By Kennedy Gondwe
From what I am hearing, the Football Association of Zambia (FAZ) is prepared to go all the way to defy the directive by the National Sports Council of Zambia (NSCZ) for the association to hold elections by February 28.
Following the announcement that the government will not recognize Andrew Kamanga as FAZ president after February 28, officials at Football House want to run to Zurich to claim third-party interference (that’s if they haven’t done that already).
Ironically, as human beings, we can be inconsistently strange sometimes and use selective amnesia to argue our cases.
When it suits our interests, we claim that “rules are rules” and that they must be followed even if it takes us walking through a stone.
Have we forgotten that some 15 years ago, a parallel FAZ executive was formed because two-thirds of the association’s membership decided to rebel against the Kalusha Bwalya-led executive?
Who was the leader of that parallel executive? One Andrew Ndanga Kamanga who at the time memorized the Sports Council Act like a chorus of a song performed in Papa churches.
Imagine a parallel executive being formed today and what Andrew Ndanga Kamanga and his supporters would do to that small football population!
Yet some 15 years ago, Kamanga even went to FIFA to make his case — and rightly so — and then FIFA president Sepp Blatter was involved in resolving the issue.
A similar scenario is playing out today.
The only difference is that this same Kamanga and his supporters in the anarchy they have created is now incharge of FAZ and they have shifted goalposts.
What’s their stance now towards the Sports Council — that the NSCZ is bang out of order! Strange people, these.
But when that parallel executive was formed 15 years ago, its leaders were in agreement with the NSCZ because, rightly so, they argued, Zambia was a sovereign state and according to our laws, the Sports Council was a creature of parliament empowered to bring erring members back in line — FAZ included.
That time 15 years ago, no one wanted Zambia banned but now, if it appears people want the country banned by FIFA in the name of upholding the FAZ constitution!
Where’s our morality or the love for the very sport we profess to love?
What has changed now?
Has Zambia just lost its sovereignty because Andrew Ndanga Kamanga has gone through unopposed against eight other disqualified competitors and was declared duly elected at a press briefing without an election?
Who has forgotten who went to Zurich some 15 years ago for an infamous PowerPoint presentation in a bid to convince FIFA that according to our Zambian laws — and rightly so — backed by the very NSCZ, they were the legitimate FAZ leaders? What has changed now?
Are laws only credible when they suit us?
You see, when we want to argue about rules and the constitutionality of the current circus that we have created, let’s also have a memory longer than 24 hours. Simple.
