Museveni asks Ugandans to spend more time working not praying

President Yoweri Museveni has cautioned people against spending a lot of time praying and advised them to spend more time working and inventing ideas and solutions that would help them have dominion over all creatures because that’s their fundamental mission on earth.

Mr Museveni says man's fundamental mission, as stipulated by God in the book of Genesis in the Holy Bible, is dominion over nature.

Mr Museveni said he hates the helpless approach of people spending days and nights  "praying…praying and shouting as if God is deaf," while ignoring the fundamental role of dominion over nature.

He says for the last 500 years, Africans have absented themselves from the fundamental mission of dominion over other creatures.

 Mr Museveni was speaking at the 19th National Prayer Breakfast at Hotel Africana, Kampala that was organised by the Parliament of Uganda.

In the last centuries, Mr Museveni said, scientific discoveries have been made by Europeans. He said that although the Chinese were also absent when other nations were inventing, they have been active in copying what others invented, something that Africans are not doing.

 Quoting from the book of Matthew 7:15; Mr Museveni advised people in the gathering to be aware of false prophets who come “...in sheep clothing but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."

In Uganda, prayer events are commonly organised by various preachers and churches. Those who turn up are often told that during such events, they would overcome joblessness, poverty, and other misfortunes.

Mr Museveni said he borrowed the idea of Prayer Breakfast from Mr Rudoff Daker of Germany and Dag Kook in the US.

"They are the ones who told me about prayer break, they invited me to Washington for a prayer breakfast. That is how we started it here," he said.

 Speaker Rebecca Kadaga said the National Prayer Breakfast has no fixed office or address in Parliament. She said it's a gathering of like-minded people who encourage each other and have a common vision.

Eng. Toluhi Olusegum Ayobami, a Nigerian pastor and founder of the Institute of Transformation, who preached at the event, called for leadership that minds about concerns of ordinary people.