Church rejects calls to abandon constitution amendments

IT is appalling for some organisations and political parties to call for the abandonment of constitutionmaking process because a lot of time and resources have been spent on the process, a consortium of Lusaka-based churches has said.

It is our considered view that setting aside the entire Constitution amendment process is akin to throwing away the baby together with the bath water. That would certainly unreasonable and unwise

Lusaka Pastors Fellowship chairperson, Boniface Nkonde said it was imprudent to set aside the entire constitution amendment process simply because certain sections of society hold divergent views on matters espoused in the Constitution of Amendment Bill No.10 of 2019. Bishop Nkonde said abandoning the process now would be unreasonable and unwise. He said this during a Church-media engagement in Lusaka yesterday. “It is our considered view that setting aside the entire Constitution amendment process is akin to throwing away the baby together with the bath water. That would certainly unreasonable and unwise. “For there are great milestones achieved in the National Dialogue Forum (NDF) process and we believe that when this process is successfully concluded, it would foster national development, peace and unity among the Zambian people,” Bishop Nkonde said. He said it was the desire of the Church to see Zambians enact a Constitution that would reflect the collective will and aspirations of the people. And Pastor Elvin Nasilele said the church would make submissions to the parliamentary Select Committee to share their views on the constitution amendment process. Pastor Nasilele said among the submissions was the issue of the removal of the re-introduction of deputy ministers, payment of retirees and removing the country from Multi religious to a Christian nation. And responding to questions, Chairperson for Advocates of the Declaration of Zambia as a Christian nation, Billy Mfula said there was need for the church to sensitize the people on the NDF resolutions. Bishop Mfula noted that not everyone who speaks on various matters affecting the country such as the NDF was representing the church.