It’s our Country; They are our athletes – men and women; Our sports fields; and; Our infrastructure by our dally sports leadership. That way, starts this sports view. Reason? We are famous for helping ourselves to the ‘Hall of Shame’ here in Uganda.
Making countless rounds of personal visits to Lugogo Sports Complex will reveal nothing short of shame. In fact, everything, to whoever cares, give results of shame, not fame. Then, you choose to concentrate through a leisurely walk, to the MTN Arena and you are greeted by more shame. MTN what?… Arena! Meaning the multipurpose facility whose capacity seats 846 sports fans, is under contract by both the National Council of Sports (NCS) and MTN Uganda, to run as a business in the heart of the Sports Complex in Lugogo.
The prior delight when it was announced that MTN Uganda were to renovate the Indoor stadium at UGX1.7bn cost about 12 years ago, is fast phasing away. The seats, the washrooms and the painting have all waned and really unfriendly if you take a good stare both on the inside and the outside. While everyone clapped in cheers and jubilations that the worst days of the Lugogo Indoor stadium were gone, just a few years, the old shaming story of a dilapidated stadium has once again resurfaced.
With no major renovations done in the past 12 years, the last time it was given a face lift and named the MTN Arena, today, the roof is leaking, ceilings are dropping off down, the yellow seats are broken, with the toilets a breeding ground of infections of all tribes you know of. So, MTN Uganda and National Council of Sports, what happened to your signed marriage and, two, what lies in your contract as benefits? Just checking!
Hall – Wall of Fame
Now, the real Hall of Fame is Shaming by far. We shall exempt MTN from this one and turn to NCS, UOC and the different sports administrations of National Sports federations and associations. The opening question should be, what it means to be inducted in the Hall of Fame? Or, doesn’t Uganda have individual athletes to induct in the hall of fame board?
Why should everyone be asking this? There is only one famer/inductee out of thousands of them that have made this country proud. He is John Akii Bua. If you say that someone is a member of a particular hall of fame, you mean that they are one of the most famous people in that area of activity. For Uganda’s case, there are many in the sports field that qualify to be listed here but only you will find Akii Bua.
Perhaps we may not be knowing how does one become a Famer. What we know however is that to be inducted, a candidate needs at least 80 percent of the total vote. At this, then we see that Inzikuru, Kipsiro, Kiprotich, and Cheptegei among many others qualify even past 80% of the vote. All these are famous athletes we should be finding listed there in the board.
If we could have Mama Fina listed in the Witches Hall/wall of fame in the shrines, why not our athletes that end on the sports board so that we can continue commemorating their names and beings upon outstanding performances as Ugandans. They are individuals acclaimed as outstanding in the sport’s particular profession and field of endeavor locally and internationally.
What is special about the Akii-Bua that he is the only inducted in Hall of Fame? Who also just came in late in 2021 many years since his 1972 Munich Olympics where he won gold. Why are we not honoring ours enough? Or, should we wait for continental and international confederations like the Africa Athletics Confederation (AAC), to initiate like they did inducting the Akii-Bua into the Africa Athletics Hall of Fame? The board there at the entrance of the MTN Arena is very empty fair society sportsmen/women.
Author Profile
- Mr. Daniels N. Tatya is an affluent Sports Writer, Commentator and Editor. His over 15 years of covering almost major sporting events makes him a revered and an authority on investigative Sports journalism in Uganda. He can also be reached via [email protected] +256(0)758268315
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