Elias Chipimo Jr. is
undoubtedly one of Zambia’s brightest people. By the age of thirty, he had attained
an advanced law degree from Oxford University on the Rhodes Trust scholarship and
founded Corpus Globe, a highly successful legal firm offering corporate and
commercial legal services to both local and multinational clients. But in 2010,
despite a legal career that was at its peak and still rising, Chipimo left it
all behind for a life in the lane of Zambian politics. Unsurprisingly, the
question that many people asked was why?
In his book, Unequal to
the Task; Awakening a New Generation of Leaders in Africa, Chipimo explained
the sad occurrences of 2008 that were the seed of his decision to actively join
politics. His parents, Elias Chipimo Sr, a former official in UNIP and MMD
governments and Anne Chipimo were travelling to their hometown Mporokoso to
cast their votes in the October, 30th presidential by election when
they were involved in a car accident. His mother tragically passed away on the
spot but his father survived yet terribly injured. In the next hours, what
followed were frantic efforts to save his father’s life, efforts that made
Chipimo reflect deeply about the differences between the rich and the poor in
Zambia. He asked himself how many families had the means to care for a
critically injured parent, to provide access to healthcare that would mean the
difference between life and death and as he and his family tried to navigate
through the Zambian healthcare system to provide his father with the best care
possible, Chipimo also realised that Zambia as a nation had grown accustomed to
mediocrity and gradually accepted it as normal. It was then that he realised that
something needed to change.
But it was two weeks
later when he finally decided to actively get involved in the country’s
politics. Rupiah Banda had been newly elected as Zambia’s Republican President
amid claims of vote rigging. As he announced his new cabinet at State House,
each name was met with celebration on the part of appointees. Following the
proceedings keenly, Chipimo wondered why anyone would celebrate to receive an
appointment in the government and run an already terribly battered economy. It
defied logic and he knew then that he could no longer sit by the terraces and
watch the governance of the country from afar.
Two years later, in
2010, the National Restoration Party was founded with Chipimo as President. Although
many people agreed that Chipimo had promising leadership qualities, they
doubted that he had the claws necessary to survive and win in the game of
Zambian politics. Given the party’s poor performance in the 2011 presidential
elections and low numbers of active members in the following years, Chipimo’s detractors
felt they had been proven right. Narep was a party largely confined to infancy.
Fast forward to 2015,
Chipimo announced that his party would not be contesting the 2016 Republican
presidential elections. This was something that that some members of the
electorate read as a form of Chipimo’s retirement from active politics, that
somehow he had come to realise that even
though he had noble intentions of joining politics, good leadership qualities
and a good following on social media, winning elections and getting to state
house was a different and difficult feat.
But was Chipimo retiring
so soon from active politics after only five years on the political scene?
Apparently not.
On this decision to not
contest the presidential elections and other issues, I spoke to Elias Chipimo
Jr. at the Narep offices in Lusaka. As
soon as I entered his office, he walked over to me, energetically with a
youthful demeanour. We shook hands and took our sits. I asked my first
question.
What
made you decide to not contest the 2016 presidential elections?
“We made a strategic
decision not to stand in the general election because we want to consolidate
the work we have been doing on the ground by converting the work into tangible
results by having several councillors and MPs in parliament. I will be standing
as a Member of Parliament instead for Mporokoso constituency. We want our
constituencies to be model constituencies to illustrate how a constituency
should be run.”
What
is your take on people’s perception that you practise tea room politics?
“It is normal and I
understand for people to conclude that I practice tea room politics because
they don’t get to see the work that I do on the ground, hence, that is part of
the reason Narep has made a strategic choice not to stand in the presidential
election.”
If
Narep was in power now what would they do differently?
“It is amazing how much
opportunity exists in the current state of the economy to completely
restructure what has been a very badly arranged framework for our economy.
There is constant talk about diversification, not depending on copper and
building home grown capacity but nothing ever gets done. All these things can
be easily done. It all starts with a vision of what you want to see and asking
yourself, what can you do really well that the world needs. We can be the
world’s largest exporter of organic honey. The world has a demand for honey and
an even bigger demand for organic honey. So focusing on honey, Narep would in
one stroke address the problem of the exchange rate, diversification and empowerment
of communities in rural areas as they are the best areas for bee keeping. In
the same way we have a Copperbelt, we will have a honeybelt.”
We
have seen many people get to power with big ideas like yours but they never
implement them, what could be the reason?
“It is because they
never had a vision in the first place. Also, the moral foundation is so badly
eroded and people are not held accountable. There is no effective challenge to
the leadership.”
Corruption
prevents many governments from implementing their plans, how will you keep it
out of your government?
“We will establish a Truth
and Reconciliation Commission where immunity can be granted to perpetrators of
corruption in exchange for information on how the corruption was committed and
all those involved, we can then get the corruption right at the source.”
Finally,
do you see the National Restoration Party ever forming the government of the
Republic of Zambia?
“Yes,” Chipimo says, gently
nodding, “this is what I have been explaining to you. We aim to form the next
government in 2021.”
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