All isn’t well in the Pastor Aloysius Bugingo household and, going by his own public confession, the man of God doesn’t sleep these days.
On one hand is him up against his wife Teddy and daughter Doreen. The two are uncomfortable with the transparency with which he runs his Church ministry. He says they want him to give priority to them while relegating others.
And the situation has lately escalated to the extent that the duo recently applied to URSB (Registrar of Companies) seeking to deregister some of the people he included on the list of promoters, leaders and stakeholders in the documentation and management of House of Prater Ministries International (HPMI).
For starters, Churches sometimes register as companies with URSB and one has to include a list of promoters and incorporators. Most of the Pastors put only themselves and family members, an arrangement Bugingo is very uncomfortable with.
He says to shield oneself against abusing church ministry funds and assets, its important none family members are listed as promoters to represent the rest of the church members. To him all that brings in scrutiny, controls, checks and balances which is crucially important for the sustainability of a modern 21st century Church Ministry. It’s also increases chances of corporate governance values being infused in the way the Church Ministry runs.
TELLS WHOLE CHURCH
During yesterday 28th April 2019 Sunday service, Bugingo brought to the attention of his very large congregation what he said is a very difficult situation that has been brewing between him, his wife Teddy and daughter Doreen Bugingo.
Renowned for taking no prisoners in his approach to things, Bugingo said he was ready to fight and expose anyone who becomes a road block to the ambitious construction of God’s House which he has designated to be called The Canaan Pentagon at a whooping cost of Shs70bn. The construction project is something Ugandans have gratefully embraced with enthusiasm manifested in the ease with which they have raised Shs1bn and another Shs70m in less than the first 120 days (January-April 2019) of the campaign. This doesn’t include the Shs650m which worshippers have separately already fundraised for the project plan whose approval KCCA will soon be completing.
During the Sunday service, Bugingo told worshippers that (like any other big dream), the Canaan Pentagon project has caused him many enemies some of whom are fellow pastors now trying to manipulatively work with people close to him to emotionally disorganize him and fail the grand plans he has for the Ministry work. On hearing his own wife and daughter were beginning to become a source of his emotion distress, many in the congregation became pensive but (being the deeply spiritual man he is) Bugingo calmed them down saying such challenges have to be endured especially by bearers of big dreams and visions similar to his.
DECLARES 14 DAYS FASTING
Promising to spill more beans in the coming days, Bugingo said the two (Teddy and Doreen) wanted him to behave like his predecessors (the big name pastors) who (in their hey days) practiced no transparency and registered the church ministry exclusively in the names of their own children and spouses-and as well as themselves. He said this is bad because it obstructs transparency and amounts to sidelining and taking Christians for granted yet they are supposed to be the most important pillar in Ministry.
The very charismatic preacher disclosed that his wife and mother of his children Teddy was for long uncomfortable with him declaring full accountability during the Bat Valley fundraising that resulted into the raising of $5m with which the Canaan land (8.5 acres) was purchased (from the Bazil Batalingaya family). He said his dear wife had stopped stepping at Canaan to preach the word as a way of protesting inclusion of Ps Francis Mutawe and other HPMI actors in the company documents under which HPMI was incorporated.
“I will apologize to you church I had initially fallen in the same trap in 2010 when I registered the ministry in my name that of my wife and child like all the other city pastors do. But I changed and added more people because this is God’s work and not mine as a person. Strangely they [daughter & wife] wanted me to remove all the rest except themselves. And I asked them in this Ministry work, God called me as the pastor for you are in this as who? Can you imagine they wanted to be allotted more shares than myself? Now if you get annoyed and stop stepping on HPMI pulpit, will that make Christians desert the church?” Bugingo said adding the resultant fall out had complicated his relationship with wife and child.
“Teddy hasn’t been on this pulpit for a while now and Doreen abandoned us many years ago. But I won’t give up because this is the right thing. It’s not my church but God’s and ministry must carry on even long after my death. I can assure you even if I’m in Luzira today or tomorrow, this ministry will carry on and yet there isn’t a single person among my relatives that will inherit anything on this Canaan land. It’s for the church and not mine personally,” says Bugingo whose honesty and transparency in church Ministry affairs is simply unprecedented. He disclosed all these things apparently to ensure no one is taken by shock or surprise when they eventually get published in the press. He widely believes some ill-minded people are pushing his wife Teddy to take media route and create a crisis for him as a pastor and family man.
Saying there is a possibility his wife might end up teaming up and getting manipulated by people who aren’t well intentioned towards his Christian Ministry, Bugingo said he wouldn’t mind being shunned by his own family members if that is the price he must pay to resist falling short of Godly expectations like other big name pastors have fallen.
He didn’t reveal the people that could potentially manipulate his own wife to behave in a manner that can cripple his church ministry and only said “I will be giving you more as we go deep into this 14 days fasting.” The fasting is meant to strengthen the Pentagon project and to also incite the hand of God against foes like DP strongman Mzee Ali Serunjogi who took Bugingo to court protesting what he called excessive noise made during Church services at his Canaan land. The matter is before the High Court.
Saying it was the only way to defeat ungodly attempts to frustrate his dream to construct the 40,000-seater Canaan Pentagon cathedral, Bugingo declared 14 days of fasting so as to triumph over obstacles coming from all directions and challenges including those posed by the hostile activities being undertaken by his wife and daughter.
He said irked by the excessive transparency with which he runs church Ministry, Teddy Bugingo one time described him as a naïve person who will someday regret failing to personalize all that is being accumulated under HPMI and Salt Media Group of Companies. He said Teddy’s inflated sense of self-importance, intriguing as it was, wouldn’t divert him from the actual calling he got from God. He said she thought people would protest her absence on the pulpit by deserting the Canaan land Church services but numbers have only kept growing. He wondered why his wife and child wanted to sign incorporation documents in a manner that gives them more say yet he is the vision bearer to whom God spoke.
Bugingo said he would resist being or acting like other prominent pastors who compromised their own Godly calling by accepting to be manipulated by their spouses whom he said had mastered the art of blackmailing their pastor husbands by threatening to publish their shocking secrets in the newspapers and other media platforms. “Me I’m Bugingo and I’m not easily threatened by such blackmail. Whoever wants to put me in newspapers go ahead. I’m immunized I don’t fear such things because I also have access to Salt Media which is number one in the country,” Bugingo said as a significant part of the congregation cheered him on. As he made all these shocking revelations, Bugingo praised Ps Francis Mutawe who has been with him from the inception of HPMI. On realizing some people in the congregation seemed shocked, Bugingo said this (discussing disagreements with Teddy in public) is something he knows many of them won’t understand but urged them to be calm repeatedly saying “That is me and I’m always like that.”
He also called upon the HPMI faithful to prepare to throng High Court Kampala on 21st May when Ali Serunjogi’s judgment will be delivered. He claimed Serunjogi, a Canaan neighbor in Kikoni, is being motivated by desire for both money and political dividend. He said Ali Serunjogi was under the belief that the High Court suit would frighten him into offering him some money to kill the case. Politically, Bugingo said that Serunjogi (a former DP national chairman and MP in 1980s) was doing all this because he mistakes him to be a diehard supporter of the NRM. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755. Can also email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
