Kwesi Nyantakyi and the Highlander!

The President of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi, definitely seems to be a very hard nut to crack. That his leadership has achieved a lot for Ghana football is never in doubt. However, the man has been overtaken by recent events. With each passing day, it becomes clearer that the man has definitely run short of ideas.

Let’s take the issue of Richard Kingson’s (aka Olele) recent call-up into the Black Stars for the World Cup qualifier against Egypt as an example. Of course, Mr. Nyantakyi is not the head coach, but he seemed to have led the campaign for Olele’s return to the Black Stars.

For me, I will never lambast Olele for anything. What is his crime? That he has accepted to represent his country? Many people have called the age of the veteran goalkeeper into question. That’s not surprising. Granted their allegations are true, age-cheating is a worldwide football canker.

Over the years most of the best goalkeepers we have had plied their trade in the domestic league; seldom did we have goalkeepers plying their trade abroad. So as the Nyantakyi-led FA began to forsake the league, some of these things were bound to happen.

It’s true we have a goalkeeping crisis in the Black Stars, and with Brazil 2014 within arm’s length we needed a solution as soon as possible. Richard Kingson definitely has long seen his glory days. But characteristic of leadership in this country, they always attempt solving short-term problems without thinking about long-term repercussions.

In this regard, I think the GFA and the coach of the Black Stars erred in recalling the veteran goalkeeper. No one should attempt convincing us that Olele is the best thing to have happened to the Black Stars. It may be true that in the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is made king. However, there are more able one-eyed men than the ex-Great Olympics goalkeeper.

There’s no need crying over spilt milk; the harm has been done already. What is important now is for us to rally together and not let this cause disunity in the camp of the Stars. But I must confess I really admire Olele’s commitment to the national team. At 35 – at least according to the official record – his desire to represent his national team is remarkable and exceptional.

Inasmuch as I disagree with Olele’s call-up, I think the character assassination the man has suffered will needlessly deter other older players who would still want to contribute to the national team’s cause. What’s the problem if he indeed is playing with his grandchildren? How’s that a crime?

And now to the Kevin Prince Boateng issue. After unceremoniously resigning from national team duties, he is back again with another World Cup opportunity on the horizon. I don’t subscribe to the arguments of those calling him an opportunist. Far from that.

What really I don’t get is why the GFA is sending distress signals that we can’t do without him. For Christ’s sake there have been many teams that have won major trophies without obviously their best stars playing. 
The absence of Cantona et al at France 98 is one example.

Let’s reward hard work. Those who have brought the team this far must be given a shot to further prove themselves. If we need to genuinely improve our team we are at liberty to do so, but not with players whose commitment is always in question.

Every member of the Black Stars must definitely earn his call-up by hard work and unwavering commitment. The fate of Laryea Kingson and Sammy Adjei in the run up to the World Cup 2006 was very painful. Which two players were more committed than these two? But we all know how the story ended: as “monkeys”, they worked hard only for the “baboons” to come and “chop”.

As we head into next week’s crucial World Cup qualifier against Egypt in Kumasi, it is likely that KPB will not feature due to a knock he suffered while playing for his club, Schalke 04. Of course, the coincidence of his injuries with Black Stars matches is causing a lot of people to raise eyebrows.

I’m not God to determine when next he will get injured, and neither am I a physio to determine the extent of his injuries, so we all must exercise restraint in our judgments. There’s a Ghanaian proverb which translates as, “If you pretend you are dead, you will be buried under pretence”.  If the GFA truly want the best for Ghanaians, they should employ such a strategy. But of course they are not going to.

Kwasi Appiah’s failure to search hard for the talents out there and Nyatakyi’s failure to build a league that will grow home-based talents are what have brought us to a situation where we are scrambling for players to play for the Black Stars. 

Meanwhile, if you wish for some fun, check out #Olelefacts, and good luck to the Black Stars!
I’m out.

Email: abbeykwei@gmail.com
The writer is the author of Rhythms of Thoughts, a column published in the Weekend edition of the Business and Financial Times (B&FT).

al Mahama and the Shabab syndrome

You can choose to be in self-denial, but the sad reality is that terrorism has come to stay. It doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon despite the world’s superpowers claiming that the battle is being won.

What happened at Kenya’s Westgate Mall may not be the worst terrorist attack on African soil, but it remains the freshest on our minds. The events of the Kenya embassy bombings in 1998 that claimed 212 lives will forever linger on in our memories.

Not a single day passes that one does not hear about the news of a suicide bombing or bomb detonation killing dozens especially in the Middle East. For those of us who listen to international news, we have almost become accustomed to such reports.

As a country, we have not really shown any concern about the global anti-terrorism combat. We have always seen it as being far from us despite the fact that we live in a global village. We can’t be bothered, right?

It was only when news of the death of the renowned poet Kofi Awoonor during the Kenyan Westgate attack trickled in that we realised that acts of terrorism are indeed closer than we think. We can’t always play ostrich. As usual, as the news came in, you could actually feel a lot of kneejerk reactions from our leaders. Quite typical of us.

President Mahama’s speech at the UN was definitely on point. Indeed, those “senseless and cowardly” acts of violence should never be countenanced. But what I don’t seem to get is our haste to condemn these terrorist acts without getting our house in order.

For years, we have had nomadic herdsmen terrorise and treat with disdain our citizens in the countryside. Before we could even figure a way around it, the market fires set in, leaving us a lot more confused than ever. Before one could say “Gyan”, the American forensic experts were here to unravel the mystery of the market fires.

Not to forget the unfortunate collapse of the Melcom shopping mall that claimed dozens of lives. Even with that, we couldn’t handle the situation on our own as the Israelis flew in to help with the rescue efforts. It’s never been easy.

Of course, in times like this, it’s good for the ordinary citizen to feel that the government is up to the task and is ready to counter acts such as what happened at Westgate. Such assurances, much as we need them, must not be a provocative invitation to these hoodlums, especially when we have done little or nothing at all to counter these acts.

Terrorism is a very sophisticated act requiring loads of high-level intelligence and much more to counter. Terrorist organisations are not far from us. Within our sub-region there has been a consistent rise of organisations such as the Boko Haram, Ansar Dine and many militant groups.

The death of Prof. Awoonor at the hands of such hoodlums, however sad it was, must not push us into any state of panic. We don’t counter terrorism with kneejerk reactions, like deploying forces to the Accra Mall immediately it was discovered Westgate was under siege.

What were we seeking to achieve with such reactions? Let’s not try to seek political points with such measures. The Westgate incident claimed the life of Kenya’s Uhurru Kenyatta’s nephew, with his son escaping by the skin of the teeth. Same can’t be said of others who perished in the siege.

The United Kingdom’s warning that Ghana could be a target of terrorist attacks due to our involvement in peace-keeping efforts in Mali is one that should be taken seriously. Though I disagree with the mode by which they communicated this, I think we have no time to take chances.

Very soon Kenya’s Parliament will be querying their security chiefs for failing to act on intelligence on the Westgate attacks. By putting our acts together, we may not get to that stage. Terrorism is a global menace that we cannot fight alone. We need to seek more collaboration with countries that have experience in dealing with such a menace.

We don’t want needless talk from government. We need to see action. We could actually start by chasing the illegal galamsey operators who have succeeded in destroying our green vegetation. So long as these gun- wielding riffraffs are able to keep our security at bay while they go about their activities, no one should attempt convincing us we are ready for the Boko Harams, Shababs and the dreaded al-Qaedas.

Enough of the “Ghana is a peaceful country” and let us set our minds to work. Though I pray that day never comes, we must not allow ourselves to be caught off-guard.  We have had more than enough reasons to hit the ground running.

Those who are being paid to work must proceed to work and stop the numerous talk shops. Prof. Awoonor and all those lives that have been lost to terrorism will not forgive us if we fail to prevent an attack on our home soil.

Even as we embark on this war, let us pray to God that he should forever let Al-kayida in Ghana remain a dance craze. Nothing more, nothing less.


I’m out.

Email: abbeykwei@gmail.com
The writer is the author of Rhythms of Thoughts, a column published in the Weekend edition of the Business and Financial Times (B&FT).

Nyantakyi’s FA has lost it!

Football may just be a game but it has on countless of occasions united us more than anything else could divide us. Even before the Black Stars’ meteoric rise to global recognition on the account of an impressive back-to-back World Cup appearances, we still enjoyed our football as we would of an ice-cold palm wine.

Ghana’s two glamorous clubs, Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko have one of the world’s bitterest rivalry. It’s always more of a bragging right at stake than a trophy or three points. In recent years however, the rivalry somehow has waned a little partly due to the loss of interest in the Ghanaian league.

Although Kwesi Nyantakyi may be credited as the GFA President who succeeded in taking the Black Stars to its first ever World Cup, I must say his record as far as developing the game domestically is absolutely pathetic, to be charitable.

I have always heard the chorus of people calling for his head over the way he has superintendent the decay of the Ghanaian Premier League. I didn’t think I will join that cause till I found myself watching Ghana’s version of the El-Classico, Hearts playing Kotoko at the Accra Sports Stadium.

About three days to the game, I bought an advanced ticket to the game with the hope of avoiding long queues at the stadium come the match day. Hell wrong I was. Having arrived at the venue with my VIP ticket about an hour to the game, I had to fight my way into the stadium.

Eventually, I entered the precincts of the stadium 20 or so minutes into the game. I am not really sure because the scoreboard at the Accra Sports Stadium has for obvious reason of neglect become a white elephant. I know there’s a lot of buck passing between the GFA and the National Sports Authority when it comes to this issue.

Those two bodies should get their acts together, what is really important now is fixing the scoreboard. At the gates, there were thousands of people who couldn’t enter and hence had to leave or sell their ticket to those willing to bulldoze their way through.

Imagine struggling to sweat your way through and being told at the turnstiles that the ticket you bought was a fake one. Yeah. It happened to countless of people who according to them purchased their tickets at some designated spots.

Even with my Upper VIP ticket, I couldn’t get a seat so I had to do “popular stand” at the lower VIP area. So who were those seated? Did they have tickets at all, or is it the case that the tickets were overprinted? There are too many questions than answers.

The last thing I want the FA to be doing now to all the litany of issues I have raised is to pass the buck that is to tell me what and what is within their domain and what is not. Anything good that comes to Ghana football we are told to sing the praise of a certain man over there. And what about the bad, we must swallow that abi?

I know I am ranting because this is the first time I have witnessed the “super clash” and frankly those who have done that over the years may be familiar with some of these so-called standards. Well I have news for those who think what happened to me was normal.

The Ghana Premier League, as shambolic as it is, is still shown on TV unlike the past where you need to be at the stadium to watch your favorite team. I could have watched it from the comfort of my home but I decided to patronise it because that’s the only way I could contribute to the club I have idolised.

But happenings like these are not good advertisement for our local league. Everything was in shambles, from where I stood. Inasmuch some of the security personnel detailed on the day went about their duties professionally, it is worth noting that some of them became more spectators than some of us.

The National Sports Authority together with football administrators must get serious about the game development. Football in Ghana is not synonymous to Black Stars. Due to neglect, our clubs performance in the continental competition has slump quite badly.

Despite all the mishaps that happened on the day of the match, the stadium was full to capacity. One interesting thing was that the match coincided with the Manchester derby. Yet those thousands of soccer lovers defied what could have genuinely provided a great football entertainment to be at the Accra Sports Stadium.

Kwesi Nyantakyi and his team must wake up and smell the coffee. The local league is all we have. We don’t need to draw plans. We have more than enough of them. Let’s implement the ones we have. The development of grassroots football is essential to the overall development of the game.

Perhaps my expectations were too high but I don’t think I was impressed with the quality of play in the Heart-Kotoko game. Having seen some previous great Kotoko sides and that of Hearts, I don’t know whether our game is growing or retrogressing.

The GFA won’t lose anything developing colts’ or juvenile football. It may be an expensive venture but it will be worth our while. As it stands now, our clubs don’t have the wherewithal to import quality players from other neighbouring countries. Our only option is therefore to develop these players. As we strengthen our league with quality players, the Black Stars and the other national teams stand to benefit.

The GFA should have rode on the back of a successful hosting of the 2008 African Cup of Nations to greater heights. But it seems everyone went to sleep after that. The training pitches constructed for the tourney have all wasted into oblivion. The stadia themselves, particularly the Accra Sports Stadium, is an eyesore and must be closed down with immediate effect.

Its structural defects are too visible. To think that someone sanctioned that football be played there is a decision of the highest incompetence order. Every aspect of the stadium is not fit for such huge gathering of people. I hate to think that we are expecting a disaster to occur before we come to our senses.

There are too many things wrong with Ghana football. Kwesi Nyantaky and his FA must not hide behind the moderate success of the Black Stars to deceive us into thinking that all is well. We are tired and we need a revolution.

Our elders say water stored in bottle for a long time will eventually develop a foul smell. Kwesi Nyantakyi over to you!
I’m out!


Email: abbeykwei@gmail.com
The writer is the author of Rhythms of Thoughts, a column published in the Weekend edition of the Business and Financial Times (B&FT).