Oweyegha Afunaduula
Religion in politics covers various topics related to the effects of religion on politics. Religion has been claimed to be “the source of some of the most remarkable political mobilisations of our times”. Beyond universalist ideologies, religions have also been involved in nationalist politics.
Many churches and church leaders are both religious and political. We refer to such churches and leaders as religiopolitical. They have both a political and religious identity. They politicise religion and give it a political identity. With a political identity, they can influence politics. They are said to practice religiopolitics and religiopolitical activism which ends up benefitting the political actors they support. They end up involving the adherents of their churches more in politics than in the pursuit of spiritual growth. They mobilise the churchgoers for politics. They may even tell their unsuspecting followers that there is no heaven beyond the earth while stressing to them that the politicians they prefer as God-given.
Religiopolitics and religiopolitical activism are being exploited by politicians who love politics more than they love God, Religio-political) movements may be mistaken for genuine religious movements committed to preaching the Gospel of Jesus yet they are preaching the gospel of certain politicians and political parties. All indications are that politics will don with religiopolitical sweetening to make those who love power access the faithful for votes. Religiopolitical leaders will be the pathway.
In another article, I cast one pastor in Uganda as a religiopolitical activist. In this particular article, I cast another religious leader who calls himself Prophet as a religiopolitical activist. Religiopolitical activists harm the spiritual growth of their sheep as they confuse them with their political preferences from the advantage of the pulpit.
On May 26 2022 the New Vision, the NRM Government Newspaper, reported Prophet Daudi Isingo saying that he preferred President Tibuhaburwa Museveni and the NRM party because his Church Righteousness advocates for peace and believes that leadership comes from God. He was not bothered by the fact that President Tibuhaburwa captured the instruments of power through the barrel of the gun and has retained and sustained power for more than 38 years by the same means concealed by periodic elections in which electoral thefts are common. Electoral thefts cannot be endorsed by God.
The New Vision of 9th September 2024 reported that the President graced the Universal Apostles Fellowship Church of Righteousness organised Mega Youth Crusade, which turned out to be a yellowing of the youth for President Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s gratification that the youth of Uganda is his. It was a gigantic crusade attended by virtually all the top NRM leadership in Uganda in general and Busoga in particular.
I was impressed by the capacity of the leader of the Universal Apostles Church to link politics and religion without hesitation or fear of any repercussions in the medium or long term., on top of teaching its adherents hard work and God, while at the same time processing his love for President Museveni and National Resistance Movement (NRM). While the President pronounced that a Church is a Church, not an NGO, he did not show any worry about a Church showing political preferences in Uganda at the moment.
I did not immediately understand why top politicians in Ugandan and Busoga felt comfortable associating with the Church, some in their party uniform, I did not also understand why the church did not conceal its involvement in NRM politics, The Church as a whole does not hide its commitment to the National Resistance Movement, its Chairman and President of Uganda. It seems many politicians in Busoga who profess and practice NRM belong to the religiopolitical Church. It is the unity of NRM politics and the church as we progress towards the 2026 General and Presidential elections. The crusade was organised to show the President that if he was not sure if the youth would vote for NRM and him in the 2026 elections, the Church is already organising them to do the right thing when the time comes.
On 8th September 2024, in Kaliro, Busoga, Nabbi Daudi Isinga’s Church demonstrated that whatever else we have been told by our rulers about religion and politics being separate human engagements, religion and politics are inseparable if one wants to lead and govern. One must make sure he is comfortable in both Nabbi Daudi Isinga’s unconcealed message was that “in Uganda religion and politics are not bad bedfellows in Musevenite times. Those active in the church and those active in politics can do politics together if their common interests are threatened. The common interest of Nabbi Daudi and his Church on the one hand and the NRM adherents on the other is that President Tibuhaburwa Museveni and NRM win the elections in 2026 when the majority of the voters will be the youth”.
In fact Nabbi Daudi pronounced that he agreed with his wife to don yellow to demonstrate to all and sundry, especially to President Tibuhaburwa Museveni, where his political faith lies.
This way, Nabbi Daudi did not differ significantly from Pastor Aloysius Bugingo who is never shy to publicly use his religious platform to show his preference and love for the Movement and President Tibuhaburwa Museveni, although recently he also demonstrated his preference and love for General Muhoozi Kainerugaba and his Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU), which is an internal concept within NRM. I say this because most of its adherents are resourced from within the NRM party and NRM Government.
The Mega Youth Crusade at Kaliro ended up being a politically-driven earthly occasion, not divinely driven, and a delivery of the youth of Nabi Daudi’s Church to NRM and the President. It was “yellowing” religion and the earth, with God as a pretext for the Crusade. It was openly a political crusade; not a spiritual crusade.
The President said when he had just come to power, some people tried to convince him to ban the saved people (Savedees) but he resisted. He said his resistance expanded the spectrum of religion, enabling the faithful to choose between religions.
According to the President, the liberalisation of religion has added value. He fell short of saying that it enabled the erosion of the boundary between politics and religion, with most non-traditional churches either stealthily supporting the powers that be or the party in power, and distancing themselves from opposition politics. Thus, President Tibuhaburwa Museveni is the single beneficiary of the sprouting of Pentecostal and other churches.
It was therefore not surprising that the President pronounced at the Mega Youth Crusade that he was going to scrap the registration of churches as NGOs. As the Universal Apostles Church demonstrated in Kaliro Busoga, religion has added political value to the Movement in terms of making it palatable to the youth many of whom have openly said in recent research, that they would rather go out of the country than stay to suffer the consequences of a failed state because of wrong choices of the politicians that do not favour them.
Youth in Uganda are the youngest population in the world, with 77% of its population being under 25. They indeed constitute the biggest voting segment of the Uganda population.
The Kaliro Crusade may prove to have been the springboard for the NRM electoral politics in Uganda towards 2026. As expected, it was well-secured and somewhat hidden behind religious faith. However,
PresidentTibuhaburwa Museveni’s Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and President-General of the Democratic Party was cited by the Observer of 2 October 2023 saying that Uganda’s political change will not come via elections. If not elections now what? What do we tell the youth of Uganda who want to exercise their right to choose leaders through elections? The opposite of elections in Africa in general and Uganda in particular is coup d’état. Which Way Uganda?
The cardinal question is: How much more shall we, in the meantime, convincingly continue to say that Politics and Religion are not the same, at least in Uganda?
For God and My Country.
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