By Ivan Mwine
The First Lady Hon. Janet Kataha Museveni, who is also the Minister of Education and Sports, has urged all youth to ensure that credibility is a part of their lives, if they are to succeed in life.
H.E Mama Janet revealed this in her weekly social media engagement message for youth, in which she asserted that it breeds trust and it that is the quality that makes one person trust another.
She notes however that; “Unfortunately, we live in a time where people have lost the urge to be credible, society has lost the
demand to see credible people. This is because the corrupt are now deemed to be “smart’.”
It should be noted that a few days ago, the First Lady started up an initiative in which she engages youth, or ‘Guys’, as she prefers to address them, by reaching out to them through social media, especially twitter, as way of reawakening in them the spirit of patriotism for Uganda.
Here is her message for this week;
“Thank you guys for the wonderful responses to my maiden communication last week, on Patriotism.
Some of you raised concerns over the prolonged closure of Education Institutions,
financial needs and some of you proposed more effective ways of sharing these messages such as
short video clips and translation into local languages.
These are all well noted and will be attended to as we continue to engage in this dialogue.
Our topic for this week is Credibility. First of all, let us define the term Credibility.
Credibility is the quality that makes one person trust another. So what can credibility do for a nation?
Unfortunately, we live in a time where people have lost the urge to be credible, society has lost the
demand to see credible people. This is because the corrupt are now deemed to be “smart’, if they
pile up wealth and bribe their way to the top levels of society they are esteemed even when people
know that they are not principled. They are still looked at as the ones “who have made it”
Elders in every aspect of society are all supposed to be credible people, be it Religious, Political,
Business or even Civil Society leaders. When credibility is the strength of character and of
leadership in all these Organizations then that society grows, primarily because there is trust among
the people and work is done building on clean foundations, businesses thrive, people prosper and
the country grows in leaps and bounds.
Let us reflect on a Bible Character, a young man called Joseph who is famous for his credibility.
His story is well documented in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, chapters 37 to 50.
He was sold into slavery by his brothers who hated him because of the dreams he had and shared
with them. But even as a slave he kept his credibility. One time his boss’ wife begged him to sleep
with her but Joseph refused because he did not want to betray his boss who trusted him and he did
not want to sin against God. He suffered imprisonment because he refused to do what was wrong.
If it were you, what would you have done? Take a short cut? Give in to instant gratification? Maybe
if he had given in to his boss’ wife, the two of them would have kept their little secret, but he
would have remained a slave in that house. You know what God did for Joseph while he was in
prison. God rewarded his faithfulness, he became the Prime Minister of Egypt. Genesis chapter
41 verses 41-43 records Joseph’s rise to power, “And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set
you over all the land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on
Joseph’s hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his
neck. And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him,
“Bow the knee!” So he set him over all the land of Egypt.”
