Happy people, happy nation

Sports and Culture Minister Joseph Habineza is pleased to see President Paul Kagame back in a football stadium to watch a football match. Only a few months back, the President publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with the way football, particularly the national team was being handled. And he had not attended a football in long time; nevertheless it wasn’t long before the inevitable happened on Saturday when Rwanda’s Amavubi Stars stung Morocco’s Atlas Lions in front of a delightful President Kagame. Even Blanko Tucak’s team gave Minister Habineza and the entire nation more pleasure by opening their scoring spree just two minutes after the President had arrived. “On the back of such a win against Morocco, I am at loss of word to be honest; I can’t find the right way to express my happiness. “But particularly I was very happy to see the President back in a football stadium after not so long he said he was disappointed with the way things were going. To have him back (into football) gives me the utmost pleasure,” Habineza delightedly acknowledged. Earlier this year, while responding to a question by a journalist regarding the national team during his regular press conference with the local media, President Kagame’s response was, “I am disappointed”. He went into the details of his disappointment where at one stage; he suggested that if possible, the Amavubi be dismantled for the time being, until a fresh team, capable of competing is put in place. After those strong remarks from the President, whose love for football is unquestionable, Habineza and his colleagues at Ferwafa started to put things right and probably the results are there for everyone to see. A new coach was brought in, given freedom to do anything he wants with the team for as long he is getting things right, now Rwanda can be proud of putting together a string of three back-to-back wins in international football—that’s a record, which anyone connected to Rwandan football would settle for in any circumstances. About the 3-1 victory over one of the giants of African football, Minister Habineza said. “With this trend, the minimum we can hope for is CAN, the problem is you can’t know the teams you’ll draw when the draw are made.” “Nonetheless, whatever, group we shall be in, we won’t fail to finish at least third and that could be good to us to qualify for CAN in Angola,” he noted. The win gave Rwanda full command of group eight with maximum points from three 2010 World/African Cup qualifiers, Morocco stays second with six points, Ethiopia on three after their 1-0 win away to Mauritania on Friday. Besides, President Kagame, Saturday’s match was attended among others, the First Lady Jeannette Kagame, Prime Minister Bernard Makuza, a host of government officials, RDF’s top brass and a full house of singing fans, among them were visiting musicians P-Square and José Chameleon. Ends

Lifestyle

Happy people, happy nation