A celebrated TV show host. A renowned soccer promoter and soccer Academy owner. A respected sports columnist and I. We, the four, in different locations including the airwaves of a TV station, sobbed when the Uganda Cranes lost the African Cup of Nations finals bid.
Many fans sobbed like us, writhing in pain like helpless children in bed stung by merciless bedbugs.
So, did we lose because bad luck had us in its sights?
No, I say! Uganda lost the bid when we took the same campaign to Angola in September. Then, the team was divided. There were loud grumbles over monies un-paid. Existence of silent protests over dime was an open secret. Reported compromises made in that line did little to soothe the dejected players.
The man at the top, Lawrence Mulindwa, comes into view as a ‘bully’ who uses the advantage of money and political connections to suppress positive criticism, so it’s said. I agree.
The last nail in the coffin (of Uganda’s failure) was not hammered during the actual game in Mamboole. It was when Mulindwa showed up abruptly in the training camp and made a declaration: President Museveni was visiting the camp and no player was going to ask him any question!
Very likely, Mulindwa has no clue what Articles 29 1(a) and 43 of his country’s constitution say. But following the declaration of ‘no questions to the Head of State,’ David Obua, Uganda’s soccer goal-scoring machine walked out of camp, saying he could not be suppressed from asking questions. Coach Bobby (with Mulindwa’s visible pushing hand) expelt Obua from the camp and line-up.
That is why I will ask again: Why this childish tendency to punish Obua?
Failing to answer the question was why I cried again; a day after the lost bid. I was in a Barber’s shop at Wandegeya, on Sunday Oct. 9, 2011. A sculpture of a Crested Crane stood on the barber’s shaving desk— majestic in its various colours.
My last wish was that the colour of my tears would alternate along the colours of a bird disgraced the previous day.
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