PF DEPUTY national mobilisation chairperson Geoffrey Mwamba says Hakainde Hichilema should not get excited when three of his Facebook followers call him Bally because social media will not secure him the presidency.

And Mwamba says more UPND councillors are going to resign and join the PF because they have realized that their party leader is a selfish man who listens to nobody else’s opinion but his own.

In an interview, Mwamba, said social media cannot win Hichilema the presidency.

“Even in 2021, it will be a landslide victory because even doubting Thomases, now, will rally behind President Edgar Lungu! So, I think for me, Hakainde Hichilema should now start preparing for his retirement. After 2021, where does he go to? Already his supporters are fatigued with his style of leadership. I don’t even know where he is getting the idea that they are forming government [in 2021], how do you form government when your councillors are leaving you in your own strongholds? I really sympathize with HH, I don’t know where he’s getting that idea that they are going to form government,” GBM, who is a former UPND vice-president, said.

“For HH, he thinks what he sees on Facebook and social media is the reality. For him, he thinks Facebook and social media will win him the Presidency, but that is far from the truth! Hakainde should not get excited when three of his supporters call him Bally on Facebook because people on social media always create a situation as if they are more than 100, yet they are only three and when it comes to that day of voting, he will be disappointed! And he should have learnt a lesson from the 2015 and 2016 elections; we were thinking that we were going to win the Presidency, but what happened? We tumbled badly.”

GBM asked Hichilema to retire from active politics after losing next year’s polls.

“UPND has no direction. That party is only dependent on one Hakainde Hichilema. And the problem with Hakainde is that he doesn’t buy ideas from his members, not even his number two. I was his number two for a long time, but not even for a day did he buy an idea from me. Hakainde thinks he knows it all, but that kind of mentality in politics is totally wrong and selfish! If you want to succeed in politics, you ought to operate like President Edgar Lungu; President Lungu listens even to the lowest organs of the party, he has time for them and that is how a leader should be. That is why even the UPND councillors are now starting to realize that they are in a wrong place because our brother, Hakainde Hichilema, doesn’t want to listen to them,” GBM argued.

“I will tell you there was a situation, while I was in UPND, when councillors wanted to meet HH, but he refused to meet them. How can someone who is not even a sitting President, refuse to meet councillors? Councillors are the ones who are on the ground and they are his foot soldiers. So, if you don’t meet your foot soldiers when you are in the opposition, how are you going to achieve what you want to achieve? Councillors are the people who interact with the citizenry. So, what you’ve seen with councillors resigning now is just a tip of the iceberg, more councillors are yet to resign from UPND. What does that tell Zambians? Zambians should realize that those who think that Hakainde Hichilema will form government one day are far from that truth because people have realized that the leadership of President Edgar Lungu is the right leadership. President Lungu is the humble servant of the Zambian people.”

Meanwhile, GBM condemned Mazabuka UPND member of parliament Gary Nkombo for allegedly threatening civil servants in the country that his party would fire them once in office.

“How do you form a government when you start threatening your supporters to say, ‘when we come into power, we shall fire you?’ To me and to the general populous, he’s not talking about those who are resigning; he’s talking about even the entire civil service. So, this means that people should be worried about that statement, that is loaded, it means a lot and Zambians should wake up! UPND is saying that the entire civil service will be kicked out! So, civil servants, is that the kind of leadership you are looking for, one that will wipe you out?” asked GBM.

“In 2011, when we came into power, late president Sata didn’t fire the civil service. President Sata only asked the civil servants to be loyal to the PF administration, that’s all. So, I think that statement by Honourable Gary Nkombo is very unfortunate, especially that it’s coming from a person, who is a high-ranking party official of those who are trying to come into power. But I think Zambians are able to judge for themselves, all I can say is that, that statement is overloaded for the civil service of the country.”