10 Questions for former president Rupiah Banda

By Patrick Sikana

Are you as fed up as I am with what passes for a “presidential candidate” in Zambia? With the utter falsehoods and lazy generalizations? With the fact-free premises and contorted conclusions? When

File: President Banda answering to questions

I think of Rupiah Banda coming out of retirement, my stomach turns. It’s like watching what started as a dry joke morph into a terrible curse. If I had a chance to meet RB, here is my list of ten simple questions I would ask him:

1. How old are you?
2. How long have you been in politics?
3. What are most of your contemporaries doing?
4. Have you ever heard the saying that “imiti ikula empanga”?
5. I understand your wife is not well (quick recovery to her). In the face of such a family exigency you are launching a political come-back. What happened to the principle of “family first”?
6. Do you care a tiny bit about something called reputation?
7. Is your bid at the presidency really worth the cost to you, your party and the nation?
8. Do you genuinely believe you have a chance at the presidency in this election?
9. From your 3-year stint as President what unfinished business do you want to come back and finish?
10. Given the way you hounded Nevers Mumba from the helm of MMD, is there anything you won’t do just to become president again?