OBS AND OGS ACCUSED OF FUELING VIOLENCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOL BALL GAMES

Security operatives in running battles with students during the finals of the 2024 secondary school ball games in Barifa.

By Godwin Abedican
 
Arua
 
Organizers of the secondary school ball games in Arua city are concerned over the negative influence of former students from the different schools in the city during the annual ball games competitions.
 
This comes in the wake of the former students being accused of aiding violence whenever the schools across the city participate in the games and sports.
 
In the recent years a number of schools have had clashes during the games which has forced adjustments in the schedules of the games. The games are meant to take place during weekdays to avoid cases of violence that are influenced by other members of the public.
 
According to Angua Bernard the chairperson for the games in Arua city a number of former students it’s a big shame that the people who are supposed to mentor their colleagues chose to instead mislead them.
 
“The former students commonly referred to as OBs and OGs sometimes buy alcohol for the students which influences them to act in way that are unexpected. These are the challenges we have. We are going to try to control this but to some extent we may not be able to control these at 100 percent,” Angua said.
 
“We have realized that when games are played over the weekend especially Saturday and Sunday, the idlers and every kind of person from within town and outside all join to cause problems. Sometimes when the games start moving peacefully, you may think that the problems are caused by the students, but you later get to realize that sometimes the thugs in the town go to the venues and start throwing stones such that commotion is caused and they hand pick things from people,” he added.
 
Opinira Liberty, the Chairperson Arua Public Secondary School  OBs and OGs Association says, these are issues that are sometimes hard to dispute given the fact that the former students of the different schools are spread all over and most of them are not under the organized umbrella bodies of their associations  as he asks for urgent actions towards sensitization of the current crop of learners.
 
“I cannot totally run away from the fact that there are those acts that the former students usually do to incite violence. I must say that we have different personalities of human beings and some of these old students we see misbehaving were not properly brought up. All we are asking for is that, old students must now be acting as parents to the younger ones by living exemplary lives to the students who are currently in school. When we meet them on the road, instead of buying for them alcohol or other drugs that are key igniters to these violent acts, we should instead support them maybe by buying for them meals. This will help us to totally distance ourselves from the kind of antisocial behavior that the students exhibit and cause a lot of violence,” Opinira expressed.
 
He further adds that the behaviors exhibited by the students have led to the loss of the entire meaning of the ball games
 
Adiba Richard, the branch Chairperson for the OBs of St. Joseph’s college Ombaci says that there are efforts in place to ensure discipline among the students as the games go on.
 
“As an OB and executive member, I want to say that, we always look into it that what happened in the previous years do not repeat themselves. We usually have specific days like Fridays where we go to these schools to have meetings with the students and a team has been identified for these talks. This time round, we are emphasizing on discipline among the students during the games,” he said in an interview.
 
“It is one of our core values as OBs to ensure that the old glories of these schools are regained. One of the things we tell them is the dangers of misbehaving in these games and also making a good relationship with the neighboring schools,” he added.
 
The 2025 inter secondary school boys and girls ball games for Arua city commenced on Wednesday March 12, 2025 at different venues across the city.