SINCE David Livingstone set foot in this region introducing the three Cs-Commerce, Civilisation and Christianity, Zambia became a Christian nation.
By officially declaring Zambia as a Christian nation, the second Republican President Frederick Chiluba was just endorsing the ecclesiastical crusade initiated by Livingstone.
In short Zambia is not a Christian nation by accident, but by awesome divine intervention that has seen God’s Spirit guiding this country.
It is thus heartening to note that President Edgar Lungu is living up to the declaration by upholding Christian principles of challenging politicians to bury political differences and respect each other in order to curb political violence.
The Head of State also needs hailing for assuring the nation that he would defend and uphold peace and unity, as the country goes to the polls.
We also totally agree with the President, who has expressed confidence that God will prevail over all national matters, because various prayer networks are petitioning God for divine intervention against political violence.
The President’s confidence has also been exhibited by the National House of Prayer board chairperson Bishop Joshua Banda, who said there is no need for bloodshed ahead of the polls and called for issue-based campaigns among politicians.
We are also humbled by Father Robert Sihuwa of Anglican Church who in his
homily appealed to all Zambians to desist from the acts of violence, by adhering to the tenets of the country being a Christian nation.
It is at ecclesiastical gatherings like this, when political leaders should bury their hatchets and pray to God for divine guidance.
We thus hail political party leaders like MMD’s Felix Mutati, United Party for National Development (UPND) vice-president for politics Canisius Banda, Edwin Sakala of Zambia Democracy and Development and Christian Democratic Party leader Dan Pule for attending the prayers.
It is only sad that the UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema was conspicuously absent at a gathering, where his mere presence was going to be an assurance that he stands for peace.
His absence for the second time is a bad omen that needs more prayers since unlike President Lungu we do not know where the UPND leader stands concerning such crucial assemblies.
We say this considering that for many years the spirit of God has prevailed over this country as evidenced in the relative peace and stability we have enjoyed since independence from Britain in 1964, when most of our neighbours saw post-independence internal conflicts.
We also remind atheists and agnostics for the umpteenth time, that Zambia is a Christian nation, whose grace was summoned by a dying David Livingstone on  May 1, 1873 at Chitambo Village in Serenje when the Scottish missionary prayed that “Lord, on this land where I rest my bended knees (Zambia), let it become a mighty Christian nation, a beacon of hope to the African continent and a light to the rest of the world”.
On December, 29, 1991, Zambia was declared a Christian nation by President Frederick Chiluba reinforcing Dr Livingstone’s declaration.
Recently on May 25, this year, Zambia was blessed and released from negative forces and submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ by the founding father  Kenneth David Kaunda.
All these petitions and ecclesiastical events are being guided by God’s divine hand since Zambia is blessed.
Zambians should note that to the contrary, countries like Haiti and Benin political leaders publicly honour voodoo!
Realising the importance of voodoo to his people, the former President Nicephore Soglo who was Prime Minister of Benin from 1990 to 1991 and President from 1991 to 1996 promulgated a law declaring January 10 a public holiday in honour of voodoo which is a satanic religion.
Many Benin presidential candidates have banked solely on the voodoo priests’ support to give them the edge over their rivals.
However, no country that is blessed by God like Zambia has been free of challenges from the principalities of darkness that always fight the light.
As a Christian nation, we should remember the story of the Jews when they were fleeing from Pharaoh’s army and came upon the red sea.
They had two formidable enemies – Pharaoh’s ferocious army and the dreadful Red Sea.
It had to take God’s intervention to assure Moses not to fear since they were protected by a divine being.
We can use this analogy to call on Zambians to rally around President Lungu to take us to the elusive but attainable political Canaan.