Africa-Press – Zambia. Bishop Bilon, your energy is admirable, but unfortunately misdirected. With all due respect, the article you’re responding to isn’t about you, and it’s not even about defending or attacking the Bishop—it is about asking a moral question that cannot be dismissed with the usual partisan gymnastics or convenient nostalgia. You’ve taken great pains to speak for Bishop Imakando, but what the nation is yearning for is his voice—not a paid proxy or self-appointed defender with a loud keyboard.
When the Bishop spoke in 2021, he needed no cheerleaders, no handlers, and certainly no apologetics. He spoke with conviction, yes—but more importantly, he spoke publicly, prophetically, and purposefully. His words, whether by intent or effect, stirred a national turning point. That is the undeniable truth. So now that the conditions have worsened—the cost of living has soared, tribal tension has deepened, injustices are rising, and people are weeping in the very townships where his churches stand—we are simply asking, where is that same voice now?
To ask that question is not to drag him into “cheap politics”; it is to hold a spiritual standard consistent with the prophetic tradition. Was Amos being political when he cried, “Woe to you who are at ease in Zion”? Was Nathan playing opposition when he confronted King David? No, they were fulfilling their divine responsibility—to speak when others are silent, to stand when others bow.
You suggest Bishop Imakando cannot be summoned to speak unless he feels a personal conviction. But can you really walk past hungry sheep and claim silence as obedience? This isn’t about being hired to speak; this is about being called to respond to suffering. When the shepherd sees the wolves come and says nothing, what becomes of the flock?
And while you’re quick to question the motivations of the Catholic clergy—conveniently pointing at alleged past benefits—you forget that they are the only major clerical body still standing up for the people in a time of great hardship. They have risked their comfort, their safety, and even their reputations to say what is unpopular but necessary. That, my brother, is called moral courage. Try it sometime.
Let’s be clear—no one is asking Bishop Imakando to chant political slogans or trade in partisanship. We’re asking for prophetic balance. If he had the courage to speak when governance was bad under one regime, he must also find the courage to speak when governance is clearly failing under the next. To only speak when it’s safe, and stay silent when it’s hard, is not conviction—it is convenience.
You spent paragraphs listing the sins of the past regime, but no amount of historical scapegoating can feed the hungry child in Kanyama today. The Zambian people are not fools. They don’t eat history. They don’t wear free education as clothing. They are asking why things are still hard—and why those who once stood with them now hide behind proxies and silence.
Bishop Imakando is not being condemned—he’s being called. And if he does not speak, it won’t be a political loss; it will be a moral one. Because the prophets are not called to be comfortable, they are called to be courageous.
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