AN ENABLER OF MODERN-DAY NEBUCHADNEZZAR: Never Mumba’s Conduct In Leadership Is More Satanic Than Christ-Like
By Augustine Mukoka
AN ENABLER OF MODERN-DAY NEBUCHADNEZZAR: Never Mumba’s Conduct In Leadership Is More Satanic Than Christ-Like
There comes a moment when a man who professes faith must decide whether his place is with power or with principle.
For Mr. Nevers Mumba, that moment appears to have arrived.
And, tragically, his response to the circumstances surrounding the death of former Lunter MP Mutotwe Kafwaya raises profound questions about whether the fallen preacher has surrendered the prophetic courage expected of a man as a man of the cloth for political proximity to power.
Mr. Nevers is increasingly posturing as a sheep while behaving, politically, like a wolf.
He speaks the language of Christianity, reconciliation and morality. He invokes God when it is politically convenient.
Yet when Zambia desperately needs voices capable of confronting excesses of state power, his response appears remarkably accommodating.
In biblical terms, he risks becoming an enabler at the court of a modern-day King Nebuchadnezzar: a religious figure unwilling to confront the throne when conscience demands it.
The confirmed gunfire which he denied but has been confirmed by both Secretary to the Cabinet & Inspector General of Police and subsequent death or deaths demand independent investigation, forensic scrutiny and accountability — not political sanitization.
Shockingly, Mr. Nevers has notoriously trivialized the circumstances surrounding the event that should trouble every citizen, regardless of political affiliation.
A man is dead, or men are dead.
A family is grieving.
For six days, the didn’t see their loved ones..
Mr. Nevers shows no empathy. No compassion. At what cost – all because his own can continue in diplomatic service while he lives an extravagant life.
The Bible, the book of life, is categorical. It prides in Christ followers confronting political power rather than ingratiated themselves with it.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood before Nebuchadnezzar and refused to bow to an idol even when the furnace awaited them.
Daniel refused to abandon his convictions merely because the king had issued a decree.
David confronted Goliath.
John the Baptist challenged Herod..
The prophetic tradition is not one of flattering rulers. It is a tradition of speaking uncomfortable truth to power.
Mr. Nevers had those examples from which to choose.
Instead, his political conduct evokes another biblical figure: Judas Iscariot – the disciple whose proximity to Christ did not prevent betrayal.
That is the tragedy here.
A Christian leader should be among the first demanding that every allegation surrounding Kafwaya’s death be independently investigated and that every person responsible – regardless of office, uniform or political affiliation – be subjected to the law.
There should be no attempt to prejudge guilt. But neither should there be an attempt to sanitize allegations of potentially grave wrongdoing before the facts have been independently established.
To reduce such circumstances to Mr. Nevers’ thinking or lack of it is most disturbing. The man doesn’t deserve a royal place among the elders of our country.
He’s a merchant of morals. Mutotwe Kafwaya was not an abstraction.
He was a human being.
He had a family, friends, colleagues and people who loved him. His death deserves dignity. His family deserves answers. Zambia deserves the truth.
For a man who has occupied a pulpit and publicly presented himself as a servant of God, Mrs Nevers should understand better than most that death must never become political collateral damage.
This is why his posture deserves severe scrutiny.
Faith without moral courage becomes costume. A clerical collar, a Bible and religious vocabulary cannot substitute for the courage to confront injustice.
Christianity cannot mean condemning wrongdoing when committed by one’s opponents but suddenly discovering diplomatic language when those exercising state power face serious allegations.
That is political convenience dressed in religious clothing.
Mr. Nevers should therefore ask himself a simple question: When history records this moment, will it remember him as Daniel before the king – or as the man who found reasons to accommodate the palace?
The contradiction between Mr. Nevers the preacher and Mr. Nevers the politician will remain painfully difficult to ignore.
His conduct is more of Satanist than Christ-like – all because of silver and gold.
They say a man may preach Christ from the pulpit, but his true test comes when confronting power.
In this moment, Mr. Nevers has chosen the comfort of the palace over the courage of Daniel – and political expediency over the compassion his professed faith demands.
What a shameless wimp the once revered man of God has become.