Oscar Benavides, a Peruvian president from the 1930s, once famously quipped, “For my friends, anything; for my enemies, the law.”

Benavides’ comment is probably the illustrative example of how political leaders of the past sometimes regarded the law not as a principle or the cornerstone of the social contract, but rather as a tool to be selectively applied in their favor.

In Zambia, unfortunately, it could be argued that President Michael Sata and the Patriotic Front belong to this older generation of leaders who view the courts as a convenient way to attack their enemies. This is not a government that upholds rule of law; in fact, there are many recent events indicating that the Patriotic Front would like to return the country to a one-party state where there is no judicial independence to speak of.