President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and the First Lady and Minister of Education and Sports, Maama Janet Museveni have today performed the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of Akii-Bua Olympic Stadium in Lira City.
The construction of the US$ 129 million state-of-the-art facility is to be undertaken by an Egyptian firm SAMCO National Construction Company and Khater Sports and is projected to take a record period of 20 months to complete.
President Museveni used the occasion to explain the cause of the delay in the construction of the Stadium while at the same time castigating some political actors who are spreading lies tying the upcoming Presidential and general elections to the project.
“No Akii-Bua Olympic Stadium, no votes for NRM. So please we are tired of lies. Elections based on lies are not good elections, they should be based on the truth. If you have elections based on lies then you are killing your country,” President Museveni warned.
President Museveni explained that the government had to prioritize the implementation of the competing programmes on a small resource envelope.
He said the government did not deliberately abandon sports or the construction of stadiums but had to first deal with the basic necessities in the country like peace, infrastructure, education and health, among others.
“Therefore, the delay of the construction of Akii-Bua Stadium was not because we did not care, it was because we had to survive first; peace, food, education, health and infrastructure, among others,” he said.
“When some people try to say,Oh,this government is useless, they have forgotten sports- I am a sportsman myself, but I couldn’t start with sports when there was no peace or food in the country. It is not that we didn’t know about sports but one by one makes a bundle,” President Museveni explained.
He also cautioned the wanainchi against some political actors who claim to be able to do everything at once and always to treat them as liars.
President Museveni also informed the audience that the day was about celebrating the sports legend John Akii-Bua and also to fulfill the commitment of co-hosting the AFCON tournament with the sister East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania.
He stressed that Uganda is to fast track the construction of the stadium as AFCON is an international event, adding that Uganda will not fail to do her part.
“This time we agreed with other East Africans- Kenya and Tanzania to host the Afcon. Now that we have committed with other East Africans, we must do the 3 stadiums the AFCON people want. We have Namboole, Nakivubo and initially Akii-Bua stadium,” he elaborated.
President Museveni further explained that the AFCON group brought in other conditions of having an International Airport near the stadium leading to Hoima stadium coming on board because of Kabalega International Airport.
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