West Nile Derby: Ombaci, Lwanga OBs to face-off in thrilling match today

BY ANDREW COHEN AMVESI    

ARUA. Preparations are in high gear for the much-awaited West Nile derby between the old boys (OBs) of St. Joseph’s College – Ombaci and St. Charles Lwanga College – Koboko.

The match which is aimed at uniting the old boys of the two giant colleges in West Nile will be played at Aba-bet Greenlight stadium in Arua today Saturday August 20, 2022.

The game is expected to attract over 20,000 fans including students from various schools who will learn from the old boys how life can be fan especially, after studies.

Speaking to journalists during a joint pre-match press conference at Triplex Hotel on Friday, Walter Nyamua, the President of St. Charles Lwanga College OBs said the idea behind the game is to show the current students that they should leave the college transformed.

“When you move out, you become ambassadors of these colleges. But always you have to say thank you to what brought you up and we are doing this through football. Mobilization, getting to know each other and socialization through football. At the end of the day, the purpose is that we should grow together,” Nyamua said.

“But also, this growth should translate to where we came from. Ombaci has projects OBs are running and at St. Charles Lwanga we also have projects we are running. Lwanga has never had a beautiful wall fence like the one of Ombaci, but now we are building a wall fence. We are trying to beautify the school by building a state-of-art gate, probably the best in West Nile, a project which will cost us about Shs100m,” Nyamua added.

He said such resources are obtained through fundraiser activities like today’s football match. Nyamua further observed that the game came at a time when the society is stressed, adding that by entertaining the public, they will get relieved of the stress.

“We are reducing the burden of visiting the hospitals but also, we are making money through entertainment. We are educating the society that they can relieve stress by entertaining themselves. We shouldn’t wait to be entertained by other people and this entertainment should be a corporate social responsibility to our alma-matters St. Joseph’s College Ombaci and St. Charles Lwanga. These resources will go to fund the projects we are running,” Nyamua emphasized.

Similarly, Noel Ayikobua, the Chairperson of St. Joseph’s College Ombaci OBs Association said the friendly game is aimed at bringing the old boys together and rekindle the academic glory of the two great colleges in the region.

“It is a friendly game and I know a lot has happened in terms of the two schools; both positive and negative, but for us we want to focus on positive things. Whatever happened in the past has passed and for us we shall move forward and our focus mainly is on academics which comes with sports and entertainment. For us to be able to achieve this academic performance and excellence in schools, we want to rekindle the fire and the past glory of these great colleges,” Ayikobua said.

He noted that as old boys, they want to focus on so many things including sports and development of the colleges through the different projects the OBs are undertaking.

Jimmy Asindu, the St. Charles Lwanga OBs Chapter head of Arua assured the Ombaci team that they are well prepared for the game. He encouraged people to turn up in big numbers to witness the much-anticipated game of the year.

Sunday Guma, an OB of Ombaci who doubles as the proprietor of Mobutu Park, a leisure joint in Ediofe said Saturday will be a great day for all football lovers to enjoy.

“The game is going to bring back old memories that we had back then in college, we are just going to have fan. We want to see that we can still continue to be in unity together. We are also trying to show the younger ones who are still in school that chaos during match days is not a good practice. We want them to be good players and good leaders in future,” Guma remarked.