The Aftermath – Part I

Once again we find ourselves at the very bottom of dispiritedness because the trust, hope, goodwill and prayers by Ghanaians towards our beloved team, the Black Stars, have been betrayed beyond expression thereby leaving us with more questions than answers. Every single World Cup (WC) appearance has been wrought with some form of controversy – Germany ’06 there was the alleged ticket connection scandal, South Africa ’10 was the monies paid “ghost” journalists and this year the mother of all shames the bonus scandal that made Ghana a laughing stock on late night shows and in international media circles. The irony of this cyclicity of shame is that the same mistakes permeate every WC we’ve participated in which begs the question whether we are simply impervious to correction or the ‘yentie obia’ syndrome has eventually become commonplace in every organizational setup. Honestly I personally think this whole tournament was ‘cursed’ from the very get go. There are a pastiche of issues that resulted in our unprecedented early ouster and today I’m going to outline where we went wrong as a nation and who is culpable from Government to Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports, Ministry of Youth & Sports, Ghana Football Association (GFA), Technical Bench and Players. Owing to the voluminous nature of the article it will be treated in two parts – Part I to comprise the Government, Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports and Ministry of Youth & Sports, and Part II to comprise the GFA, Technical Bench headed by coach Akwasi Appiah (AA) and the Playing Body.
GHANA GOVERNMENT: Inasmuch as the GFA is an autonomous body sanctioned by FIFA and thus virtually ‘untouchable’, the government has woefully failed in its duties to ensure that there’s transparency and accountability in taxpayers money that is extended to such a body. It has been harped upon countless times for the budget of the GFA not to be shrouded in secrecy but the intransigence of the government on this issue is mind boggling. I raised this same issue with South Africa 2010 and in my article just two weeks before Brazil 2014 , and I believe others did as well, but the Government did not find it wise to heed our call and here we are faced with a worse issue stemming from the fact that due diligence was not employed. Does the Government know that FIFA General Secretary Jack Vaulk proposed a meeting with the GFA and players to sign a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) to pay the players directly and the funds deducted from the GFA’s prize money? Did the budget that was approved by Government include the players’ bonus? If yes, then why was $3 million airlifted to Brazil? If no, then what was Government’s understanding of how the players will be paid? I’m still beside myself why the President of Ghana gave the go ahead for the airlifting of the $3m and wondering whether this is a classic case of arrested development. When then Minister of Sports Akua Sena Dansua caused a mess with South Africa ’10 all the late President Mills did was give her a ‘small slap on the wrist’ by reassigning her to another Ministry, and voila forward to 2014 after Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and his talking head deputy Joseph Yammin caused the worst soccer disgrace in the history of Ghana soccer all that happened was to get reassigned to different ministerial positions by President Mahama. Why can’t the Government crack the whip for once to serve as deterrence to future would be perpetrators? If such disgraceful acts aren’t condemnable by outright dismissal then I guess Vicky Hammah must have committed the most egregious crime against the NDC gods.
PARLIAMENTARY SELECT COMMITTEE ON SPORTS: The beauty of democracy is the checks and balances it ensures so that no one arm of government can abuse the powers vested in it. Parliamentary elections, like the presidential, are held every four years not for ‘concert party’ but to elect people to champion the causes of the ordinary citizens as well as serve as an oversight body to guard against executive excesses. Is there not a single selfless individual on the Sports Committee in Parliament who can champion the cause of the masses by demanding accountability from the GFA/Ministry of Youth & Sports for monies they request from government for international tournaments? How can you sit jaunty or insouciant as the country is ‘raped’ bare by people whose main interest is to ‘create, loot and share’? I listened in dismay on June 27th when a member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports said on Ekosii Sen on Asempa FM that the Chairman of that Committee was more or less in cahoots with Elvis Afriyie Ankrah by giving flimsy excuses of the whereabouts of the latter anytime they requested to have him appear to justify the proposed budget. But my question is why go ahead and approve a budget for which justification hasn’t been provided? Parliament has to work for the people and not against the people by relentlessly seeking probity, accountability and transparency especially in matters where taxpayers’ monies are being sought. Why hasn’t any parliamentarian raised serious concerns about the airlifting of $3m till date? Under no circumstances should such practice of approving taxpayers funds for any ministry without thorough analysis and questioning be allowed to continue regarding any future tournaments. Posterity will definitely judge you all one day.
MINISTRY OF YOUTH & SPORTS: Any attempt to rationalize what has transpired with this ministry defies logic, and gives credence to the oft feared presumption that it’s in connivance and collusion with the GFA to clandestinely craft ways of defrauding the State. In 2012 the Ministry of Youth & Sports was the ministry that overspent its budget the most, and Afriyie Ankrah promised to form a committee to investigate the circumstances that led to that, and till date there’s no word whatsoever with our ‘do little’ parliament also looking on aghast and bereft of ideas on how to handle the issue. But I’m not utterly gutted because the mother of all reports (The Maputo Report) even didn’t gain enough traction to warrant any wholesale overhaul. Why the penchant for condoning corruption if not for the fact that you’re partakers of the booty? Not too long ago Ghana and the Ministry for that matter could not raise funds to support just a single athlete for the World Athletics Meet but when the ‘cash cows’ (Black Stars) turn arose the Ministry in usual fashion was able to get $9.5m extended to it and also even went an extra mile to obtain corporate sponsorship for 500 (number even debatable) supporters to travel to Brazil for the tournament. Wherein lays our priorities as a nation? No wonder journalist Ben Ephson recently suggested that the Ministry of Youth & Sports be changed to Ministry of Football.
Another important issue that is being glossed over regarding this Ministry is that of Conflict of Interest. How come Afriyie Ankrah had two of his brothers serving in various capacities regarding the Black Stars and the whole Brazil trip? What knowledge does Yaw Ampofo Ankrah have in turf quality that he was part of the entourage that inspected the turfs in the various stadia across Brazil? How come his other brother was the head of the committees set up to oversee the supporters’ trip? I even understand that the company that was charged to oversee the entire organization of the trip is owned by a Minister of State. If true, then how can this happen in a growing democracy? These are all poignant questions which shouldn’t go unanswered but as usual our journalists and parliamentarians will shy away from them for reasons untenable.
In the next few days I’ll expand on the GFA, Technical Bench and Playing Body so as to have a holistic view of where everything went haywire so we can correct our mistakes and produce better results next time around, and get the Ghanaian soccer fan’s spirit rising again.

Carl Owusu-Barnes,
Roscoli1@yahoo.com
Maryland, USA.