Eight years after Zambia became a Christian nation the title is not convincing
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/januaryweb-only/24.0b.html
Immorality and corruption on the rise, say church leaders
Eight
years after President Frederick Chiluba officially declared Zambia to
be a "Christian nation," the declaration is largely meaningless,
according to church leaders and officials. On December 30, 1991,
Zambia's newly installed president declared this small, southern African
nation a Christian state, despite opposition from some Christian and
Muslim leaders. Prominent church officials interviewed by Ecumenical
News International (ENI) this week said that the declaration had become
increasingly "hollow," as Zambia faces mounting social, political and
economic problems, including widespread corruption. Archbishop John
Mambo, head of a 1.5 million-member Protestant denomination, the Church
of God in Zambia, said there had been a rise in "immorality and
corruption in our country which puts a question mark on our being called
a Christian nation."
Archbishop Mambo told ENI: "There is very little to show
that we are a Christian nation with so much wrong-doing, both in
private and public life. There is nothing to distinguish us from secular
nations. This is sad."
Joe Komakoma, a priest and executive secretary of the
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), agreed that immorality
had increased, especially among government leaders.
Komakoma said leaders were amassing wealth in dubious
ways, leaving ordinary people uncared for. "Lust for money, power and
social privileges has been made to look like a virtue. This has resulted
in the worsening of social indicators, high poverty levels, widening of
the gap between the rich and the poor, endemic corruption and a sharp
rise in crime."
Thomas Lumba, a pastor and national director of the
2-million-member Evangelical Fellowship churches, also said that rising
poverty was at odds with Zambia's status as a Christian nation.
Speaking at a function to celebrate the eighth
anniversary of the declaration, Lumba said it was disappointing that
there was almost nothing in the public life of many Zambians to indicate
that the country had been declared Christian. He also drew attention to
rising poverty affecting most Zambians. Celebrations of the 8th
anniversary of the declaration attracted only a small following. The
organizers, including the deputy minister for religious affairs, Peter
Chintala, had expected more than half-a-million people to attend the
main celebration at Lusaka's agriculture and commercial showgrounds. But
only about 10,000 people had come. Zambia's vice president Lieutenant
General Christon Tembo, who stood in for President Chiluba at the event,
admitted that so far the declaration had remained largely theoretical.
"We have blueprints on paper. But we need to concretize this
declaration." He said church leaders would meet government officials
soon to draw up a program with a definite direction for the nation to
follow."
We should have a Christian orientation in all fields at
all levels, if we are to truly turn Zambia into a Christian nation," he
said.
But the Christian nation declaration celebrations have
long been fraught with controversy. Leaders of the opposition political
parties were not invited to the latest celebrations. Dean Mungomba,
vice-chairman of an alliance of seven opposition parties, denounced the
celebrations as deceitful, treacherous, and a one-party affair. "They
[government leaders] cannot invite any opposition leaders because they
know the crimes they have committed against the citizens of this country
in the name of Christ."
We can't deal with chaps who plundered the wealth of
this nation in the name of God. They do not qualify to declare this
country a Christian nation."
Alick Mugala, media liaison officer of the National
Islamic Propagation Centre, said: "Declaring Zambia a Christian nation
puts one religion in a superior position to others, and that is not
fair."
According to the World Churches Handbook, published in
London, about 4.6 million of Zambia's population of 10 million are
Christians. The Roman Catholic Church in Zambia, which is the biggest,
has about 1.6 million members, according to the handbook. Zambia also
has small Muslim and Hindu communities.
What Chiluba did after declaring Zambia a Christian
Nation
20th October, 2015
By Billy KapingaZambians are so gullible and naive or must I say we have a tendency to forget easily.
On 29th December 1991, second Republican President FTJ Chiluba declared Zambia a Christian nation; did our political leaders at the time lead a God fearing and exemplary life? No ways!
The country witnessed the worst plunder never experienced before under the so called born again President.
No wonder the Catholics opposed the declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation because that was a ploy to hoodwink and cow the nation into total submission as the plunderers defiled and raped our beloved nation.
President Lungu has declared October 18th as the day of fasting, repentance and reconciliation……and we praise God for that.
However, we are yet to see if our leaders will refrain from corrupt activities, verbal and physical violence, slander, drunkenness etc for all these aren’t in conformity with Christianity.
Frederick Chiluba, Infamous Zambia Leader, Dies at 68
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/africa/20chiluba.html?_r=0
By Barry BearakJune , 19th 2011
Frederick Chiluba, the first democratically elected president of Zambia,
a man whose image as a defender of civil liberties was later tarnished
by his efforts to suppress political opposition and accusations that he
used millions of dollars of public money on his wardrobe and other
extravagances, died Saturday in Lusaka. He was 68.
He suffered from chronic heart problems. His death was confirmed by his spokesman, Emmanuel Mwamba.
The
son of a copper miner, Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba — a diminutive man
barely five feet tall — was Zambia’s president from 1991 to 2002. His
ascent to high office was for a time considered a heartening success
story in a poor, landlocked nation of 13 million people in southern
Africa.
He
left secondary school before graduation and was working as a low-paid
bookkeeper when he joined a union, rising through the ranks in the labor
movement until he became chairman of the Zambia Congress of Trade
Unions in 1974.
The
nation had won independence 10 years earlier. Kenneth Kaunda, a hero of
the liberation struggle, was Zambia’s first president, but his
single-party, socialist rule was an economic failure. In 1981, he jailed
Mr. Chiluba and other labor leaders without charges after they
instigated wildcat strikes.
A
judge ruled the detentions unconstitutional, and after three months
behind bars, Mr. Chiluba emerged emboldened. He would eventually forge a
coalition of unions, civic groups and churches to form the Movement for Multi-Party Democracy to challenge Mr. Kaunda at the polls.
A
personable man with oratorical gifts, Mr. Chiluba was a born-again
Christian and often used biblical references in his speeches. He was
also a passionate advocate of democracy, and in 1991, when Mr. Kaunda
finally agreed to multiparty elections, Mr. Chiluba won the presidency
with nearly 76 percent of the vote.
In
his first address, the new president said, “The Zambia we inherit is
destitute — ravaged by the excesses, ineptitude and straight corruption
of a party and a people who have been in power for too long.” He
lamented that after 27 years of Mr. Kaunda’s leadership, “Now the
coffers are empty. The people are poor. The misery endless.”
Mr.
Chiluba was indeed inheriting a fiscal mess, and though he steered the
country toward a free-market economy, the government remained dependent
on foreign aid, and the average Zambian was still mired in poverty.
The remarkable transformation seemed to come in Mr. Chiluba rather than in his nation.
The
Chiluba government was notably corrupt, and the president appeared to
regard himself as irreplaceable. In 1996, he barred Mr. Kaunda from
running against him, changing the Constitution to preclude candidates
born outside Zambia. He even attempted to deport Mr. Kaunda to Malawi.
In
2001, Mr. Chiluba again toyed with rewriting the law, this time to
allow himself a third term in office. But by then, the president’s
reputation as a reformer had been replaced by one far less flattering.
Civic groups and churches rose up in opposition and thwarted the plan. Instead, Mr. Chiluba anointed his former vice president, Levy Mwanawasa, as his successor, presuming that incriminating secrets would remain concealed.
But
the new president, narrowly elected, instead decided to shine a light
on public corruption. Mr. Chiluba would soon be charged with stealing
$500,000 of public funds. He additionally was sued in a civil action by
Zambia’s attorney general, who decided to try the case in Great Britain,
where the former president was said to have laundered millions of
dollars he plundered while in office.
Testimony
in the civil matter was astonishing. Zambia’s anti-corruption task
force had seized much of Mr. Chiluba’s wardrobe, including 349 shirts,
206 jackets and suits, and 72 pairs of size-6 shoes, many of them
personalized with his initials affixed in brass. The heels added two
inches to his stature.
Mr.
Chiluba spent more than $500,000 in a single clothing store, Boutique
Basile, in Geneva. Its owner testified that garments were sometimes paid
for with suitcases full of cash.
“The
president,” unlike the emperor, “needs to be clothed,” Justice Peter
Smith of the High Court said in 2007, ruling that Mr. Chiluba owed
Zambia $57 million. Much of the money, Justice Smith said, had been
funneled into an intelligence agency bank account in London “set up
primarily to steal government money.” Justice Smith said the former
president “should be ashamed,” pointing out that while he was
accumulating handmade shoes and silk pajamas, many Zambians “could not
afford more than one meal a day.”
Mr. Chiluba, who never appeared in court, refused to recognize Justice Smith’s verdict, calling it “racist” and “obscene.”
The
criminal proceedings, held in Lusaka, were less sensational. They
dragged on for six years, frequently delayed by Mr. Chiluba’s ill
health. The former president denied stealing any public funds, saying
instead that he had received millions in gifts from “corporate
interests” and “well-wishers” whose identities he would not reveal
because of “the golden rule of anonymity.”
In 2009, a magistrate acquitted Mr. Chiluba,
ruling that however large his fortune, the money could not be traced to
missing government funds. Celebrating the news, the former president
said, “The devil has tried to put the stigma of a thief on me, but God
has dealt with the devil.”
By
then, Levy Mwanawasa had died in office. His successor, Rupiah Banda,
has since disbanded much of the nation’s anticorruption apparatus. Mr.
Banda has referred to Mr. Chiluba as a “damn good president” and
credited him with bringing political freedoms to the country.
Mr.
Chiluba will be accorded a state funeral, the government announced. He
is survived by his wife, Regina, and, according to local reports, 10
children.
