Let me begin by wishing our injured basketball players a speedy recovery. This is yet another piece of empirical evidence that corruption is deeply rooted in our sports sector. While man proposes and God disposes, I still believe that this accident, affecting our young male and female athletes along with their support staff, could have been averted if proper logistical planning had been put in place.

It is not only disheartening that this happened to our innocent young athletes, but it is also a historical shame on our country, specifically on our sports institutions.

While I see people commending the so-called swift response from the government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports, I still hold our authorities responsible for this shame.

I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that in this day and age, a country would allow its national athletes to travel by land instead of by air. Where are the resources being pumped into our basketball federation? Wouldn’t it have been more prudent to use those funds to airlift them to and from the championship in the first place? So why are people praising the authorities for this?

Our major setback as a country is the rampant corruption orchestrated by individuals we elect into office, who continue to go scot-free. As long as we fail to take serious action in penalizing corruption and its practitioners, we will remain in distress indefinitely.

By now, the authorities should have opened an investigation into the accident and begun questioning those responsible.

Thank God our young athletes and their coaching staff are safe.

We must act now, because we are already behind time.

By Adama Makasuba