Benjamin Kwaku Azamati – to lead Ghana’s medal charge

 Spectacular ceremo­ny kicked into motion yesterday the 13th edition of the African Games (AG) on Ghanaian soil for the first time in the history of the competition.

The Games would have in attendance over 7,000 world-class athletes from every part of the continent of Africa, in addition to other thousands made up of officials, techni­cal delegates and many other stakeholders.

And as host nation, Gha­naians have every reason to be optimistic that her medal haul at the competition would improve.

Officials of the respective teams of Ghana are aware of this expectation of Ghana­ians who have been made to understand that past failures were because few athletes participated as a result of the cost involved.

Gladly, the Games are happening right on our soil and every discipline code chosen for the Games must have no room for excuses.

Already, comments urging Ghanaians to be modest in their expectation have started flying with others even attempting to introduce Olympic values of mere par­ticipation and not winning at all cost into the fray.

It may be tolerable to sound cautious but one may then ask why a country should spend so much to provide infrastructure and other logistics to host such a high profile event and win nothing.

Exact figures of expendi­ture so far has been difficult to sight but those made available by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mustapha Ussif, indicates that the government has so far spent a total of $195 million on the provision of infrastructure for the Games.

That represents the amount approved by Parlia­ment although a few mem­bers of the same house are beginning to raise concerns over the Games’ expenditure.

In the Minister’s break­down, he disclosed that an amount of $145,086,057.54 was spent on the Borteyman Sports Complex, which was constructed by Contracta Construction UK Limited; a total of $34,102,135.00 on the upgrade of the 11,000-seater University of Ghana Stadium with a track, a warm-up area for athletes, and a rugby pitch construct­ed by Consar Limited and a Games Village put up by Mawums Limited at a cost of $16,066,961.20.

That is a huge amount of money and the only justifi­cation for that expenditure should be a good medal haul and the quality of facilities Ghana would be left with.

That should make our ath­letes aware that Ghanaians would not accept any medi­ocre show on home soil and it is the reason they would enjoy the maximum support to deliver.

There is high expectation for the male and female football teams that would be competing at the Accra and Cape Coast Sports stadi­ums, the boxing team (Black Bombers), athletics, arm­wrestling team, taekwondo and others.

The African Games, without doubt, represents a platform to celebrate the traditions and cultures of the various countries and must be preserved at all cost.

However, the rising cost of hosting it will soon be­come its biggest demon due to the current state of the economies of member nations.

The story of Malawi has been very pathetic and must be a concern to all.

Despite the many tal­ented youth in the country, Malawi could only afford to send two boxers to Accra for the African Games after her boxing association named eight boxers for the Games because the Malawian gov­ernment was cash-strapped.

The duo includes light-welterweight, Elias Bonzo, and welterweight, Lewis Zakeyu.

Scarcity of funds has been a major stumbling block not only for Malawi. Many other countries are in similar financial quagmire, for which reason they may limit the number of athletes to spon­sor for the Games.

In Ghana, there was divi­sion at certain points follow­ing the delay in construction works, leading to calls from a section of the political elites to abandon the host­ing.

That should send signals to members of the African Union Sports Council (AUSC), the Association of Nation­al Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA), and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC/UCSA), owners of the Games to find ways to raise funds to sustain the event instead of leaving a chunk of the task on governments with ailing economies.

 By Andrew Nortey