It was a bright day. Colour filled the air. Right from the work place to the streets, Uganda’s national flag colours were painted everywhere. Corporates donned their jerseys to work, taxi drivers, boda boda cyclists, all traders and street beggars did the same. Excitement filled the air for the long wait. The Uganda Cranes were going to play against Ghana at the 2017 African Cup of Nations after 39 years.
Wow! My fellow countrymen can mean to be patriotic, I thought to myself. These people really know how to shower their own with amazing love and pride to encourage and add zeal to walk through even the darkest shadow. Truth be told, the love was massive. Whether it was Fomo (Fear Of Missing Out) for some or real love and patriotism for others, the passion was just refreshing!
Unfortunately like the saying goes, one’s true colours will always come out eventually. When Uganda lost to Ghana, the massive fire died out even though a few kept the spirit alive as they waited for Uganda to play against Egypt.
A good number of the so called patriotic fans, however, started to sight flaws and throw all sorts of comments as if they are the experts in the game of soccer. Others expressed disappointment as if they can even ever score a goal on any given day. And as if your guess is as good as mine, onJanuary 25, 2017 when Uganda was supposed to play against Mali, the kajanja of jerseys, social media updates, the exaggerated sounds of the vuvuzela, backed by the annoying abuse of the “Mujje Tulumbe” lines were nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly it was business as usual. Nobody cared, and the few that did, were just sulking and cursing at leisure. Ahem! It is amazing how people can change in the nick of time. So one wonders, where are the so called fans that mobilised Ugandans from within and out of the country to show patriotism?
Where are the corporates whose bosses gave orders to don the Uganda Cranes jerseys to work when Uganda played its first game? Is it that we can only stand with our own when they make us proud by winning and when it does not happen we just abandon them and move on? Are we suddenly ashamed of our very own as if the qualification alone was not good enough?
I said it once and I will say it again; some Ugandans are just the perfect excuse of sailing with the band wagon even when they do not know what exactly is going on. This is proof that majority of the noise makers had no clue about what was going on, the journey that the Uganda Cranes have walked and what it means to finally qualify for AFCON 2017.
They just dived into the picture and started to expect miracles without attaching value to anything. The few who know what is going on, are the ones that are still standing with the team regardless of the outcome because they know what this really means, whether we won or not.
Oba when shall this syndrome of just rolling with situations end? Now let us patiently wait for history to repeat itself as “The Uganda Cranes” finally return. All it will take is some noise from somewhere and the rest will come running along before they eventually go quiet in just a few hours.
Aha! Funny people just.