God would have been unfair to let cranes win
By M. Suleman
17th Oct 2011: Thank God the cranes lost! Like many Ugandans, I love soccer and I love the Uganda Cranes. But after the visit of Mr. Museveni and his family to the cranes camp, I think God would have been unfair to allow the cranes to win. It would mean the cranes won because of the shs50m from Museveni.
Thereafter, Museveni would have continued to despise and undermine Ugandans with his brown envelops which he goes around throwing in poor people’s faces. This contempt of Ugandans has gone on for far too long and it ought to be stopped. Secondly, if the cranes had won, Museveni would have concluded that he can even bribe God to hide the truth about how his government under funds and under values the cranes.
The truth is that Museveni does not love Uganda and he doesn’t love, know, or care about sports in Uganda. His main preoccupation is the pursuit of power and nothing else.
Everything that was a source of pride for Ugandans has either been destroyed, sold, or given away to his friends, relatives, and foreigners. Uganda Commercial Bank, Uganda Hotels, Uganda Transport Company, Uganda Electricity Board, Uganda government land, and anything Ugandan has to be disposed off.
In fact, I have no doubt in my mind that if Uganda Cranes was a going commercial concern like Manchester United, it would have been sold off or given away by now. There is no single contribution that Ugandans can point to with pride as Museveni’s indelible contribution to Uganda.
President Kuffor of Ghana had his soccer club before he became President. The Chipolopolo of Zambia are still known as the “KK” [or Kenneth Kaunda] boys. Oginga Odinga is a known sports enthusiast. President Mandela was a boxer.
Even Idi Amin was a basket-ball player, boxer, and swimmer who even sent the presidential jet on a few occasions to collect Ugandan players. The best he has done with the presidential jet is to send his daughter Natasha to Germany to give birth.
Which sports credentials does Museveni have which made him assume that he can be a source of inspiration for the cranes. None! And it’s just in sports that Museveni fails miserably. Unlike Museveni, Obote had a passion for good education and health services for all. He also worked hard to ensure that Uganda had the best Doctors, Pilots, Professors, Lawyers, and Engineers on the African continent.
Amin’s decision to expel Indians from Uganda was driven by the passion to empower and elevate Ugandans. He was uneducated but was proud of Makerere, so much that he would even give Makerere dollars to buy books for students. Uganda Commercial Bank, Mpooma satellite station in Mukono were all built by Amin. What does Museveni have to show Ugandans but corruption and potholes?
During Amin’s days, it was never about money but about national pride. Who can forget that Amin’s Uganda Army had a powerful football team called Simba FC? On the contrary, Museveni’s NRA was more concerned about making money, and that is why he formed the NEC to be the commercial arm of his NRA. But even that was quickly swallowed by corruption.
Love him or hate him, Amin, although uneducated, meant well for Uganda. He loved Uganda because it was his motherland; which is more than can be said about Museveni whose origin and allegiance is higly questionable. That is why he gives Rwanda $300,000 in cash to build schools for Rwandese children when our children are studying under trees. Our teachers earn a pathetic 280,000 shillings a month!
That is why I am proud to say that my hero in the last cranes fixture against Kenya was Obua. He took a principled stand and walked out of the facade, leaving his timid Ugandan based cranes colleagues to be humiliated ‘pakalast’. Good for them! END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
