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For God and my country or For my stomach, my family, relatives and friends: The paradox of Museveni’s 2 billion Car amidst a dead health sector, increasing poverty , youth unemployment and struggling economy
President Museveni should wear sackcloth
http://www.monitor.co.ug/OpEd/OpEdColumnists/MuniiniMulera/President+Museveni+should+wear+sackcloth/-/878676/1533240/-/14ttp5s/-/index.html
By Muniini K. Mulera
Posted Monday, October 15 2012 at 01:00
Posted Monday, October 15 2012 at 01:00
In Summary
Even as the President was proclaiming his confession, his militarised
police were... holding Dr Kizza Besigye and other opposition politicians
hostage at their homes.Dear Tingasiga: President Museveni publicly dedicated Uganda to God during a prayer service at Namboole Stadium last Tuesday. “I repent on behalf of Uganda,” Museveni proclaimed. “We confess our sins. We repent the sins of shedding innocent blood, corruption, bribery, sexual immorality, drunkenness, rebellion, insubordination, tribalism and sectarianism.”
The reaction of many commentators on the cyber-social networks and newspapers was sceptical and even dismissive. Many questioned the president’s sincerity. Others suspect it was another gimmick to hoodwink millions of born-again Christians whose votes will come in handy in 2016.
I had no reason to doubt Mr Museveni’s sincerity. I was very pleased to learn that he had taken his sins to where they belonged – at the feet of Him who died so that we may be saved. The rest is between him and God.
No doubt he was mistaken to assume the power to confess on behalf of other people. Jesus Christ died for each one of us individually. We commit our sins as individuals. We must confess them personally and without intermediary except the Lord Jesus Himself. Not even a parent can confess and receive absolution on behalf of their child.
Like the rest of us, Mr Museveni is not beyond redemption. He has it within his power to turn to accept salvation through Jesus Christ and experience the changed life that has been the joy of innumerable people over the last 2,000 years.
As Christians, therefore, we must encourage Mr Museveni to go all the way and fulfil the Lord’s expectations of those who truly seek personal redemption and healing. The Lord’s expectations are succinctly put in His response to King Solomon’s long and passionate prayer on behalf of Israel.
The Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him: “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
(2 Chronicles 7:14.) It is not enough to pray without really humbling oneself, without being broken in spirit (okuhendeka) as our elders in the East Africa Revival Movement used to tell us. It is not enough to confess sins without truly turning away from the wickedness that is manifest in one’s thoughts, words and deeds. For the Lord to hear our prayers, we must follow the example of the people of the great city of Nineveh.
The Book of Jonah (3:1-10) tells the story of the danger that Nineveh faced. The Lord sent Jonah to warn the Ninevites of the impending destruction of their great city.
“The Ninevites believed God”, the Bible says. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, including the king himself, put on sackcloth. Then the king decreed a fast for all the people and animals, adding: “Let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”
When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, “he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.”
Uganda is Nineveh today. Even as the President was proclaiming his confession, his militarised police were exacting violence against citizens. They were holding Dr Kizza Besigye and other opposition politicians hostage at their homes.
Even as the President and Ms Janet Museveni led the nation in prayers and festivities, he was unveiling a $1m Mercedes Benz in which he travelled from his $100m palace at Entebbe, not far from where his $60m Gulfstream jet was parked.
These were examples of the idolatry that the Apostle Paul lists among the acts of the sinful nature (Galatians 5:19-21) “which is contrary to the Spirit.” They certainly fly in the face of everything Mr Museveni claimed to despise when he took power 27 years ago, considering the desperate poverty and the social insecurity under which millions of his subjects labour.
Mr Museveni seeks secular salvation through other idols like power obtained through fraudulent elections and military might. He refuses to engage in a genuine dialogue with political opponents and remains committed to the politics of confrontation. He gives lip-service to the fight against corruption and impoverishes his poor people even as he corrupts Parliament and other political cronies with cash-stuffed khaki envelopes.
His latest idol is the oil in Bunyoro from which he foresees Uganda’s salvation. These are some of the wicked ways from which the President must turn if he wants the Lord to forgive his sins and heal
