Olympics is beyond athletics, it’s about Ugandan workers’ plight
Still on the case of sport and the Olympics, there is nothing special and unique about the failure of Ugandan athletes. The athletes offer their labour to this society expecting rewards, to live happily and progress. They are no different from civil servants, doctors, teachers, police officers, university lecturers and non-teaching staff.
Many workers in Uganda either under-perform or don’t work at all because of poor pay, lack of motivation and facilitation. Others resort to unethical behaviour and hold society at ransom before providing a service. That is why we have endless strikes, threats of strikes and bribery.
We have lived with this for so long that we feel it is normal for public servants to offer mediocre services for which they are paid.
But when we come to sportsmen and women, we take exception. This is because they appear on TV and put our inadequacies on the international scene, for all to see, laugh and ridicule us as a country.
The lecturer on strike will get angry and embarrassed by the runner who stays on the job but under-performs for the very reasons that the lecturer is on strike, poor pay and lack of facilitation.
The question we have to answer is, how do we get good results from Uganda’s enormous and talented human recourses when we have not created mechanisms to get the best out of them. The failing Olympian is no different from the doctor who can’t treat a cancer patient because the machines at Mulago have broken down. She is the science teacher whose students fail because she cannot teach them properly since the USE school has no laboratory. He is the policeman who can’t reach a crime scene in time because there is no transport.
Before you laugh at our Olympians, calling them tourists, reflect on these issues. May be you should be crying for them and yourself, instead.
Over the weekend, BBC television carried an interesting documentary on the growth and development of football in China.
Through a personal initiative of the President, Xi Jingping, China intends to have 50 million people playing football by the year 2020. That is the entire population of Uganda and Rwanda put together.
They will set up 50,000 schools with a curriculum dedicated to teaching children football from a young age. Mark you, China has over 100 million children under the age of six. China plans to build and renovate over 6,000 stadiums.
Already, the Chinese Super League is attracting big names in world football from European teams, the likes of Brazilian Alex Teixeira, Demba Ba and managers like Luis Philipe Scholari and Sven Goran Eriksson.
The intention of all this is to turn China into a leading football power house like Germany, Brazil and Italy in 20 years time. They are not praying and leaving matters to chance.
The sums of money being poured into the game and the political will and influence is enormous. They are bringing in scientists, nutritionists, youth coaches, managers and adopting the best practices and cultures from countries and football associations that have success and experience under their belts. It should not surprise you if China gets there much earlier than it projects.
I tell this tale against a backdrop of the dismal performance of Uganda at the just concluded Rio Olympics in Brazil. Our athletes and huge number of officials came back as they left - empty handed!
As we crack jokes about them and feel disappointed, we should spare a thought and learn from those who have done it and those who intend to do it. The story of China is one example with three ingredients. First the political will, second the money and third the hunger, humility and propensity to learn from others who have been there and done it. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.
We need to think and act very quickly because failure, like success, is a habit and a culture. We are getting to a point where it is becoming acceptable that our participation on the world stage is an opportunity to showcase mediocrity.
This is sad because at an individual level, most of the young people put in a great personal effort and are dedicated to the cause. But they too can only do so much. When you are surrounded by failure and deprivation, it is only in cases of aberrations that you will have success popping up every once in a while.
There is still hope and we congratulate all the Olympians who made it to Rio and put in an effort.
Mr Sengoba is a commentator on political and social issues. [email protected]
Twitter: @nsengoba
