Nchimbi is right, TFF must act over Taifa Stars poor performance

The Minister responsible for, among other things, sports, William Nchimbi, was spot on last week when he absolved Danish Taifa Stars’ coach, Jan Paulsen, over the team’s exit from Africa Nation’s Cup (Afcon).

Indeed, anyone in his or her right senses will think in the same way the minister thinks over the senior national soccer team’s run of poor performance.

The minister who was taking part in a telecast debate through the TBC television in Butiama, Mara Region was visibly frustrated over Taifa Stars’ continued failure to do well in Afcon qualifiers.

And as has been in the past, Taifa Stars once again failed to qualify for the Afcon finals after collecting five points from as many matches.

As rightly noted by the minister, the team’s decimal performance does not lie on the coach or the technical bench for that matter, but rather on its preparations.

 And when one talks about preparations here, it does not mean spending days on end in residential training, far from it, but rather playing quality trial matches!

Before the start of the just ended Afcon qualifier as far back as last year, I stressed to the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) through newspaper columns (the Daily News and the Citizen), on the need to organize as many quality friendly matches as possible for the team, but as expected the advice fell on deaf ears!

In fact, the same problem that afflicts Taifa Stars, equally affects our top clubs, Simba and Young Africans, who have repeatedly failed to click in continental clubs’ tournaments.

Tournaments in tournaments out, the so called big guns are knocked out of the preliminaries so much so that even the premier league which helps us in getting representatives for the continent’s Club Champions and Confederation Cups have lately lost its meaning!

Yes, how can we continue celebrating getting tickets for such high profile continental clubs tournaments when we don’t seem to be getting anywhere?

Let’s face it, given our continued failure to go beyond the preliminaries of continental clubs tournaments are clubs like Simba and Young Africans better than Toto Africans and Azam FC?

Taifa Stars and our leading clubs will never get anywhere in international soccer tournaments as long as they continue to prepare for such tournaments at home, ignoring trial matches against top-flight foreign teams!

Now how do we get ourselves out of this cul-de-sac? Do we need to be armed in rocket science in order to transform our teams into winning ways?

The truth is, we don’t! As I had occasion to point out in the past, for a start, the TFF must make it mandatory for all clubs taking part in the premier league to have juvenile teams in their stables.

Secondly, the TFF must make it mandatory for such teams to sign most of their players from their own juvenile teams and other locally based soccer academies.

Thirdly, our soccer fathers should ensure that youthful players take part in the premier league.

The federation needs to come up with a clause in its regulations that would bar clubs from signing foreign players who no longer represent their national soccer teams.

Yes, only players who will help local clubs raise their soccer standard should be signed and not former national players!

Having implemented the foregoing, clubs leaders, including Taifa Stars’ handlers, should then ensure that the teams play more trial matches at home and abroad against high quality opponents.

It is only by playing against top-flight foreign opponents in trial matches that respective technical benches would be able to gauge their teams/players’ response to training.

For instance, as far as Taifa Stars are concerned, surely one should not expect them to do well in the Afcon tournament after playing less than five trial matches against as weak opponents as the Palestinian national soccer team!

What has always beaten me is this belief that we can do well in Afcon qualifiers through the use of almost the same players for the last six or so years!

Yes, somebody ought to come forward and explain to me how we could expect, for the last six years, to continue depending on the services of aging players the likes of Nsajigwa, Haroub, Machupa, Kaseja, Henry Joseph and Nizar Khalfan!

I have always wondered why we have continued to ignore players from Coca Cola tournaments!

For the last three or so years, Tanzania has been represented in South Africa and Brazil by national soccer teams made out of youthful players from Coca Cola tournaments.

The million dollar question is of course why we not been making use of such youthful players?

If a country like Botswana with a population of less than 1.5million can produce a qualifying national team for the Afcon finals out of its juvenile teams, why can’t Tanzania with a population of over 20 million youths?

We ought to do a lot of hard thinking!

 

By Attilio Tagalile

Rest in peace Penza

Last week one of Tanzania’s well known journalists, Mr Juma Penza, silently passed away at the Agakhan Hospital, catching some of us who had been off the press for a week or so, completely unaware!

But given the immense contribution he made in this thankless inky path called journalism, it would be the zenith of absurdity if Penza’s departure was allowed to pass without a word, especially from some of us who had worked under him.

Penza as most of us loved to refer him to, was my boss when I was transferred to Arusha Shihata (Tanzania News Agency) Bureau in June, 1979 after completing my two year diploma course in journalism at the Tanzania School of Journalism, presently School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) of the University of Dar es Salaam.

Originally, Penza was an employee of the Tanzania Standard Newspapers (TSN), publishers of the Daily News, Sunday News, and lately, Habari Leo.

After being employed as a trainee reporter in the late 1960s, he was in late 1970s sent to the regions as part of the TSN’s efforts to expand its news gathering network.

And when Shihata was formed, a number of TSN reporters in the regions were seconded to Shihata in order to strengthen the newly formed news agency.

A loquacious and jovial man, Penza is one of very few Tanzanian journalists I have personally met and worked with who had very high sense for news, referred to in journalistic realm as a knack or nose for news.

In fact it was his close involvement in news writing that more than once brought him problems during his active days in the profession.

However, the best known incident occurred when he was Shihata Bureau Chief in Tanga in the late 1970s.

The source of the problem were his series of articles on coffee smuggling through the port.

Those involved in the racket included highly placed officials both in the government and the ruling party, CCM who now decided that they would fix him, nowhere, but during a high profile meeting of the central committee of the ruling party, CCM, which was scheduled for Tanga.

As had been planned, Penza’s name was included as one of the CC’s agenda in a meeting that was to be chaired by none other than CCM’s Chairman, the Father of the Nation, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere.

It took almost nine hours to work on the rest of the agenda, and just as Mwalimu was about to close the meeting, one of CC members reminded him about the last issue on the agenda…

At this point, Mwalimu asked the member to explain to him about the Penza issue…

But before he could finish, Mwalimu interjected:

“Do you want the nation to be told tomorrow that a whole CC met to discuss a journalist’s story about coffee smuggling?”

That marked not only the end of witch-hunting against the poor young journalist who had just done his bit of duty, but allowed Penza to continue doing what he knew best, write news.

Penza’s coffee smuggling story is important because there is presently a school of thought among some Tanzanians, including journalists, that during the one party state, party and state owned media only did one thing, they sang about the government in power!

However, a critical appraisal of many stories carried during the time renders such claims baseless.

Indeed, there were stories such as the food and sugar scandals carried by the Daily News published by the government owned Tanzania Standard Newspapers (TSN), which saw two ministers losing their posts.

 Therefore like the food shortage and sugar scandal, Penza’s coffee smuggling story equally rocked the nation.

Penza was however, not short of controversies. For instance, during one of Shihata Bureau Chiefs’ meetings held in Dar es Salaam, he was accused by some of his colleagues of having misused the company’s fund to the tune of 10,000/-, quite something during the time.

When pressed to explain the form of misuse by the Shihata Director, Mr Hadji Konde (deceased), they claimed that Penza had used the money to buy expensive furniture and other office equipment.

The office equipment turned out to be two desk typewriters and a portable typewriter.

As for the furniture, they were quite expensive, but the kind of what the CAG (Controller and Auditor General), Mr Ludovick Utouh will tell you a value for money (VFM) type of furniture.

Further investigation on the matter later showed that Penza had not misappropriated a single cent, that he had used the money for furniture and typewriter and the Arusha Bureau Office turned out to be the best equipped and furniture office in the country!

After the misuse of funds story was over, Mr Konde now asked the rest to give their opinion about Penza’s work output.

Not a single man raised his finger against the man as statistics showed that he had filed more stories than any Shihata bureau in the country!

However, those who had raised their voices against Penza were not done!

One of the journalists argued that Penza had filed more stories than any bureau in the country simply because Arusha was the seat of an international conference centre.

What the journalist implied was that it was easy to collect and write stories in Arusha than any region in the country.

Asked to comment on the argument, Penza had this to say:

“Stories are written…you don’t collect stories in the streets…”

One day I asked Penza what he had learnt from his journalistic endeavors, and especially, the accusations that had been levelled against him and he had this to say:

 “Regardless of where you are, you can reduce the number of your enemies quite considerably if you work hard. My enemies failed in their effort to destroy me because I had outdone them in work performance…had I had nothing to show in the form of performance, I would have been done!”

That was Juma Penza in his element. Indeed, if there is anything that I learnt from Penza in the course of working under him, it was to work hard in whatever task I was involved in.

And indeed, that has greatly helped in making me what I’m today. Thank you Penza for showing me the ropes, rest in peace.

By Attilio Tagalile

Taifa Stars' Afcon failure: TFF to blame

Taifa Stars complete their last and formality Africa Nations Cup qualifier (Afcon) on Saturday when they are expected to take on Morocco in their own backyard.

The Rabat match will officially mark Taifa Stars’ yet another unfortunate exit from the high profile continental soccer tournament.

The exit will be unfortunate because Taifa Stars blew up their chances due to a variety of factors that included, among others, lack of commitment on the part of the players.

In fact the latter problem was made public by none other than a section of the players when they were beaten by a lone goal by their Moroccan counterparts in the first leg match held in Dar es Salaam.

A number of foreign based players complained that they had lost the match despite getting more scoring opportunities than their opponents for lack of commitment and seriousness.

This problem was first raised by players from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) during a tournament held in Cairo, Egypt.

The Congolese players expressed surprise at the lack of commitment displayed by Tanzanian national players when they went down by 5 goals to one against the Egyptian national team, the Pharaohs.

What surprised DRC players was that instead of feeling sorry for losing, Tanzanian players were smiling whenever they Egyptian pumpued in one goal after another!

In their first match played in Dar es Salaam against the Moroccans a few months ago, Taifa Stars went down by one goal to nil in a match they should have either won or at worst, drawn.

And given the clumsy manner in which they played against the Moroccans, Taifa Stars have absolutely no chance against their counterparts!

The last time Taifa Stars reached the Afcon finals was in 1980 when they beat Zambia to qualify for the tournament held in Lagos, Nigeria.

The Saturday match is a mere formality since Taifa Stars lost their contention in the tournament when they allowed a draw in Dar es Salaam against their Algerian counterparts in a game they should have easily won.

When one looks back to past Afcon qualifiers, no tournament presented Taifa Stars with the best opportunity of making it to the finals than the latest qualifier that ends this Saturday.

To date Taifa Stars have five points won from two draws both against the Algerians and one victory against the Central African Republic, CAR.

Had the Tanzania Football Federation, TFF, invested on the team through provision of a series of top-flight foreign friendly matches, Taifa Stars would have won all their four encounters against Algeria and CAR, hence collecting a total of 12 points.

I have singled out the foregoing two teams because their level of performance was not very much different from that of Taifa Stars.

But the Moroccans were of higher pedigree compared to the three teams although they are quite beatable for a well prepared team.  

The collection of the 12 points from Algeria and CAR could have easily landed Taifa Stars in the Afcon finals.

For the doubting Thomas, consider the following: the leader in the group D, Morocco have eight points from as many matches.

The Moroccan position is shared by the CAR who have also bagged in eight points while Algeria have similar number of points with Tanzania, five.

This means that even if the Moroccans win their last game against Taifa Stars, they will still have 11 points, one point less than what Taifa Stars would have had had they beaten Algeria and CAR in all their outings!

The same thing can be said about the CAR. Like the Moroccans they cannot get more than 11 points!

Therefore the TFF’s failure to prepare the team for the tournament has translated into yet another disappointment for the country’s soccer mad fans.

In a nutshell, Taifa Stars’ failure to qualify for the Afcon finals lies in the team’s failure to get as many top flight friendly matches as possible.

In terms of its coaching bench, the team has no problem, especially if one considers the fact that the team’s present coach, Jan Poulsen, was part of the coaching staff that helped the Danish national soccer team win Euro 92!

If one looks around for all the teams that have already qualified for the Afcon finals that include past minnows such as Botswana, one thing that comes out clearly is that apart from having gone through soccer juvenile programs, such teams were subjected to as many top flight friendly matches as possible.

Taifa Stars’ performance in the Afcon qualifier have also been affected by the presence, in the team, of low quality foreign based players.

Indeed, most of the foreign based Tanzanian players except for one or two have had very little impact on the team partly due to the kind of clubs they play for.

Instead of wasting money paying foreign based players’ return air tickets, the money would have been well spent in increasing the players’ allowances.

 By Attilio Tagalile

 

Tanzania netball chief says it all over success

The Tanzania netball Association (Chaneta) Secretary General, Rose Mkisi, has said it all; it is not how long a team stays in a residential training camp, but rather how many top-flight friendly matches the team has played that determine success.

Rose said this on the morning of September 21^st this year (2011) during her interview with Radio One Stereo sports caster, Maulid Kitenge when she was explaining reasons which led to Taifa Queens’ (national netball team) victory in the just ended All Africa Games held in Maputo, Mozambique.

She said Taifa Queens’ success which saw them finish second after being narrowly beaten by Uganda to win a silver medal was a result of three years of preparations.

“The medal our girls have won is a result of three years of hard work which took the team to various countries, both for competitions and training purposes…the countries included Singapore, South Africa and Manchester, in Britain,” she said.

Rose paid glowing tribute to the chairman of the IPP Media, Reginald Mengi, who had single handedly organized a netball international tournament that helped in shaping up Taifa Queens.

“Whenever we went to seek assistance in the form funding for the team’s passage abroad from some private institutions, some thought that we were obsessed with foreign trips…little did they know that we wanted to give our nascent side the much needed experience,” she said.

Rose said the numerous top-flight friendly matches against foreign teams they had at home and abroad finally helped in inculcating confidence into his girls. “They finally got used to playing against big crowds,” she stressed.

She said some of the teams they beat on their way to the final, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, were teams Taifa Queens had lost heavily against in the past.

“Zambia who had narrowly beaten us on our way to the top, were surprised when they finished third, behind us…both Botswana and South Africa who had in the past literally walked over us, were also surprised that they could no longer beat us,” she said.

The point Rose was making was very simple, that as long as a team put hard work on their training and was also provided with numerous high profile friendly matches, it can easily beat teams that had initially appeared unbeatable.

The story of Taifa Queens and their visionary secretary general is unfortunately the same story some of us have tried to sell to their brothers, the Tanzania Football Federation, TFF.

The TFF has repeatedly been told that their team, Taifa Stars, will never get anywhere as long as they are not exposed to many quality friendly matches at home and abroad!

Four years ago, Taifa Stars through the TFF was given a total of 2.4bn/- by Serengeti Breweries and the National Micro Finance Bank, NMB, in sponsorship.

Although the money was not misused, however, it was not directed towards getting quality foreign teams for testing Taifa Stars as the latter prepared for the Africa Nations Cup (Afcon) and World Cup qualifiers.

Year in, year out, Tanzanians witnessed Taifa Stars spending more time in residential camps instead of travelling abroad to take on their counterparts as part of their training programme.

And the result has been the team’s repeated failure to get anywhere for the simple reason that such lopsided programmes have not helped, in any way, in imparting the much needed experience to the players.

There are numerous examples which show that apart from investing in juvenal soccer, the second surest way of building a well drilled soccer team is to expose it to as many high quality local and international friendly matches as possible.

And the example is again provided by none other than Rose who said in that interview that while their counterparts had spent between three and four months in residential camps, Taifa Queens had spent only 28 days but played many matches at home and abroad.

Therefore one hopes that the TFF leadership will emulate their Chaneta counterpart by providing Taifa Stars with as many high quality friendly matches as possible.

But because Taifa Stars does not have the kind of pedigree that could draw top-flight national teams from other countries to Dar es Salaam, they should not wait for such friendly matches at home, they will never get it as it has proved times and again!

What they need to do is pursue such teams in their own backyards, and because it is us who want to benefit from such exposure, TFF should go even further by paying for the team’s accommodation.

Indeed, it is only by being ready to sacrifice for the team’s sake that Taifa Stars would be able to earn the much needed international exposure that will take it to places.

There is absolutely no way that a team like Bafana Bafana (South Africa) can turn down Taifa Stars’ request for one or more friendly matches anywhere in South Africa as long as the TFF says that it will meet its team’s expenses, passage and accommodation.

How can South Africa say no to such request given the kind of political relations that Tanzania has had with Mandela’s land since the days of freedom fighting?

Talking about political relations, it is time Tanzanians made full use of its bilateral relations forged during the days of political struggle.

For instance, Botswana which has just qualified for the Afcon finals was barely three decades ago a member of the Frontline States under the chairmanship of Tanzania.

Has the TFF fully exploited Botswana and other former Frontline States such as Zambia and later Angola and Mozambique?

By Attilio Tagalile  

Of power blues and Ngeleja's press conference

The Minister for Energy and Minerals, William Ngeleja on Sunday, Augast 4^th, this year (2011) summoned a press conference in Dar es Salaam and announced that beginning Tuesday, August 6^th this year, 137.5 megawatts would be injected into the national grid.

The minister said the move would greatly help in reducing, quite considerably, the present power rationing in the country.

Of course, Ngeleja’s news was a good piece of information, especially coming at a time when power rationing is not only a nuisance, but has literally reduced the country’s economy into shambles!

Unfortunately for Tanzanians, this is not the first time that they are being told what in all intends and purposes appears to be a good news and by the same person.

For the same man who had chosen Sunday as a day for breaking out his news, is the same man who was once quoted by the media as saying that power rationing would sooner than later be history!

That was many months back and the rest, as they say, is history; for Tanzanians have not only been subjected to untold power outages.

But until the minister came up with the latest development, there have been all signs that it was just a matter of time before the country plunged into total darkness!

Since the minister’s dramatic press conference, has the projected 137.5 megawatts brought any changes to the country’s power outages?

The truth is the situation has grown from bad to worse, and as far as Dar es Salaam residents are concerned, the minister’s announcement has turned out into another hoax!

Therefore when the parliamentary of the energy committee, Mr January Makamba a few days ago said that he doubted the ministry’s ability to solve the power crisis as it had promised, he was confirming what most Tanzanians had long feared!

Yet when one looks back over problems Tanzania has been going through, as far as power is concerned, we would not have been where we are had the ministry not interfered in the Tanzania Electric Supply Company’s work.

Indeed, it would be recalled that it all happened when it became apparent that the country required a stopped gap measure in its power supply following prolonged drought that reduced, quite considerably, Tanzania’s hydro fired power.

Instead of leaving the job of getting fuel or gas fired power plants to the experts as represented by Tanesco, the ministry brought on board a briefcase company by the name of Richmond which at the end of the day failed to deliver!

And as if that was not bad enough, the fake company handed its ‘business’ to another, equally dubious company, Dowans, hence marking the start of power woes in the country!

That was not the end of the story. Later Tanzanians were told that Dowans had been bought by an American company, and before the Tanzanian world knew what was going on, US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton was in town in connection with the new energy owners!

And suddenly local journalists who had turned Dowans into a whipping dog, elected to keep mum over who had pocketed American money after selling Dowans!

Since then, power blues appear to have come here to stay, and it would require an intelligent, focused and very committed leader to take Tanzania out of its present mess.

The power mess Tanzania is presently locked in can be likened to what the former minister for finance during the first phase government, Mr Amir Jamal, once told a Tanzanian journalist.

Asked to comment on what he thought about Tanzania, Mr Jamal said, “the state of its economy could be compared to that of a truck that has sank in mud and was devoid of pressure in all its tires!”

And for the truck to get out of the mud, Jamal told his questioner, it would require to fill in the tyres with pressure before thinking hauling the truck from the mud it was stuck in!

Jamal who died and was buried in Canada over two decades ago was commenting on Tanzania’s state of the economy immediately after its war with Dictator Idi Amin Dada.

Mwalimu Nyerere had called on Tanzanians, immediately after the war, to brace up for eighteen months of hardship.

The professed eighteen months of hardship however, later turned out into a decade of economic hardship, forcing the government into the waiting hands of the International Monetary Finance, IMF!

One wonders what Mr Jamal would have said about Tanzania’s economy today had he been around!

It is important to raise Mr Ngeleja’s pronouncement because since he said what he said a few days ago, power rationing continues unabated!

When the energy and minerals minister spoke to the media three weeks ago, his pronouncement was couched in finality, ‘beginning tomorrow’ the nation will experience change in power supply…’

Unfortunately the nation is yet to experience the change apart from statements to the effect that the change is set to come gradually, according to a section of the media reports carried on Wednesday, August 7^th 2011!

When the government, through Ngeleja spoke about power rationing becoming history in this country, it did not take long before the country was plunged into the most telling power outages in history.

For the first time in the country’s history, the nation was told about factories/companies that had decided to close shop on account of power rationing.

But just when the nation appears to be getting used to power woes, the minister responsible for energy and minerals comes up with a statement to the effect that there will be considerable reduction in power rationing in the country!

 By Attilio Tagalile

Of bumper harvest and Tanzania leaders' doublespeak

At least four regions in the southern part of Tanzania which were once known as the big four because of their massive food production-Iringa, Mbeya, Ruvuma and Rukwa, have more or less recovered their erstwhile fame.

They are teeming with maize harvest at a time when the northern part of the country is not very much endowed with food this time around, and neighbouring Kenya to the north and Somalia to Kenya’s north-eastern part are facing famine!

Unlike Somalia which has for years reeled under clan wars making part of the country ungovernable, Kenya is a member of the newly revived East African Community, EAC, with four other countries that include Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

However, Kenya’s close relations with Tanzania through the EAC, has not helped her in getting food from its southern neighbour following the latter’s decision to ban food export outside Tanzania!

And the ban was announced by none other than the very man who has lately been preaching about the importance for Tanzanians to shed off xenophobia, Prime Minister, Mizengo Pinda!

The prime minister who hails from Rukwa Region which is leading the big four in maize harvest, is presently sagging under the weight of harvests from three past seasons!

In fact, Rukwa has so much maize that farmers in the region have been forced to store their harvests in opon grounds, football pitches and schools!

Before the government announced the ban of maize export, a number of trucks from Kenya had attempted to drive through the country, but were stopped in their trail by Tanzanian authorities.

Farmers in the big four, and especially so, in Rukwa Region are meanwhile complaining bitterly over the Tanzanian government’s decision to stop neighbouring countries from buying their maize.

And like Rukwa farmers, many Tanzanians are presently questioning their government’s logic in banning maize export, especially when rains for the next season are just around the corner.

For instance, just last week, the country’s directorate of meteorology announced that Tanzania will experience rains this month.

The weather men whose forecasts have always left a lot to be desired, this time around worked out well as a couple of regions, including the coastal belts have already started experiencing rains.

Most of the southern part of the country that include the big four, expect to start getting serious rains from November upwards, that is, barely two months away!

Kenya which is one of the most hard hit countries in terms of food shortage is also one of the countries which is endowed with financial resources.

And at one time Kenyan businessmen were ready to part with fortune for Tanzanian maize and if you consider the fact that one kenyan shilling is worth 17 Tanzanian shillings, farmers in southern part of Tanzania would have managed to make a kill for their maize harvest.

Unfortunately that has not come to pass and the Kenyan government must now be working hard to import maize from elsewhere for its starving people, and all that is simply because Tanzanian government officials appear to have all of sudden stopped thinking!

But while the prime minister accuses his people of being xenophobic, he is putting the very accusation he is leveling on his people, in practice, by stopping his own farmers (that include his own region) from seizing the golden opportunity of bettering their lives through the sale of their maize to starving people across the border!

However, a critically analysis of Tanzania leaders’ behavior shows that they are not stranger to such macabre decisions!

For instance, while they preach the importance of the EAC in their political pulpits, the same leaders have denied 15,000 retired employees of the defunct EAC their rightful terminal benefits!

During the third phase reign of President Benjamin Mkapa, the latter promised to pay the 15,000 their terminal benefits.

After meeting leaders of the 15,000 retirees, both parties settled for 450bn/- in terminal benefits with payment ranging from 20m/- to over 100m/-.

However, when the implementation of the exercise came, only 117bn/- were paid and as if that was not bad enough, the number of retirees was raised, for reasons only known to the government, from 15,000 to 21,000!

Therefore the same government that had the audacity of signing an agreement on the revival of the EAC is the same government that decided to shortchange its own 15,000 retirees of their terminal benefits!

And the very person who re-entered Tanzania into the EAC, Mr Mkapa was barely two days ago at it, this time telling Tanzanians there was no need for them to worry over land as land was in galore!

This means that had he been in power this time around, he would have made a point of ensuring that foreigners had their hands on our land!

And for any doubting Thomas, consider this: This is the very man who got the country into those mineral contracts which have left this nation poorer and now he has the audacity of telling Tanzanians that they have enough land, meaning that they can just allow foreigners to come in and get it as there is adequate land for all of us!

 

'By Attilio Tagalile

Ikangaa laments over Tanzania's poor sports performance

Tanzania Peoples Defence Force (TPDF), Colonel, Juma Ikangaa strongly believes that Tanzania’s failure to do well in sports, and athletics in particular, is due to our deliberate decision to ban sports in schools during the third phase government.

The former Fukuoka (Japan) marathon winner who is known to the Japanese more than any Tanzanian says when we decided to put a stop on national sports competitions at school level in 1990s, we marked the end of winning ways for the nation.

Indeed, it would be recalled that during 1990s, the then Minister for Education, Mr Joseph Mungai who is ironically himself an avid sports lover and practitioner, banned sports in schools, hence bringing national schools sports competitions such as UMISETA to an end.

Since then, the nation has failed miserably to do well in regional, continental and international sporting arena!

Ikangaa says; “When Giddamas Shahanga won a gold medal during the Commonwealth Games in 1978, he had just been discovered in the national schools championships.”

The former New York marathon winner further says that for any country to do well in sports, it is important that it introduced its children to sports, “we have to catch them when they are still young and there is nothing that is suited for that than schools…”

Ikangaa recalls that during his school days, there were numerous cases of fellow students who were given the opportunity of continuing with their studies in higher forms even if they had not done well in some of their respective subjects.

He said this was done simply because they were avid sportsmen and women.

“During our days, teachers strongly believed that pupils who did well in sports were also more likely to do well in academic subjects.”

The senior army officer says that the country’s present medal drought, especially in athletics, is due to the absence of robust sports organization in schools.

He says there is no reason why Kenyans should be doing fantastically in athletics when both the weather and the physical features of the area they came from is similar to that a section of some Tanzanians come from.

For instance, he says Kenyans who have been doing well in middle and long distances, are herders and come from the Rift Valley which extends into Tanzania, running across the country to the southern highland regions.

“What we ought to do is divide our country into zones…for instance, the coastal belt where both men and women have big thighs are good for short distance running…what we need to do is provide these people with the technical know-how in the form of instructors for sprints,” he says.

He said once the country was divided into different zones, the second move would be to get requisite instructors for different sports in the different allotted zones.

He said there were for instance regions which were known for producing very good footballers.

In the past, he said, such regions included Morogoro, Kigoma, Tabora and Tanga.

And talking about sports instructors, he said this was another area where the nation had sabotaged, probably without knowing what it was doing.

He recalls in the past when the ministry of education took the took a front lead in training of physical education instructors for schools.

“We are no longer churning out physical educationists for schools and this has, to a large extent, led to our present problem, drought in international sports success,” he says.

Ikangaa says the third problem that led to the fall of sports fortunes in Tanzania was caused by the Bretton Woods institutions, namely, the World Bank and the International Monery Fund, IMF.

He said when the World Bank and the IMF came up with what came to be referred to as the structural adjustment programs in the late 1980s, the first casualty was sports.

“Implementation of structural adjustment programs came at a time when public institutions in the country like banks, harbours, insurance, national housing and the likes had very strong sporting teams…” he said.

“Therefore when it was decided to streamline the economy, the foregoing public institutions were forced to do away with their sports teams, hence forcing some of the sportsmen and women who had been engaged purely for sports purposes to be jettisoned,” he said.

However, Ikangaa also takes a swipe at journalists in the country whom he says could have helped in the development of sports if they approached their writing more scientifically which he describes as pin-pointing problems afflicting sports and coming up with solutions to such problems.

“However, for journalists to play the role of sports redeemer effectively, it is important that they first and foremost informed themselves in sports.”

He argues that one cannot write on something that one knows very little or nothing about.

Ikangaa attributes other problems which have contributed to the country’s failure to do well in sports to falling educational standards and more importantly, lack of reading culture.

“It is very unfortunate that whoever you see reading his or her work is directly related to what one is reading, say a journalist or lawyer or one is preparing for this or that examination,” says Ikangaa visibly disturbed.

That being the case, then what is the way out of the malaise? Ikangaa says there is a need on the part of the government to make deliberate effort to ensure that sports become a permanent feature in schools.

Secondly, he says, there is a need to re-introduce sports competitions at district, regional and national level.

He says during Taifa Cup tournaments, Tanzanians were able to get players they had missed through national schools soccer championships through the regional national soccer tournament.

On argument about the need for sporting associations in the country to be led by sportsmen and women, Ikangaa says the argument is hollow as long as such sportsmen and women lack sound academic education.

He says one of the tragedies was that most of sporting associations were being led by people whose primary aim was not development of sports, but rather personal, to lineup their pockets!

By Attilio Tagalile