CHIMPREPORTS
Ugandan lawyer Nicholas Opiyo has blamed President Yoweri Museveni and his government for failing, in the fight against Covid, to take lessons from the success of the country’s decades-long campaign against HIV/AIDS.
Opiyo, who in last October fled Uganda to live in the US, said during this week’s Covid-19 town hall that the Ugandan government had blundered by treating the Covid-19 pandemic as a political rather than national health crisis.
He among others faulted President Yoweri Museveni for ‘alienating’ the Church and other religious institutions from the Covid-19 battle.
“In the past, our HIV campaign was successful because it was a multi prong approach. The churches played a critical role in mobilising people to understand its dangers and still do to this to date,” Opiyo said.
“The success we scored can be attributed to a large part to the active participation of the church in mobilizing Christian communities to fight the scourge. It was successful because churches have legitimacy in many cases over and above state institutions. People believe in churches more easily than elected leaders.”
“But in the case of Covid-19, there was a complete slamming of the door in the face of churches from participating in mobilizing people. Covid-19 became a political issue as opposed to a health and social problem,” he added.
Bishop Wisdom K Peter, a Ugandan Christian Minister and biotechnologist also shared similar sentiments during the town hall.
“There is a way faith balances our society in that when people are depressed they come to us for support. Money is not the solution to every problem,” he said.
“In Africa the biggest part of the population is religious, so when you propose a solution that does not account for people’s beliefs, we will doubt you”
He added, “Our Lord told us to give Caesar what is his, but now Caesar wants to take over our places of worship, which is something we don’t take lightly.
Bishop Wisdom is part of a team of Christians who recently filed cases before the High Court, Court of Appeal and the East African Court of Justice challenging limitations placed by the government on places of worship.
“Assuming I get a ruling in my favour, it will set a precedent. In case we have another pandemic in 3 years, because of the precedent it means that there are lines that the government cannot cross,” he said.
source https://perilofafrica.com/2021/12/ugandas-hiv-success-story-should-have-guided-covid-19-fight-lawyer-opiyo.html