By Silvano Kibuuka.
As 2022 unveils in the sporting world, there are many pending issues that remained un accomplished in 2021, a situation that caused the Minister of State for Sports, Hon. Denis Hamson Obua to highlight about especially sighting on continuity.
Minister Obua gave guidelines government will be following this year in the many areas especially on the development projects that government had embarked on for several years, but many of which remain untouched to date.
He was receiving a report of activities by National Council of Sports (NCS) headquarters at Lugogo late December 2021. He appreciated the duties and achievements Uganda has registered in 2021, most commonly the classic improvement at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan.
The epitome of the year in the report that the minister received from NCS was the successful participation in the Olympic games in Japan where Uganda won two gold medals by SSP Joshua Cheptegei in the 10,000m and the other by SSP Peruth Chemtai in 3000m Stipple Chase.
Cheptegei also won a silver medal in 5000m while Solomon Munyo Mutai won a bronze medal in 10,000m.
The medal winning tally was beefed up by Paralympic runner David Emong winning a bronze medal in the T49 1,500m race.
After appreciating the report, Minister Obua gave highlights on the partinet issues that have been running through the year.
The Sports Budget:
In 2019, the sporting fraternity in Uganda had a breather with joy when government authorized Ush25b to the sports sub sector from the Ush97b that had been applied for.
However, this budget was sliced by the same government by sh8.3b as to embarking on fighting Covid 19 in the first lockdown in 2020.
Hon. Obua narrated that in 2021, sports was not exempted by government when all the government departments were subjected to a 40 percent slice on their budgets to curb Covid-19 in the second lockdown which left the sub sector with only Ush10b.
However, after the superb performance at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the high-level lobbying, government announced in October 2021 the reinstating of the Ush8.3b starting with January 2022.
The October 18th resolution by the cabinet also resolved that the Ush8.3b that had been cut from the sports budged be reinstated in the first quarter of the financial year in July 2022.
“Our dream budget is Ush197b. But now we are assured of Ush25.5b, which gives us a breather on the much more money that will be unrolled into the federation accounts for development ant qualification for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham due in July this year.
The minister said profitable usage of the funds will see Uganda bounce back into the 2024 Olympics in France.
The Sports Bill:
The minister has said that as we entered 2022, the sports bill that has been debated upon for over a decade will be ready probably by February this year.
“The sports bill has been halted by the bureaucrats after lagging for 10 years. Now we are in consultations with the stakeholders to amend the bill and we hope by February it will be tabled in Parliament,” Minister Obua noted.
In this regard, the minister was happy with the conflict resolution process that has been undertaken in many of the federations that had been wrangling before 2021 apart from a few like FMU and Kickboxing.
Namboole Stadium:
This has been a big pending question where many people saw as big scandal for squandering the tax payer’s money.
Its three years now since government approved Ush67b for the renovation of Mandela National Stadium at Namboole nothing has been affected.
“Though Ush97b had been earmarked by the ministry, sh67b was by Parliament and Cabinet after a counter survey by the Ministry of Works and Transport. I assure that the management of Namboole is working round the clock to see that the work is undertaken,” he said.
He however said the management is still soliciting a suitable contactor where the UPDF Engineering Brigade or the NEC shall be awarded the contract.
He added that the third option is to embark on a Private Public Partnership (PPP) program that government initiated some years ago.
Buhinga and Akii Bua Stadiums:
In 2018, the government of Uganda and China made agreement to build the stadiums in the Presidential pledge of developing sports by building a stadium in each region and these were the projects highlighted.
However, the outbreak of Covid 19 (that especially is said to have originated from China) paralyzed the economy of many countries including Uganda and China and these projects were also well affected.
“China has 27 government to government contract projects in Uganda, many of which had to be dropped temporarily due to Covid 19. In November last year, China met all the African countries in Senegal to revive the China – Africa Corporation projects for review and renewal. So Buhinga and Akii Bua stadiums have been rescheduled for 2021-2023,” Minister Obua stated
The initial construction agreement was for 2018-2021.
The New PE Project:
For 2022, the Minister has revealed a cabinet decision where physical education (P.E) will be a compulsory lesson to all secondary schools for S1 and S2 in the whole country.
“The school curriculum with effect this term that rolled off on January 10th, PE is now a compulsory subject and examinable,” he noted.
Hon Obua said the move by government is to lay a good foundation for sports in the country and also to nature good character and behavior into the youths.
The Minister foresees a bright future for sports in the country but asked all people to observe the SOPs to avoid the spread of Covid 19 that could re-emerge at alarming levels.
He is also optimistic Uganda can do better at the Commonwealth Games than in Gold Coast in 2018■
