Features
The obituary of Ghana soccer(Part1)
It is very easy to handle a ball of kenkey. As my bosom friend Reverend (self- appointed) Kofi Kokotako put it, it is the kind of ball that almost every fool can manage. You only have to get some pepper and ‘fish-head’ and then your massive jaws can take care of the rest.
A revolution is not a tea party, said Mao Tse-Tung. In simile, a football revolution is not a kenkey party. If anybody had thought that organising a disciplined, winsome team was synonymous to organising a kenkey festival, then of course they were living in a fool’s paradise.
We shall come back to that later on but for the moment, let’s recast what happened on the first day the Black Stars played a game.
If you noticed carefully, you’d have realised that somehow the squad was not prepared and the handlers should literally have asked for the postponement of the entire tournament. They were too many foreign-based players invited to come and joke.
Anyhow, I was really impressed by how the professionals looked. They appeared well-fed and well-paid and Nii Odartey Lamptey looked very beautiful in a jelly curl jerry hairdo. Probably just before he entered the dressing room, he had spent quite some time under the dryer.
No wonder he looked like a participant of a beauty pageant. It really was going to be a beauty contest for the Sikaman boys while the Guineans came to play football.
And the Guineans really stretched the Stars full-length till international star C. K. Akunnor, who played with all his might and soul, set the stadium ablaze with a bullet- shot to remind his compatriots that it was no beauty palaver in Tunisia ‘94. That was our saviour and it came in the last minutes.
Earlier, Odartey Lamptey who had consistently not fared well in any Black Stars match was elected to take a penalty kick when more experienced players could have done the job spick and span. When I saw that it was Odartey going in for the kick, I just felt inside me that it was either going to be ‘over the bar’ or something worse.
LESS-EXPERIENCED
Fortunately, the ball did not go over bar, but neither did it enter the net. The keeper made light-work of it, having realised that we weren’t serious after all.
In fact by allowing a relatively less-experienced player like Odartey to take that kick showed clearly that the squad was either unprepared or that there was no seriousness in the team. Anyhow, Nii cannot be blamed for our quarter-final tragedy because he did not play in that match. What about strategy and being wise? The Lord Jesus Christ has always admonished us to be wise as the serpent. In Tunisia, we didn’t exhibit the kind of wisdom and prudence Jesus talked about.
When Prince Polley scored against Senegal, everyone rejoiced and only a few realised that it was our doom. Losing or drawing against Senegal would have been the last remarkable genius of the century knowing very well that a win would mean clashing with an arch-rival Cote d’Ivoire in the quarter-final.
To deliberately lose in some matches is part of strategy used by teams worldwide to wriggle their way through to the final spot. It was not that Cote d’Ivoire was not unbeatable, but it was certain that they would be more of a problem than Zambia as far as Ghana was concerned.
WISDOM
As it were, if the handlers had displayed the wisdom of the aged, they would have pep- talked the boys to lose that match or draw, having at the back of the mind that not all that glitter is gold. As it turned out to be, a win over Senegal was more of a tragedy than the comedy all thought it was.
Now, the entire campaign to win the cup in Tunisia became a non-starter the moment George Arthur was dropped. And when he lobbied and was recalled to join the team, it was the beginning of tragic instances that beset the Stars’ team.
In fact, when George was dropped, I was unhappy about it and complained. But when he was given the green-light afterwards, I was shocked. I reckoned that it was very improper for many reasons.
First, it meant that the coaches and technical men were impotent and were being manipulated like a marionette to do against their wish. Secondly, to be a big embarrassment to Kofi Mbeah who was going to be told that “the big men say they should drop you-o! They say George Arthur is soccer-god. If we drop him our chop money will be in jeopardy.”
I wonder how Kofi Mbeah, my idol, took that message. What an embarrassment to a budding star. The psychological trauma and all that!
Certainly his patriotism is going to be affected and I wonder if he would be willing to play for his country at any future date. If it happens, should the GFA not accept blame?
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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