Ferwafa, where is the good relationship?

It has become frustrating, depressing, disturbing and above all, flabbergasting to find that local football leaders at the very top have, until now, not realized the importance of the media in as far as taking the beautiful game in this country to another level is concerned. What am I talking about? Clear your eyes, take your time and steadily read the full article right up to the end, and you’ll understand what I am talking about. To start with, I just want to remind you that recently the president of the local football governing body, Ferwafa announced the federation’s desire to work with the media in developing Rwanda’s football. Brigadier General John Bosco Kazura made the declaration after coming under pressure for his reluctance to deal with the media in a friendlier manner just as his office inevitably entails. Or just as I assume! For reasons best not talked about here and now, Gen. Kazura had put the media in a blackout particularly individuals he ‘blacklisted’ as his detractors. Some were even accused openly (of-course without evidence) by one his closest lieutenants of corroborating with the former federation administration to bring him down! Then I wondered where we are heading to? Being one of the victims of the circumstance, I was among the first to breath a sigh of relief at Kazura’s announcement and little did I realize that the promise was actually one to last just days rather the longer that I hoped it would. Fast forward and Kazura and the Ferwafa members did the unthinkable yesterday by holding their Annual General Assembly behind closed door and to tighten their screw on the media, the assembly sat in Gisenyi of the Northern Province, more than 130km out of Kigali. I wonder again, why the current Ferwafa administration is so much in love with doing things in discretion. It’s is becoming sickening. To understand what I am talking about, think about things like concealing information about the collapse of Ferwafa-Bralirwa league sponsorship deal, signing Michael Nees as national team coach behind camera (there was no press conference to unveil him as it would’ve been in an ideal world). Then, two weeks or so ago, I remember when the back pages of almost every newspaper in the country as well as all radio sports programs were full of nothing but Ferwafa’s selfish stand not to reveal the name of the new national team coach, until the day he was being unveiled to the media. What beat my understanding is to find out; on the same day Josip Kuze was going to be unveiled to the local media, that the man had even been to the country a month earlier to negotiate his deal with the Ferwafa and the Sports ministry. Such issues may sound small but in actual sense they’re so big that without the media playing a role, some may fail to get off the ground or others could even not yield the intended results. That’s why I don’t want to sound like I am blaming Ferwafa for taking their Annual General Assembly to a place over 130km outside of Kigali—but I am just complaining. They know what they’re doing and they’re free to discuss their business anywhere they wish for as long as it’s within the confines of Rwanda. But imagine a poor journalist based in Kigali, travelling that far facilitating his/her own expenses and then is not allowed to attend the gathering? For all the time some of us have sacrificed preaching the importance of the media in promoting whatsoever, the beauty of football inclusive, some people have tenaciously refused to appreciate it. Therefore, it’s on that not that I take the trouble, as I have always done to remind my friends at Ferwafa of the fact that sports media practitioners in this country can easily go about their business without football but football can’t minus them. By this, I mean, Ferwafa need the media to take forward football in this country far more than the media practitioners need Ferwafa to do what they do best. And one thing for sure is that the media in this country is more than willing to work closely with the relevant authorities to take football in Rwanda to another level but its efforts are meeting ever increasing still resistance along the way. Us in the media have always played our part in creating a friendlier professional working relationship with Ferwafa but our presumed partners on the other end, aren’t taking any of that. Which bring me to the question, where is the good (working) relationship that Afande Kazura has endlessly promised to the local media since his first day in office way back in January 2006 when he replaced another Afande Maj. Gen. Ceaser Kayizari? Contact: nku78@yahoo.com