By Dr Mwelwa
Tomorrow our nation bows in prayer, yet the heavens are heavy with unanswered questions. How do we approach the altar when our politics are deceitful, our justice selective, and our unity fractured by hypocrisy disguised as holiness?
The burial impasse of President Edgar Lungu reveals our moral decay. Even death cannot unite us. We politicize funerals, divide families, and desecrate dignity. A nation that cannot bury its dead in peace has already buried its conscience.
Voter registration centres remain deserted in Mansa. The people who gave power are now treated as afterthoughts. How shall elections be credible when even registration is selective, inaccessible, and manipulated for political convenience?
In Mfuwe and other by-elections, democracy has become a theatre of deceit. Vote buying replaces persuasion. Civil servants act as campaigners. Fear is the ballot’s shadow. How can the people’s will speak when their stomachs are bribed to silence?
The Socialist Party cried foul. The opposition endured violence. The police stood aloof. ECZ hid behind silence. This is not democracy — it is democracy’s ghost wearing a mask of legitimacy. Truth has become contraband in our politics.
Bill 7 lurks in Parliament like a viper in the grass. A constitutional amendment born of secrecy cannot serve justice. Its timing before the election is not reform but manipulation. Power seeks permanence through constitutional deceit.
The Technical Committee created under Article 92 instead of the Inquiries Act is illegal. Its hidden terms of reference betray motive. Why hide what should unite the nation? Lawfare now replaces leadership. Control replaces consultation.
Meanwhile, the altar of national prayer awaits. The government speaks of peace, but peace without justice is pretense. The Day of Prayer risks becoming a spiritual distraction — a political incense to sanctify national sin.
President Hichilema calls for unity, quoting Psalm 133. But unity cannot grow in soil poisoned by inequality. It is mocked when prisoners are denied lawyers, journalists beaten, and political rivals demonized. Unity without justice is hypocrisy.
Leadership has turned divine callings into political slogans. “One Zambia, One Nation” has become “One Party, One Privilege.” God is not mocked. He demands repentance, not ritual; righteousness, not rhetoric. We must act our way into holiness.
The coming 2026 elections loom like a test of national conscience. Will we choose truth over tokenism? Or will we trade destiny for deception? Elections without fairness are not competition — they are coronations masked as democracy.
Those in power must remember Saul, who lost his crown for disobedience, and Nebuchadnezzar, who lost his mind for pride. When leaders use law and prayer as shields for arrogance, judgment soon follows in silence and chaos.
Tomorrow’s altar calls for repentance, not performance. Let the President approach as servant, not ruler. Let ministers kneel in humility, not pride. Let prophets speak truth, not comfort. Only then will heaven listen to our lament.
The youth watch with weary eyes. They are hungry for hope, not speeches. The widow, the farmer, the jobless graduate — they are Zambia’s prophets now, reminding us that faith without justice is idolatry.
If we do not amend our ways, our national prayer will be an echo bouncing off hollow walls. The soil of Zambia cries for integrity. Even the dead, like Lungu, remind us: without peace, no rest is found.
How then shall we approach the altar? With hands clean or covered in injustice? Tomorrow’s prayer must not be another ceremony. It must be a national confession. Only truth can reconcile us with God and with ourselves.
The day of prayer, fasting and reconciliation et al was purely a political act with no spiritual consideration whatsoever. The power hungry clergy latched onto it because it gave them an opportunity to rub shoulders with the politically powerful, not forgetting the attendant brown envelopes.
But God is not impressed by all these deceptive actions. Hence the nation has reaped the consequences of its deception. Has PF, the authors of this day of prayer, repented? Have they reconciled? They are still as violent as ever. Even Mr. Lungu, the one who made the declaration has been caught up in the web. Almost five months after his demise, his remains have not been committed to the grave.
Now, this says a lot and must cause us to pause and ask the question, should we go on mocking God? Zambia is definitely not a Christian nation no matter how much we pretend. The Lord Jesus Himself said in John 14:15, “If you love me, you will obey what I command”.
Our love for Christ is what constrains us from doing evil or sinning. No christian will be comfortable with sin. But in Zambia, looters find a paradise, thieves are lurking everywhere looking for an opportunity to relieve you of your hard earned cash or property, the work ethic is atrocious.
In a truly Christian nation, I should be able to leave my laptop or phone in a public place and still find it the next day.