack for depriving them of papularing jobs……
May those are some of the jobs lungu was talking about when he promised 500,000 jobs.
This is disgraceful.
He ought to have been proactively dealing with the issues that lead to this annual problem, not perpetuating it by carrying people on his back.
Did he get paid for the backride hire?
Am not surprised because people nowadays vote based on humbleness….muzakadya humbleness
Sampa is a moron always has been even his uncle Sata couldn’t reward him with a full ministerial position at Commerce but the few voters that turned up voted for this man child (the rest of the Lusaka imbeciles stayed at home drinking)without articulating his vision when the capable candidates told you what they were going to do.
Patrice Lumumba of Kenya wants stated that he campaigned at 250 rallies for a constituency seat but his opposing candidate turned a day before voting day and handed money to people and he won the seat.
Mentality of an African voter, clowns and noise makers are so appealing.
This is what you get when clowns are leading you. From the President to the Mayor. This is a joke. This is a serious indictment on us citizens. Are these the best leaders we could find among us? Since we citizens are in a circus let’s just relax & enjoy these clowns give us this show until 2021 when we can get back to business.
PF gave this man child the seat h is another one handpicked via the backdoor like Edgar Lungu, these are the results at municipal level.
With all his childish gimmicks I am of the mindset that miles Sampa is a maverick with some good intentions.
The plant tree , the buy Lusaka chibuku , the other buy local Zambian are all good motivational efforts.
Also Sampa is very powerless against PF thugs like mwila and lusambo driving popularised agendas , Sampa is readily and always shot down by these thugs when he tries to bring sanity…
Everything P.F touches, rather than turn to Gold, turns to Sh!t -M@fi.
The truth is Sampa is powerless against PF thuggery.
He can not do anything that upsets kaponyas ……
what’s left is to play the clown….
Its just total lunacy on the part of mayor. This guy is just sick in the head. Just how does one do papu” with dirty kaponyas. Just who does that???? Its unacceptable. For once its also not fair to say “SEASONAL LUSAKA FLOODS” better say “Perennial Lusaka Floods”. And this papu guy has no clue except to piggy-back kaponyas and kabovas.
By the way in addition he is keeping three dirty cows in his ibex yard for milk. He says milk is too expensive and keeping cows for milk is cheaper. He milks whenever he wants a cup of tea. Some form of madness here.
Disaster!!!!
Rudemonk
People have full commercial chicken runs in their backyards all over Zambia….
Sampa is just joining the PF lunacy and unruliness…….no sanity can be brought to Lusaka with PF , any normalcy is overturned the next week
Sampa?!! The same Sampa the one with an MBA ? From the USSSSAAA? That Sampa? Let me go back and sleep. NOT leadership material AT ALL.
Mr Aristide Bance, wrong on all three reasons that you have given given. it’s none of what you think.
The man could just be having fun, he took off his mayoral robe and went to have. I do have fun with my children and friends especially some of the fun that we used to enjoy in our childhood.
Dont you ever have some fun in your life, Mr Bance? Are you a monk?
Instead of encouraging such nonsense by saying he was having fun. As u read my article I was only assuming as to what he was thinking…but one things for sure his public relations team sucks.
Junior Sampa is always playing around l wonder what time he seriously works. I bet if your maid played this much around you will be mad because no work will be done while she plays around. We appreciate the humor but it didn’t fix anything, our people will still have to paddle in that water like they have no elected officials to fix the problem.
The lesson here is, ‘don’t confuse education for intelligence. You can have a Bachelor’s degree & still be an *****’.
Miles Sampa naina umuguys.