President Edgar Lungu says the contradicting statements from the church on how he is governing Zambia are confusing.

Speaking during a church service at Twapia United Church of Zambia in Ndola today, the Head of State said it was confusing when different churches gave politicians conflicting statements about their performance.

“The message I have for you this morning is simply to thank the church and to ask the church to continue praying for us because we are mortal and as mortal beings, we are bound to go astray and if we go astray, please forgive us, continue showing us the way. In conclusion, I would ask the church to unite, the United Church of Zambia to unite the believers in Christ and show us the way because what I can see currently is that the church of Christ, the body of Chirist is disunited. You are sending different signals to the politicians. We don’t know who is telling us what. One minute we are told namu luba, that is the body of Christ telling us. The next minute they are telling us ‘no, mulifye bwino’, twafulungana, how are we going to provide leadership? We are getting conflicting signals from the body of God, the church of Christ,” President Lungu said.

“We are not talking about the United Church of Zambia or the Catholic but the body of Christ and all of us who are believers in our lord Jesus Christ our saviour, the Catholics, the United Church of Zambia, the Evangelical Fellowship and everyone, give us the right signals so that we know where to go. Tuli bantu fye. If the Catholics said we are wrong, the United Church of Zambia said we are right, the Evangelical Fellowship said we don’t know what’s going on, then we get lost because as politicians we belong to the church. Some of us are UCZ, others are Pentecostal so we sit there and say ‘who is leading us?’”

President Lungu said his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni, in apparent reference to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, gave him a chilling account of how the church contributed to genocide in Rwanda.

“I was lucky to receive President Museveni the other day and he told me a chilling story about what the church did in Rwanda. Some of you don’t know what happened in Rwanda, how it was destroyed because of the church so I am asking you who pray, all of you, you sit together with the UCZ, and give us direction then we will follow. Because I am only human. And those in politics, others are UCZ, others are catholic, others are Pentecostals now if we are getting conflicting statements from the church, people will get lost, that is what happened in Rwanda,” said President Lungu.

After the church service, the Head of State proceeded to commission the construction of the $397 million Copperbelt International Airport.