Bakkabulindi booed on joyous day

KAMPALA. When Namboole stadium Cranes’ match day announcer Andrew Patrick Luwandagga introduced Buganda Kingdom premier Charles Peter Mayiga, he received a loud cheer from everyone yesterday.
He then screamed the presence of Sheikh Shaban Ramadhan Mubajje, the Mufti of Uganda. Mayiga’s approval became Mubajje’s before kick-off. It was smooth sailing for Luwandagga until he told the mammoth crowd that state sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi, as expected, was in attendance. “Boo boo boo,” in an endless suspended voice rang. The response that was almost as loud as the cheer after Uganda beat Comoros 1-0 to qualify for next year’s Nations Cup. Ugandans inside the stadium and beyond wanted to send a message of disapproval to the man in charge of implementing sports policy.
He is a man often in the line of fire. Wrangles in sports federations are a common occurrence in his 11-year tenure with no superintendent to create a semblance of sanity.
Also, the financial strife that sports and sportsmen face is often down to lack of support from the government to which Bakkabulindi is appointed to make a case for his sector.
After Bakkabulindi, the National Council of Sports (NCS) board chairman John Bosco Onyik, was introduced. While his boos were not as loud as those of his appointing authority, they were sufficient to send the message of dissatisfaction to whoever was listening.
This happened before Education and Sports minister Janet Kataha Museveni, also the First Lady, took her seat, from which she would eventually jump when Miya scored.
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