Gabon, a host of contradictions

LIBREVILLE- Only five years ago, Libreville’s Stade d’Angondje staged the final of the 28th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations that saw Zambia stun Ivory Coast.

Gabon had successfully co-hosted the tournament with neighbours Equatorial Guinea, a move which was in line with Caf’s plan of spreading hosting rights to the continent’s nether places. Others will claim, with justification, that Caf’s insistence of handing hosting rights to only oil-rich countries – see the pattern of bid winners such as Angola, Libya, and Equatorial Guinea - arouses suspicion.

Regardless, it is a unique move to have Afcon played all over the continent because it is a tournament of Africans for all Africans.
However, Friday evening’s luggage confusion at the Libreville’s Leon M’ba International Airport, the best country’s main Airdrome, was a reminder of what can go awfully wrong with scant preparation.

Leon M’ba made Entebbe look like Heathrow.
Visitors all over the world were stranded in long, thick visa queues that seemed to take forever while organisers didn’t do a fine job of getting a sufficient number of fixers to bridge the language barrier. Gabon is a francophone country.

Sports minister Charles Bakkabulindi’s diplomatic passport didn’t afford him any privileges. Such was the fine mess. Here, he was one of the thousands of disconcerted individuals who were overwhelmed by the disorganisation.

One of Africa’s greatest footballers of all time Roger Milla wasn’t spared by the muddle. Sunday Monitor saw him lost in thought and he was soon joined by another ex-Cameroon legend Geremi Njitap as they contemplated the way forward.

Ex-Arsenal and Ivory Coast forward Gervinho, not summoned by his country because of injury, duly utilised the moment to take photos with fans.
Once you somehow made your way out of the visa maze, the much harder problem was finding your luggage.

Leon M’ba curiously had one carousel to cater for three flights which had landed at just about the same time – Air France, South Africa Airways and Rwanda Air.

Only one belt was running and the luggage section promptly turned into a free-for-all, survival-for-the-fittest episode.

Shortly after, a second carousel became operation by which time luggages had been mixed and one had to make 1-minute intermittent dashes on either side to look for what belonged to them.

By the time Commissioner for sports in the ministry of education and sports Lamex Omara Apita and NCS chairman John Bosco Onyik found theirs, they had spent more than two and a half hours at the airport. Which was not so much a problem like missing the connecting flight to Port Gentil, Uganda’s base, where they had planned to arrive.

While the experience at M’ba was a nightmare, the same can’t be said of the stadium preparedness and excitement of the locals.

Stade de l’Amitié, which hosted yesterday’s two opening matches Gabon-Guinea Bissau and Cameroon-Burkina Faso, is a magnificent structure that befitting any soccer tournament in the world.

There is a conspicuous buzz about the tournament around town – Uganda’s flag is one of the 16 that welcomes you after exiting the arrivals terminal – with no early signs that the political tension from a disputed Presidential election between incumbent Ali Bongo Ondimba and Jean Ping last year will affect the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations.

The Uganda Cranes arrived in Port Gentil yesterday after a Friday sleep-over in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Their first game is a critical group opener against the 2015 Afcon losing finalists Ghana, also Cranes’ last opponents in an Africa Cup of Nations football match some 39 years ago.

Uganda will play Ghana and Egypt in Port Gentil on Tuesday and Saturday respectively before flying to Oyem for the final group encounter against Mali.