The Editor Zambia
There is a growing tendency within sections of Zambia’s opposition politics to pretend that President Hakainde Hichilema has achieved absolutely nothing in office.
It is a dishonest narrative driven less by national interest and more by tribal hegemony, bitterness, political resentment, and the desperate ambitions of individuals whose influence collapsed alongside the old patronage system. 
You do not have to like President Hichilema personally to acknowledge reality. Politics is not a village tribal feud. It is about governance, direction, and measurable outcomes. Even critics acting in good faith must admit that Zambia today is operating in a markedly different political and economic environment from the chaos inherited in 2021.
The economy, though still burdened by years of structural damage and debt distress under the Patriotic Front (PF) rule, it has regained a degree of credibility internationally.
Investor confidence has improved. Relations with cooperating partners have stabilised. Debt restructuring, once treated as impossible by PF pessimists and political opportunists, has moved forward through sustained engagement and discipline. That alone required political capital, patience, and leadership.
Infrastructure projects that had stalled due to the PF corruption, inflated contracts, and reckless borrowing are slowly being rationalised. Free education has reopened opportunities for thousands of vulnerable children who had effectively been locked out of the classroom by poverty. Constituency Development Fund (CDF) allocations have significantly expanded local participation in development and shifted decision-making closer to communities.
None of this means the country has no problems. Zambia still faces unemployment, high living costs, and deep economic frustrations. Citizens are justified in demanding faster improvements. But criticism becomes intellectually bankrupt when it deliberately ignores progress simply because acknowledging it would weaken a political talking point.
What is even more alarming is the coalition emerging under the fashionable slogan of “unity”. Beneath the public relations packaging lies a familiar network of tribal propagandists, political opportunists, and individuals whose proximity to State power previously guaranteed access to public resources.
Their unity appears anchored not in policy alternatives or a coherent national vision, but in a singular obsession: removing Hichilema at all costs.
Zambians are not naïve. They remember the era of industrial-scale plunder, reckless procurement, intimidation of institutions, and shameless abuse of public resources. They remember how politically connected cartels thrived while ordinary citizens struggled.
Attempts to rebrand that old order as a democratic rescue mission insult the intelligence of the electorate. The louder some opposition figures become, the more obvious their desperation appears. Instead of presenting practical solutions on jobs, agriculture, mining, energy, or economic recovery, they spend most of their energy demonising one man. Personal hatred has become their manifesto.
That strategy may excite political echo chambers, but it rarely persuades serious voters.
The Zambian electorate has matured considerably. Citizens now scrutinise motives more carefully than before. They can distinguish between legitimate criticism and cynical power struggles disguised as patriotism. They know the difference between leaders seeking national progress and factions seeking a return to unrestricted access to state resources.
President Hichilema will ultimately be judged at the ballot box on the totality of his record, just as every democratic leader should be. But reducing his presidency to “failure” simply because opponents can not stomach his political survival is a distortion of reality that increasingly fewer Zambians are willing to buy into.
The country deserves robust debate, credible alternatives, and policy competition not recycled outrage from the same political actors who helped drive Zambia into economic distress in the first place.
