Is Mr Museveni a practical atheist?

In the wake of what is now described as Uganda’s deadliest public health emergency triggered by Covid-19, President Museveni declared June 25 a public holiday and a day of national prayer to enable Ugandans to ask God to bring the pandemic under control. 

The move followed a sharp rise in the number of Ugandans dying from Covid-19 and those getting infected. At the time of writing this article, figures from the Ministry of Health showed 903 Ugandans had succumbed to the coronavirus — up from 334 in April 2021. At least 78,390 Ugandans are now infected. 

During the prayer event, Mr Museveni said that he does not think prayers are an effective solution to problems unless they are complemented by effort and initiative. “I reject the idea of ‘pray, pray, pray’ with no effort,” the President said, adding that if he were a religious leader, he would have created “science-led Christianity”. 
We have a big lesson from that comment. It says a lot about how Mr Museveni views religion. Many of his public comments suggest he is probably a practical atheist. A practical atheist is a person who pretends to be a believer and leads people to think he takes God seriously but in reality does not.

Let us look at what Mr Museveni has said in public that leads me to think he is a practical atheist. In October 2020, he said: “Africans die early, and they say God has called them. Why does God like to call Africans? Japanese die at 79 years, but you, Africans, say God calls you too early. I don’t think it is God calling you. I think it is Satan taking our people.”

In August 2018, while attending the funeral service of Yona Namawa Wapakhabulo, the son of former Speaker of Parliament and Foreign Affairs minister James Wapakhabulo, Mr Museveni made comments that must have surprised mourners.
“Whenever I attend these funerals,” Mr Museveni said, “people say God has called him or her. But why does God call only Africans?”
“I don’t mind about God calling us because I am also waiting for him to call me, but he should do it in a more organised way,” added Mr Museveni, who was flanked by his wife Janet.

In October 2017, while speaking at the National Prayer Breakfast at Hotel Africana, Mr Museveni urged Ugandans to spend more time working than praying. According to Daily Monitor, which carried a story about the President’s remarks, Mr Museveni said he hates the helpless approach of people spending days and nights “praying and shouting as if God is deaf”.

In February 2017, Mr Museveni wrote about what he called Western liberals and leftists and said: “When Christian countries from the West were enslaving us, these atheist communists [Russia, China] supported our freedom and they never interfere in our freedom even today.”
From these examples I have cited, it is evident that Mr Museveni does not attach a lot of importance to belief in and worship of God. What he says may not please religious leaders, but his call for a science-led approach to solving our problems makes a great deal of sense and it is what all development-oriented nations have adopted. 

Africans pride themselves on being religious, but what has prayer and religion ever accomplished for them? Africa is the most religious continent but also the world’s poorest. The most religious continent also has the highest number of horrendously corrupt countries — and countries mired in conflict. Is prayer really working for Africans?

Mr Namiti is a journalist and former Al Jazeera digital editor in charge of the Africa desk
[email protected]    @kazbuk