By Brian Matambo

When Zambians went to the polls in 2021, many carried the hope that the new administration would deliver tangible change. Four years later, the mood across the country tells a very different story. The United Party for National Development (UPND) has spent nearly an entire presidential term obsessed with fighting the Patriotic Front (PF), rather than governing and developing the nation.

Instead of building schools, hospitals, and roads, or strengthening the economy, the government has invested its energy in endless propaganda wars against the former ruling party. Corruption cases paraded in the media, trumped-up sedition charges, abductions shrouded in mystery, and the unending spectacle of dragging the Lungu family through courtrooms are the highlights of UPND’s record.

Under President Edgar Lungu and the PF, Zambians saw unprecedented development. Roads were tarred across the country, hospitals and health posts were constructed, airports were modernised, and infrastructure became the heartbeat of national progress. While PF delivered visible projects that changed the face of Zambia, HH and his UPND have delivered only speeches, excuses, and propaganda about Edgar Lungu and the PF.

Meanwhile, ordinary Zambians are carrying unbearable burdens. The price of fuel has skyrocketed, triggering transport hikes across the country. Loadshedding has continued and worsened in not only inconveniencing citizens, but destroying bussineses both small and big. The cost of mealie meal, the staple food of the nation, has become a daily nightmare for families struggling to put nshima on the table. Inflation and a suffocating cost of living have left citizens questioning what exactly changed in 2021, apart from the faces at State House.

Zambians are growing weary of a government that has no vision beyond blaming its predecessors. Fatigue is setting in. The cries from the markets, the streets, and the villages are the same: enough of empty rhetoric, enough of weaponised justice, enough of a government that cannot deliver.

With elections on the horizon, the people are remembering. They are remembering what it was like when there was visible progress, when the economy moved, and when leadership meant building, not persecuting. The PF, once demonised through propaganda, is now standing as the only credible alternative to restore direction, dignity, and development.

For Zambia to move forward, it is clear: the UPND experiment has failed. Zambians are ready to turn the page.