Formerly state minister for economic monitoring in the office of the president, Peter Ogwang was appointed on Thursday as the new state minister of education and sports, displacing Hamson Obua.
His appointment and three others came through a letter signed on the 21st of July by the president of Uganda H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.
“I thank HE the president for yet again entrusting me with a new leadership position to serve this country in the best interest. Serving as state minister for economic monitoring has been the most exciting journey so far. I will continue to give my best in the ministry of education and sports.” Ogwang tweeted.
He takes over from Hamson Obua also newly appointed government chief whip who assumed the sports office in December 2019 to replace Charles Bakabulinde.
News about Obua’s transfer was received with appreciation from some sports federations like boxing.
The president of the Uganda Boxing Federation Moses Muhangi blames Obua for siding with the football federation (FUFA) an act that left other federations struggling.
“I hope Ogwang doesn’t do the same mistake Obua did. He loves football. So if he pays so much attention to it, he will also end up the same way as Obua.” Muhangi said while appearing on Nbs sport a local sports tv.
He further alleged that Obua suffocated boxing activities citing to when the federation had to organize a school’s competition, which the latter disbanded in addition to fueling misunderstandings in the boxing federation.
During his tenure as state minister for sports, Hamson Obua spearheaded the request of ush 97b to the ministry of sports to have Mandela National stadium at Namboole refurbished and before his departure, ush 67b had been approved in a supplementary budget.
The project however faced a lot of backlash with members of parliament and the public arguing that the same amount could be used to construct new stadiums than just renovate a one Namboole.
The sports budget increased from ush 17b to ush 47b during Obua’s reign, but according to Muhangi, it wasn’t Obua’s making but a collective effort of everybody including himself to have the budget increase.
“Obua hasn’t registered much as a person and for me I think the president was timely to make such a change because sports will now have a minister who can focus.” Said Muhangi.
Notable for his crackdown on corrupt government officials and civil servants, Ogwang’s experience in tackling the corrupt will be put to task in an office where allegations of misappropriation of funds are a daily conversation.
However, too bad for boxing since Ogwang as well played football during his youthful days and you can only hope he uses the same scale while measuring attention for all federations.
