On January 17, 2014, the Zambian government allowed an Australian company, Zambezi Resources to open a massive open-pit mining project in the Lower Zambezi National Park, which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization was to declare a World Heritage Site.
Although all traditional chiefs of the lower Zambezi, the Zambia Wildlife Authority, and the Zambia Environmental Advisory Agency opposed the move, Mr. Harry Kalaba, the Minister of Lands, acting upon President Sata’s permission allowed the project to proceed—which will cause an ecological disaster—worse than the one experienced during the construction of the Kariba Dam in 1958.
Unlike the Kariba, however, mining will pollute the waters and poison hundreds of thousands of nonhuman species. Who knows what President Sata and his cronies are set to get out of this venture? Well, the Bembas say, “uubomba mwibala, alya mwibala” (the person who works in the field, eats from the field)—the only problem is, it’s corruption in a corrupt Christian nation.
Corruption is the abuse or misuse of public office, public resources, or some public obligation or duty for purposes of private (personal or group) gain. The negative effects of corruption on Zambia are frightening.
“An insidious plague that has a wide range of corrosive effects on societies,” is what the then UN Secretary General Kofi A. Annan called corruption in his foreword to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC). While this insidious plague is found across the globe, in Zambia, it undermines good governance and economic development.
Seriously, am I the only one who questions the relevance of the mantra of “Christian nation” in Zambia; am I the only one who thinks the mantra is used to blind us from exposing corruption? Well, every Zambian president claims to be a committed Christian, and so does his cabinet. Every president has vowed to defend the Christian nation clause while presiding over a corrupt administration—which is an oxymoron.
Corruption erodes trust among the electorate and undermines the Government’s “ability to provide basic services, feeding inequality and injustice and discouraging foreign aid and investment.”
In 2002, the African Union (AU) report revealed that the corruption cost Africa over $150 billion annually. The AU advocated the establishment of Anti-Corruption Commissions on the continent—leading to the establishment of the “African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption,” adopted in Maputo, on July 11, 2003. Article 19 of the Convention criminalizes “secret commissions and other forms of corrupt practices during international trade transactions,” but these practices are prevalent in our nation.
We have the Anti-corruption Commission, but as S. O. Osoba contends, in Nigeria as elsewhere, these structures are “controlled and operated by, and in the interest of, members of the ruling class who have a vested and entrenched interest in sustaining and even extending corrupt practices.” The failure to prosecute Wynter Kawimba (until now) and GBM (until after he resigned his cabinet post) despite being cited for corruption in the past confirms Osoba’s point. Is it that our anti-corruption commission is itself corrupt or toothless?
We are all victims and perpetrators of corruption. We are a corrupt Christian nation with corrupt citizens. Amidst extreme economic inequalities, lack of employment and social services, even poor people depend “on petty corruption and bureaucratic extortion in their efforts to secure basic services.” Who does not know that corruption is the norm in today’s Zambia; who does not know that corruption is the only way to enroll at government colleges or joining the civil service? Be it at the passport office, police station, and at courts, corruption is the only way to get what is legally yours.
In today’s Zambia, education and interviews do not matter anymore—corruption is the only way to get employed, join the army, and even become a security officer. Surely, we are a Christian nation of corrupt Christians.
The fight against corruption is a signature phrase in Zambian political discourse. While the charges brought against the Chiluba and Rupiya Banda administrations suggest the rampart levels of corruption, Blaine Harden’s description of an African leader in the early 1990s still rings true today: “His photograph hangs in every office in his realm.–His every pronouncement is reported on the front page.–He scapegoats minorities to shore up support.
He rigs elections. He emasculates the courts. He cows the Press. He stifles academia. He goes to church.….He awards competitive, overprized contracts to foreign companies which grant…his family and his associates large kickbacks….He afLinksfects a commitment to free-market economic reforms to secure multi-million dollar loans and grants from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund…His rule has one overriding goal: to perpetuate his reign as Big man.”
Who doesn’t know the “big man” cult is the foundation of the Sata administration?
That said, Harden’s point about politicians’ commitment to economic reforms to secure multi-million dollar loans deserves highlighting. There is no doubt that Zambian politicians are committed to free-market reforms to achieve their own financial security—the PF government seems to be doing exact that.
I am not saying that politicians are the only ones involved in corruption—the majority of church leaders are equally corrupt. As religious leaders, we often condemn corruption in government without stopping to critique fraud in our own institutions. Based on my experiences and interaction with African Churches, misappropriation of funds (mostly donated by international churches to address the plight of the poor) is common.
No sooner does this money arrive than it is spent on building mansions for bishops and senior pastors. In Zambia, the plight of the masses remains a diamond mine for both religious and political leaders. While some politicians have been arrested and put in jail on corruption charges, prominent religious leaders have yet to taste justice for misusing Church resources. But, corruption and Christianity are not bedfellows unless you live in a Christian nation of thieves—Zambia.