By Joshua Walakira
Ndeeba Victory Church founder Ps Joseph Serwadda, who also heads the Born Again Faith Federation (BAFFE), has dared Ethics Minister Fr. Simon Lokodo, who earlier in the week denounced him, to arrest him if he is man enough. Earlier in the week, Lokodo met big name Born Again Pastors at Ndejje University for a meeting to generate consensus on the new controversial regulatory policy his Ministry has lately been promoting. During the meeting, the Pastors condemned him for authorizing Serwadda to force churches and pastors to register with him in compliance with the new policy that requires them to be theology diploma graduates, to have audited accounts and to generally operate more transparently. Lokodo denied ever assigning Serwadda the task to register churches on government’s behalf and vowed to refer the matter to the courts of law with a possibility of Serwadda being criminally prosecuted. He condemned Serwadda for the alleged impersonation adding he couldn’t rule out referring the matter to the courts of law.
SERWADDA SPEAKS OUT
The Victory Church President, who wasn’t at the Ndejje meeting, has spoken out this Sunday morning on his own Impact fm radio. Appearing with two other pastors that subscribe to his BAFFE, Serwadda said the fact he wasn’t invited to the Ndejje meeting is proof the meeting wasn’t in good faith. Indeed at the meeting as Lokodo defended himself, he turned to question the Ethics Director in the President’s Office Canon Aaron Mwesigye why the BAFFE boss hadn’t been invited. He promised to “summon” Serwadda subsequently for some interrogation adding that in case his answer doesn’t satisfy him, he would refer the matter of the alleged impersonation to the courts of law. “He used the word summon which is okay. He can arrest me. I’m here. I’m not in hiding anywhere. I dare him to come and arrest me and put me to trial but he should stand warned that as I defend myself, I will call many witnesses to build my case. One of these is the President of Uganda himself and the previous Ethics ministers because they know the full details of where this matter started from many years ago. That was long before many of those pastors he was meeting were even ministers. This matter began more than 20 years and yet many of them have been pastors for just 6 years,” Serwadda said. He also claimed Lokodo has been captured by the pastors who started by blackmailing the President to expel him or else they mobilize against his reelection in 2021. This was during the anti-Lokodo earlier meeting Pastors convened at Imperial Royale and condemned Lokodo for forcing them to register and have diplomas in theology. Serwadda recalls Ps Mugisha Mondo, fairly a new guy on the pulpit, was among those who spoke loudest at that meeting demanding Lokodo’s knifing. Serwadda says having been threatened by the same pastors, Fr. Lokodo now can’t do anything to offend the group of pastors who are also baying for his own (Serwadda’s) blood. Almost unanimously, the pastors accuse Serwadda (renowned for being very ambitious for leadership) of trying to use his media to cajole less prolific Pastors upcountry to register under his BAFFE as a way of complying with the new GoU policy. “There are many fellowships including the National Fellowship of Born Again Churches [of Ps Joshua Lwere], the Association of Miracle Center churches [under Ps Robert Kayanja] and BAFFE is just one of the many. They all register new churches and members. In fact NFBAC even charges people money. They pay Shs45,000 for registration per church to be registered under their fellowship. How then can they confuse Fr. Lokodo that it’s me?” Serwadda wondered. He also referred to the 2007 public notice which one of Lokodo’s predecessors issued clearly showing the three fellowships weren’t the only ones under which churches can register. “How then can I be the same person to say everybody must register under BAFFE which is a fellowship like any other when I know all that history?”
ACCUSES NFBAC OF FRAUD
Admitting to be enemies with Joshua Lwere who heads it, Serwadda accused NFBAC of exploitatively collecting money from churches that seek to register under their fellowship. He said whereas they officially say Shs45,000 is all one pays for annual membership, he has receipts of pastors in Busoga and Mbale whose churches have been made to variously pay Shs50,000; Shs300,000 and Shs700,000. He said they each have receipts issued by the NFBAC secretariat. To him such discrepancies are indicative of fraud. He said in total, NFBAC annually collects a minimum of Shs650m from such churches (he said they are over 15,000 churches under NFBAC). He added the figure could even be much higher because his investigations are still ongoing. He said it’s understandable for someone who has been collecting so much annually to be hostile to government getting involved in registration. “The government has realized those gentlemen are collecting so much money yet they don’t want GoU to partake of it,” said Serwadda adding that some of the pastors at the Lokodo meeting are hypocrites who use such meetings for visibility and self-promotion. “If they are genuine this is how they should have used that meeting and addressed the Minister on things that affect all of us collectively as fellowships but they didn’t raise any such issues. For instance there is the issue of our elder Simeon Kayiwa who you sometime back humiliated in a meeting. You might be a minister but Simeon Kayiwa means a lot to us in the Born Again faith. He is an elder yet you humiliated him. They should have used the meeting to demand a public apology for the way Kayiwa was humiliated.” Insisting his previous interactions with Lokodo had indicated to him he will end up failing to sort out the Born Again issues like his predecessors, Serwadda recalled being lied to one time by Lokodo on phone. “I was driving towards Jinja and I read something in the newspapers. I stopped my vehicle and called him to ask ‘eeh but Hon Minister is this what you said or it’s the misrepresentation of the journalists?’ He seemed uncomfortable talking to me and he eventually said okay I will call you later. I wanted clarification. He didn’t call. I called back and he still wasn’t being straight about the matter. I called the Director Ethics Canon Aaron and he too said I’m not in Kampala yet both of them were in Kampala. Now the pastors have to know the people they are dealing with,” Serwadda said. He added that the Born Again issues are too complex and reconciliation between Pastors can never be achieved because some pastors take churches as personal property yet they belong to Jesus the savior of mankind. “It’s appropriate to get all of us for a meeting in one place to agree on how we want to move forward but I can assure the Minister that is not possible. It will never happen,” said Serwadda who clearly had no kind words for fellow Pastors. He said there is a lot of mediocrity, inconsistences and dishonesty among them and wondered why organizers of both Royale and Ndejje meeting have been leaving him out. “They know I’m articulate and I can explain myself. In that Ndejje meeting, I would have fully explained myself in less than 5 minutes but I was deliberately not invited.” Serwadda also responded to those accusing him of representing Balokoles in the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda. “I have never said I represent all the fellowships because I clearly represent only the Born Again Faith Federation and that’s why even Joshua Lwere came to join. They gave him the list of requirements including having to present an MoU showing it has been agreed he represents the NFBAC fellowship.” He also warned the smaller pastors to avoid being confused and tread carefully “because some of the people talking against registration are registered” and he gave the example of Joseph Kabuleta. Serwadda also bragged about having a recorded audio of a certain Born Again Bishop (didn’t name him) criticizing the President by saying “I can never trust any politicians to keep their word including Museveni.” Serwadda also said it would be foolhardy for anyone to expect him to seek Lokodo’s permission before registering willing pastors and churches seeking to join his BAFFE fellowship. “Fr. Lokodo has no power to authorize me to register them and he has never authorized me because he has no such powers,” Serwadda said before letting in callers who badly criticized his adversaries like Ps Joshua Lwere. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
