WHY WE WILL NOT TRADE OUR FUTURE FOR A THIRD TERM: The History and Importance of Presidential Term Limits- Saboi Imboela

WHY WE WILL NOT TRADE OUR FUTURE FOR A THIRD TERM: The History and Importance of Presidential Term Limits 23/09/2026 While Rwanda is laying fibre optic for AI schools, while Kenya is talking about a bullet train from Mombasa to Nairobi, while India has landed on the moon and China is building a hospital in […]

WHY WE WILL NOT TRADE OUR FUTURE FOR A THIRD TERM: The History and Importance of Presidential Term Limits

23/09/2026

While Rwanda is laying fibre optic for AI schools, while Kenya is talking about a bullet train from Mombasa to Nairobi, while India has landed on the moon and China is building a hospital in 10 days- in Zambia, the UPND want us to spend 2026 debating how to give one man- or woman, more years in State House.

What a shameful downgrade of our national ambition.

*WHERE TERM LIMITS CAME FROM*

Presidential term limits were not invented in Africa. They are the foundation of modern democracy.

In 1796, George Washington, the first President of America, voluntarily stepped down after two terms. He could have ruled for life. He refused. He said no single man should become bigger than the country itself.

For 150 years, that two-term tradition was respected until in 1947, after Franklin D. Roosevelt died in his fourth term, America made it law- the 22nd Amendment: No person shall be elected more than twice.

Africa learned the hard way. Our founding fathers like Kenneth Kaunda stayed 27 years. The lesson was clear: long rule breeds corruption, intolerance and poverty. That is why when we returned to multiparty democracy in 1991, Zambia wrote it clearly in Article 106 of our Constitution: *A President shall hold office for two terms of five years each.*

In 2001, Zambians rose when President Fredrick Chiluba tried to bring a third term. We marched. Students, churches, women, workerswe said NO. And we won. That is the history UPND cadres want us to forget.

WHY TERM LIMITS ARE IMPORTANT

1. Power corrupts.* Every President, no matter how good at first, begins to believe the country cannot live without him. Term limits remind him that Zambia existed before him and will exist after him.

2. They give us fresh ideas.* A country cannot be built on one man’s ideas for 15 years. We need new energy, new solutions, new leaders.

3. They protect us from dictatorship.* Without term limits, elections become rituals, courts become captured, and police become party cadres.

4. They allow accountability.* A President who knows he will one day become an ordinary citizen thinks twice before stealing.

WHAT ZAMBIANS WANT TO TALK ABOUT

President Hakainde Hichilema promised us a Growth Agenda. Where is it?

We were promised international standard airports in every provincial capital. Where are they? You will say it is too early he just got back to office. YES, just like it is too early to talk about term limits instead of first discussing such critical issues of airports and when and where exactly they will be constructed.

We were promised Mongu Stadium completed, Lewanika University operational, new schools, hospitals with medicine across the country, not just groundbreakings.

Instead of first commissioning Lewanika University in Mongu and other projects that were promised, you want us to commission a debate on term limits? Instead of finishing Mongu Stadium which is an embarrassment, you want to finish our democracy?

We in the NDC are not asking to EAT democracy, we are asking to USE democracy to decide what we eat, who grows it, and who steals it.

Our mothers in Western Province want to know why fish from the Zambezi is exported while they have no fertilizer. Our youths on the Copperbelt want jobs, not constitutional amendments. Our girls in Eastern Province want secondary schools, not a third term.

Other countries are discussing how to use AI to improve agriculture and health care. Our ruling party is discussing how to use the Constitution to improve one man’s stay in power.

We say NO.

Zambia is bigger than UPND. Zambia is bigger than HH. Zambia is bigger than any individual.

The two-term limit stays. The Growth Agenda must be delivered.

Zambian women want BOTH Democracy AND Development!

Written by;
Her Excellency
Ms. Saboi Imboela
President- National Democratic Congress- NDC Zambia