By Paul W. Dennis
KAMPALA – Bishop Isaiah Mbuga, the founder of Christ’s Heart Ministries International has said he is ready to “freely” help government by offering strategies and techniques that can help them deal with the current political/social tension and inappropriate expenditure of public funds.
He says a number of issues have received no attention, and “these are things that make Ugandans want to fight government.”
Bishop Mbuga says there is no country in Africa that has discovered oil, made plans to extract it, that does not get into chaos.
Earlier this month, officials announced plan of probing a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for allegedly sponsoring political violence, protests led by opposition groups and activities aimed at undermining the government.
Esther Mbayo, the Minister for the Presidency, said government obtained intelligence information indicating that some NGOs fund opposition projects that the government believes are intended to cause unrest in the country.
According to Bishop Mbuga, beyond these NGOs are foreign governments fuelling political violence in Uganda with intentions of taking advantage of the country’s mineral discoveries.
“We may see people in rebellion, burning tires, but beyond the current NGOs that appear to be at the forefront of funding these groups are other governments that feel that with this kind of chaos they can take advantage of our new mineral discoveries. Lets not look at these small things in the city, but look at the long term effects that there are,” the Bishop said in a live video shared on his facebook page.
“Right now we are thinking these are fights between political parties. Let us not be diverted from the actual issue because what is at stake is; who is going to control the oil?,” he explained, noting that nevertheless, rising political parties now have an increased interest in taking charge because of the oil revenues.
“I want to advise the government for free, please go beyond the NGOs, look at governments that are interested in our oil. Let us close those gaps,” he said.
Bishop Mbuga explained that countries that are rich in petroleum have less democracy, less economic stability, and more frequent civil wars than countries without oil.
‘Youth need no handouts’
Bishop Mbuga said government should not respond to pressure from unemployed youth with handouts
“I worked with the population secretariat for five (5) years and was a National Program Officer. I participated in a number of forums where we called upon government to look at the youth issue. They don’t need handouts. Handouts are very expensive to government in the long term. They don’t need money for short time survival. Right now the youth need skills,” he said. “I’m retired, but can help. Government can use me if they want help.”
Towards the educated people, Bishop Mbuga said government should address nepotism within government agencies.
“By this, I am not merely talking about westerners. Every person who heads an organisation, depending on which tribe they are, they tend to hire their tribes mate. This is not a western, eastern or northern issue -it is a national issue. The issue of tribalisms increasing and laying a very bad foundation for our nation. Let people who qualify get the jobs we need an equality commission where things can be reported in that when someone passes an interview they should get the job,” he said.
Last year in June, a government-appointed committee assigned to determine the viability of setting up a national minimum wage allegedly recommended Shs136,000 per month as the lowest pay to any worker, including house maids employed in the country.
This report however saw no success and later the Uganda Law Society (ULS) gave a green light to the Minimum Wage Bill reportedly in the making.
Bishop Mbuga says by establish the minimum wage, it will greatly help in minimising the exploitation of workers in Uganda.
“Everyone will become a stake holder. Everyone that has a degree, there must be a minimum wage for them,” he said.
Bishop Mbuga also said Uganda literally impost everything from abroad. His suggestion is that government should empower youth to do part of the processing by introducing compulsory tertiary and technical institution from which they can be equipped with skills.
He also noted that government should look into the skyrocketing profit repatriation by foreign investors.
