THE NAREP CONUNDRUM

EVENTS of the past two days clearly indicate that Elias Chipimo Jnr has unfinished business at the National Restoration Party (NAREP). The party he formed in 2010 has known no rest since his hurried retirement on 2nd September, 2019. Leadership wrangles and bickering seem to be the order of day in the once vibrant and promising party.

Chipimo resigned from active politics to pursue interests in the private sector after acknowledging that he was too rigid with his principals which denied the party the boost that was required to grow the party.
His successor businessman Steve Nyirenda assumed the presidency at an elective convention in November, 2019. The Muvi Television owner went through unopposed for the party presidency. This was after the other candidate Maybin Kabwe withdrew his candidature for the role of Presidency at the NAREP extraordinary convention. Barely nine months after assuming office Steve was kicked out of his position and hounded out of the party at the weekend.
If what we are hearing is true, I can conclude that NAREP has a strange Party Constitution which allows the NEC to fire a party president by a decision of a third of its members. This needs to be re-visited considering that Steve was elected at a party Convention. Steve has since dragged his "former" vice President Charles Maboshe and his team members to court and seeking a stay on his expulsion. This comes a few months after NAREP fired Simataa Simitaa at the beginning of February 2020 after serving for less than a month in the position of Secretary General for allegedly failing to meet some targets and creating a hostile environment in the party.
The party has made an interesting decision to fire Nyirenda in similar fashion, a decision that clearly shocked Steve. Nyirenda seemed to have been getting back some grip after his dismissal at a press briefing flanked by his Vice President Charles Maboshe. Maboshe later u-turned on Steve and accepted that he had taken over the party from Nyirenda. The only similarity between Maboshe and Nyirenda is that they both have a media background, Maboshe a former manager of Radio Christian Voice and Steve the proprietor of Muvi Television. The two have no serious political clout and experience and have so far seemingly succeeded to dwindle the fortunes of the party.
In my blogspot of November 17, 2019 available on http://brucechooma.blogspot.com/2019/11/are-chipimos-shoes-too-big-for-steve.html I observed that Nyirenda was no march for Chipimo in terms of political experience and arguably Chipimo’s shoes maybe too big for him. This means he should prepare for many years of hard work to find his feet in politics.
It has now emerged that there are two camps in the NAREP each seeking to influence the participation of the party in electoral alliances ahead of the 2021 polls. This is one of the factors some allege contributed to the firing of Steve as he had allegedly refused to be in an alliance with the UPND.
There is no evidence to prove that political party alliances can effect regime change in Zambia. Those sponsoring discord in other parties to arm-twist them into an alliance are wasting their time. NAREP should have been focusing on building an alliance with the Zambian people, that is what worked for MMD in 1991 and for PF in 2011.
NAREP must immediately address gaps in their constitution and go to an elective convention if they wish to put an end to their wrangles. They also need to revisit their procedures and policies to ensure proper standards of good governance.
The issues emerging out of the NAREP conundrum give Zambia another opportunity to push for the enactment of a Political Parties Act in line with provisions of the 2016 amended Constitution of the Republic of Zambia. It’s a lesson and case study for all players and political academicians.

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