By Paul Rukundo
For the benefit of those reading this story for the first time, Julius Ssekitoleko is a Ugandan weightlifter who went missing from the Olympic village facilities in Izumisano in Japan. It’s alleged that he left a note explaining why he disappeared in thin air and his reasons were attributed to the suffering he has endured back home.
Although, there are unconfirmed reports that he has been found, Ssekitoleko’s case mirrors a problem in society that should be addressed to avoid similar situations.
When i first heard of the incident, I thought maybe it was not necessary for the boy to expose us at international level, then I again contemplated on why he needs to come back home we suffer together but lastly, I came to terms of agreeing with him that he should in fact move further to Yokohama, Kanazawa and Toyota.
Out of 42 million Ugandans, Ssekitoleko was among the few selected to represent his country in international games, a non-Ugandan or even non- African would imagine how such privileged person would disappear before even lifting a kilogram of those weights at the Olympics. Like the saying “shit happens” it indeed happened and we have no one to lift anything for us at the Olympics.
Yesterday, the Hon Minister of State for Foreign Affairs met with the H.E Ambassador of Japan to Uganda and among the issues discussed was Ssekitoleko. Well, Ssekitoleko hoodwinked us as a country, he travelled on state funded visa, he ate our posho and earned some allowances to raise our flag high in Tokyo but he chose to vanish.
The Hon Minister tasked the sports line minister to fly to Japan to look for Ssekitoleko whom I presume his tax contribution to the Uganda Revenue Authority coffers has not been close to a million Uganda shilling per year.
Of course, the line minister will have to constitute a team of investigators from both countries and as it is our norm, we may even need to hire CIA mercenaries from America to find the athlete. The Ugandan Minister and his investigators will definitely not travel in Economy class, and they will with no doubts sleep in posh hotels where the snipers can easily spot Sseki. By the way all these costs to find Ssekitoleko are on tax payer. In simple terms, we are investing in close to a billion to find someone whose tax contribution can’t exceed a million Uganda shilling. One wonders how Governments are run?
Uganda’s Gross National Income stands at 98.49 billion dollars and surprisingly Japan is among the first five countries where we get this income from. As a country, what do we lose if Ssekitoleko adds a billion to our Gross National Product statistics? What do we miss if Ssekitoleko builds a mansion in Masaka using our locally manufactured cement and bricks? Why do we need to invest a billion to lose a billion?
If the minister is not willing to discuss the reasons why most of our sports men and women disappear, he should then not waste more tax payers money in finding the lost ones. Ssekitoleko and many more, are training hard to disappear; this whole issue will not end if we don’t give attention to why but rather focus on who.
And to you comrade Ssekitoleko, we wish you the best.
Rukundo Paul Rwabihurwa is a social and political commentator