Salutations:
I count it a very special privilege to be with you this morning as we open the African Biblical Leadership Initiative (ABLI) 2015 Conference here in our Capital City of the Warm Heart of Africa. First let me welcome in a special way all our colleagues from across Africa - I hear there are delegates from Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Tanzania, Togo, Burkina Faso, Benin, Burundi, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, South Africa, South Sudan etc; delegates from the United Kingdom and represented by the Chief Executive of the British & Foreign Bible Society, Mr James Catford and your team; please feel welcome to the Warm Heart of Africa. And before I forget, I trust our foreign delegates will take some time off after the conference to visit our beautiful lake because here in Malawi we feel you have never been to our country if you do not visit our lake and sample the juicy fish called Chambo.
On behalf of the government and people of Malawi, I wish to welcome you to Malawi and to this unique gathering of distinguished personalities under the auspices of the Bible Society of Malawi to discuss leadership issues on our continent.
Ladies and gentlemen, when Lord Paul Boateng and the Bible Society leadership visited me on 3rd February early this year to inform me about this conference I was very pleased and pledged that I would come and if I failed I would at least record my message to be read here but God has made sure I be personally present to open this conference. I thank God for this because I feel this is a very important gathering when together we can seek to share the values that need to inspire our conduct in the way we run the affairs of our Nations as well as different institutions where each one of us is a leader. I have learnt that ABLI has been hosted in Addis Ababa in 2010 and 2011, in Kampala in 2012 and last year 2014 in Ghana with very positive results. And that this should now take place here in our country, I feel Malawi is blessed because the challenges ABLI seeks to address are very much at the root of my government’s agenda and I do believe for Africa as a whole.
Transforming the Culture of Leadership in our continent, I believe, is long overdue. The issues of Integrity, Healthcare systems, Conflict Resolution and the Next Generation matters are at the core of any leadership focus because our people are expecting so much and we promise so much but unfortunately we have delivered very little. I need to hasten, though, that these issues are not only a challenge for Africa but the world as a whole. The whole issue of the Arab Spring, Xenophobia attacks, the refugee crisis in Europe, the high unemployment rates in the world, and especially for the Youth, call for a change in the way we do business. As a matter of fact, concerning the youth and unemployment, my government has started building technical colleges so that we can empower the unemployed youth with skills to generate jobs and income for themselves. But I know this is not enough as members will also know that our Youth constitute more than 70% of Africa’s population – in fact Africa is the world’s youngest continent, as it is stated that the proportion of youth in Africa’s population is higher than in any other continent. Therefore that we can all come together and hear what the word of God has to say on all these issues is a very welcome development.
I trust as delegates will be interacting with one another, under the guidance of our highly distinguished speakers and facilitators, it is my hope that we will see the light at the end of the tunnel so that we will have the light to show us the way as we function in our different offices. My prayer is that this will not just be another talking shop. Let us allow ourselves to be changed by the messages we will receive, as we have already started receiving. This, I believe will help build the necessary networks as we will hold one another accountable to make sure we live by these values.
I am pleased that some of my cabinet ministers, principal secretaries and key leaders of my government will stay on with you for the duration of this conference. I challenge all of you to take heed of this conference so that when you return to your desks, you will be the catalysts of the desired change that should become the hallmark of our existence. The same is expected from the church leadership here present. The issues of integrity, conflict resolution and empowering young people are issues that the church should also be addressing. Actually it should be the church that should first live by example and challenge all of us to live likewise. Most of us leaders come from your different churches and so it is not an overstatement that the church needs to nurture all of us with godly values so that we live transformed lives that will inevitably reflect in the transformed leadership being exemplified in the public and private life.
As a nation, our recent “Cash gate Scandal” – where billions of public resources were plundered - is a very close example of what happens when we allow the greed and unpatriotic behaviour of a few individuals plunder the resources of a whole nation. The conflicts around Africa, even after 50 years of our independence, reflect the effects of greed for power, and the desire to control the limited natural resources by a few. We are also losing a lot of young men and women, who are fleeing our countries, seeking a better future elsewhere. There is so much that we can do in our respective countries to avoid the exodus of our people. We must offer them hope for their future here in Africa.
And the list of challenges goes on and on. My prayer is that God would use this conference and bring a change in the World, a change in Africa, a change in Malawi and more importantly a change in my life and your life, so that wherever each one of us is, there will be a mark of a changed heart, a changed culture that now desires to serve others first and in so doing becoming a blessing to the people we lead and they too finding their place in the nations the Lord God has placed them in.
I wholeheartedly endorse the ideals of ABLI and pray this Forum becomes the means for further discussion and espousal of the Biblical values that ABLI stands for.
On this note, I wish you fruitful deliberations at this forum and hereby declare ABLI 2015 open.
May the God bless the Bible Society of Malawi, all National Bible Societies in Africa and the United Bible Societies – Worldwide. May God bless Malawi and may He bless Africa.
Thank you very much!
