Globethics Repository

"Moral leadership is by far the most critical area where the church
is expected to play a specific role. My contention is that even more
than the political and economic crises, the moral crisis represents the
greatest challenge in Africa – and indeed in the world in general.
There are serious ethical questions both at the African and world
level that we must be prepared to give leadership in addressing. [...].", p. 172 (1. Moral Crisis as a Challenge to the Church)

Kobia, Samuel M.

17 CHURCH LEADERSHIP IS CHALLENGED. A PERSPECTIVE ON CHRISTIAN AND AFRICAN VALUESSamuel M. Kobia, Kenya/Switzerland1. Moral Crisis as a Challenge to the Church 1Moral leadership is by far the most critical area where the churchis expected to play a specific role. My contention is that even morethan the political and economic crises, the moral crisis represents thegreatest challenge in Africa – and indeed in the world in general.There are serious ethical questions both at the African and worldlevel that we must be prepared to give leadership in addressing. The so-called new international economic order, which is beingexpressed through globalisation, is but a global economic apartheid.Basically, it is a moral question even before it becomes an economicand a social question. The moral leadership of churches should alsobe discerned in the area of debt and structural adjustment programs.These are fertile grounds for breeding corruption. Debt cancellationalone is not enough. Alongside with the campaign for debt cancella-tion, the church must raise ethical questions about borrowing, lend-ing, and spending. How responsible have we been in those threeareas? The church must unmistakably state that structural adjust-ment policies and programs as well as debt servicing and repaying areunethical as long as they result in massive suffering of the people. The moral leadership of the church is critical in fighting corrup-tion. As noted above, corruption and graft exist in all countries of theworld. In some countries of Europe procedures get through as so-called commissions, in others they may be considered as corruption.So, we cannot say that corruption only exists in the South. However,a society in which corruption and graft are institutionalised and gen-erally accepted as a standard behaviour will hardly progress in any-thing. In many African and non-African countries the churches havean enormous responsibility. This is even more so, as many of thecountries heavily infected by corruption boast of very high percent-ages of Christianity. There is no doubt that a drastic change in the eth-ical and moral climate in Africa is necessary for the continent to bein a position to utilise and allocate its resources justly and efficiently.I insist on the role of the churches in fighting corruption not onlyKOBIA, Samuel M., Church Leadership is Challenged. A Perspective on Christian and African Values,  in: Ch. Stückelberger and J. N.K. Mugambi (ed.), Responsible Leadership. Global and Contextual Ethical Perspectives, Geneva: WCC Publications, 2007, 172-174.because it is simply Christian to do so. It is also African. From the tra-ditional African point of view to talk of a corrupt leader was a con-tradiction in terms. A leader was a person whose moral integrity wasunquestionable. FECCIWA, the Fellowship of Christian Councils andChurches in Western Africa, which organised this consultation toovercome corruption, should pioneer in promoting an ethical code ofleadership in Western Africa.2. Traditional African Rulers Were Held AccountableThe second area in which FECCIWA should feel challenged to pro-vide leadership is in promoting a culture of dignity and integrity inpublic life. How can FECCIWA help West Africans to truly becomecustodians of African heritage? Part of that heritage, as we havealready demonstrated, is a continuous demand for impeccableintegrity of the leaders. As Prof. George Avittey reminds us, ‘tradi-tional African rulers were held accountable at all times’. 2 He goes onto cite the example of Mantse Obli Taki who was dethroned in 1918.Obli Taki was accused of a number of offences but the most seriousof all was ‘the selling of Ga land in the name of the Ga people with-out consulting the owners of the land and pledging the stool throneitself as security on a loan’. 3Here, it is worth mentioning another example, one that happenedin the last century. In 1883, the Asante people dethroned their kingMensa Bensu for excessively taxing the people and the failure toaccount for the taxes collected. In more recent times, ‘Chief Barima Adu-Baah Kyere of Ghanaand his supporters fled following assassination attempts on them.The dispute concerned accountability regarding the village’s rev-enue.’ 4 Also, we should not forget that when Jerry Rawlings cameinto power in 1983, he had people executed that were found guilty ofmajor acts of corruption. Each community in Africa had its own traditional way of dealingwith corrupt leaders. Almost without exception the punishment wassevere. In Senegal, the king had to resign and this was signaled by adistinct drumbeat. Following an elaborate and exhaustive public triala Yoruba king was required to go into the inner corner of his palaceand commit suicide. This shows how serious the issue of corruptionwas taken in the African indigenous governance. In conclusion, I suggest we ask ourselves crucial questions :‘Where are the sites in which Africans buried the truths that made itpossible for the leaders to live such dignified lives? Where is the cru-cible of the spirit that enabled our people to name and deal ruthlesslywith “the intolerable” in our community – thereby sustaining hopeA Perspective on Christian and African Values 173KOBIA, Samuel M., Church Leadership is Challenged. A Perspective on Christian and African Values,  in: Ch. Stückelberger and J. N.K. Mugambi (ed.), Responsible Leadership. Global and Contextual Ethical Perspectives, Geneva: WCC Publications, 2007, 172-174.for all the people? Whatever happened to the generosity of the spiritthat characterised the qualities of an African leader?’ It is by answer-ing such questions that we will begin to deal in earnest with the issueof spirituality as a foundation of society. While it is possible to find cases of how to deal with corrupt lead-ers in all parts of Africa, few places (if any) would rival Ghana in doc-umented instances of dethronement of chiefs/kings on accounts ofcorruption. It would therefore come as no surprise that I make astrong proposal that FECCIWA take the lead in exploring ways of ecu-menical responses to corruption in this region and beyond. You havea lot to build on. My emphasis would be to facilitate the rebirth of the Africanvalues that girded the ethical dimensions of leadership and gover-nance. Those, coupled with Christian principles and values that gen-uinely promote justice and ethical conduct in public life could providea solid basis and ecumenical agenda for building a culture of life indignity and integrity in Africa.NOTES1 The text is an extract of a speech of Samuel Kobia (at that time Director for Africa and nowGeneral Secretary of the World Council of Churches): ‘A Crisis of Conscience. The Roots andRoute of Corruption in Africa’. FECCIWA-Sub-regional Conference on ‘Corruption, Peace andDevelopment’, Accra/Ghana November 2000. Also published in: Stückelberger, Christoph, Con-tinue Fighting Corruption. Experiences and Tasks of Churches and Development Agencies, Berne:2003, p. 38-41.2 Ayittey, George, Africa in Chaos, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998, p. 199.3 Ibidem.4 Ghana Drum, June 1994, p. 12.174 Responsible Leadership: Global PerspectivesKOBIA, Samuel M., Church Leadership is Challenged. A Perspective on Christian and African Values,  in: Ch. Stückelberger and J. N.K. Mugambi (ed.), Responsible Leadership. Global and Contextual Ethical Perspectives, Geneva: WCC Publications, 2007, 172-174.

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Church Leadership is Challenged

Annual Report 2005

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