The letter from outspoken PF lawyer Kelvin Bwalya Fube to the ruling party’s Central Committee in which he is complaining of ill treatment, is full of lessons. Not just lessons but revelations and warnings to the rest of us who are not members of the Patriotic Front.

We find this letter interesting in the sense that Mr KBF is going through the exact same frustrations and pain that Zambians are enduring under the Patriotic Front. His complaints definitely resonate among many citizens.

In summary, Mr KBF is displeased that the PF has appointed him as deputy chairperson for the party’s legal committee, putting a very junior and recently ‘ordained’ lawyer in the name of Brian Mundubile as his boss. He wondered how President Edgar Lungu “who is also a senior lawyer” expected him to feel with such a disrespectful appointment.

He was also shocked that President Lungu has turned his back against him when senior party officials were maligning his persona. According to Mr KBF, President Lungu asked for help to win elections after Michael Sata died, and after helping him achieve that goal, he expected to see gratitude from the man he helped put in power using his own resources. Instead, he has been paid back with insults.

As if that is not enough, KBF says he was accused of misappropriating party funds during election campaigns, when in fact those who made monetary pledges to the committee (including President Lungu and Vice-President Inonge Wina), never actually honoured. Meanwhile, Lands minister Jean Kapata who was chairperson of the committee donated K15,000 and claimed it back in the midst of internal hostilities.

Mr KBF thought all the differences among senior party officials could be addressed at a PF national indaba, where a postmortem into the 2016 elections would be conducted. However, his suggestion has not only been trashed, but has also put him at loggerheads with the people whom he thought still needed his services.

In trying to please the PF leadership, Mr KBF angered a lot of people who accused him of using his office to rig elections in 2015. Although there is no evidence to that effect whatsoever, it is a fact that the PF relied on his campaign expertise to win elections and fend off “hostile media”. At this point, the PF was in love with Mr KBF.

Just last year, at the expense of damaging his name and reputation, Mr KBF spearheaded a movement to prematurely remove LAZ president Linda Kasonde from office for political reasons. He knew it was a very dangerous and risky assignment, but he took it out of his love for the party. In the end, the move turned him into a villain in the eyes of many citizens, and it got worse because he failed to deliver what the masters wanted.

We recall Mr KBF claiming that after mingling with the big people in the system and hearing their plans against LAZ, removing Kasonde from office was in the best interest of the association. But we know that he was sacrificing his life for a very ungrateful group of people.

Here we are today, the people he was doing the dirty work for have abandoned him, calling him a nonentity and accusing him of stealing party funds. To torment him further, the same party that he risked his life for, is mocking him with a very small and insignificant position, under a much younger and less experienced lawyer than him. That is the fate that karma bestows on people who allow to be used as tools.

The emotional letter from Mr KBF gives us a feeling that he helped Mr Lungu in the hope that he would appoint him Minister of Justice, or at least someone in Cabinet, but the President doesn’t seem to have time for him. President Lungu has discarded friends who helped him ascend to power.

We are here to welcome Mr KBF to the frustration zone. In case he is wondering what he has done wrong to deserve the ill treatment from PF, the answer is simple; he is of no use now. While he thought he was a dignified member of the party, fighting for a good cause, those who hired him were seeing nothing more than a mercenary; they regarded him as a hired gun!

Mr KBF must realise that because he is considered a mercenary by the PF leadership, he cannot be kept too close to the presidency because the authorities think he is too ambitious. Not only ambitious but he also speaks his mind; and Presidents, especially the one he gave us, don’t like to be challenged.

We would like to inform him that the man he helped is not what he claimed to be. President Lungu would be willing to pay everything that Mr KBF spent on campaigning for the party, but he has become too powerful and arrogant now to take advice from “a nonentity”.

Mr KBF must open his eyes and see that his party is not being led by honourable men and women. There is no cause they are fighting apart from their own poverty. The complaints that he raised in his letter are similar to the complaints citizens are raising against the PF. Zambians feel they were cheated into helping the PF. The President they thought was a humble listener doesn’t want to hear their voices anymore.

Even if he meant well in that letter to his ‘boss’ and the Central Committee, Mr KBF should not expect a reasonable response from his party because the leadership already thinks he is trying to embarrass the President. Instead of paying attention to the concerns raised, the PF will pick a fight with him and if he persists, they will expel him from the party.

Mr Kelvin Bwalya Fube sir, you have an opportunity to launder yourself by choosing now to side with the people of Zambia. What is going on in this country cannot make you a proud member of the ruling party. Just think about it, who is happy with the direction our country has taken today? Even the PF youths you are representing in court have been tossed aside so that the bwanas can freely eat alone. Is that a party you can be proud of?

We are not encouraging you to start fighting President Lungu, but as a very exposed citizen and learned counsel, you have the right to speak out on matters that are affecting ordinary Zambians. We all learn from mistakes, but remember that repeating a mistake is a mistake. Do the right thing Mr KBF, Zambia is counting on ‘insiders’ like you.