Rev. Maulidi speaking at the AUBC conference
* The church is supposed to provide a prophetic voice by teaching its followers on issues of corruption
* But, unfortunately, it is the same church or any other faith community that is is propelling corruption
* I don’t know the reason why — maybe because it is to do with issues of moral decay which is all over Africa or maybe issues of poverty
By Duncan Mlanjira
All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) economic justice & accountability champion in Malawi, Rev. Baxton Maulidi has raised an alarm that the faith community is also corrupt and must be monitored without any compromise.
He said this yesterday during the two-day African Union Advisory Board against Corruption (AUABC) in Arusha, Tanzania where members are discussing the role of corruption whistleblowers and protection of witnesses.
Among others, the meeting is taking stock of whistleblower protection in Africa, identify best practices that are contributing to the fight against corruption and providing recommendations on effective whistleblower mechanisms.
The 8th annual African anti-corruption dialogue is under the theme; ‘Effective Whistleblowers Protection Mechanism: A Critical Tool in the Fight against Corruption’ and Rev. Maulidi was amongst distinguished panelists in the session themed; ‘State of Play on Whistleblower and Witness Protection Mechanism: Perspectives of Civil Society Organisation’.
The Deputy General Secretary for CCAP Blantyre Synod opened with an assertion that the church is supposed “to provide a prophetic voice by teaching its followers on issues of corruption but, unfortunately, it is the same church or any other faith community that is is propelling corruption”.
“I don’t know the reason why — maybe because it is to do with issues of moral decay which is all over Africa or maybe issues of poverty.
“So, the faith community is failing to stand on its prophetic role as it has been captured by the State actors and got compromised. We are failing to walk the talk.
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“We preach against sin, moral decay, religious values and many other social issues but we are doing the opposite when it comes to corruption, which is about moral decay and sin.
“We are supposed to be gatekeepers against corruption but the perpetrators of the vice are found in the church,” he said amidst a huge round of applause at the conference that was streamed live through https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEudOqqpzgiHtxHEwfnxtmd_XAjK9QCqmiI.
He thus called on African State actors to walk the talk in the fight against corruption and the protection of whistleblowers if the fight against the vice is to be achieved on the continent — observing that many state actors are subjective in their response to fight corruption.
Rev. Maulidi at AACC summit in Nairobi
In July, in a panel discussion during the World Council of Churches Mission & Evangelism (CWME) meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Rev. Maulidi also persuaded AACC members to purposefully and intensively preach against corruption in their church sermons.
Held at Desmond Tutu Conference Centre, the AACC anti-corruption ambassador in Malawi emphasised that the clergy are “supposed to stand tall and preach against the vice of corruption in churches”.
“As faith leaders, we need to join the fight against corruption,” he had said. “We have a mandate to drive people in the right and proper direction because we have different stakeholders of the society in our churches, including politicians and policy makers.
“We need to take the leading role to advocate against this vice which is looting African nations. Corruption is making African people to be poorer and poorer yet churches are there preaching to the very same people who are involved in decision making of our nations’ economy.”
On its website, the AACC quoted an emphasis from Rev. Maulidi that says: “Each one of us must exercise moral integrity in order to fight corruption and promote transparency and accountability in our area of influence.”
When he returned from Nairobi, Rev. Maulidi expounded in an interview with Maravi Express that if one is a traditional leader, they have their area of influence — and so too with others that include teachers, school head boys/girls, farmers, parents, politicians as well as the clergy.
“So, in that area of influence you have to promote transparency and accountability to fight against corruption,” he said, adding that the conference in Nairobi emphasised on the need to raise more awareness of the “evil and damage that the vice is causing in Africa”.
When asked if Malawi is moving in the right direction, Rev. Maulid said: “I would not say we are doing enough — we are trying but we need to do more. We need our Anti-Corruption Bureau to have more support and to ensure its independence.
“The support for the ACB should come in form of good funding from the national budget and its independence should be being detached from the national executive for it to work without any compromise.”
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