ZAMBIA has a history of paying or motivating citizens to attend political rallies or public gatherings addressed by politicians. This is not a secret. It is a practice that has existed across administrations, sometimes openly, but often quietly denied. In the case of the ruling party, it is common to see students attend these gatherings in overwhelming numbers, filling up stadiums, lining the roads, and providing the optics of popularity. But the politicians have always denied providing any financial motivation for the students to come out in those numbers. That long-standing denial is what makes the developments around the NORTEC students both surprising and troubling. For the first time, in as far as we can remember, a public higher learning...
