Join me in prayer for our country

May all of us, whether rulers or subjects, cherish the supreme worth of all citizens and their right to life, liberty...

Dear Tingasiga:
I invite you to join me in prayer to the Almighty God to whom we must give all the glory for the great things He has done for our country. Even at her darkest hours, of which there have been many over the past 50 years, Uganda has been a blessed land upon which the Lord has looked favourably.

We thank you Lord for the millions who have called Uganda home. You have given us a brilliance of mind and collective resilience that have sustained us through a challenging journey that would have destroyed other countries.

We thank you for the men and women who have led our country from its creation 120 years ago to this day. We praise you for those who have discharged their responsibilities with justice and honour. We glorify you for those whose vision and leadership have advanced our standard of living and set us on a course towards prosperity.

We thank you for the unjust rulers, even the most ruthless and murderous ones, whose reigns have reversed the clock of progress or taken us to heights of dreams and deep lows of disappointment. Many of the wounds have been deep and troublesome, yet they have been living lessons that have offered us a glimpse into the hell that awaits those who continue to disobey your golden rule. May we learn from our history.

The sins of greed and selfishness, shared between the rulers and the ruled, have propelled us to hurt one another with our words and with our sinful acts of commission or omission. The rulers and other public servants have betrayed the public trust by stealing funds and other provisions.

The subjects and victims of neglect have cheered the thieves and judged success by the mansions and luxury cars that the corrupt have brought to the villages. They have declared useless those who have refused to engage in the orgy of robbery.

The occupants of the highest office in the land and millions of the least among the citizens have been consumed by the plague of paralysing corruption and dishonesty. In the words of the Apostle Paul, they, like the rest of us, have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yet we praise your name for them for they are building blocks on our journey of experience and national growth.

We praise you for the millions of honest men and women who have served and continued to serve with unparalleled honesty and faithfulness to the flag and national motto. Teach us to see their good works and conduct, and to emulate them in our personal and public lives. May we treasure and promote honest leaders and boldly censure and reject those who desecrate your name through an outward piety that masks destructive corruption, selfish ambition and deception.

We thank you Lord for the exceptional beauty of our land which you have ordained to nourish the eyes of your children and to bring tourist revenue to our country. May we have the wisdom to protect, preserve and replenish our small part of the Earth that you have placed in our temporary custody. May we leave Uganda a better and safer place than we found it.

We give you thanks for the abundant provisions in the soils and waters of Uganda. May we find the humility and presence of mind to recognise that we are obliged to share the wealth that will flow from the oil wells of northwestern and northern Uganda. Teach us the joy and safety that are ours through sharing this and other resources. Remind us of the pain and death that are ours when we put greed and selfishness before equability and compassion.

Open our eyes Lord to see and understand the difference between countries like Nigeria and Qatar, between Equatorial Guinea and United Arab Emirates and between Sierra Leone and Botswana, all of them materially wealthy lands, yet with different opportunities for their citizens. May we see that greed leads to war and generosity leads to peaceful coexistence. Teach us to do unto others what we would have them do to us. Teach us to live within our means. Humble us to recognise our personal roles in the perpetuation or commission of the very sins we condemn among our rulers.

Fulfil our dreams of a Uganda 20 years from now where our shared wealth transforms the land into a network of the finest and safest roads; a place where all citizens enjoy the right to state of the art healthcare; one where public education and other human development indices are commensurate with the abundant wealth that you have ordained that we share as brothers and sisters under the same flag.

May all of us, whether rulers or subjects, cherish the supreme worth of all citizens and their right to life, liberty and the pursuit of their dreams. May our neighbours’ pain be our burden; may their joy be our blessing. May love trump hate and intolerance; may right always vanquish might. May forgiveness become second nature to us.
May our waking hours be filled with a desire for moral and spiritual transformation, and a genuine desire for righteousness which, the Bible tells us, exalts a nation.

Dr Mulera is a Daily Monitor columnist based in Canada.
muniinikmulera@aol.com