21 April 2011
editorial
The revelation this week that NRM owes Mandela National Stadium Shs200m was the latest unbecoming development for the country’s sports fraternity, routinely incapacitated by insufficient finances.
The debt, which was accrued during the ruling party’s campaigns for the recent election process, was picked at the expense of a venue nominally built as a multi-sports complex by the Chinese in 1997. As a party that spent billions of shillings seeking the people’s mandate, it is damning that the country’s largest recreational arena was least prioritised by NRM when it came to payments.
Namboole’s turf was left in a sorry state by the party’s delegates’ conference. It was trampled on by party members and risked suffering permanently if league football matches had not been suspended by stadium management.
Last week, the junior sides of Uganda and Tanzania met in an All-African qualifier at the stadium but the pitch made it impossible for both teams to deliver a quality flowing game. In six weeks, Guinea Bissau will be visiting Uganda for a 2012 qualifier and it would be scandalous if Cranes failed to conjure crucial victory in a key match on the road to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations because of the turf’s derisory condition. And with the Uganda Super League having reached a landmark deal to televise games starting next season, the stadium’s floodlights, scoreboard and complete look will have to be inch-perfect.
The NRM-led government must thus lead by example and clear that outstanding debt to disapprove a long-held conviction that growing sports is low among their list of priorities. Today, virtually all sports bodies are funded by international governing bodies they are affiliated to or to corporates.
At best, government backing has left a lot to be desired, the President’s Shs186m last-minute bailout for Cranes’ trip to Guinea Bissau last month notwithstanding. Other disciplines such as athletics and basketball, ironically also prominent at Namboole, have consistently decried neglect. The 42,000-seater stadium is a symbol of national pride and as patriots, the least the NRM can do is meet their side of the bargain to ensure the ground is transformed by its management for sports.
AllAfrica – All the Time