By BARNABAS ZULU
PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema has ordered high-ranking government and UPND officials to stop shouting at and antagonising the church and its clergy each time those in leadership are being advised, reiterating that the two are partners in development and serving the same constituents.
Speaking when he met the clergy yesterday, President Hichilema said the church and government were one and there is no need to be exchanging words and creating an acrimonious relationship. “When parties work together, they see things slightly different, same things. Their job is to sit at the table to try and seek convergence. Their job is not to shout at each other, whether outside the church or the pulpit. The job is not to shout at each other,” President Hichilema said.
“Government should not shout at the church, the government should not be shouting at the church. Equally, the church should not use the pulpit which is sacred to shout over their partners. It is to invite its partners to a meeting. I think that will maintain our country’s credibility as a Christian nation,” he said.
He said the church had done several things in the country and was therefore encouraging it to venture into food production and help in making the country food secure.
“So, in enumerating what the church and the government does together, I want to make a call-out here that we must include food production, agriculture, to work to produce something,” he said.
“I said to the Jesuits in Chikuni Mission, I told the priest do you eat breakfast, the answer was well known, don’t they eat lunch, the answer was obvious, don’t they eat dinner, and the answer was obvious. I said then they must produce something because Father Monroe in 1905, introduced mechanisation in agriculture as a Jesuit Father in Chikuni Mission by introducing the plough. The first mechanisation on agriculture was introduced by the Catholic Jesuits in this country,” President Hichilema said. He also eulogised the country’s second President Dr Frederick Chiluba on declaring Zambia as a Christian nation, stating that the act promoted unity in the country.
He urged the church to continue preaching peace and unity in the nation, emphasising that Zambia is a bastion of tranquility in the region.
