HH faces uphill Battle, says Kabimba
By George Zulu
IF elections were held today, President Hakainde Hichilema cannot secure a landslide victory, Economic Front (EF) president Wynter Kabimba has said.
Speaking during an interview on Prime Television, Kabimba said both President Hichilema and the ruling UPND faced an uphill task in their bid to win the August 13 general election.
“Even now, I think that UPND has an uphill battle to win with a landslide. This is my view; I don’t know the view of the others. This is my view,” he said.
Kabimba said the UPND had failed to convince Zambians over its achievements over the last five years it has been in government.
Kabimba said the UPND was failing to sell its story to the people of Zambia.
“I don’t think that the UPND is disseminating its campaign message very effectively forget about the other 13 candidates just the UPND on its own, they are failing to sell their story to tell their positive story effectively they have the story which they can’t tell or if they are telling it with a view of wooing people onto their side, they are not doing it effectively,” he said.
Kabimba said the UPND did not know how to tell its own story.
“You have a story to tell, but you don’t know how to tell your story. It’s those of us that pay attention to the story that get the gist of your story that it is actually sweet it’s a sweet story to listen to you. But you are failing to deliver it your yourself,” he said.
Kabimba said Zambians needed to be reminded about what the government had done and the UPND should do so effectively.
He said Zambians forget easily about things done for them.
“That is not how the human mind is wired. The human mind is wired in such a way that the good that I do to you today, you can even forget about it tomorrow, even this afternoon. That’s how the human mind is wired, so how do you manage that you have to constantly remind the mind,” he said.
Kabimba urged the UPND to learn from the mistakes that the Patriotic Front (PF) made while in government and avoid repeating the same mistakes.
“This is a mistake that PF made. The UPND has to be constant in the next 14 to 54 days, as you count them, get back to the people and remind them about what they have done,” Hichilema said.
He said Hichilema was a lone soldier heading into the August 13 election.
Kabimba said Hichilema was trying to explain what his government had done in the last five years of being in government, but that it was not enough.
“…which is what the president is doing, but he seems to be the only one doing it. It seems he is the only one reminding the people that we brought back allowances at colleges and universities. He is the only telling parents about two million of children were out of school, but brought them back,” he said.
He said Hichilema was on the battlefield alone without people helping him to deliver the message.
“He [Hichilema] seems to be the only one in the wilderness, let me put it that way, he seems to be the only one singing in the wilderness. And if you think that you’re going to fight the war alone, it may be difficult because he is just a human being, he will get exhausted, get fatigued it will take a toll on his health,” Kabimba said.
He said the UPND functionaries were not helping Hichilema to win the election.
“The UPND functionaries, why in God’s name are they too quiet? They are too quiet; the quietness is too loud. I have participated in campaigns before, and I know this is the peak time for campaigns. Even when you go into the compounds, you hardly see any campaign there, so what’s going on, maybe there isn’t much to sell,” Kabimba said.
