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.

“Recently when we (sports associations’ heads) met the State Minister for Sports Charles Bakkabulindi, there was general consensus that the post of General Secretary be occupied by someone picked by all of us,” reveals Nagenda who clearly wants Aligawesa kicked out of NCS.

And word reaching this reporter is that Hon Bakkabulindi has finally delegated the Sports Commissioner Dan Tamwesigire, to mediate between the two warring parties. But if you can read between the lines and see from behind the scenes, there is more to what meets the eye in this big clash of egos that is characterised by a lot of finger pointing and name calling.

Tamwesigire has his work cut out and hopefully will end the fracas immediately so that there is enough energy left in both officials to help prepare teams for the Davis Cup and Commonwealth Games. With exciting talents like Duncan Mugabe, tennis is on the way up and no one wants it back in its death throes.

Similar cases with Aligawesa

NCS was initiated by an Act of Parliament in June 1964 after sport was looked at as a way of raising newly independent Uganda’s profile on the international scene. Rev. Polycarp Kakooza (RIP) was the first general secretary of NCS and through to highly respected Abbey Kits Lutaya, the institution has its primary objective as sports development.

But things haven’t been rosy for some associations. From Uganda Amateur Boxing Federation (Uabf) through to Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) and down to the minnow associations like Uganda Hockey Association (UHA) and Uganda Table Tennis Association (UTTA), all have felt the mighty pinch of NCS. Boxing has produced three world champions for Uganda but it’s baffling that the current Uabf president Godfrey ‘Amooti’ Nyakana doesn’t see eye to eye with Aligawesa.

Nyakana’s price is having tried to question the eligibility of Aligawesa as NCS General Secretary. News doing the rounds is that the International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) doesn’t recognise Uabf anymore is more disturbing.

His powers might dictate that he intervenes whenever everything goes amiss in sport, but it was an unfortunate scene that Mr. Aligawesa was at the center of controversy when Kabale Fufa delegate Godfrey Kwizera attempted to challenge incumbent Lawrence Mulindwa for the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) presidency recently.

Aligawesa acted first and opened a can of worms on Kwizera accusing him of having sold one of the Cranes buses while still a Fufa vice president administration in the Denis Obua regime. The claims saw Kwizera sent to the Old Kampala cells. Aligawesa was recently cited as one of the main people that were trying to sell Nakivubo stadiums to investors.

UHA, too, have never been on the same page with NCS. Former UTTA boss Emmanuel Matsyetsye was also rubbed the wrong way by Aligawesa. Matsyetsye was told to account for misuse of the game’s funds after he travelled to Japan for an international meet without the team. And instead of providing answers for his bizarre actions, he claimed that Aligawesa didn’t like him because they weren’t of the same tribe.

In his early days in office, Aligawesa was in a mass war with UAF in 2005. Reason? He tried to interfere with elections. Key people of the fraternity recall that he was siding with Makerere University lecturer Elijah Mushemeza against Dan Tamwesigire for the president’s post. But it was a losing battle then.

Uganda Cricket Association (UCA) have mainly enjoyed a good relationship with the NCS chief but fingers have once in a while been pointed. NCS has rented out the oval for entertainment side shows but only an abysmal percentage has trickled down to UCA’s confines. For the ULTA, it’s only the beginning of the battle. But how long with this escalate; my guess is as good as yours!

indawula@gmail.com