Muhangi pulls out of AFBC presidential race
Moses Muhangi (L) and the sports minister Peter Ogwang. PHOTO/JOHN BATANUDDE
What you need to know:
The AFBC seeks a permanent boss after Bertrand Mendouga was forced out due to alleged mismanagement in August after just a year in office. Nigeria’s Azania Omo-Agege took over as interim but the elective congress and the inaugural Mandela Cup scheduled for Durban, South Africa in early October were postponed until further notice.
Uganda Boxing Federation president Moses Muhangi has pulled out of the race for the African Boxing Confederation presidency in favour of fellow of his Ethiopian counterpart Eyasu Wessen in the extraordinary congress November 18 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The AFBC seeks a permanent boss after Bertrand Mendouga was forced out due to alleged mismanagement in August after just a year in office. Nigeria’s Azania Omo-Agege took over as interim but the elective congress and the inaugural Mandela Cup scheduled for Durban, South Africa in early October were postponed until further notice.
The International Boxing Association (IBA) wanted the congress in Dubai next year, while the AFBC preferred it in an African venue this month.
Meanwhile, Omo-Agege’s candidature was annulled after the Nigerian Boxing Federation joined World Boxing, a breakaway body seeking the blessing of the International Olympic Committee, which chased IBA from the Olympic Movement in June.
Cameroon’s Mendouga won the 2022 polls by 21 of 40 votes, Algerian Abdelnour-Fazil got 10 while Muhangi got nine. But when Muhangi was expected to improve on his performance, he opted out in favour of Wessen, the Ethiopia Boxing Federation president against Mendouga and Morocco’s Mohamed El Kabbouri, widely believed to be IBA president Umar Kremlev's favourite.
“The Ethiopian guy stepped down for me in Algeria, so now it was time I pay back the debt,” Muhangi told Daily Monitor. “But we also had gentlemanly discussions and agreements to avoid further dividing Africa. We need Africa to be united and more so in the times of this World Boxing situation against IBA.”
Wessen gave the same reasons in his November 4 interview with The Reporter. But Muhangi expressed interest in contesting again. “The winner will be completing the Mendouga’s mandate which has two or more years left. I will contest in the future elections.”
