Focus on sports saps development agenda

MY recent visit home to Abau during the festive season has prompted me to write on behalf of my people, especially the mothers, elderly people and school children, who frequently use the Nalurupa footbridge to go about their daily chores.
For the sake of readers, this community footbridge in the rural hinterlands of Central is the area’s only link to civil services. It was built by the locals themselves over two decades ago.
At the opening of the Gathoarupu communal hall during the Independence anniversary celebrations last year, the local (Abau) MP told the local populace gathered that the Nalurupa footbridge would be upgraded by the end of the year (2016).
However the year has ended and a new one begun but the promised upgrade has not taken place while other parts of the province are witnessing community development projects taking shape at their doorsteps. It has been observed that during national holidays that large amounts of funds are diverted to sports for the two or three-days’ competition, fun and enjoyment while less or no funds at all are allocated to basic infrastructure that would stand to benefit the community for years to come — more than the satisfaction derived from two or three days’ of sporting ‘fun’.  Community development projects funded through district service improve programme are vital and have a greater impact on the lives of our rural people — more so than sports.
Our leaders all over the country seem to have lost their focus. Not one of them can come up with an original idea to benefit their people and constituents. Every second article you hear of in the news is of this MP or that pledging to host, build or invest in a sports-related agenda. Where’s the investment in education, health and basic infrastructure to the rural population?
The saddest part is that people have lost their lives because of the absence of basic services.

Manu Veu
Waigani, NCD