Where there’s a will, there’s a way

Ferwafa president, Brig. Gen. Jean Bosco Kazura once said the first four years of his time in office were for stabilization and “settling in office”, and the next four will be for implementing development projects. The good general made the obvious admission after he was re-elected, albeit unopposed for a second term of office in December. But to me, he was kind of stating the obvious.Meanwhile, four years earlier, while accepting office for his first term, Kazura remarked that he was going to do things “my way”, to mean, he had no interest in following what his predecessor, Maj. Gen. Ceaser Kayizari had started or done. There is no love lost between the two generals, and whether that had anything to do with Kazura’s vowing to do things ‘his way’ we don’t know and probably may never know, but what we saw him do or fail to do in the first four years, said much of his way of doing things. But one this I’m quite certain about is that the Ferwafa boss was not a man to entertain anything to do telling him what do and what not do, even when the situation warranted. Pressmen weren’t his cup of coffee. Under Kazura’s reign, Rwanda’s senior national team struggled during both the 2008 and 2010 Nations Cup qualifying campaigns; the team has won nowt since triumphing in the 1999 Cecafa senior challenge cup even if it was the second (Rwanda B). So, does that mean he’s to blame as an individual or the entire system he heads? The answer is, for the last four or five years, he ought to take full responsibility for the current status of Rwandan football from top to bottom but on the whole, the system takes much of the blame. Rwanda’s football system had no firm foundation, which is why teams, including clubs have flattered to deceive when it comes to the big stage over the years. For the obvious reasons, none of us is that much interested in knowing how the beautiful game in this country was like pre-1995, which means whatever we talk about is in the post-1995 perspective to date. From 1995 Rwandan football has gone through almost everything, the highs and lows, the good and the bad but one thing has been constant—the obsession with the desire for instant success, from club to national team(s), something that has resulted in quick-fix means in a bid to fulfill the desire. And what has been the end result? More false dawns and near misses. I know I’ll be slaughtered for saying this, but apart from qualifying for the 2004 Nations Cup, what else significant has either the national team(s) at all levels or clubs achieved in the last 15 years? I know it’s a very sensitive issue to discuss, given the usual politicking in our football but if truth is to be said, there’s very little to show off from the last 15 years. That’s why the trend being taken at the moment of investing in youth development is the sure way to go. Unfortunately, it’s been long overdue, but again better late than never.No more quick-fixes All that has been done in the past was always the wrong scheme but no one was giving a damn because everyone was obsessed with winning there and then, until about two years or so ago when somehow President Kagame said his mind about how he saw the status of the national team then. We all know what he said but the bottom line is, since then, things have been changing slowly and somehow surely, where we have reached a point of having to put faith in the young local based players for international duty because the days of buying players to play for the national team are well and truly over. As for the have-beens including, Olivier Karekezi, Said Abedi, Hamad Ndikumana, Bobo Bolla, Jimmy Mulisa, Saddou, Aniweta, even if Tetteh has not officially closed the door on them, it seems as though they’ll need to do something really special to return to the team. With a firm foundation (that has been lacking) being built, it looks highly unlikely that anyone would be interested in recycling players like it has been the case before in such for instant success. Academies are sprouting out right, left and centre of the country, and the powers that be have finally started to see sense in building for the future. No more quick-fixes. An unprecedented U-17 national league is in the pipeline, which will run alongside the Primus National League. If it materializes, it will rank up there among the best things Gen. Kazura has done since he took office in 2006. Therefore, with the will and commitment of everyone involved in the development of Rwandan football starting to show signs of doing things with the utmost level of commonsense, one can start to dream of seeing light at end of the tunnel, after all where there is a will, there is a way. nku78@yahoo.com