* The clergy are supposed to stand tall and preach against the vice of corruption in churches
* We need to encourage whistleblowing that people should report to authorities through the anti-corruption bureau
* When they suspect something which is of corruption in nature — thus the area of influence comes in
By Duncan Mlanjira
Rev. Baxton Maulidi of Church of Central Africa Presbyterian (CCAP) Blantyre Synod, has persuaded members of All-African Conference of Churches (AACC) to purposefully and intensively preach against corruption in their church sermons.
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Rev. Maulidi said this today, July 11, in a panel discussion in Nairobi, Kenya during the World Council of Churches Mission & Evangelism (CWME) meeting held at Desmond Tutu Conference Centre, emphasising 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,” said the CCAP Blantyre Synod Deputy General Secretary, who is also AACC’s Economic Justice & Accountability Ambassador as well as its anti-corruption ambassador in Malawi.
“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.”
And in an interview, Rev. Maulidi expounded 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”.
“We need to encourage whistleblowing that people should report to authorities through the anti-corruption bureau when they suspect something which is of corruption in nature — thus the area of influence comes in.”
Asked if Malawi is moving in the right direction, Rev. Maulidi said: “I would not say we are doing enough — we are trying but we need to do more. We need our Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) 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.”
Last year, at a conference for CCAP Students Organisations (CCAPSO) Rev. Maulidi also encouraged the youths in public and private universities to inculcate a culture of desisting corruption and bribery as part of acting their level of influence.
He impressed on the young minds that they will soon be leaders in the corporate world, all arms of government and in the private sector — hence the need for them to utilise every chance and bring about change by ensuring the promotion of accountability and transparency at all levels.
He emphasized that corruption and bribery are eroding the Malawi society and shared with the over 500 students in attendance, the scriptures from Colossians 1 vs 9-14 — which encourages one to walk in the Lord’s path and do and act as God wants.
The AACC is a continental ecumenical fellowship that represents more than 200 million African Christians in over 210 national churches and regional Christian councils in 43 African countries.
The AACC is the largest association of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, and Indigenous churches in Africa, and a member of the worldwide ecumenical network, whose head office is in Nairobi and a regional office in Lome, Togo.
It also has another another office in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia which serves as its liaison office to the African Union while the Desmond Tutu Conference Centre in Nairobi, where the summit on corruption was held, is also AACC’s affiliate.
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According to Wikipedia, the ecumenically dedicated Presbyterian Akanu Ibiam initiated a conference in 1958, of Christian organisations and churches in Africa, which led to the foundation of AACC at its first assembly on April 20, 1963 in Kampala, Uganda.
The theme of the first assembly was ‘Freedom and Unity in Christ’, where the delegates addressed the colonial situation in the spirit of nationalism that permeated the political scene of the continent at the time.
The delegates identified themselves with the aspirations of the peoples of the continent towards development of dignity and a mature personality in Christ and exhorted the churches “to participate wholeheartedly in the building of the African nation”.
The AACC has accompanied the churches in their engagement in the decolonisation and nation-building processes and also played a significant role in the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
The headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya
The journey towards unity and freedom initiated at the Kampala meeting has continued through the the assemblies, as the AACC continues to stand with the churches in addressing relevant issues that confront the continent, and to provide a platform of collective voices and collective action.
Its foundational programmes are theology, mission and evangelism, ecumenical growth and interfaith relations while the core issues on its agenda include social and economic justice (overcoming poverty), health and wholeness (HIV/Aids and international relations — governance, ethics and morality.
It is engaged in a thorough process of reconfiguring ecumenical relationships and cooperation in the continent, by integrating the churches, national councils, sub-regional fellowships and the continental body itself into a coherent network.
For operational and administrative reasons AACC divided the continent into five sub-regions: Northern Africa (5 countries), Eastern Africa & Indian Ocean (7 countries), Southern Africa (10 countries), Central Africa (8 countries) and Western Africa (10 countries).
This division ensures that every region is adequately represented in AACC’s decision-making bodies. It also enables the AACC to have a better understanding of specific social economic and political issues facing the regions and thus be able to serve them better.
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