President Museveni Urges Uganda’s Religious Leaders To Fight Poverty and Underdevelopment

Jessica Alupo (5th left) in a group photo with some religious leaders and participants at the conference

By Richard Onapatum

President Yoweri Museveni has asked religious leaders to unite against poverty and underdevelopment as some of the challenges faced by humanity in the country.

Speaking at the closure the 6th International Ecumenical Fellowship (IEF) Conference in Mbarara district, President Museveni urged the religious leaders to continue mobilising believers to work towards achieving decent standards of living.

“In the process of working for heaven, some of the faithful become negligent about their earthly responsibilities thereby ending up perpetuating poverty in their homes. If we have spiritually seen the light, then we must do the same economically. We cannot see the spiritual light yet stay in economic darkness. ,” Mr. Museveni said in a speech delivered by the Vice President Maj. (Rtd) Jessica Alupo today.

President Museveni told participants that poverty and underdevelopment affect all people, irrespective of their religion, and he was therefore happy that the various delegates attending the conference are committed to forging unity in addressing some of the common challenges faced by humanity,” he said.

The conference, attracted participants from Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and USA among others. It was organized under the theme, “Religion and development” with special focus on achieving SDGs I and 3, that aim at ending poverty and promoting good health and wellbeing of all people.

He said the problem of poverty and underdevelopment, especially among the least developed countries, is caused by a failure to exploit and tame the natural environment to our advantage.

President Museveni said God, in the book of Genesis, gave mankind two assignments which included ‘multiplying and filling’ the earth and according to the president, this command has been executed very well by our people.

The president however said the second assignment has been neglected which says, ‘You must not only fill the earth, but also establish dominion over nature.’ This is where our people have lagged behind. Man is a special creature he said.

He noted that believers must have the capacity to first of all use their wisdom and superior knowledge to control nature.

“Man cannot simply say: ‘I am suffering from jiggers. They have entered my feet, therefore, I have nothing to do’. No! Make sure you don’t have jiggers in your feet,

Don’t say: ‘I am cold because I have no blanket’. No! Man has the capacity to either buy or make a blanket. Man is not like a cow. The cow will sleep in the cold. Unless you build a house for it, it has no capacity to build one,”.

He said for man, can make a blanket or buy one and that when there is no water during a dry season, man has the capacity to pump water. He can bring it from where it is to where it is not,” the president told the participants.

Mr. Museveni explained that one cannot establish dominion over nature unless you study it and understand it. “God gave man the assignment of understanding nature and using it to solve problems,” he added.

He called upon our religious groups to emphasize the double mandate of establishing “dominion over nature” and “multiplying and filling the Earth. “Man has both spiritual and physical needs,” he said.

He said Churches and Mosques are there to cater for people’s spiritual needs but there are also physical needs for food, water, shelter, medicine, hospitals, schools, clothes, transport and jobs.

President Museveni noted in a modern economy, one cannot obtain the goods and services, which are necessary to sustain life without money. “Moneylessness can be eliminated by undertaking a profitable enterprise in one of the four sectors of: commercial agriculture, industries, services and ICT. These are the four sectors where you can create jobs and wealth.

He assured the people that Government will continue to ensure maintenance of peace and security in the whole Country; construction of the necessary social and economic infrastructure, as a way of facilitating and attracting local and foreign investments, to create jobs and incomes for our people.

The president however said, that this infrastructure must be translated into jobs and wealth for the households. “It is in the best interest of everybody to continue to accelerate towards modernity, development and political stability,” he said.

Finally, the president thanked Bishop Sheldon, President of IEF- Africa and all the organisers of this conference, for convening such a great ecumenical gathering of distinguished delegates, to discuss issues of development and socio-economic transformation.

The Rt. Rev. Prof. Fred Sheldon Mwesigwa, the Bishop of Ankole Diocese and Chancellor of Bishop Stuart University, said IEF Africa holds conferences every two years and has addressed issues of unity in diversity, reconciliation, peace, religion and development and health among other themes.

He explained that this year, the guiding theme, ‘religion and development’ as a media to dispel the perception that religion is only about things of Heaven through various paper presentations from able facilitators arguing that religion is a key vehicle to development.

“Religion and development teaches us o be practical in addressing issues of religion. Jesus Christ through the scriptures used mainly the language of agriculture. He was a carpenter, stewardship, money, parable of the talent, business etc,” the bishop said.

Bp. Mwesigwa urged the faithful to stop demonizing the issue of money, because it has more verses compared to love.

“This alone can send you Christians to think why it is like that. When I last checked, money had over 2000 verses as opposed to about 400 for love. This means that there’s something positive in it. So let us stop demonizing money and material things,” the Bishop told Christians. He urged Christians to embrace religion and development as they are intertwined.

Bp. Mwesigwa applauded president Museveni, church institutions, government departments, BSU and individuals including politicians for all the support rendered to Ankole diocese.

He humbly reminded president Museveni to find time and tour Ankore diocese’s ongoing development projects including the business complex of the diocese which comprises agricultural projects, millennium Sacco, Poultry firm, commercial projects of about five buildings in Mbarara City, education institutions among others.

Prof. John Mugisha, the Vice Chancellor of Bishop Stuart University, one of the key organisers of the conference, said for the past three days, they have able to welcome a diverse allay of experienced speakers, scholars, researchers and practitioners who have been able to share insights on the intersection between trade, industry and sustainable development and what government is doing in that space.

He said the presence of the vice president at the closure of the conference, underscores the significance of the conference and highlights the commitment of government to fostering dialogue and collaboration on issues of development and religion in this country and beyond.

In her own words, vice president Alupo brought warm greetings from president Museveni and Mrs. Janet Museveni, the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports. She assured Bp. Mwesigwa that all the requests made in his address will be relayed to His Excellency the president.

They included the requests of Shs2.5b, the President’s visit to check on all livelihood programmes of the people and the entire diocese. She assured the bishop that President Museveni is beginning his countrywide tour next month.