By 
Zambia is standing at the edge of a constitutional disaster. If Mr Hakainde Hichilema is allowed to force Bill 7 through Parliament outside strict democratic discipline, outside genuine national consensus, outside the moral authority of the people, and in violation of the Constitutional Court order, then what will emerge is not reform but the birth of a constitutional dictatorship and illegality.
This will not be an isolated legislative mistake. It will be a fundamental restructuring of power away from the people and into the permanent grip of the Executive.
At this moment, the most dangerous issue is no longer whether Bill 7 contains progressive clauses or harmful ones. That debate has already been overtaken by a far graver crime. The crime of forcing constitutional change onto an unwilling and divided nation.
A constitution that is imposed through pressure, inducement, political engineering, illegality, and procedural shortcuts ceases to be a people’s document. It becomes a tool of domination.
From this point forward, every amendment passed in this manner will no longer be judged by its content but by its coercive birth. That is how dictatorships emerge in suits and ties, not through coups but through manipulated legality.
Let us be absolutely clear. The Constitution is not a party manifesto. It is not a campaign pledge. It is not a presidential project. It is a national covenant that binds generations.
To alter it requires humility, restraint, and unquestionable national consent. Once that consent is replaced with force and illegalities, the state crosses from democratic authority into constitutional aggression.
The defenders of this forced march insist that Parliament has the numbers and that legality is satisfied by a vote. This is a dangerous lie sold as constitutional wisdom. The majority rule without legitimacy is not democracy.
It is organised political aggression. When numbers are weaponised against national consensus, the Constitution is reduced to a procedural hostage. This is how republics collapse without tanks on the streets. This is how dictatorship learns to speak the language of law while murdering its spirit.
Once the precedent is set that a government can amend the supreme law through intimidation, inducements, illegality, political recycling of defiant MPs, and manufactured compliance, Zambia will never again have a stable constitutional order. Every future president will inherit a loaded gun pointed at democracy.
Today, it is Bill 7. Tomorrow, it will be term limits. The day after, it will be total executive capture. That is how constitutional authoritarianism becomes permanent policy.
What makes this crisis even more dangerous is the growing realisation that public submissions were never meant to shape the outcome. They were meant to decorate a predetermined decision. That is not a consultation. That is deception.
A people who discover that they were used as ceremonial participants in a staged democratic ritual do not remain passive. They withdraw trust. They abandon patience. They disengage from peaceful consensus. And when legitimacy collapses, instability rushes in to occupy the vacuum.
A Constitution forced onto the people becomes a weapon against the people. What begins as a legal amendment ends as social conflict. You cannot coerce national unity. You cannot intimidate national consent. You cannot whip peace into existence. Unity grows from trust, not fear. Peace grows from inclusion, not humiliation.
Those who downplay these dangers must remember one permanent lesson of African political history. Constitutional arrogance always ends the same way. It either breeds prolonged instability or invites violent correction. Zambia has survived because it has largely avoided both extremes through negotiation, compromise, and institutional restraint. Bill 7, as it is being driven right now, threatens to destroy that historic balance.
The most reckless aspect of this moment is the casual demonisation of dissent. Citizens who raise alarm are called enemies of progress. Civil society is painted as agents of hidden hands.
Political opponents are accused of fear and bitterness. This culture of delegitimising all disagreement is not strength. It is the early training ground of authoritarianism.
Mr Hichilema must understand that state power is seductive because it creates the illusion of permanence. But legitimacy is the only true currency of enduring leadership.
Once it is exhausted, all that remains is tension management, not nation building. Force may deliver a vote. It can never deliver peace.
Read More: Constitutional Court throws out bid against Speaker, MPs over Bill 7
This is, therefore, a final warning moment for Zambia. It is not yet too late to pause. It is not yet too late to withdraw. It is not yet too late to re-engage the nation, honestly.
But if Bill 7 is rammed through in its current atmosphere of dispute, suspicion, and national anxiety, Zambia will cross a psychological line from which return will be slow, painful, and uncertain.
Peace is not preserved by silencing the people.
Unity is not protected by outvoting the nation.
A Constitution imposed is a Constitution rejected in advance.
If this government chooses force over process, speed over legitimacy, and power over restraint, then it must also accept full responsibility for the political, social, and national consequences that will inevitably follow.
The exercise of power must be a constant practice of self limitation and modest.
The author is President of the Socialist Party.
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