By Mulengera Reporters
This Sunday 16th August was dedicated to thanksgiving at Pastor Aloysius Bugingo’s Canaan Land Church based at Makerere Kavule, off Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road. The event was graced by thousands of believers who included a large entourage of Ministers who were led by Attorney General Sam Mayanja, Presidency Minister Milly Babalanda, Kampala Affairs Minister Minsa Kabanda and Internal Affairs Minister Juma Witonze among others. MPs were present too.
After delivering his message, in which he thanked God for the gift of President Museveni who he celebrated for allowing the Born Again Christians to freely practice their faith, Pastor Bugingo signaled some of the Ministers present to say something to the congregation.
When his time came, Dr. Sam Mayanja confessed he was who he is today, a big man in Uganda’s government, partly because of Bugingo’s impactful prayers. He has been to Canaan Land before but told the congregation how Bugingo first prophesied his political elevation years before he even became State Minister.
Mayanja vividly recalled a much younger Pastor Bugingo walking into his law firm offices in Nakasero, an encounter during which he requested to pray for him. Mayanja said that, as part of what he described to have been a powerful prayer, Bugingo predicted his imminent exaltation to a big public office position.
“As of that time, I was just going about my duties as a lawyer and private citizen who only gave his views on land-related justice through my newspaper articles. Then all of a sudden, the President called one day and announced he was making me his State Minister for Lands,” Dr. Mayanja told the large congregation. “I immediately recalled that private prayer moment we had and the words Pastor Bugingo had prophesied earlier on.”
Mayanja, who went on to serve for five years as State Minister for Lands before being elevated to Attorney General, subsequently drove to Canaan to demonstrate his loyalty and appreciation for Bugingo’s earlier prophesy. While at Canaan Land that day, Bugingo called him to the pulpit and prayed for him once more while thanking God who had convicted the President to make him Minister in the first place.
“On that day still, our Pastor [Bugingo] prophesied and prayed that God once again inspires the President to appreciate me with even a bigger assignment and this is something I recalled last May when the new Cabinet list came out and I had been elevated to the position of AG. Many had predicted how I was going to become a political liability and my boss the President dumps me,” said Dr. Mayanja prompting Bugingo to appreciate his humility to allow being prayed for.
He told the congregation how he has a lot in common with their Pastor (Bugingo), including the fact that his evangelism story too started in the Bwaise slums where he used to do street preaching as a young law student at Makerere in the 1970s.
He also said he understands why Bugingo is eternally grateful to President Museveni for his liberal policies which permitted the Born Again Christians to freely worship their God, unlike his predecessors during whose time only Muslims, Catholics and Anglicans were recognized and allowed to freely operate.
Mayanja corroborated this by reminiscing a story when, as a young man worshipping at Makerere Full Gospel Church, he had to walk to President’s office to meet President Idi Amin and plead for the release of three Born Again leaders who had been locked up for defying his ban on Born Again religious practices. Mayanja said Bugingo ought to be understood when he demonstrates his gratitude and appreciation for President Museveni because it was him and his very supportive first lady who had deliberately prioritized the Born Again Christians’ right to worship.
Dr. Mayanja also recalled how the position of serving as the State Minister for Lands (who never compromised on anything including offending the Buganda kingdom over his views on Mailo land) made his life very hard. He said many fellow Cabinet Ministers from Buganda region always shunned and didn’t want to be seen with him in public simply because they were fearing political reprisals from the Buganda electorate who like their Kabaka like nothing. He recalled how Milly Babalanda and Balaam Barugahara are some of the few Ministers who never feared to be seen associating with him during those very difficult five years.
He narrated several land disputes he plunged himself into and nearly got himself killed (one in Mpigi and another in Bunyoro areas) but he was able to pull through because the God, into whose hands Pastor Bugingo had dedicated him, was always there for him. For the land dispute in Bunjako in Mpigi district, Dr. Mayanja had to travel on water and during the Canaan thanksgiving service, he recalled how he was with Babalanda. He recalled that was one of the very hard operations he went for but he managed to circumvent all the conspiracies and came back alive because Bugingo’s God protected him.
Mayanja said quite often he went into land operations to protect poor people well aware that key security stakeholders like RDCs and DPCs were working for the other camp but he was always motivated by the fact that Bugingo’s God and President Museveni were behind him. He recalled surviving bullets in Bunyoro where he went to rescue poor people from land grabbing along with Balaam Barugahara. He caused laughter when he said one time, while at Canaan, Bugingo said a prayer which made him scared that his boss Judith Nabakooba was going to get annoyed upon misunderstanding him for someone scheming for her job.
“But Pastor Bugingo put a disclaimer by saying Ooh God let him get his own bigger Ministry without discomforting his current boss [at lands],” Mayanja recalled adding that he intends to crack this same joke with Judith Nabakooba who remained at lands as the senior Minister while he got moved on to become the AG.
Dr. Mayanja also narrated how his God had silenced cynics, even among fellow Cabinet Ministers, who kept putting him down by claiming that his firmness in defense of Bibanja owners in the central region was going to further diminish Museveni’s political support in Buganda.
“One time I was told don’t dare go to Wakiso because it’s the bastion of opposition politics or at best when you are there, avoid making statements that are complementary to Yoweri Museveni. They told me I was going to be stoned if I dared praise Museveni while in Wakiso. I went there, did what was right and even praised my boss because I’m like Pastor Bugingo when it comes to never being ashamed of President Museveni,” Dr. Mayanja recalled making it clear he was able to remain emotionally strong through all those trying moments because he knew that He who dwells in him is greater than he who dwells in the world.
“In fact, contrary to what cynics had predicted, my boss the President’s electoral performance in Buganda only improved to the extent that he ended up getting almost 50% of the vote which was a big improvement from what he had garnered in 2021 five years earlier. All this was possible because of the little good Pastor Bugingo’s God enabled people like myself to do in the service of our people, the bibanja owners.”
Mayanja’s masterly of the scriptures and ability to effortlessly reference them not only authenticated his address to the chanting worshippers at Canaan Land but also enthused and re-energized members of the Bugingo congregation.
Like Babalanda, Dr. Mayanja promised to always remain an enthusiastic worshipper at Canaan Land where he frequently goes for prayers even on days when he doesn’t have to come infront to greet fellow worshippers. He honored the Lord by giving $3,000 as his thanksgiving offering. Babalanda and other Ministers called on Pastor Bugingo not to hesitate to invite them again and to also generally involve them in the Pentagon-related fundraising. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
