At 50, Ugandans require behaviour change

Oct 07, 2012

OUR churches are full on the appointed days of worship, yet a considerable number of us are also visiting witchdoctors’ shrines: to dedicate ourselves and our properties to false gods

By Stephen Achillah

THE Lord our God inspired our fathers to write the words of our country’s motto and anthem: “For God and my country”, and “O Uganda, may God uphold thee.”

Somehow in the minds of our fathers, God was first, and other things were to follow. This is in line with the Creator’s intention for His masterpiece creation mankind.

His purpose for us is that we should seek Him, grope for Him and find Him: for we are His offspring, and in Him we live and move and have our being.

As we celebrate our Golden Jubilee as a Nation, the thoughts of the exaltation of our God in our Nation should certainly be preeminent. 

We can indeed jubilate that the Lord brought us out of foreign rule to the self-rule of this our bountiful and beautiful land. 

God’s intention is that we should eat of the fruit and goodness of our beloved land, the Pearl of Africa.

We ought to do so as we walk in the fear of Him, for He requires accountability from us. 

He asks us, “How have you served my purpose in this land as my deputies: for this land is mine and the fullness thereof?”

This calls for serious reflection from us in this season of our Golden Jubilee celebrations, for certainly some things are not as they should be. 

Consider our religious life-styles for starters. Our churches are full on the appointed days of worship, yet a considerable number of us are also visiting witchdoctors’ shrines: to dedicate ourselves and our properties to false gods! 

In the critical stages of our lives, we seem not to seriously ask the question, “Where is the Lord our God: this God who our fathers said should be our Upholder, and in whose hands we are to lay our future?” 

Such double-dealing church and demonic shrine worship is certainly repugnant before the God we call upon in our motto and anthem!

Then consider the corruption in our national institutions. I am reminded of the stinging but apt words of the late Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere, that Ugandans are “looters of their own country.” It is difficult to shrug-off these words as false, for the evidence against us is clear. 

Other statistics about us are not so nice. Consider alcoholism, defilement, and gender -based violence, among others!

So as we, before our God relish this Golden Jubilee moment as a nation, we also need to reflect on our not so flattering behaviour patterns, and purpose to undergo behaviour change.

Writer is a pastor.

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