Which way for the Pearl of Africa?

Mar 12, 2009

I am certainly not a Churchill. I am having enough difficulty just trying to be what God wants me to be. But I am issuing a warning about what could become a cataract of disasters for our great country if we do not dig deep into our national well and tak

By Nsaba Buturo

I am certainly not a Churchill. I am having enough difficulty just trying to be what God wants me to be. But I am issuing a warning about what could become a cataract of disasters for our great country if we do not dig deep into our national well and take action. This is what Churchill did!

During the 1930s, he desperately tried to persuade the English people and their government to see that Hitler meant to end their way of life.

The British ignored Churchill, which gave Hitler nearly 10 years to build up his military forces. It was not until Hitler actually drew blood that the British realised they had a war on their hands. It turned out to be a far longer and more destructive war than it needed to be had Churchill’s earlier warning been heeded.

Uganda has two faces. One face is of a country which, under the most able leadership of President Museveni, has got everything going for her. She has enjoyed an unprecedented long period of stability, economic growth, a renewed confidence and respectability and a resurgence of hope among Ugandans about the future.

The other face is hardly talked about in the lexicon of debates yet its effects can be awesome and capable of negating the huge gains already made. This other face is the subject of this article.

There are grotesque things which have been happening around us and are causing distress as well as heartache to the threatened national soul.

The recent debacle at Owino market, burning of schools, collapsing buildings, existence of a hardcore of public officials which is dedicated to stealing public resources and on-going despicable and scandalous efforts to popularise marriage of men to other men and women to other women, are some of those things.

This is an on-going systematic and well-funded campaign which is designed to replace a natural social order with an unnatural one; one that could, if successful, turn upside down our value system. In the process, God’s existence is being contested.

Increasingly in public life, values such as personal responsibility, honesty, care, integrity, decency, patriotism, industry, thrift and respect. are being undervalued. Young people are being fed on a menu that ill equips them for their future roles. High premium is increasingly being put on indecency and greed.

A major negative spirit has in its grip on some officials whose ferocious and indiscriminate practice to amass wealth by all means has become frighteningly alarming to the nation.

Suddenly, a coalescence of practices and vices which were previously unheard of is wrenching its presence on Ugandans’ conscience with vengeance. All around us, we are seeing evidence of organised deadly assault on our way of life.

As a result, decent Ugandans are left wondering about what has gone wrong and whether these happenings could portend Uganda’s decline.

Forces that are seeking to cause disorder in our society are aiming to control the media for propagating their agenda.

All well meaning Ugandans agree that the media are damaging Uganda’s moral and cultural values. Some of the media are on a mission to beam most lurid and immoral propaganda into the hearts and minds of Ugandans.

They are on a propaganda blitzkrieg that is eerily reminiscent of how effectively the Goebbels propaganda machine softened up the German people for what was to come. If they succeed, their benign influence on the character of Uganda will be devastating.

In the face of all this, Uganda is in danger of sliding into a moral and culture tailspin which could lead to, among other things, an escalating maze of confusion as well as loss of national integrity.

Already she is embattled on the issue of individualism and moral responsibility with the largest segment of Ugandans about to sway in a middle position between traditionalism and extreme forms of liberalism and secularism.

People who are inclined to reading and understanding the Bible will see all this and remember that there were times in the history of Israelites when people chose to become rebellious, indecent, greedy, materialistic and idolatrous and this led to disastrous consequences for their nation.

Behind this danger is a reckless, subversive and destructive spirit whose goal is to ravage our society by forcefully imposing a new way of life which embraces dangerous vices. Its power to deceive is legendary. It makes those it possesses not able to see the futility of their actions.

It promotes networks and syndicates of officials whose primary motive is to bring together all those who are like-minded in the mission to wreck lives of the weak and retard national development.
Ugandans will do well if they replace their timidity, nerve and diffidence with daring and determination against such a spirit. It is time we demand that the media are morally upright in as far as our moral and cultural values are concerned.

Whether Uganda can continue to be a self-governing republic of responsible citizens may well rest on our ability to resist this destructive spirit and also restrain the media from continuing to exhibit hostility to orthodox morality which refers to a belief in the authority of God over human moral behaviour.
The battlefield in Uganda’s moral and culture war is the hearts and minds of Ugandans.

If we are going to successfully reverse the on-going moral decline and then proceed on a successful transformation drive, it will first require a renewed genuine acceptance of God’s authority over Uganda.

The writer is the Minister of Ethics and Integrity

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