Parliamentary Probe Begins Into Black Stars AFCON Fiasco

News Commentary on Parliamentary probe begins into Black Stars AFCON fiasco

By Michael Okuley, a Journalist.

The performance of the Senior National Team, the Black Stars in any competition is of great concern to every Ghanaian both home and abroad. As a journalist who has followed the team closely during tournaments, I feel so hurt when the result does not align with my expectation. The trolling from colleagues from other countries alone forces me to ask questions pertaining to the performance of the team. It was of no surprise when I read from the sports portals that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Youth, Sports and Culture has commenced an investigation into our disastrous performance in the just ended AFCON tournament by extending invitations to some stakeholders for questioning. One would ask to what end is this probe and what does this investigation seek to achieve? Well, Ghana is noted for setting up committees by every Ghanaian. But the question that begs for answers is how impactful the approach has been?

The approach to get the team and Ghana football back to glory days by setting up a committee is unwarranted. With history staring me in the face, I can confidently predict how fruitless this probe would be. What makes it more needless is the fact that the committee has less than a week to conduct their investigations before submitting their reports to the Speaker. This clearly shows how short sighted we are with the running and development of the game we tag as the passion of the nation. Germany used close to 2 years to identify the problems facing their football after their shambolic displays in the Euro 2000 and the World Cup 2002. A policy was drafted to correct the wrong and the effect is there for all to see with German teams dominating the Uefa Champions League, their national team beating almighty Brazil 7-1 ensuring their victory in the 2014. That is the direction people who truly have passion for the game must take.

The Black Stars problem is multidimensional. The desperation of every government to win the trophy for political points has forced the powers that be to only throw huge sums of money wrongly to the team to the detriment of the basic structure of strengthening football. In 2019 after a similar fiasco in Egypt where Ghana finished at the 16 Round, we were made to believe the then Youth & Sports Minister Isaac Asiamah was going to make the breakdown of the 2019 AFCON expenditure public after mentioning the bulk expenses on the floor of parliament without questioning. What is more crucial now is for the Select Committee to insist on the strict compliance of the findings of the previous committees and commissions with same or similar mandates. I have lost confidence in the system and I know others are in the same boat with me. Infact, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will go into the history as one of the embarrassing moments for Ghana with global recognition where a whole Commission of Enquiry was set up with the same mandate [the abysmal performance of Black Stars at the World Cup].

The Dzamefe Commission unraveled a lot of wrongdoings with the government White Paper accepting most of the recommendations. Strangely, these White Paper recommendations are not effectively implemented. The disregard of the government White Paper of the Dzamefe Commission gives me the indication that the investigation by the Members of Parliament is needless and a waste of everyone’s time. For instance, the White Paper accepted the recommendation on formation of a management committee for the national teams with membership not more than five. Funny enough, the current composition of the Black Stars Management Committee has a member of 7 in number which is a clear violation of the recommendations. How bad and easy it has been for the other committee? How impactful will their findings be with our quest to breach every directive? Public confidence can only be regained when the basic recommendations are put to test. This Committee’s work I insist is irrelevant and it can be proven should we wipe the dust off the government White Paper on 2014 Brazil Commission of Enquiry  put it to good use. It is an exercise dead on arrival. We have successfully turned Ghana into a non practical country with glorification of lip service.

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