Zambia, not yet Uhuru

AFRICA should not judge new presidents on the basis of civil service salary increments or populist speeches. New African presidents should be judged based on the people they appoint to serve in their new governments and on building strong State institutions, and finally on their legacy after leaving office.

Africa’s demise has been mainly caused by idolising political leaders instead of idolising State institutions and deriving a patriotic sentiment from competent institutions, not populist personalities.

Institutions matter more than people in power because they outlive us all. People come and go, hence a State can’t be modelled around a person.

Yes, Zambians can and should applaud when pensioners get paid their money on time unlike in the past, and when teachers and nurses get salary increments, but that should not be the primary measure of a president’s capability because those are the basics that any government should deliver.

The bar was set so low by the PF government such that President Hakainde Hichilema doesn’t need to do much to get a round of applause.

But is that how he is going to be measured, against a corrupt and incompetent previous regime?

The real measurement of a new president’s abilities, especially those that emerge from opposition should be on whether he or she allows State institutions to be strong and independent. The governance bar has been set so low in Africa, it is literally on the floor, such that we ululate at small things that should ordinarily be normal, and we become defensive when the leaders we support are criticised.

Such intolerance is what made the Robert Mugabes, Frederick Chilubas, Edgar Lungus, and now the Lazarus Chakweras of Africa.

Presidents come and go, what we should celebrate are strong State institutions which they would have established or strengthened in order not to allow any new president to abuse citizens using State power as we have become accustomed to in Zimbabwe.

We should ask ourselves a simple question: Can the president of your country be stopped by State institutions from jailing you when you have not committed any crime except calling him out or exposing corruption?

If the answer is no, then it is not yet time to celebrate until they surrender real power to State institutions, and know that their job is merely administrative, and to lead and not to rule.

The African is still awkwardly backward because he or she follows political personalities instead of following and feeling protected by institutions of the State.

Americans love their country and institutions and not necessarily an individual because people come and go, but institutions are permanent.

When I lived in Britain, I knew that if I called the police for assistance, they would protect me when I am in danger.

In Africa you must call an uncle who is connected to a policeman.

Sadly, in Africa the police seek permission to do their work such as arresting politically-connected persons.

The police are an example of an institution that needs to be strong and independent and not take instructions from the political elite.

In Malawi, a warrant of arrest was issued on Friday because a protest leader had said:

“We thought Chakwera was a wise man, but he is proving to be a fool”.

This is the same Chakwera who in 2019 when he was in opposition said: “Whether or not what the legislator said about (Peter) Mutharika was an insult is not the issue.

“The issue is that this idea of arresting any Malawian, not to say anything of one who is a parliamentarian, for merely expressing how they feel about the illogical conduct of Mutharika’s failed government, is primitive, unacceptable, and stupid.”

The Malawian scenario proves that charisma takes you to the top, but integrity comfortably keeps you there.

I also made the same mistake of praising individual presidents for the few things that they would have gotten right or for populist demagoguery.

It is because I had seen so many bad things done by their predecessors, the day I saw one small good deed I was overwhelmed with joy. That is the mistake I made.

The question of measuring a president’s success should be answered by the legacy of that president, and not only the things they say to make the citizens and media happy, without necessarily seeing the real substance of their delivery.

So from now on, I want to see how Hichilema handles the issue of hordes of government workers including army generals seeing him off at the airport or welcoming him back home.

I want to see how he reforms institutions like the national broadcaster, and how he handles the issue of his adviser and permanent secretary who were plotting to abuse their power, implicating him in the process. Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation, the Zambian equivalent of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation, still broadcasts live visuals on television of Hichilema leaving the country.