By Ben Sebuguzi
During his 45th birthday celebrations, the First Son, Lt General Muhoozi Kainerugaba disclosed his proposal to start “a sports fund” for urban youths to prosper the career path of successful athletes. This brought some light on my face since I know how sports has developed countries like UK with it’s English premier league(EPL), one of the the most successful and vibrant football leagues in the world.
Africa is proud of some of it’s exports who debut for Liverpool as forwards namely: Senegalese Sadia Mane with a staggering £34m transfer fee to the same club in 2016, Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Guinean Nabby Keita whose fame in EPL has made many Africans to become slaves in Europe in a bid to look for opportunities to become successful football stars in Europe
Now that the first son has a Vision of empowering Sports disciplines in the country, this means that our domestic African football is going to become more competitive as we shall have a fierce competitive league which will be attractive for serious scouts to come and buy our players at good rates.
Lack of opportunities in Africa and a growth in football leagues in Asia is leading many aspiring African players to journey to Asia to get very low incomes hence becoming football slaves. The same with our migrants to Poland in Europe
This calls for the First son to get involved in the whole system of sports from the sports governance and administration to welfare of our sports men and women in a bid to professionalize the sports sector.
Sports is as important as any other sectors like agricultural in creating jobs and increasing foreign exchange.Just one transfer fee of Sadie Mane to Liverpool of £34m is equated to the total revenue from the export of flowers valued at $30m in 2016.
There is a potential of Africans in harnessing dividends in sports if we get people like Lt.Muhoozi who have the nostalgia in supporting the youths through sports.
Ben Ssebuguzi is the Secretary General,Uganda Poor Youth Movement
