By Jjagwe Robert
As Sports Leaders we are sometimes criticized for not taking certain Sports matters seriously, not caring enough, acting too late, Etc. The truth is that sometimes we try not to make a bad situation worse and we pray that it can be resolved without too much negative publicity.
However the situation at Ndejje University warrants our voices to protect innocent young Athletes from extremely unfair actions that can ruin both their Academic Careers and Lives.
Ndejje University recently terminated Academic Scholarships offered to Sports Men and Ladies on the basis of their sporting talents. One of the well-known affected sports is volleyball.
Ndejje claims that the volleyball athletes are not excelling yet their scholarships demanded that they need to keep performing well and that the scholarships will be reviewed annually basing on the Athletes’ performance. In essence, Ndejje wants these Athletes to keep delivering good performances and most probably with Medals.
Therein lies the first serious problem with the Scholarships offered by Ndejje. Sport by its nature, demands that at any competition there can only be one winner. All other competitors must lose so that the competition gets a winner.
This automatically means that no medal can be won by more than one university at any competition. With about 32 universities in Uganda and only 3 possible medals at a competition, the chances of winning a medal are only 9% for each university. This makes winning medals or excellent performance as a basis for issuing Sports Scholarships extremely unfair, unrealistic and illogical.
If all universities adopt this same rationale, we would lose all Athletes on Scholarship in just one year because all of them simply cannot win the same medal at the same competition. It is also not correct to punish Athletes for not winning or excelling at each and every competition they engage in.
Sport simply does not work like this. I also believe that if an investigation is done to establish just how much Ndejje supports these Athletes to win competitions, Ndejje itself would be found lacking.
For instance do they really give these Athletes the best equipment regularly? Do they give them the best coaches in the country? Do they offer the best training facilities with the best training standards?
Most likely the answer to the above questions is ”No” and yet these are the basic ingredients of Sporting Excellence. Ndejje University must decide whether to give the Athletes a full scholarship for their entire course or not.
Tagging the Scholarship to annual review based on sporting excellence is extremely wrong and it disorganizes the Academic Career of these Athletes. Halting an Athlete’s Scholarship in the middle of their Course must not happen under any Circumstances as it means the Athlete could lose all the years already studied.
If the Athlete or their parent has no money, it can mean the end of their University Education without the Academic Qualification they sought in the first place.
As leaders, this matter is very serious and very problematic for our Sports Sector which is now starting to see some impressive growth and better financing. What Ndejje University is doing has the potential to reverse some of the positive forward gains we have achieved as Ugandans shun enrolment of their children into Sports.
On the legal side of things, under the new Sports Act, the National Sports Associations and Federations (NFs) have a duty to License Sports Promoters such as Ndejje University whose Scholarships in essence make Ndejje a Promoter.
The Federations must evoke Article 16 clause “L” of the New Sports Act 2023 to both License Promoters like Ndejje University and to as well certify the Management Contracts of such Promoters as expressly stated by the Act.
By doing so, the NFs can then prevent unfortunate occurrences like what Ndejje University is currently doing. No promoter’s contract should bear unfair and illogical conditions like those of Ndejje.
In the meantime I appeal to Ndejje University to amicably reconsider their drastic action. In the event that they do not do this, then they should know that under Article 23 of the New Sports Act, if the NFs did not approve and certify Ndejje’s contracts with the Athletes, then the same are illegal and should not be used to disenfranchise Uganda’s talented Athletes.
I also wish to appeal to all Universities to pay close attention to Articles 46, 47, 60, 65 and 70 of the new Sports Act of 2023. The summary of these clauses is that there is a good level of protection for our Athletes against unfair practices like what Ndejje is currently subjecting some of them to.
The Ministry of Education and Sports together with the NFs and National Council of Sports (NCS) have enough protection in the New Sports Act to intervene and save the plight of our Athletes at Ndejje University.
I hope that we do not fold our hands as Sports Leaders and look away until Lawyers come and do our work for us by litigation rather than by amicable dialogue with our oversight role as enshrined in the New Sports Act.
The Writer is a Bush Lawyer, Former President of the Uganda Table Tennis Association (UTTA), & Secretary General of the Union of Uganda Sports Federations & Associations (UUSFA).
