Consider this; both the athletes and the national federation (GAA) are facing the same problem; lack of resources. So why are the athletes more successful at public relations, fund raising and organization than the GAA? Unlike six weeks ago at the Maria Tsakos Athletics Invitational organized by the athletes themselves in conjunction with the Ghana Education Service, Ghana's elite athletes failed to grace the just-ended national championships with their presence. This begs the question; "what is really going on between the athletes and the national federation??. By ?athletes?, I mean the elite and senior members of this body who are currently in Ghana, because the international season ended two months ago.
I took it upon myself to investigate the subterranean rumblings that are now percolating to the surface. However, before I disclose my findings, let me take a moment to highlight the achievements of these elite athletes. Stressing their achievements puts into context why their presence and opinions are relevant and imperative. The achievements of this group of athletes include multiple medals at the continental level, a number of continental records, commonwealth medals, national records, and a world title. Of equal importance is the fact that the athletes as a group and individuals have brought in more external funding to the sport than the national association has in the past 4 years. Why would they then not show up at the ?national championships? especially if they are in the country?
If you have paid attention to the chairman of the GAA, Mr. Sandy Osei-Agyemang, you would be made to believe that the biggest problem facing Ghana athletics is the lack of resources. However, events over this past weekend seem to indicate that there is more to the picture than simply the lack of resources. The most obvious of the emerging factors is a growing discontent among the elite athletes with the performance of the GAA, especially the chairman and his non-existent feuding secretary. The glaring absence of these athletes at the national championships this weekend may be a sign of the growing impatience among the athletes. Six weeks ago, these same athletes were present at the Maria Tsakos athletics invitational fraternizing with and encouraging the junior athletes; their presence gave the school boys and girls who were competing the ever-so-important role models any youth needs to develop. In soccer, we?ve had the Abedis, Tonys and currently have the Appiahs, Essiens, Kingstons, and let?s not forget ?the rock,? John Mensah. In boxing, Azumah inspired, and in athletics the Rose Harts, Alice Anums, Mike Aheys and others began a lineage that most recently has spawned the Gaisahs, Vida Anims, Margaret Simpson, Eric Nkansahs, among others. Yet, these recent stars, who all traveled on their own from other parts of the country to grace the school boys and girls invitation competition in Accra six weeks ago were all conspicuously missing at the culminating event of the Ghanaian athletics season organized by the national federation; not a single one of them was there. I spoke to a few to get a better handle on what was going on.
My first question was "why were you not in Sekondi for the athletics national championships?? Their answers were surprisingly simple yet distressing. They were either not invited by the GAA or did not see the need to attend. This is remarkable. Our national federation GAA hosted a national competition and yet failed to invite its best athletes while others considered the event unimportant? With all the time the chairman spends on the public waves asking for support, did he not take the time to take care of in-house obligations to ensure that everyone of his family members was invited to the table? When a leader can?t even organize a competition that is attractive to his stars who have invested their lives in the sport, there is a huge internal problem. How can he expect to attract outsiders who have no prior investment in the sport to, first, come as spectators and, second, contribute resources? As the adage goes, charity begins at home.
Another response that arose can be posed in the form of a question, and an important one at that: why is the GAA hosting its national championships at the end of the athletics season? The elite athletes I spoke to, including those who are currently out of the country, indicated that they were in the middle of their off-season training. The rightful time to host a national championship is when every other country in the world did it; i.e., before the continental championships (All-African Games) or the World Championship, so that it can be used to select the best-prepared athletes. In Ghana, however, we all know that we don?t base our selection on performance. The GAA claimed it did not have the resources to host a national championship to properly select a team for the All-African Games. So how did it manage to host a national championship so late in the season when logic dictates that resources should be harder to come by?
I went further to investigate through various sources, why this important event was held so late. The answer is; if GAA does not host a national championship this year, its parent organization the global federation IAAF will revoke its annual grant. In short, this weekend's competition seems to have been nothing but a charade to convince the IAAF that GAA had met its obligation.
Anyway, if you follow this line of ?charade? logic further then it makes sense why the GAA did not invite its best athletes. According to a published (GNA) report, the number of athletes who were expected to participate in this national championship, was far less than should have been. Indeed, the GAA gave the regions a quota of 10 athletes per region. Given that there are more than 15 events in the sport it means that each region was not even presenting a team that would cover all the events! I am leaving the athletes from the security services out because the GAA plays no role in their athletics program. Why could the GAA not at least ask each region to bring one athlete per event, presumably the best athlete in the event? This point is important because it goes to the root the problem. Lack of grassroots participation; constituents must have adequate representation at the national championships. But, surely one must ask why; if the athletes can sponsor over 350 participants from the regions for the Maria Tsakos Athletics Invitational, on September 21 and 22, why could the national governing body only sponsor100 non-security services related athletes?
When you tie the issues raised together, then the additional obvious questions are; did GAA not invite some of its best athletes because it knew the event at Sekondi was not worth their time? Or did some of these athletes probably not show up because they also knew that the competition was nothing but a ruse or a sham? However, can we blame the GAA for putting on a subpar event given that Mr. Sandy Osei-Agyemang has constantly complained about the lack of resources? The lack of recourses is an established fact. I put this question to Eric Nkansah a senior athlete whether the criticism of the GAA was fair. In his opinion, the lack of resources is being used as an excuse to cover other internal problems that exist. We have all known for many years that there are never enough resources he said.
I also, posed the same question to Dr. Andrew Owusu, the chairman of the athletes association. Owusu is currently out of the country and was not at the competition held this weekend. Owusu claims, that the failure on the part of GAA to invite or get participation from the elite athletes is symptomatic of internal problems within GAA or at best, apathy on the part of the athletes. Like Nkansah, he also stated that the lack of resources is not a new issue. His concern is that we are at a point where the lack of resources is being used as an excuse for poor organizational performance. ?When we held our competition in September we also did not have enough resources and had to do a substantial amount of legwork to get the various constituents and stakeholders sufficiently interested to contribute and come. We had to invite the current national stars to grace our event. They are stars deserving of respectful treatment, like formal invitations. We also explained to them that it would be for the good of the sport, their sport, to come?. Owusu continued, ?when I spoke to Professor Francis Dodoo, himself a former national athlete who now resides in Ghana? he had no clue that there was a national championship going on. Now, if we refuse to recruit and incorporate such prospective allies who themselves were national athletes and are so well-placed to help, how can we expect others with less ties to sports to participate?? Based on Owusu comments, it seems the appropriate question I should be asking is; ?in the absence of adequate resources, is the GAA doing all that it can to enhance and promote the sport of athletics?" The answer it seems is a resounding no. I think we have a bigger problem than the lack of resources when the athletes association can raise more external funding than the national federation. It is also indicative of a problem when the athletes, in conjunction with Ghana Education Service, can organize a more successful national event.
Following athletes? argument, then the ?resources? theory as articulated by the chairman of GAA makes less sense. That is, the idea that the lack of resources is the most significant problem faced by athletics. I would argue that lack of resources and success is mostly due to the GAA?s inability to perform. So again, both the athletes and the GAA are facing the same problem; lack of resources. So why are the athletes more successful at public relations, fund raising, and organization than the GAA? This is the question that concerned Ghanaians should be asking? The athletes seem to know what it takes to succeed, relatively speaking, in the absence of adequate resources.
