I
was at Zone 7 the other weekend and hanging out with Gaetano Kagwa.
Hang on a minute, that intro does not sound quite right. Let me start
all over again.
I
was at Zone 7 the other weekend and Gaetano Kagwa was hanging out with
me. You see, I don’t hang out with people but rather people hangout with
me.
So
Gae and I were reminiscing about the day he came back from South Africa
after his Big Brother experience. And though Gae who was a relatively
unknown man before he went to Big Brother was capitulated into
nationwide fame upon his return, one thing that he did do right was not
to let fame go to his head.
He
kept his cool and has always been keeping his cool unlike people like
the footballer Dennis Obua, and who thinks that just because he plays
his football in Scotland, it makes him a superstar with the right to
throw his toys out of the pram.
In
Uganda we don’t like dealing with losers. So Davis Kamoga won the
sliver medal at one of the Olympics but do we care about him or mention
him? No we don’t for until Kiprotitch took the gold medal at the London
Olympics, we only talked about John Akii Bua and Dorcas Inzirukuru.
And
this is where Gae has set a precedent. He did not win Big Brother so
why did we waste our time on him? Well, we wasted our time on him
because he was down to earth and a man who did not let fame go to his
head.
To
prove a point, does anybody remember who the other Big Brother
contestants from Uganda were? Certainly not I though, I think there was
some hapless damsel called Maureen. I think she was called Maureen or
was it Barbra?
By
the way Gae, your cap, the brown one that you left at the bar, don’t
worry for it is not lost. I have it and you can pick it up when you are
next in town.
Still
on the same vein, there is also Daniel Ongong, who is the Marketing
Director at Nile Breweries. Daniel didn’t start off his stint as
Marketing Director. Rather, he was one of the ninja’s, the rank and
file, a foot soldier who worked hard and rose through the ranks to his
current position.
Daniel
could brag and swell his chest if he wanted to but he has taken a leaf
out of Gae’s book and has remained a level headed man, who is
unassuming, well spoken and does not sneer down on people simply because
he is a director.
However,
like Obua, there are some ministers including those ministers of state
who we don’t know and who by virtue of their minister status have let
fame go to their heads.
As
ministers they think that they have the right to jump a traffic queue
because they are ministers and are above the rest of us. But when some
unknown minister sitting in the back of some tinted 4x4 tries to squeeze
in front me and when I don’t give him space it prompts his bodyguard to
roll down his window to assure me, that is taking fame too far.
What
people should understand is that fame is only a temporary thing and
Uganda right now needs more Daniel’s and Gae’s than Obua’s and state
ministers who could lose their jobs at the next reshuffle.
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