The Editor Zambia
There comes a point in politics when bluster can no longer conceal inadequacy. For Brian Mundubile, that moment appears to have arrived.
The opposition politician’s latest outburst claiming the United Party for National Development (UPND) is frustrating his presidential ambitions because the ruling party fears him is less a serious political statement and more of a public exhibition of political desperation. 
Far from projecting strength, Mundubile’s remarks on Radio Phoenix’s “Let the People Talk” betrayed a man struggling to come to terms with his diminishing relevance.
Leaders who genuinely command political momentum do not spend their days lamenting conspiracies and imagining enemies trembling at their presence. They organise, mobilise, and inspire.
Mundubile, by contrast, has chosen the easier route of self-pity and theatrical victimhood.
The irony is impossible to ignore. Here is a politician emerging from a deeply fractured political arrangement, engulfed in internal disputes and legal challenges, yet somehow attempting to present himself as the inevitable choice of the Zambian people. While his own political backyard burns with confusion, indiscipline, and infighting, Mundubile wants citizens to believe that State House is losing sleep over his candidacy. What a stupid, rotten idea of a joke. This is a political fiction of the highest order.
Mundubile’s claims that the ruling party is “scared” of him collapse under the weight of reality. Fear is usually inspired by preparedness, consistency, vision, and public confidence qualities his political camp has failed to demonstrate.
Instead, what Zambia has witnessed is endless drama, contradictory messaging, and internal rebellion. Even members within his own political circles are questioning the legitimacy of the processes that elevated him as a presidential candidate.
That alone speaks volumes.
The lawsuit filed by Vincent Mwakawele against his party’s secretary-general over the convention that endorsed Mundubile is not the conduct of a united movement preparing for national victory. It is evidence of confusion and institutional decay.
Before attempting to govern Zambia, Mundubile must first prove he is capable of governing political relationships within his own ranks.
His comments about by-elections being won through “imingalato” also reveal a familiar opposition habit: discredit every electoral outcome that does not favour them. Whenever they lose, the process is allegedly rigged. Whenever others win, it must be manipulation. Such rhetoric is not only tired but intellectually dishonest. If every defeat is explained away by conspiracy, then accountability and introspection disappear entirely.
Perhaps most damaging is Mundubile’s growing addiction to political melodrama. Every week appears to require a fresh grievance, a new allegation, or another performance designed to portray him as persecuted. It is the politics of perpetual crying loud on victimhood, silent on solutions.
Zambians facing economic pressures, unemployment, and service delivery challenges are not looking for leaders who spend their time complaining about who fears them. They are looking for seriousness, competence, and credibility.
Political maturity demands more than emotional declarations about being “chosen by the people”. It requires substance, discipline, and tangible leadership.
Hence, Information and Media Minister Cornelius Mweetwa dismissed Mundubile’s remarks as noise of a disorganised entity – a harsh assessment perhaps, but one increasingly reinforced by events themselves.
The abandonment of parliamentary responsibilities while engaging in endless political theatrics only strengthens the perception of a politician more interested in headlines than hard work.
Mundubile’s greatest problem is not the UPND. It is the growing national perception that he embodies political failure wrapped in noise. Deep down, he appears to understand this reality himself. That is why every setback is now repackaged as persecution, every criticism as fear, and every political weakness as evidence of imagined importance.
But Zambia’s electorate is far more discerning than he assumes. Volume is not leadership. Drama is not a strategy. And crying victim does not transform failure into credibility.
