The Lazarus Syndrome

Dear Editor, FOR some of you who may not know who Lazarus was in the Holy Bible, please calm your hearts and read on.

Lazarus was a biblical righteous man who Jesus Christ raised from the dead after being in the tomb for four days. When the stone that secured the front of the tomb was removed, he came out still bound in his tomb clothes.

It was only after that tomb attire was removed from his body that he was able to walk freely and talk as he was now back to life.

And this is exactly what is happening in Zambia today, that even after attaining our political independence in 1964, we are still facing political turmoils, corruption, violent caderism, economic downfall and an unknown future because of the Lazarus Syndrome.

We are still stomping in our smart grave clothes.

Many political parties, after UNIP led by late Dr Kenneth Kaunda have come and gone away with nothing much to write home about.

When MMD took over power from UNIP, it was again time to undo whatever this founding party did to the point of uprooting even good structures and policies.

Exit MMD, enter PF, again the same grotesque pattern was repeated. Whatever MMD did was deemed dingy and hurriedly confined to the dust bins. However, here I can safely say that PF did some performance especially in the fields of infrastructure and roads construction. Ok, exit PF and enter UPND which came with blazing guns, promising Zambians milk and honey because it claimed to possess what it takes to bring about real change for the good of the people. Nay, it is now dancing with death.

UPND, regrettably has turned out to be another torturous story as our ruling party appears to be living outside Zambia and sees issues totally different from us. The promised Canaan is only but a huge desert while the wreck of chariots supposedly to take people to the new land lie lonely while riders are busy chasing mirages in the desert.

Zambians today are still walking dizzy due to the exquisite economic conditions because the UPND-promised red wine with roasted lamb chops are nowhere to be seen.

It is now more than clear it will be a while before we can get in the bag and totally remove our tomb clothes to begin to better our living conditions

If on the other hand we choose to remain joyous in our grave attire, then the Lazarus Syndrome is here for many years to come.