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Tag Archives: AFCON2013

Uganda Cranes: Why We Must Not Give Up On The Dream

16 Oct

SUPERB: Tony Mawejje had a fantastic game against champions Zambia

There are a few things everyone who loves the game of football knows as gospel truth.

ONE: For every match at knockout level there has to be a winner and a loser.

TWO: Sometimes the best team doesn’t win.

THREE: when you lose a game, the world doesn’t end, it only starts afresh.

I say that because on Saturday by far the Uganda Cranes were the better team. We took the game to the champions of Africa, cancelled out their 1st leg goal advantage and pushed them as hard as we possibly could.

I will use ‘we’ because I was amongst the thousands of fans who were the 12th man for the Cranes.

Well, we lost the game but you can’t fault the players! They won the game in 90 minutes and only went out on post match spot kicks. That’s why they are called POST match penalties. The match is over but they need to break a deadlock.

Anyone can miss a spot kick. The Cranes were unlucky that it was their player Patrick Ochan who got his shot saved! Losing on spot kicks is still losing and it hurts just as hard.

The Uganda Cranes must be hurting like many Ugandans are but they can hold their heads high in the knowledge that they gave it their all, did their best and beat the champions of Africa in 90 minutes. That is no mean feat!

Journalists will fill the columns with words about how jinxed the team is, how the federation hiked the prices and had empty seats but the fact that the journalists can’t hide is: the Cranes won the game scored a goal and reduced the champions to spectators for most of the game!

I know finally that doesn’t count but this elimination must not shroud the positives from the game.

Would a few more thousand fans have created a more magical environment? Maybe!

But last year, at the same stage, Namboole was parked to the rafters and the players couldn’t get a goal against Kenya!

I don’t want to disrespect Kenya in anyway but Kenya are not the champions of Africa. And we had the parked stadium and still the Cranes fell short.

Did the pricey tickets priced keep away fans? Yes. Shs40, 000 might be small money for some guys, but for most Cranes fans it’s too much for a game of football, which was even telecast live on TV.

GOAL MACHINE: Massa lived up to the hype smashing in a beauty

Was it right to have the tickets that expensive? You can’t tell unless you look at the financials. FUFA does the estimates and comes up with the ticket prices, which is their job. Our job as fans is to buy the tickets if we can afford them and support the team.

Sometimes not that many will afford the tickets and the stadium will have empty seats. It’s not unique to Uganda vs Zambia and Ugandans should erase from their heads the mistaken belief that all games featuring the Uganda Cranes will sell out.

Fact: yes a parked stadium is lovely and more intimidating for the opponents, but the game is played and won and lost on the green pitch not in the terraces!

Even in an empty stadium, a good team will get a win.

Some Ugandan fans expect a sell out every time and some have forgotten the three things about football I started with. That sometimes you will not win a game even when you play well.

And some fans have totally lost all shame in their quest to a win that they even call on the federation to bribe the referees so the team can get into the Cup of Nations.

But even if you bribe the referee, you must get in a position to get a penalty. Okay lets assume you’ve bribed your way to the Nations Cup, will you continue to bribe officials or you will be the whipping boys of the tournament?

What went wrong?

In my opinion, nothing went wrong on Saturday. The team had the best build-ups ever in Ugandan history.

No politicians lined up for photo opportunities at training and the players didn’t make the front pages with scandals and bad behavior. For once in a very long time the Cranes camp seemed to have been tranquil.

On match day, I with some friends walked to the stadium several hours before kickoff and was checked and ushered to my seat. Organization at the stadium was better than the last game we played against Congo Brazzaville.

We had numbers improvised on the seats and several ushers were recruited to assist fans locate their right seats.

Even the run down toilets at Namboole were cleaner than they were last time around. They had running water and even had toilet cleaner and tissue. These are simple things you expect in a normal stadium but I have been to Namboole on match days and the stench from the toilets would find us in the terraces.

Of course all this can be improved and fans must demand that Namboole stadium management renovates the toilets.

The playing surface was flatter and greener than it was last time when we played Senegal and Congo Brazzaville.

The Zambians had complained and as someone who has played some amateur football on that pitch, I must say the groundsmen did a great job, leveling the pitch in time for the game. It wasn’t the flattest playing field in the world, but the work done must be acknowledged.

For the fans, there was enough to drink and eat outside the stadium although the prices were like the match tickets, on the high side. Imagine a bottle of soda at Shs4000.

I don’t know who specifically to credit for all this but someone at FUFA and at Namboole stadium did their jobs right. No question about it.

The team itself was smart and they started the game on the high and pinned Zambia in their own half and scored the all-important first goal and won in 90 minutes. Coach Bobby Williamson and his technical team did a great job preparing the team for the massive task. They must take credit.

Way forward?

The only way forward is just that, forward. In my opinion the team is good and getting better and must not be dismantled or subjected to vitriolic abuse like some people are doing on facebook. Anyone can miss a spot kick; that’s why they call it the lottery.

PARTY TIME: For most fans it was a time to let loose and be happy

Uganda has dominated CECAFA but if you look around the region the only other teams in CECAFA that played this weekend’s final round of AFCON qualifiers was Sudan and Ethiopia and Ethiopia prevailed over Sudan. Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and others were missing.

That to me could be part of the reason why Uganda keeps missing the final cut. Football in the region isn’t as competitive as it is in other regions of Africa. Playing in CECAFA is good but doesn’t prepare the players for the super charged environment of the final round of AFCON qualification. That experience could be what is holding Uganda back.

This crop of players and what they have achieved is evidence of how much talent we have in Uganda. The trick is how to nourish that talent, tap it and then deploy it against other teams to achieve great things.

For most of the players that lined up at Namboole, the Cranes games are the only matches they play under that kind of do or die pressure.

The situation isn’t any different across the region.

In my eyes the Cranes are actually punching above their weight.

As a country we have developed an obsession with qualification for AFCON but I think as football fans our obsession should not only be AFCON qualification but the improvement of the teams in Uganda. We can qualify for the nations Cup but what will we do there? Are we strong enough to get through the group stages or we shall be an embarrassment, shipping goals like a bunch of amateurs?

Qualifying for such huge tournaments when not very ready can be more disastrous than not qualifying at all. I know a team in the region (Rwanda) that qualified on borrowed talent (naturalized citizens) and they didn’t do well. They have not qualified again and instead they are seriously working from the grass roots upwards.

My appeal to Ugandans is, we shouldn’t relax and we should remain hopeful. We should not stop believing. The team is playing well and improving every year, but lets do the basics right, so that when we finally breakthrough to the big stage we aren’t just participants, we are contenders and then we shall dominate for years to come.

Lets get the leagues in order. And I am not just talking about the FUFA Super League (FSL) and the Uganda Super League (USL). Its absurd we get confused with the top leagues forgetting the fact that clubs in the super league feed off clubs in the lower leagues. Let us get the league structures functioning, right from schools to second division, to first division up to big league and then super league. Football officials and sports journalists talk about the league like there is only one league in Uganda. The lower leagues never get a mention and that’s a shame.

We can do all we can to get the national team into the big tournaments and I don’t want us to lose that ambition. But let us remember one thing. A stronger league leads to stronger players and a stronger Cranes. There are no shortcuts to success. In football there is only one way to success, hard work, not juju and bribing match officials. The team that prepares the best always wins the most. And in football as in every sport, there is no alternative to investing in youths.

There are very many talented boys emerging from schools but they get lost at tertiary level, because clubs are too weak financially and administratively, they cant take up these players. As a result players normally chose books ahead of football even when it is possible to pursue and succeed at both.

SUPER FAN: Uncle Money never disappoints at Namboole

That’s why if you are a football fan you must do your duty to the club you love and the simplest way to support that club is to pay to watch the games they play, that way the clubs raise more money and can acquire and further develop these players who would otherwise drop off the footballing scene.

Another thing we can do is join club management, most clubs in Uganda are run by passionate officials but everyone knows that you need much more than just passion to run a successful enterprise.

Clubs need qualified administrators and it is these club administrators who will eventually become FUFA leaders. Stronger clubs will not only get us stronger Cranes players but also better football administrators and better football supporters.

Marketing: There is so much potential in Uganda football but sadly, we only look at the Cranes. How many Cranes replica shirts exist in Uganda for instance? I have five shirts, all colors and shades. But how does this benefit the boys who wear the shirt on the playing field?

FUFA and clubs need to look into how to tap into this market. I believe if they set up an official shop and cracked down on fake dealers, FUFA wouldn’t be looking at only match day tickets as a source of income. Maybe if FUFA made some money selling shirts, and caps and other merchandising, they wouldn’t have to double ticket prices for such important games to be able to maintain the team and run the federation.

SUPPORT: Fans love the Cranes and manager Bobby

Keep believing: Uganda is our home and the Cranes are our team, we must never abandon the boys, we must never give up on the team. No one wants qualification for the big tournaments more than the players who put their bodies on the line for ninety minutes and beyond. I know as a fan we are hurting, we paid our money and got heartbreak instead, but we cannot hurt more than Andy Mwesigwa, Patrick Ochan, or their teammates who toiled for 90 minutes against the defending champions and paid with their bodies. Players will give up the fight and others will come take their place but as a country, as fans, we must never stop believing of tomorrow.

The Cranes aren’t jinxed, or cursed, or doomed to failure, we just haven’t been lucky enough and one bad result after another shouldn’t mean that we stop chasing the dream. Losing the spot kicks was painful but it shouldn’t break us.

 
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Posted by on October 16, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

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To Ndola, Zambia In Search Of Footballing Glory

18 Sep

VANTAGE POINT: Katongo, Mayuka and Nkausi celebrate right in from of me. (PIX: KICKOFF)

CRAZY CELEBRATION: The Katongo somersault from my amateur lens

The only thing I knew about Ndola, a town in Zambia was that it was in the copperbelt, something I learnt in school.

So when the Cranes were drawn to face Zambia in the final qualification round for the Africa Cup Of Nations in South Africa next year, I knew in my mind there was no way I was going to miss the trip.

When I paid my fare for the trip I had no idea we would be sharing the same plane with the Crane’s stars. And I must say I was delighted and felt honoured to be on the same plane with the players who have for another year in a row, put Uganda one step away from footballing glory.

THE FLIGHT: FUFA and several fans chartered a plane to take the players for battle

THE FLIGHT

Ours was a chartered Air Uganda plane from Entebbe to Ndola, Zambia. I asked myself; when was the last time FUFA chartered a plane to transport football players for an away game?

We were supposed to depart at 7:00am but we boarded when it was coming to 9:00am.

The flight was uneventful, the players looked very relaxed, some had large headphones on their heads, others played games on their tablet computers. The team officials, looked cheerful, FUFA President Lawrence Mulindwa sat alone in the business section. Most of the players took seats in the economy section.

Bobby Williamson, the coach, looked very comfortable too. When the plane was safely airborne, he kicked off his flip-flop shoes and started reading a book, ‘Game of Thrones’ by George R.R Martin. For breakfast Bobby took tea with cream and ate bread with salt butter. He skipped the yoghurt. During the flight, there were no crazy chants and no noise from the fans, only the sporadic banter and laughter.

Coach Bobby relaxed by reading Game Of Thrones by George RR Martin

When our plane landed at Ndola Airport and before anyone could step off the aircraft, Mujib Kasule the FUFA Vice President who was doubling in some role with the Cranes, asked cabin crew to give him the microphone and using the planes’ audio system, called out Captain Andy Mwesigwa to come forward and lead the team in prayer. The moment we stepped onto the tarmac the team, were driven off first, by the time the fans got to immigration, the players were in their official bus waiting for a few officials yet to clear with immigration.

Ndola international airport is a very old facility. The tarmac is cracked and the landing is rather bumpy. The immigration section is a small room with three desks. There is no air-conditioning and the baggage claim section is a hole in the wall of the immigration room. There was no visible security in the arrivals section or any metal detectors and scanners. You just fill the immigration form; submit your fingerprints and you are in. When we arrived we had to fill a medical form, which I later read in the local media was an Ebola screening of sorts. But basically the form required us to state if we were feeling sick prior to the flight and there was a list of symptoms that one was required to indicate by way of ticking a square box on the form, if they experienced any.

MODEST: Ndola Airport is proof you don’t need swanky facilities to land planes

There were no doctors asking questions and taking samples with needles and no body temperature scanners. The team bus drove ahead of us and the fans took two vehicles, a minibus taxi and a coaster. The road from Ndola to Kitwe is smooth and dual carriage (two lanes to and two lanes fro separated by a strip of land). The distance is about 60 kilometers and it takes about an hour. The team hotel (Moba) was about 5 kilometers from Kitwe town and they had it all to themselves. The fans, who had paid their fair via Pearl Sporto were instead booked in different hotels at Kitwe town.

BEST HOTEL: The Cranes took arguably the finest hotel in this part of Zambia

The stadium sits just outside Ndola town on the highway to Kitwe.

There has been talk that the team was made to travel over 150 kilometers from the airport to the hotel, back to the stadium for training and back to the hotel to rest and then back to the stadium the next day for the game. There were concerns about the tiring bus journey would leave the players exhausted.

I did a Google search of hotels in Ndola and the only ‘Hotels’ I got were in nearby Kitwe 60 kilometers from Ndola. The best of these was Moba, which is definitely not a Serena but it is by far the best hotel in that part of Zambia. It also had the advantage of being a safe distance from either town, away from the distraction of town centers. So despite the 60 kilometers to the stadium, I think the FUFA advance team made a right decision to go with what the Zambians had booked for them, which was Moba Hotel. I’d rather have players do the 60kms journey to the stadium on a smooth road than endure a sleepless night in a town center hotel on the night before the big game.

We did the 60 kilometers from Kitwe to the stadium and it’s not a tiring journey. We were in a taxi but the players had at their disposal the much comfortable air-conditioned bus. I therefore don’t think fatigue was much of an issue in the 1-0 loss.

KITWE TOWN

They call it a city but it is an old town instead. The first hotel we went to was built in 1957. The second one Lothian House where many of the fans were booked was better than the first one but still it’s not the kind where you want your national team players to spend a night. It had no warm water and our order for food took hours.

UGANDAN BRIGADE: Some of the Uganda fans outside Lothian House in Kitwe Zambia

There is another name that pops up when you Google hotels in Ndola, that is Edinburgh hotel in Kitwe but I saw the signpost and its right in the middle of town.

I never really got to see most of Kitwe because we never had a spare minute but on the morning of the game I woke up early and took a walk around the residential neighborhood near our hotel and near the Chandamali Army Officers Mess.

The place is really messed up and neglected. The roads fell apart long time ago and there are barely any storied houses around, the place has a feel of an old Boma section of town of colonial times.

DUSTY BUT PLANNED: Ndola city as seen from the air

Yet parked in the driveways of the several old houses are flashy cars. Kitwe is an old city and needs serious regeneration but the residents who can afford cars all go for class. In the dusty town center I saw a modern looking Nissan car dealership.

Also missing were Bodaboda motorcycles, which have become the scourge of Kampala. A group of Ugandans who ply their trade in the mines remarked that Kitwe is dusty and old and not fashionable but they were happy to do without boda bodas.

MONEY

There were no forex shops at the airport and the banks couldn’t exchange Uganda Shillings. The Zambian Kwacha (their currency) is about half as worthless as the Uganda Shilling. One US dollar gets you about 5000 Kwacha; meaning one shilling gets you 2 Kwacha. A beer costs about 10,000 Kwacha, that’s about 5,000UGX.

ZAMBIA’s FINEST: Mosi beer is I think the most visible local brew

We visited the nearby Wimpy a fast foods chain from South Africa for supper. A big chicken burger costs 49,000Kwacha. Moses Kasibante, the MP for Rubaga North told a lady how their money was useless and she took offence and engaged him saying its better than using foreign currency. She must have thought the MP was comparing Zambia with neighboring Zimbabwe.

THE PEOPLE

The people are very kind and hospitable. As I walked around the neighborhood on the morning of the match in my Uganda Cranes jersey, I met several guys who wanted to just talk about the game. Ugandans are too brash and forceful compared to Zambians, they tease everyone and are quick to pass judgment on anyone, which is the exact opposite of the Zambians I saw. Except the coaster bus driver who was one very crazy Zambian but that is a story for another day.

Even at the stadium, I was assured no one would harm me, even when I met ‘charged’ football fans; the worst they did to me was scream 4-0 in my face while laughing. I met two very fanatical fans; they were definitely high on some liquor. They had a chart of their players and they took me through the lineup of their stars.

‘The best Goal Keeper in Africa, Mweene, you doubt, ask Drogba… Emmanuel Mayuka, superb player, fantastic, he’s now in Premiership, you doubt? Ask Rio Ferdinand of Man United… and so on…’

‘Where do your stars play from? Namibia?’ they said referring to Uganda’s players.

‘There will be no return leg in Kampala, the game is ending here, 4-0 will be the final score, we shall send the junior team to Kampala,’ they said before I excused myself.

I don’t know whether the fans pressure had any impact on the performance of their players, but they were very sure, they’d beat Uganda 4-0 or more. They were very disappointed with the 1-0 result.

POLICE, NO GUNS

The new stadium has the shortest perimeter wall that I have ever seen and it had no razor wire on top. With such a wall, fans in Uganda would scale it to gain access to the stadium on match days but Zambians are very disciplined humble guys. And there was very limited security at the ground. The policemen had no guns, at least no weapons were visible, I was not searched even once and yet I carried around a sizeable bag with my camera, we drove a car into the stadium-parking yard and it wasn’t searched or screened.

Terrorism is something they have never heard of in Zambia and everyone is laid back. The fans trickle into the ground and take their seats. They don’t sell alcohol inside the ground and fans are warned against carrying alcohol to the stadium. The one thing they have in plenty are dozens of stewards and stadium guides. They’d crosscheck the tickets held by fans to ensure ticket holder were in the right seats.

THE MATCH

We arrived at the stadium very early and I had been lucky to get accredited, so I had access to almost all sections. We found a group of fans who had just arrived from Lusaka, they included Uncle Money. They were singing and dancing as a local TV crew filmed. They were waiting for FUFA official Moses Magogo who had promised to get them tickets into the stadium.

FANATICS: These Zambian fans at the Stadium, believed their soccer side is the finest in Africa

Once inside we realized something odd. Because we hadn’t purchased the tickets a group, the Ugandan fans were scattered all around the arena. Later this was sorted and a section near the VIP wing was cleared for the visiting fans.

The stadium is very modern and brand new and beautiful. It makes one very envious. It’s an all-seater and each seat is numbered. The sound quality is crystal clear and the atmosphere as the fans packed the ground was very impressive. Namboole is indeed run down.

Playing on repeat on the LCD screen were commercials of many Zambian stars. I saw Katongo and Issac Chansa and Mayuka featuring in several adverts. I remembered I had also seen images of the Zambian French born coach Herve Renard on billboards along the highway to Kitwe from Ndola. These football players aren’t only brilliant on the field; they are a commercial success too.

As kickoff neared it became apparent, the game wasn’t going to be a complete sellout. A local journalist explained this as a result of ticket speculators who buy many tickets hoping to sell them later at a higher price as match day neared. ‘Some touts must have made a loss, some fans must be frustrated at failing to get tickets,’ he said.

The teams lined up. Sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi and FUFA president Mulindwa headed our delegation. I didn’t see any members of the rival FUFA. Meanwhile in the stadium, there were two MPs, Kasibante and Kampala central’s Mohammad Nsereko who took over from Uncle Money and showed off his drumming skills.

SOCCER TRAMP: This Zambian fellow was allowed onto the turf after the game

The captains read out a written message, I was standing less than four meters from them but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. The message was meant for the TV audience and they hadn’t plugged in the stadium public address system.

Kickoff: The atmosphere was simply electric; Zambians just know how to cheer their team. I could see our players were nervous. The Ugandan journalists too were nervous. When Chris Katongo scored in the 18th minute I feared the worst. I remembered the fans that had promised me a 4-0 drubbing.

But as the game progressed, our boys found their rhythm and lost their nervousness, they were playing African champions but as the game progressed, that respect was lost too, it was a game of eleven men against eleven men. When the second half resumed I told Katende Malibu, the Crane’s press liaison officer that I was going to stay behind the Zambian goal because I expected Uganda to score. The other photographers all pitched behind the Ugandan goal expecting more Zambian goals.

Towards the end of the game, the stadium was almost quiet. The fans fire had been washed away and in its place was frustration. The home fans weren’t singing anymore. When the referee blew for full-time, I saw some Zambian players hit the turf in pure frustration. They looked beaten and yet they had won the game. I run fast to the tunnel entrance but by the time I reached almost all the Zambian players had disappeared to their dressing rooms. Only one or two had stayed behind in for local TV engagements. This was unusual. I talked to a local journalist and he told me the Zambia players normally do a lap of honor when they win, they had just defeated Uganda but there was no lap of honor. This was unusual. Everyone expected a complete annihilation of the ‘amateur’ Ugandans. This wasn’t what everyone expected.

Later during the post match press conference, Herve Renard and captain Katongo cut a miserable figure. Renard had a face like thunder and promised to employ the same tactics that Kenya used to frustrate us last year. The Zambians are coming to Kampala to defend? Mind games? Unbelievable. The manager of the champions of Africa was talking about a no score draw? I find that very strange.

WHY THE LONG FACES: Chris Katongo and Herve Renard looked out of sorts

And Captain Katongo looked distracted, angry and bored. The 30-year-old who plays his club football for Henan Jienye in China, looked like a teenage boy who had just gotten a spanking from his daddy and yet they had won a game. I wonder why. Something must have happened in the Zambian dressing room?

Will the sun set on Zambia, the African Champions in Kampala

Earlier in the post match press briefing the minister of sports Chishimba Kambwili had appealed for calm and assured supporters that Uganda would fall in Kampala but the look on the faces of Katongo and his coach Renard, wasn’t of a people confident of their destiny. It was the look of a frustrated group of champions, who had just failed to live up to the expectations of their fans, their nation and themselves. The return leg is on Saturday October 13. Save the date.

 
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Posted by on September 18, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

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50 Years Of Independence But Man, Where is My Country Headed?

05 Jul

VITAL: The President Has A Private Jet, But The Country Has No National Carrier After Uganda Airlines Collapsed And Was Liquidated. Lately There Is Talk Of Reviving It 

I have been accused of being overly negative and an Afro-pessimist. I am neither. I am not a believer in the notion of self-congratulation and as Uganda nears its golden jubilee, 50 years of independence, I believe we should take a good look at the current state of affairs and ask ourselves, are we headed in the right direction as a people and a country?

Last year after President Yoweri Museveni had won his mandate to take his reign to 30 years, he declared that with the discovery of oil, Uganda would now transform into a middle-income country.

He didn’t explain what ‘middle income country’ means. He didn’t say where Uganda is right now. He didn’t explain why it is important to be middle-income; he didn’t even explain how this middle-income thing is going to happen.

Most importantly, he didn’t tell Ugandans what they must do to transform into middle-income citizens. With oil, he said, Uganda will become a middle-income country in a few years.

I will show why am not too optimistic.

JINJA RIVER DAM

50 years ago, Uganda inherited a hydroelectric dam at Jinja. It was then named Owen Falls Dam. It was an independence gift to the Ugandan people. The dam was also a bridge for motor traffic to cross the river

Nile. For 50 years, the bridge has remained the single most important piece of tarmac in Uganda.

I don’t think Uganda, being land locked, would survive minus that bridge. But for 50 years, we’ve not built an alternative river crossing. We’ve put our trust in the bridge holding firm and thank God, it has held firm and served us well.

But what would a normal person do to the most important piece of tarmac he owns? What should a country do to protect and preserve the most import river crossing it has? We can’t even take good care of it, the barriers along the bridge are rusted and some sections have been knocked off by motorists during accidents, the road surface is littered with potholes.

The whole thing looks like a relic from the past without a single layer of paint. It looks abandoned and aged yet it continues to serve Uganda.

That’s how Uganda takes care of the most important river crossing it has.

RAILWAY LINE

Uganda inherited a functioning railway line from our colonial masters. In their wisdom then, they knew it was the best way to take minerals out of the country. According to Uganda Manufacturers Association, railway transport would reduce the cost of transportation of goods to and from Mombasa port by over 30%. Yet for 50 years since independence the railway line has neither been improved, nor extended to other areas. In fact the section to Kasese was ripped up and stolen by bandits and sold as scrap metal.

What remains of the Uganda Railway is a small section estimated at about 120km from the border town of Tororo to Kampala and an 8km section from the city to Port Bell, Luzira.

DERELICT: The railway line has been robbed and reft to rot

The line, with age and neglect is now much slower than it originally was. The rest of the line has been abandoned, dismantled, robbed and sold off. The land on which it ran has either been occupied by land grabbers, or parceled out to the rich and powerful in the country who have built residential mansions.

Last year, President Museveni announced to the nation how the UPDF would rebuild the railway. It’s a year since that announcement and nothing visible has been done and the safe bet is; this is a topic that will keep coming up but still nothing will be done.

We ignored a transport line that the colonialist thought was important and resorted to slower but more expensive road transport. Forget the narrowness and the potholes. Like Rip Van Winkle, we cannot suddenly wake up and see that railway transport is efficient, cheaper and faster and very important. We are 50 years late.

SPORTS:

In 1990 Cameroon stunned the world when they defeated defending champions Argentina 1-0 in the FIFA world Cup at the San Siro in Italy. Francois Omam Biyik smashed in that goal.

This prompted Pele, whom many regard as the finest football player ever, to declare: “An African nation will win the World Cup before the year 2000″. Its 2012 years after Pele’s declaration and an African country has still yet to get past the quarterfinal stage of a World Cup tournament. Only three countries, Cameroon in 1990, Senegal in 1998 and Ghana in 2010 have reached the last eight stage of the World Cup. When Cameroon broke the glass ceiling, FIFA rewarded Africa with an extra slot at the finals, now if it weren’t for political reasons, FIFA would take away from Africa the extra slots it gave Africa after 1990. What happened to the dream?

The last time Uganda played at an International football tournament was in 1978, the final of the Africa Cup of Nations and we lost 2-0 to Ghana. Since then it’s been only heartbreak.

Having a passion for sports in Uganda is sentencing yourself to a life of unending pain. This is perhaps the only country in the whole world where winning Olympic gold isn’t considered something to fight for.

Talking part in the global games is considered a luxury. In 50 years of our independent existence, we have won only SIX Olympic medals. The first one, a Silver Medal won in Boxing by Bantamweight Eridadi Mukwanga in Mexico in 1968. We had gotten independence only six years before in 1962. The latest medal for Uganda was a Bronze coming in 1996 in the 400-metres thanks to Davis Kamoga during the Atlanta Games in the USA. Our crowning glory remains John Akii-Bua’s Gold won during the Munich Games in 1972 in the 400-metre hurdles.

DISMAL: Uganda’s only Olympic medalists in 50 years on existance

In a few weeks time the London Games will start and we are sending over a team of athletes to represent Uganda. But I can authoritatively say that we are sending a team with absolutely no hope and no chance of winning any medals in London. Maybe we can win a medal in tourism. Our athletes are mere vacationers and they will be simply sight-seeing. That’s the role our athletes have played at most games lately and we have mastered it. Some of them might even disappear into the London underground to try their luck as Nkuba Kyeyos instead of returning home when the games close. As always the preparations for the games were a complete shambles and the best the athletes can hope for is to take some pictures during the parade, while holding the flag and hoping that they will live long enough and keep the pictures long enough to be able to show their grand kids that they too competed in the Olympics. That Uganda could win Gold at the Olympics six years after independence and nothing else ever since, just shows how much we have improved as a sporting nation.

TRIBALISM

We blame the colonialist for highlighting our tribal differences. And for playing divide and rule to dominate Africa. But that’s not very true. Africa was an amalgamation of tribal units even before colonialism; tribal warfare was the order of the day with weaker tribes getting annihilated. That was bad and you’d expect that after independence African governments would work to bridge the tribal divide. But 50 years after independence, the government of Uganda is still creating tribal enclaves disguised as districts. We have ministries for specific tribal groups. Cultural leaders were reinstated to play tribal politics and roads are constructed to appease tribes. The colonialists came around and divided us up to dominate us better. 50 years down the road, our governments are still dividing us up while at the same time preaching the need for political federation with other regional countries. Tell me how a believer in the creation of tribal enclaves, can at the same time promote political federation at regional level? Divided at base and united at the top?

Elsewhere around the world, governments are tearing down walls and rendering border posts irrelevant, the aim is to build bigger and stronger communities, multi racial communities. In Uganda, we are creating tribal constituencies (districts) and building walls around our homes.

VICTIM MENTALITY

The lasting legacy of Colonialism is that Africans feel like they have been wronged and therefore are worthy of unending reparations.

It’s an awful mentality that has tied us down for decades. Most of our leaders are beneficiaries of scholarships from former colonial powers and naturally they believe, Africa should be recipient of more and more assistance from those who stole from us.

Donor aid has failed to transform us simply because we don’t see it as a means to get better. We see it as a token of compassion from a people who robbed our riches in the past.

50 years after independence, African governments still treat donor aid the same way people in Uganda treated Entadinkwa loan money.

How many people invested entandikwa? How many paid back? How many had their lives transformed by entandikwa? No wonder the program was abandoned and scrapped and government accepted its losses.

Africa is now addicted to many things foreign; from foreign aid to foreign investment. As a result of our dependency on everything foreign (aid inflows and investment) we haven’t grown our internal (local) potential to fight poverty and be truly independent.

The biggest challenge facing many African governments today is how to instill a productive work ethic amongst citizens!

From a lazy fruit gatherers mentality, waiting for rainfall and then sunshine before visiting the garden to harvest to a people capable of controlling the vagaries of nature while relying less on providence.

But how can you do this when more than half of the population either isn’t working because they have no work or don’t want to work because there is no need to work?

I believe Uganda can do without foreign aid. It’s not going to be easy, but it’s the only way to grow. During the reading of the last budget the minister said donors will contribute 26% of the budget. If we were to be serious we’d eliminate the 26% that the donors contribute to our budget. Surely we wouldn’t die on 26% less. But who is going to do this?

The government says foreign aid is bad and we need to get independent but at the same time the government is busy making almost everything free for the citizens. Basically borrowing to provide free stuff. From free education, UPE and USE to free toilet services in the city. Graduated tax was abolished and occasionally government donates Entandikwa and Naads money to its citizens.

Now tell me how can foreign AID be bad for a country and yet here we are with a government dishing out ‘aid’, to millions of families across the country? If aid from foreign countries is bad for a country how can government aid, in form of free education (UPE) and free toilet facilities be good for a people?

Early this year the government scrapped subsidies on electricity and as a result power tariffs doubled. If you want electricity in your home, you must work a little harder because it will cost you a lot more. Because electricity is costly you can’t afford to be wasteful with its usage.

So my question is why does the government expect its citizens to pay the full rate for electricity and nothing, absolutely nothing for their primary and secondary and tertiary education and for also nothing for using the toilet in the city?

President Museveni said with oil Uganda is now going to become richer but am fearful it will not happen. Oil is a marketable resource but so are other minerals, which we have in abundance in Uganda, so is tourism. Oil will not make Uganda richer but our attitude will make us richer even without oil.

Africans would be a lot more productive if governments and donors stopped the spoon-feeding citizens. If our environment was a little more harsh, a little more extreme and a little more unpredictable, African countries would be a little more productive and a little more richer.

But instead thanks to our climate, and the donors, and now our governments, the traditionally lazy African is now being actively encouraged not to do anything but to sit back wait for oil, which will make us all rich and fat and happy.

When you have subsided electricity (thank God not anymore), free education, no graduated tax, no paid tolls on the potholed roads, the

boda boda cyclists don’t pay any license fees, KCCA toilets are going to be free, there is basically little or no reason to work harder as a Ugandan. If I can have my 20 kids and the government educates them all and gives them jobs, why should I work?

Able-bodied Ugandans are subtly being told to sit back, drink beer, grow fat and manufacture the two things we do best; a Boy and a Girl and wait for oil revenues which will help us drink more beer and marry more wives and have more babies.

With oil, Uganda will transform into a Singapore with squeaky-clean streets and sparkling boulevards.

UPE may have put millions of kids to primary school, but the unintended consequence has been that many Ugandans have forgotten the real value of education. Graduated tax is indeed primitive and cumbersome to collect but all taxation is primitive. Scraping G tax surely won the regime millions of votes from lazy villagers sipping local gin in dingy pubs but the unintended result is a population of lazy fools who are happy with mediocrity.

If the colonialist hadn’t built the railway, maybe the African governments would have, if the British hadn’t built the bridge over the River Nile maybe Ugandans would have built one bridge and another bridge and another one. The Chinese built Namboole stadium for us but we’ve not qualified for the World Cup or even the Africa Cup of nations. We’ve not even won any more Olympic medals; instead we are sending tourists to the games in London while Namboole rots away.

ANOTHER CHINESE DONATION: Naguru Hospital Is Still Empty Months After Completion

If the donors stopped throwing money at us, maybe we wouldn’t be so much of beggars and we would cut our budget and live within our means and grow.

We got all these things and many more on the free at independence 50 years ago but we’ve let them all waste away. All these were to make our lives better but living in Uganda for millions is like living the purgatorial existence. What are the chances now that we shall use the oil resource, another gift from God, to transform ourselves into a better people, a better community, and a better country?

 
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Posted by on July 5, 2012 in Uncategorized

 

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Uganda’s Quest For Footballing Glory And The Hollowness Of Fans Addicted To Television Football

13 Jun

PENSIVE: Cranes fans await kickoff of game against Senegal.

Let me say this before I change my mind. I think some Ugandans football pundits are either arrogant or they are completely ignorant about football.

I am saying this after reading some of the reviews of the Uganda Crane’s performance against Senegal.

I was in the stadium and as with many fans we hoped Uganda would get the win, we didn’t. We settled for a draw and many fans will agree with me that the Cranes were second best.

In fact we were lucky that Senegal wasn’t more ambitious. They’d have killed us. Instead they tried to defend their one goal and as time was running out, we got the penalty and the equalizer.

Shortly after the game as we waited for the exit gate to clear up, I was involved in the first of many exchanges with sports reporters and fans.

They all seemed to have come to a sudden conclusion that Uganda didn’t play well because one player, Martin Mutumba flopped. I wonder when did football become an individual sport?

Its true the boy didn’t have a good game but why I say these reporters and fans are being unreasonable or arrogant or ignorant or all the above is this: This was Mutumba’s second outing in the Cranes jersey, the first was away against Angola and many of the fans calling for his dismissal from the camp didn’t watch that game.

Now, if you aren’t arrogant or ignorant, tell me how you can judge a player after a game that ended in 1-1 draw.

And how can you watch a player for 90 minutes and you write a headline that Mutumba is a charlatan and should sack himself from the Cranes?

I didn’t watch the game against Angola so I have seen Mutumba play only once, against a far superior Senegal side full of professionals plying their trade in the top leagues in Europe.

And whereas I agree that he didn’t have a good outing, I say it is outrageous to classify him as a total flop. It’s even more outrageous to pick on him as an individual because the whole team wasn’t very effective.

The best analysis of the game came from Coach Bobby Williamson: ‘They (Senegal) are the best team I have seen in a long time, including Egypt…they have pace, strength, height and good movement…they made it very difficult for us to play but I am very proud of the players, they never gave in, kept on working hard and we managed to get a point.’

That’s our coach, the guy I say is our miracle worker considering the pool of players he has to select from and the league they play in. It’s like the reporters and fans I spoke to were watching a different game from Bobby’s who chose to keep Mutumba on for 90 minutes.

Bobby also said the media had hyped Mutumba and placed him under enormous pressure. And I think he is spot on.

Some fans even dared compare Mutumba to David Obua. I find that petty and childish, both haven’t won anything for the Cranes at continental level and Obua is now retired from the team. Mutumba has just joined the team.

To me Obua and former captain Ibrah Sekagya are legends of Uganda football, but they are now retired and we must work with the new crop of payers we currently have and try to achieve what Obua and Sekagya failed to achieve.

I know Ugandans are accustomed to beating teams at Namboole and the reporters like all other fans get frustrated when we fail to win.

But I expect reporters to be more knowledgeable than the average fan. When you face a team as good as Senegal you must prepare for anything, including the possibility of losing the game and on Saturday, we came to within minutes of losing.

That’s why when we got a penalty and Godfrey Walusimbi smashed it in, the whole stadium cheered like we’d won.

I think some reporters expected Senegal to come around and fold their arms and get battered.

Ours is a team in development, an unfinished product, we are nowhere near the quality of the team that failed to make AFCON last year against Kenya but the good thing with football is that you always get another chance and this is another opportunity for Uganda but if these fans and reporters were in the team, they’d throw away the chance.

Comparing Mutumba to the legendary Philip Omondi is a terrible joke. We haven’t produced another Omondi in almost half a century, Mutumba has only played two games for Uganda. One must praise Mutumba for showing exemplary willingness to play for the national team.

Abusing the players who put their legs in harms way to bring glory to the country isn’t helpful at all.

DEDICATED: Uganda Cranes fans show their love for the team outside Namboole

But that’s the quality of the average football fan in Uganda.

We have in Ugandan pundits or fans who will reel off the entire Polish squad at the Euro 2012 tournament but who can’t name three players in the Cranes team that started against Senegal on Saturday.

We have soccer fans who watch an entire English Premiership season in video halls but who have never stepped into any local stadium to watch a local league game!

We have some fans who walk into the stadium and immediately start complaining that the playing surface doesn’t look as neat as Anfield and when there is a goal scored, look around for a TV screen and grumble because there is no TV screen for a replay.

I call it the hollowness of soccer fanaticism in Uganda!

They are so in love with Chelsea and they show this affection for the English club by buying pirated club shirts from downtown shops. How is Chelsea their team supposed to benefit if they buy pirated shirts?

If you told these fans to buy original club jerseys they’d go into hiding at the cost.

The Ugandan soccer fan will scream themselves hoarse and declare ‘Arsenal Till I Die’ and will stick with the team despite seven seasons minus a trophy but will be quick to denounce their national team The Cranes if it draws against Senegal or Kenya.

Hollow is the best way to describe football fans in Uganda. Because in reality what we have in Uganda aren’t soccer fans, they are just onlookers not supporters.

Believe me sitting in a dingy pub in Kampala donning a pirated jersey and screaming Manchester United, doesn’t make you a true fan!

I’ll tell you what a real fan of a football club does:

He will buy merchandise from the official club shop. A true fan will buy tickets and go to the games in person to cheer the team as it plays.

A true fan will travel to support his team and will not stay at home to watch on TV. If he does stay at home he will subscribe to the club TV channel.

A true fan will do all this because he knows the club needs his support, not just the screaming and shouting in the stadium but also the monetary contributions.

A true fan knows that the club needs that money to be competitive to hire the best coaches and even better players. A true fan will not overly complain when they lose or draw a game, he will not abuse individual players after a bad game, he will put trust in the club coach and respect his decisions.

A Ugandan football fan on the contrary thinks buying pirated shirts writing his name at the back and sitting all night in a bar dousing himself with booze while watching Everton on TV makes him a diehard fan of Everton Football Club!

Hollowness! The club in Europe doesn’t even know he exists because it doesn’t get any benefits from his existence. And the fan in Uganda doesn’t get any gratification because he knows he hasn’t contributed anything to the club.

Am only glad that some fans have realized the hollowness of this entire TV football craze and are starting to turn their attention to the local sides.

Anyway the Uganda Cranes have another game coming up this weekend against Congo Brazzaville and we should be firmly focused as the 12th player as one dedicated player put it on twitter. This one will be worse than the one against Senegal. We are trailing 3-1 from the first leg, Bobby will field his best eleven men and the fans must turn up and be the twelfth man in the stands.

Lets not put pressure on any individuals in the team. And let us trust that the players who are selected to start on the field and on the bench want to win more than anyone else in this country of 34 million. Lets not question their commitment and denigrate their effort.

But let us also know that Congo won’t come here to lose, and that they will try to defend their lead and while we go out to chase the 2-0 win that will lead us closer to heaven, lets not forget that this is football and that we might get beaten or we might draw. But lets all go to Namboole on Saturday and cheer the boys and not boo them.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Opinion

 

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