Aligawesa, Nagenda just another clash of big egos

Kampala

The move by National Council of Sports (NCS) general secretary Jasper Aligawesa to kick out of Lugogo Uganda Lawn Tennis Association (ULTA), has kicked off a rare row between the two heavy hitters. This current entanglement between the Aligawesa and Nagenda can be summarised by three words ‘uncalled for, unnecessary and a big leap backwards’. It can directly be equated to the age-old African Kikuyu proverb and Kiswahili saying, ‘when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers’.

The essence of the proverb is simplicity. When the large, strong and dominant fight, it is the small, weak and least powerful respectively who suffer most. Nagenda and Aligawesa are the two elephants in this case. But elephants of contrasting nature and powers. Their actions are destined to affect their subjects in varying capacities.

One lingering question is, ‘Are they power drunk?’ May be, but I don’t think so. Then, what has caused this bad altercation? With no imminent answer, one has got to don the thinking cap and look no further than the bruised human egos. The bad blood could have reached the ceiling in January 2010 during a local NTV talk show whose theme was on management of sports.

A passionate been there, done it all on the sports arena, Nagenda understandably didn’t hit the right chords when he attacked Jasper Aligawesa’s NCS for the inept way they were running and steering over the sports associations’ ship. Aligawesa evidently viewed the situation as the ULTA boss having a personal vendetta against him.

Single impediment
A couple of months down the road, the two officials are hogging the headlines for the wrong reasons. Aligawesa’s claims that ULTA have run down the Lugogo Tennis Center (LTC) do ostensibly have some notion but the decision to evict them when a scheduled high caliber meeting was in the offing, is unexplainable.

“He is the single biggest impediment to the progress of sport in the country. When the Auditor General finally carries out his audit for NCS, we are in for some interesting information,” was Nagenda’s retort after Aligawesa bundled ULTA out of Lugogo last Friday.

He added: “I have lots of interesting information about him. Look at what he has done to boxing, hockey and football. I am ready to face up to NCS corruption. He has tried to achieve personal financial gains from sports federations.” But Aligawesa insists his vision and will to deliver on his job will not be blurred by associations who are hesitant to come good when expected.

“I acknowledge and query when need be. It is true that I thanked Mr. Nagenda for his work for ULTA but it is absurd that he only read bits of that letter to you. It should be noted that I hinted at several other things that had gone amiss. But Nagenda has not made any attempt to at least make one payment of as little as Shs3m on the Shs36m arrears,” disclosed Aligawesa who thinks Nagenda is just getting emotional.

“I have several messages in my phone’s inbox from members of the tennis club thanking me for getting rid of ULTA. The members who pay subscription fees claim they were fed up of ULTA running down the place,” he added.

History at NCS shows that it has not only housed a handful of associations until recently when Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation (Uabf), Uganda Athletics Federation (UAF) and Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) charged addresses but also barely charged them a penny. One ULTA official who preferred anonymity as he is not allowed to comment on behalf of the association had his say on the matter.

“Because NCS thought we were making money from the bar, restaurant, sports shop and members’ subscription which is just about Shs12m, they decided to charge us. But that shouldn’t be the case. We have put too much into the game to even be charged Shs1m per month,” reasoned the source.

ULTA audited accounts show that large sums of money in the excess of Shs520m have been spent on the facility since 2007. But Aligawesa offers more insight. “ULTA signed a deal behind our backs with someone who supposedly pays them Shs2.5m per month and how come they failed to pay us just Shs1m per month.”

Nagenda agrees that a deal was on the brink of being brokered but nothing formal had been reached. His eternal cry is for NCS to be reasonable enough and understand their position. “Uganda Rugby Union (URU) pays just under a million for renting a small office on the premises and we get practically nothing from the bar,” adds Nagenda, also the presidential advisor on media affairs.

No direct funding
But Aligawesa is in no dilly-dallying mood as he claims that meetings with ULTA have yielded nothing but Nagenda discloses ULTA has no direct funding. “We only get funding from Nile Breweries, Uganda Breweries, SN Brussels and Sheraton Kampala Hotel among others for tournaments with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) chipping in $25,000 (an estimated Shs50m) every time we host ITF tournaments. But on top of this we are supposed to pay ITF $4,000 (approximately Shs8m) as annual subscription. We spend everything we get,” exclaims Nagenda.