Ghana Sports Not In Crisis

A number of sports tycoons have read in shock the story which appeared in the Ghanaian Times on Tuesday, April 1, 2008, under the headline, “Ghana Sports Is In Crisis-Dr Owusu-Ansah, and have quickly rubbished that statement..

This is because the Kufuor-led administration has chalked a lot of success in sports within 7years in power.

It is in this same administration that led to Dr. Owusu-Ansah’s appointment as an acting chief executive officer for the national sports council, so is he now saying that the government has done nothing to solve the so-called crisis he talked about?

As matters stand, the only achievements of the director as chronicled in the good books of NSC at the end of the three years he spent in office as acting CEO are the provision of two T-shirts to each staff member during his revival of staff keep fit club, and the introduction of a uniform made in the Council’s.

Amidst the preceding, NSC staff timelessly lament on the ¢5,000 he collected from each person, promising them heaven which never materialised, not forgetting the Council’s gym equipment he diverted elsewhere during his regime. It is an open secret that Dr. Owusu-Ansah, deputy minister Osei Bonsu Amoah often put impediments on the way of the Council, in its way to help champion the cause of sports development.

A number of occasions, the deputy minister and Dr Owusu-Ansah have interfered in the Council’s administration, for instance in its quest to execute disciplinary measures against associations who failed to do the right thing, eg, the Ghana Boxing Authority, Weightlifting Association, the Ghana Amateur Boxing Association, to mention but a few.

Both of them have encouraged certain chairmen of the sports associations to deal directly with them at the Ministry, instead of the Council.

It is no secret that Dr. Owusu-Ansah, as well as the deputy minister, whose achievement has been the formation of Forming Nationwide Supporters Union (NSU) have fueled the factors ferociously militating against the growth of the nation’s sports administration, development and promotion.

Ever since the two officers assumed their respective positions at the Ministry, there has been the lack of proper coordination and cooperation between the Ministry and NSC.

Visibly, the exit of Hon. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and Hon. Rashid Bawah has really affected the Ministry, as a number of initiated projects are now in the doldrums.

Despite the foregoing, there is a great confidence in the current Minister, Hon. Professor Dominic Fobih, who is pertinacious in the pursuit of productive goals, to rectify the factors militating against the betterment of Ghana sports.

Dr. Owusu-Ansah could not have the chance to be appointed as a substantive NSC CEO, during his term in office when there was lack of infrastructural development, recruitment and development of sports talents and dearth of qualified technical and management staff at NSC, as he claims.

In light of that condition which existed during Dr. Owusu-Ansah’s term, he and the deputy minister thinks the Council is still in the same condition, hence their campaign for the stadia take-over by a group they have formed.

A lot of tenuous castigations have come from the two preceding personalities at the sector Ministry that the NSC does not have the experts to handle the stadia, when, in actual fact, experts now exist at the Council, under the Prince Oduro-Mensah-led administration.

Without doubts, the NSC experts masterminded the successful hosting of the 26th MTN Africa Cup of Nations (GHANA 2008).

Now, they have roped in Mr. Rex Danquah, chief operating officer of the erstwhile Local Organising Committee (LOC) of GHANA 2008 which has since not rendered accounts to the Ministry.

Mr. Danquah, a former NSC estate officer who was booted out of the Council on allegations of ticket racketeering and yet the deputy minister and Dr. Owusu-Ansah have had confidence in him.

For now, Mr. Oduro-Mensah, who was appointed the first NSC CEO, after 20 years without a substantive CEO, has justified his appointment with a total transformation.

With just two years in office, the visionary leader has recorded a remarkable achievement at the Council.

Although the deputy minister and Dr. Owusu-Ansah has persistently undermined Mr. Oduro-Mensah in all ways and means, but the culprits’ plans as usual meet their death knell.

The NSC CEO has shaken up the bunch of general secretaries of the various associations and the regional sports development officers, a good omen for the administration of sports in the country.

NSC, under the headship of Mr. Oduro-Mensah is implementing a well-structured strategic plan for the development and promotion of sports in the country and has often organised a series of strategic workshops for its staff, nationwide, after he had brought some professionalism in the Council’s approaches to work. It would do Dr. Owusu-Ansah some good if he, as a matter of urgency, apologise to the government that appointed him, for unleashing a lowdown on the state of sports in the country.

Interestingly, Dr. Owusu-Ansah who draws his salary from the NSC has failed to give credit to the efforts of the current Oduro-Mensah-led administration on the tremendous improvement in the salary structure and other conditions of service at the NSC.

When Mr. Oduro-Mensah took charge of the NSC, the regional sports development officers had no official vehicles to execute their duties, but now his administration has acquired four-wheel drives for them, not forgetting other senior staff, and has also repaired the Council’s vehicles which spent years at the fitting workshops.

The Council has beefed up its staff membership with IT professionals, estate and marketing officers, among others, and is working with Magnum Security Services and Zoomlion Ghana Limited, a waste management specialist.

The NSC CEO during his four-year term in Parliament (2001-2004) was the vice chairman of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Sports, and was one of the Members of Parliament who recorded a lot of development projects for their constituencies through the Kufuor-led government.

Now is the hour for Sports to be separated from Education and Science, since the sports sector has suffered at the expense of education, in terms of funding.

Email: daasebre3@yahoo.co.uk