People’s Alliance for Change president Andyford Banda says Robert Mugabe’s downfall is a lesson that you cannot fool people forever.

In an interview, Banda urged all those aspiring for leadership to understand that it was not about selfish interests.

“There are a lot of lessons that we can learn from the Zimbabwe situation for us aspiring for leadership and those that are already in leadership. One of the things that we need to learn is that leadership is about working for the people. Leadership is not about working for yourself and focusing about your interest, your family’s interest and your inner circle. You can fool people for sometime but you can’t fool them for too long. People can stand up and rise against you and once people stand up to rise against you, there is nothing you can do,” Banda said.

“When you are in power, you always get excited with the fact that everyone is praising you. Every person was praising Robert Mugabe, every person was praising Dr Grace Mugabe, but what happened in the last two weeks? All the people from the Zanu-PF, the veterans and people in general, all stood against Mugabe. So that is a lesson to leaders that they should be careful with praise because thats what gets to their head that they start doing things wrongly. You can lie to people that you bought fire tenders for $1million, but people are not stupid, they know that our time will come one day and we are going to rise against this regime. So those are some things that we need to look at when we are in leadership and when we aspire for leadership.”

He said leaders should not take people for granted.

“They are saying that the fire tenders where bought for $1 million but why were they insured for $250,000? So they know deep down their hearts that the costs of fire tenders was not that cost but they think that they have fooled people but one day people will fool them. We have seen in our country from 1990 when people rose against KK and UNIP. The ruling party then, only got 20 percent of the votes. So just because Robert Mugabe had been in office for 37 years does not mean that someone else will also be there for 37 years. It can be three years like Rupiah Banda. So leaders should not take people for granted. When you are appointed as a leader, work for the people,” said Banda.

“One of the lessons we need to learn is that dictatorship is not the way. Every dictator has had their day. From Robert Mugabe to Yahya Jammeh to Mobutu Sese Seko, and all of them. They have had their day, all of them their ends have been miserable, they have all left unceremoniously. So let no one be cheated that dictatorship is a way. Dictatorship is not the way, sooner or later you will go down miserably. When you get into power do not be excited, do not try to take things into your hands and forget about the people who elected you.”