Church mother bodies stance unsettles IFFC

THE International Fellowship of Christian Churches (IFFC) has challenged the three Church mother bodies that have said they will boycott the National Constitution Conference to give satisfactory reasons why they are shunning the conference.

IFFC president, Simon Chihana, said the NCC had taken into consideration all the concerns raised by the various stakeholders and wondered why the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) and the Evangelical Fellowship of Zambia (EFZ) had continued shunning the conference.

Bishop Chihana said at the Pastors’ Forum, which was attended by close to, 250 clergymen from various denominations under the auspices of IFFC and other religious bodies the three bodies were merely a fraction of Christian organisations, which should not derail the entire process.

“I had for example invited Bishop Mususu so that we could hear from him why they are not participating. But he said through his secretary that he would not make it,” Bishop Chihana said.

He said it was wrong for the Church mother bodies to shun the NCC as religious persons were well versed on issues of justice and equality which constitutions the world over sought to address.

Since independence, he said, Zambia had not enacted a people-driven Constitution and this was the only opportunity, which should not be spoiled as a result of selfish motives by the Church mother bodies and other interest groups.

Christians should not boycott the NCC as they had the wisdom through the Bible to ensure that a Constitution enacted did not divert from the biblical norms.

He said politicians relied on the wisdom from the clergy and it would, therefore, be wrong for Christians to shun the conference. In biblical times, he said the best constitutions were those that had an input from men and women of God.

At the same forum, constitutional lawyer, John Sangwa described the NCC as a golden opportunity for Zambians to participate in enacting the Constitution.

He, therefore, said it was important that the various stakeholders participated in the process, as shunning would not be in the best interest of the Zambian people.

Unlike in the previous Constitution review processes, none of the governments reached the stage of putting in place a conference at which citizens had been accorded an opportunity to contribute.

During the previous Constitution review processes, Mr Sangwa said that past presidents only appointed a few individuals to recommend what should be contained in the Constitution but this time, close to 500 people would be included.

Home Affairs Minister, Ronnie Shikapwasha said in the NCC, the Government would ensure that the draft Constitution, John Mwanakatwe and Patrick Mvunga reports and their relevant documents were provided for Lieutenant General Shikapwasha said it was not too late for the Oasis Forum and others shunning the conference to rescind their decisions and come on board.

And Zambia Institute of Chartered Accountants (ZICA) said time had come for accountants to participate in the Constitution making process.

ZICA president, Chintu Mulendema, said during the consultative workshop that accountants had always remained behind in governance issues and yet they contributed to the running of the economy.

He said owing to accountants taking back seats in governance, they had all the time not been included in key positions apart from that of Auditor General.

Mr Mulendema said ZICA decided to hold the workshop so as to enable the accounting profession realise the importance of participating in the governance issues.