Youths Participation In National Elections: Demystifying Notion Of Youth Takeover Of Key Leadership Posts in Zambia

The presidential address on Youth Day beamed to our TV screens from Mongu on 12th March 2025 has stirred the hornet’s nest in the country. President Hakainde Hichilema found great opportunity to assert his views on the possibility of widening the net of youth participation in national affairs which also touched the significance of employing proportional representation as one way of embracing the minorities denied active participation in the Legislature as it is widely believed that the voice of the differently-abled so- called people with disabilities and women are not well-represented in our august house, let alone the youths who constitute the bulky majority of the citizenry in our country.

It is a well-known fact and indisputable that the youths played a huge role in the unseating of President Edgar Chagwa Lungu from State House in the 12th August 2021 Presidential and General Elections. The stunning defeat of the sixth Republican President Lungu was not a huge surprise to many Zambians. It was something I had anticipated considering the fact that the sociable President with a fixed broad Colgate smile had not tamed his cadres. Cadres of the Patriotic Front (PF) had besieged ECL and generated lawlessness across the country and brutally punched, whipped, maimed and killed perceived enemies of the mighty PF single-handedly formed by Michael Sata hand in glove with Dr Guy Scott when the shrewd spitting Cobra could not succeed President Frederick Chiluba after the 2001 elections which brought into power the handpicked Levy Mwanawasa anointed by Chiluba.

Sata knew about the abortion of the third term bid of Chiluba and he felt, as national secretary of the Movement for Multiparty Democracy, rightfully felt he was heir apparent to the Second President of the Republic Chiluba who had dribbled him and adopted a thickset lawyer he nicknamed Muzorewa, a name he pasted on Levy borrowed from Ian Smith’s puppet in the failed transition of 1979 which Smith manipulated and wanted the malleable opportunist to Bishop Abel Muzorewa to succeed him other than Joshua Nkomo or Robert Mugabe. Sata had frustrated 22 anti-third term MMD Members of Parliament and among them were Lt Gen Criston Tembo Republican Vice President), Brig Gen Godfrey Miyanda ( MMD Vice President), Edith Nawakwi, William Harrington, Dipak Patel, Suresh Desai, David Mpamba, and Simon ber Zukas among many others. He had colluded with Chiluba to expel the so-called ‘rebel’ MPs and hell broke loose. The harebrained FTJ Chiluba had tacit intentions to amend the Republican Constitution and get for himself a third term. This lofty ambition of an eloquent orator Chiluba was halted by thousands of protestors across Zambia. I went to Lusaka in August 2001 to attend a rally to be addressed by the 22 MPs near Kafue Roundabout grounds in Kamwala area where Downtown Shopping Mall now stands. Alas! The police led by Lusaka Province Commanding Officer Francis Kabonde swung into action. They fired live bullets in the air and later teargassed us and we were dispersed by the paramilitary and regular police for standing up to defend the Republican Constitution.

Later after some hours, Chiluba appeared on TV during the minutes close to midnight and rescinded his decision go for the third term. Mwanawasa was picked to stand on MMD ticket and Sata had formed the PF which secured 2 seats and the rest is history. The burly, tough man Levy Mwanawasa got the Presidency which some people felt was won by Anderson Kambela Mazoka, founder of the UPND. I would not want to get deeper into the aftermath of the third term fiasco of President Chiluba. It can be a stray into “irrelevant” politics of yesteryear.

Zambia is Constitutional Republic and not a Monarchy. From the time the colonial government permitted formation of African political parties in 1949 to date youth participation in politics has been profound. Kenneth Kaunda, Simon Kapwepwe, Kapasa Maksa, Dingiswayo Banda, Nephas Tembo, Grey Zulu, Reuben Kamanga, Sikota Wina, Arthur Wina, Nalumino Mundia, Munukayumbwa Sipalo, Mufaya Mumbuna, Jethro Mutti, Fines Bulawayo, Peter Matoka, Samuel Mbilishi, Willie Mwondela, Humphrey Mulemba, Aaron Milner, Bob Litana, Bautis Kapulu, Mary Fulano, Bessie Chibesa Kankasa, Christina Mulundika, Betty Chilunga, Zeniah Ndhlovu, Lilian Monze, Esther Banda, Mutumba Mainga, Princess Nakatindi Ng’anga mother of Miriam Ng’anga Wina, Solomon Kalulu, Alfred Musonda Chambeshi, Leonard Raphael Kombe, Rajah Kinda, Justin Mukando, Mathias Mainza Chona, Elijah Mudenda, Daniel Munkombwe, Samson Mukando, Edward M. Liso, Maxwell Beyani, Felix Luputa, Wilson Chakulya and Andrew Mutemba all started politics when they were youths. Youth is the golden age of every person under the sun. All members of the august House we call the National Assembly or Parliament now taking occupancy of the honourable seats were once youths. Youth primed them to where they are now. No old man under the sun or a senile old woman fell from heaven or from the planet Mercury as old people. Youth can determine one’s ultimate destiny through participation in community or national affairs.

The revered Nigerian politician of yesteryear Dr Namdi Benjamin Azikiwe, an Ibo kinsman who was a nationalist at heart once described the Youth as the spark that generates the power to enable the stream to flow. Youth is a leavening process in any society, underdeveloped or highly developed. Politics, like any other discipline which endeavours to better the lot of the broad masses is not the preserve of old adults. It is quite nauseating for some section of the political divide to cast aspersions on youth participation in national affairs. Parliament comprises honourable members who are from diverse backgrounds. Some are medical doctors, some are former teachers, some are former university lecturers with assorted academic and professional qualifications, some were marketeers with stalls in established huge markets and some came from the rare group of career politicians. There are self-proclaimed professional politicians who feel they have the moral and inalienable right to frown at youths and block them from participating in national affairs as Zambians. Hon Given Katuta could be highly suspicious of the current breed of the youths who are obsessed with politics of benefits and want to aspire for Parliament as career politicians with the sole purpose of amassing wealth and milk the coffers to the last coin. Modern politics are replete with stubborn and arrogant young cadres who are driven by appetite for violence other than functional cerebral power. Intolerance among youths is the order of the day and boggles the minds of the aged who have been duped by their own children and grandchildren.

Every country has issues bordering on acquisition of power between the youth and the adults advanced in age. Some senior politicians in both the ruling and opposition party circles take politics as a preserve of the most elderly and take it to be intricate, perplexing and galling to handled by younger ones as it is suited for those with experience, deep intellectual brilliance, and economically powerful and with sound minds and sound bodies. Imagine a Zambia with a high population of octogenarians and centurions living exclusively among themselves and totally ostracized from the youth! Imagine the aged at the helm of every department in government with the brazen effrontery to give commands and orders to youths with zipped up mouths who are no better than lifeless objects in a museum! The Dead Sea with all redundant putrid remains would be far better than the Zambia with youths treated like mere objects or empty casks of water. New ideas from the young ones working hand in glove with the old people is what can make Zambia a great nation.

A blending or fusion of the old and the young in the circles of government and governance is what would bring great value to our country. Azikiwe (1968:46) in his book entitled “Renascent Africa” asserts that new ideas imply new minds and these lead to a new order. On the other hand, old ideas denote old minds and these, inter alia, imply an old order. Youth acts as a catharsis to any given country. The revolt of the youth against injustice of the old which activates life in society. The old young MPs need the young young MPs or potential parliamentary nominees in the Proportional Representation system which may come before or after the 2026 elections. Youth who take delight in violent cadreism of yesteryear need immunisation from the viral disease of intra and inter- party violence. It is the mind which generates the power over matter.

The youth are the rivers which are ever pouring into the lakes which store water for future use. Rivers flow and lakes just stay with calmness of still water. Lakes are largely the source of rivers, at times. Without the dynamic action of the river flowing into the lake and from the lake reaching several people where it passes through lakes can be stagnant, torpid and polluted. The old folks or experienced MPs stand out as the lakes and the budding ones aspiring to be MPs are the rivers. When the lakes cease to be a river source, there would be no basin, no watershed, no vegetation and no valleys. Where a lake is source of the river, and the river flows coursing through plains and valleys and mountains, humankind receives blessings of lakewater and vegetation gives the beasts of the field abundant food to consume. The MPs in our Parliament may not be old but they need the glow and flow of youthful ideas and knowledge to enrich their experience. They need not fear the youths as elders but embrace them as the heartbeat of political, social and economic development.

Azikiwe through caution to the wind when he contended in his book published in 1968 that without the youthful in mind and body, the politics of society can degenerate, contaminate, corrupt, defile, dent, taint and pollute the African socio-economic fabric. Greed, avarice, contempt, hate, malice, character assassination, prejudice and covetousness would blow to bits and pieces democratic rule and good governance, let alone the rule of law other than proud and greedy men and women forged in the mold of Donald John Trump the upcoming monarch of the United States.

A constitutional making process cannot just be the preserve of old young women like Hon Given Katuta. It is neither for young old men like Dr Situmbeko Musokotwane. It is for all Zambians from all walks of life aplomb with civic literacy. The truth of the matter is that Zambia has poor levels of civic literacy insofar as constitutionalism and constitution-making are concerned. Many Zambians take no interest in matters of the constitution and this is cancer eating the country slowly where even simple clauses or articles of the Republican Constitution are taken to courts for interpretation by esteemed learned judges. Judges can interpret and misinterpret the Constitution in order to serve their own interests or interests of selected folks in power but their decisions ought to be respected by all lawyer citizens.

It is an incontrovertible and flawless truth that youth is the nerve centre of modern politics. Our President Hakainde Hichilema is past the age threshold of youth though he looks youthful. His concerns to amend the constitution have not been well-received by political leaders naturally repulsive and hateful of anything he attempts to introduce however constructive and positive. The Tonse Alliance leaders championing the cause of ECL and his cronies among them Given Lubinda and Daniel Chibale Pule cannot at any turn support anything HH would like to introduce. The trend in Zambia which arouses morbid opposition to constitution amendments proposed by the state and this has been commonplace from the days of Kenneth Kaunda to HH. The Mvunga Commission appointed by KK to take Zambia back to multipartyism was vehemently opposed by ZCTU strongman Frederick Chiluba and his allies in the MMD who declined to be part of the commission in 1990.

However, liberal trade unionists like late old Herbert Bweupe the ZCTU Vice Chairperson and Assistant General Secretary late Samuel Lungu took part and got a bashing from the political sledge hammer of the vociferous FTJ Chiluba who ensured that they were booted out of the ZCTU for mere participation in the Mvunga Commission as members appointed by Super Ken who had become his life enemy. That was not healthy for politics of democracy and tolerance. Chiluba had appointed the Mwanakatwe Commission led by John Mupanga Mwanakatwe SC as chairperson. Prof Patrick Mvunga SC and Ernest Mwansa were lawyers on the Commission I interfaced with at Luanshya Civic Centre in June/July 1993 with my late friend Pastor Hastings Israel Mzumara. The Constitution Mwanakatwe’s team drafted introduced the limit to the term of office of the Republican President and its apartheid-like design barred KK from participating in the 1996 Presidential and General Elections and ultimately UNIP destroyed itself by withdrawing from the Parliamentary Elections.

Chiluba had weaker contenders like Chama Chakomboka and Dean Namulya Mung’omba giving himself an upper edge over the two contestants. MMD had an overwhelming majority in Parliament but a weaker legislature shot down democracy and entrenched a system akin to elected dictatorship, though freedom of the people and the press remained unscathed. Chiluba never closed the Post Newspaper Office at Kanjombe House regardless of editorials written about him which were critical of his administration though he instructed his party and government leaders not to advertise in The Post Newspaper or buy the paper using public funds. The most independent newspaper stood tall and outlived so many new newspapers which went under deep waters of bankruptcy and liquidation.

Levy Mwanawasa had appointed the Mung’omba Commission led by lawyer/economist and former African Development Bank President Willa Mung’omba in 2004. The Mung’omba Constitution was marred with opposition championed by the opposition leaders among them Anderson Mazoka and Michael Sata. The National Constitutional Conference it convened to adopt the Constitution proved to be a tragic failure in constitution-making. Participants got hefty allowances for sitting and arguing at Mulungushi International Conference Centre but came up with nothing worth talking about as dissenting views and acrimony brought the Mung’omba Constitution to near disaster. Zambians had a fall back on the 1996 Mwanakatwe Constitution. Several draft copies at Civic Centres went unread and gathered dust as very few youths and elderly people showed interest in it.
In 2012 President Michael Sata appointed a Technical Committee chaired by the affable and conscientious man of profound humility former Chief Justice Annel Silungwe with Dr Julius Bikkoloni Sakala SC as vice chairperson. The Technical Committee held Provincial and District Constitution Conferences and I was privileged to participate in it as deputy facilitator for Luanshya to our former town clerk Mr Alex Mwansa, by my estimation the best ever town clerk Luanshya had as he enhanced levels of integrity. I was privileged to learn from facilitators among them Dr Rodger Choongwe SC, Reuben Lifuka, Simon Kabanda and Paulman Chungu, a brilliant Lusaka lawyer. Dr Rodger Choongwe and Simon Kabanda handled a crucial subject- Proportional Representation.

They convinced the majority of us that PR was a very sound approach to strengthening democracy in Zambia as it gave all political parties leverage to get seats in the National Assembly in a country where voter aparthy and partisan voting was negating democracy and killing the spirit of unity. When the new Republican Constitution draft was availed to us delegates subject to thorough group debates, Proportional Representation could not sit in the 2016 Republican Constitution signed by ECL as Sata’s successor. Sebastian Saizi Zulu SC was later fired by President Sata for unspecified reasons and succeeded by Sata’s protege Wynter Kabimba whom he also fired as Wynter proved to be a thorn in the flesh of greedy and over-ambitious leaders, needless to mention their names. The dismissal of Wynter elated the opportunists and mystified the party loyalists who wanted sanity in the PF later hijacked by MMD villains who turned it into a brutal machinery beyond the control of ECL and his associates.

ECL did his part in passing the Silungwe Technical Committe Constitution in 2016 after he was re- elected.
The HH administration intends to amend the Constitution which must embrace the marginalized and disadvantaged members of society such as the youths, women and the differently abled. His intentions have triggered repulsive attacks with so many accusations heaped on him. Some leaders in opposition parties feel making amendments now shortly before the elections next year may be treated as an exercise in manipulation of the Republican Constitution.

In a democratic system like ours, there is need for all parties to put their acts together by debating the proposals he made and ensure that a common ground is reached to accommodate the disadvantaged groups without taking advantage of any thing that may inhibit the birth of an amended Republican Constitution which has to have the support of the majority of Zambians. One-man show constitutions are bound to fail and we must all join hands to discuss the rudiments and intricacies of President HH’s submissions with non-partisan interests which would come up with a Zambian-driven Republican Constitution which would not divide us. Together we can make a very sound, vibrant, radiant and citizen-driven Constitution without pulling punches. This country belongs to all Zambians and no single party large or small owns this country. Zambia is greater than all political giants and must stand out as a paragon of democracy and rule of law in the whole of Africa replete with tyrants and self-proclaimed monarchies who have shredded constitutions and placed themselves above the law. Let us serve and sav CVe Mother Zambia with selflessness and sacrificial service.

Author is Shaddon Chanda, Luanshya based Historian and Academician