By Kabbyanga Godfrey Baluku
St. Leo’s College in Kyegobe was where my father sent me to start my Secondary School Education. It is a school that I am immensely proud of. One of the reasons I am proud of this school is because it inculcated in me the idea of the “Scholar – athlete”.
The idea of the “Scholar – athlete” is taken from ancient Greece. Some attribute it to the philosopher Plato, others to yet another famous Athenian General and friend of Plato – Thucydides.
The saying goes thus: “He who is only an athlete is too crude, too vulgar, too much a savage. He who is a scholar only is too soft, to effeminate. The ideal citizen is the scholar athlete, the man of thought and the man of action.”
It is this philosophy that partly forms my approach to Communing with & Communicating with the people of Kasese and the people of Uganda. It is why,yesterday evening I was privileged to attend a football inter – media competition organised by my good friend Francis Kithulha.
Good Sports has the unique ability to help us transcend our political, economic , & religious diff. It has the unique ability to unite us in common ambition to achieve good ideals such as democracy, better health, educ, whilst also causing us, to forget that which disturbs us.
I commend Francis and his Kithulha Foundation for their initiative. I congratulate those Media houses that took part & I especially congratulate the winners Guide Radio. I am also commend our own UBC Ngeya radio for their spirited performance that saw them emerge second.
As agreed, the next tournament, on or before our 2023 May day celebrations, will feature both media houses and their listeners and will, I pray, be held in Bukonzo West.
Sports aside. As you know, H.E.Yoweri Museveni has consistently championed the case for Agriculture with ekibaaro (Commercial agriculture).In our Kasese district, our people in the lowlands have relatively flat pieces of land ideal for both crops and rearing of goats and cows.
To ease the cultivation of this land, I today, on behalf of our National Resistance Movement government, handed over a brand new Holland Tractor to the farming community of Mpondwe. That this farming community, like the thriving traders, are nearly all NRM supporters.
To those in the highlands, I continue to re emphasise that the 4 acre model is the best for achieving healthy returns on agriculture.
I also thank the farmers for their gift of a goat to me. I will, in practice of our doctrine, add it to my modest herd.
The writer is the Minister of State for ICT.
