By Dr. Chris ZUMANI Zimba
Africa-Press – Zambia. .I personally know and closely participated in his rigorous search for his 2026 chosen presidential candidate: ECL diligently worked on his Plan B successor for weeks and months before he died! I think that those saying ECL never left his final Plan B documented somewhere are lying against him with impunity.
ECL was very wise, deliberate, smart and proactive about his Plan B. Plan B is not a hoax but real and factual. Thus, Let Tonse Alliance leaders respect our chairman, father, statesman and former president by burying him first and later hear from his family about his Plan B political will. It may just simplify our search for the next chairman and 2026 candidate.
1. Before our father, mentor, hero, chairman, statesman and Former President, Dr. Edgar Chagwa Lungu died on 5th June, 2025, Tonse Alliance and the Zambian people were eagerly waiting for him to identify and announce his chosen and preferred successor to contest in his place and with his political blessings in 2026. ECL called this process and outcome of choosing and announcing his successor as his “Plan B”.
2. Most Zambians just like all of us believed that HH was so afraid of ECL politically for 2026 and only Lungu as a respected Former President with a proven record of public service delivery was competently better placed to easily defeat Bally next year. So, blocking ECL from contesting all future elections in December, 2024 via a controversial court judgement was deemed as “a well rehearsed political scheme” by UPND from the eyes of most observers.
3. But ECL was equally 10 miles ahead of UPND political schemes. He instantly announced and launched his famous Plan B. And as his political advisor, I was favored by God to have been at the epicenter of understanding, brainstorming and reviewing ECL’s plan B concept for weeks and months. He meant his words and on a weekly basis, he acted to ensure that he identified and later announced his carefully chosen successor-Plan B.
4. From a technical point of view, a systematic and rigorous criterion were put in place to help the former president pick the near right person as his successor. To be clear, ECL’s plan B was a package of both the 2026 presidential candidate and his running mate. This was crucial to ensure that both the new president and his running mate had direct allegiance to the “King Maker”, ECL himself.
5. A generous list was drawn and different PF leaders and non PF leaders loyal to ECL were identified, discussed and reviewed on a weekly basis between December 2024 and January 2025. As his political advisor, he invited me each week for lunch or super with a task of technically helping him to review and analyze these possible Plan B candidates. We would sit the two of us for hours analyzing and reviewing different pairs of candidates. This became weekly pattern as different stakeholders proposed different possible candidates to ECL continuously for different reasons.
6. My job was simple: help to critically scrutinize and give objective political opinions to the boss. Of course ECL had his final decisions on his own later. On each day I was invited to review his Plan B new proposed names and old ones, he did not allow a third person to visit him or join us except mum Esther Lungu who would join us during meals or for their urgent family charts. This is how serious ECL treated this Plan B process. He was very proactive about it and wanted extensive analysis and objective discussions on any potential options tabled before him. He had Zambia as his main guideline in this search.
7. When ECL was in South Africa undergoing treatment, he used to call me weekly to catch up politically and guide on how to handle certain issues in Tonse Alliance. Sometimes, he could assign me to engage certain people who were recommended by other stakeholders as possible Plan B candidates. And I would engage them, throw open discussions with them and later report back to ECL in SA with my opinions, observations and recommendations.
8. But even then, he guided and confirmed with me formally that these new engagements were mere formalities because his Plan B for the 2026 presidential candidate and running mate was already secured.
In other words, he had it! And he assured me that upon coming in June or so, he would announce it under Tonse Alliance and not any opposition platform. This is what I know as someone who was part of ECL’s inner circle Plan B search process. He had it before he died.
9. And when some key PF leaders realized that ECL had excluded them from this Plan B consultative process, they openly fumed with envy, anger and gruesome bitterness. So, don’t ask anyone why some PF leaders are still bitter with some us. They never understood why ECL confided more in his political advisor than them. Even when guided, they never agreed with this ECL approach! So, l may not be the best person to mention among such PF leaders because of the aforementioned.
10. The truth is that, the final Plan B decision was a mystery we all left to ECL himself and he had it before he died as earlier said. He confirmed to some of us that he had finished consultations and the final name of his anointed successor with a running mate was ready. That much I know and can officially confirm it because ECL said it in April and in early May, 2025. Article 11.(I) and (II) as well as Appendix 1.(11) of the Tonse Alliance constitution gave the chairmanship and 2026 presidential candidacy specifically to ECL himself hence his open authority to choose and decide his successor as Plan B.
11. So, for Tonse Alliance and PF leaders, l would recommend not to fight against each other over who should be our presidential candidate and running mate for 2026 before we bury ECL. I strongly believe ECL left his Plan B intact with his family and at the right time after burial, they will disclose it and announce. I am fully persuaded about this position. If or when announced with evidence by his family, this must be our presidential candidate Tonse Alliance must float in 2026 without any doubt, questions or debate.
12. There is no need to panic or worry at this stage on who should be our next leader and candidate before we bury our ECL and allow his family to give us official feedback on ECL’s Plan B political Will. If our next Tonse Alliance chairman and 2026 candidate is from the hands of ECL, we shall easily unite and win against HH. ECL remains our supreme leader in Tonse Alliance even in death. ECL was Tonse and Tonse is ECL. Therefore, Tonse Alliance need to win 2026 in the name of ECL, with the chosen candidate of ECL if possible and indeed for ECL himself.
Dr. Chris ZUMANI Zimba is Tonse Alliance Chief Architect, Lead Consultant and National Coordinator. He was Political Advisor to the Sixth Republican President, Dr Edgar Chagwa Lungu-MHSRIP from December 2019 to June 2025. He is a Political Scientist, Researcher, Author & Consultant specialized in Comparative Global Governance and Democratic Theories. He holds a PhD, MA, BA and Cert in Political Science. Dr. Zimba is a Pan Africanist as well as Afro-Christian by religion.Email: [email protected]
Source: zambianobserver
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