Pressure group, OccupyGhana, has joined calls for government to shelve plans to host the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) sports tournament slated for next year.
According to the group, Ghana’s poor health care system, mismanagement of resources, the country’s economic challenges, among other factors, makes the idea of hosting the competition a dreadful one.
Sports Minister, Mahama Ayariga, hinted that Ghana is likely to stage the competition after original host Morocco backed out from staging the tournament over fears the deadly Ebola scourge could put the north African country at risk.
Morocco officially wrote to the Confederation of African Football (CAF) that it is no longer interested in hosting the competition because of the ravaging cases of Ebola and the World Health Organisation’s heightened risk alerts of the disease spreading through social gatherings such as the tournament.
“For the same reason, South Africa, the other country aside Ghana CAF approached as alternative hosts, has issued a strongly worded letter that it cannot welcome Ebola from potential participating nations Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone”, the OccupyGhana movement stated in a release Sunday.
Already the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has strongly advised against Ghana staging the tournament.
OccupyGhana explains that Ghana’s “shameful inability to cope with even treatable cholera, which has affected thousands and killed several hundreds of Ghanaians” should be enough reason to put aside plans to host the AFCON in January and February 2015.
“Ebola is not kind to a disorganised healthcare system as we have in Ghana. It kills almost all of its victims. Any government that entertains the thought of importing Ebola is an uncaring one and should be resisted,” the pressure group stressed.
These are the other reasons the OccupyGhana movement cited regarding their call for government to put to rest plans to host the AFCON next year:
INCOMPETENCE AND CORRUPTION AT THE GHANA FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION
Management of Ghana Football Association, its hirelings and Black Stars players have given first-hand
accounts of mismanagement of resources in the run up to and during the World Cup in Brazil. We have not
heard the last of the successively organised mismanagement by the GFA as well as the troubling Maputo
Report which contained similar humongously corrupt acts.
Instead of rushing to host another tournament, the GFA and the Ministry of Sports should be focusing on
rebuilding Ghana’s tattered reputation in international sports.
A CULTURE OF UNACCOUNTABILITY AND MISMANAGEMENT AT THE MINISTRY OF SPORTS
The Dzamefe Commission is still sitting and uncovering the sheer rot and waste of the taxpayer’s money
in Brazil. The nation had a collective gasp at the incredulity of a private person spending $20,000 of
our money in Brazil to seek directions to a groceries market. Until and unless the many cases of
financial mismanagement are explained, those responsible dealt with as prescribed by law, and robust
systems and processes put in place to stop their recurrence, the Sports Ministry cannot be trusted with
the execution of any international sporting event.
OUR HUGE FISCAL DEFICIT
Ghana’s fiscal deficit stands at Ghc10bn. Government is spending more than it can afford so much so that
critical services such as health and education are not receiving their statutory funding. There was no
parliament-approved budget in 2015 for AFCON. In the face of huge Eurobond borrowing as well as an
imminent IMF bailout, there is no financial justification for a single pesewa of government’s already
scarce revenues being spent on an avoidable, unnecessary, unbudgeted leisure event.
The Fiscal indiscipline must stop. Just as households have been forced to tighten their belts in these
harsh economic times, government must also tighten its belt and refuse to accommodate all budget over-
runs, especially discretionary especially discretionary, leisure-laden ones!
DUMSOR or its more current rendition, A-DUMDUM-A-DUMDUM
The Ministry of Energy has given up on managing the little power it has inefficiently left us with as we
now have full 24-hour power outages running several days in a week. The cost of business soars as a
consequence – it is not only 5-star internationally branded hotels but the small kiosk hairdresser who
now also requires a diesel generator to stay in business. Our manufacturing sector cannot compete at the
low cost of production of foreign competitors whose products flood our markets, which is in part due to
the higher cost and unreliability of power in Ghana.
For the duration of a sporting event such as AFCON, electricity demand will surge as people gather in
front of TVs at precisely the same time of day to watch games. Our erratic and low supply cannot cope
with such demand without switching off power to the productive sectors of the economy, and by it,
negatively affecting economic output and growth.
MISPLACED PRIORITIES
This and previous governments of our dear Republic of Ghana need to understand a fact: FOOTBALL IS NOT A
MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. Football is not a developing nation’s greatest priority.
The breaking of Bank of Ghana rules, the flouting of Ghana Revenue Authority laws, the disregard of
international money laundering best practice guidelines to ferry $4m in cash to footballers and to pay
the expenses of party foot soldiers in Brazil while turning off power to VALCO because of a football
game, all show grossly and embarrassingly misplaced priorities.
We elected the government to prioritize education, health, sanitation, transport, energy, to keep our
currency stable and inflation low, to create an enabling environment for private business to thrive.
Football did not appear in any 2012 political party manifesto as a matter of national priority: stop
making it so.
In summary, even if there was no Ebola epidemic, AFCON 2015 is not our headache. Why is our government
contemplating forcing Ghanaians to swallow bitter medicine for someone else’s headache? We shall not
allow you to force this down our throats.
The Minster of Youth and Sports’ position opens himself up to accusations of attempted corruption. There
can be no justification for taking on AFCON 2015 for all the reasons elucidated above other than another
opportunity for some to also create loot and share and probably cry.
Our strong disapproval for AFCON 2015 in Ghana will be expressed directly to CAF and FIFA. Perhaps they
will see sense sooner than Government of Ghana to withdraw their ill-thought out request.
