FPACC’s Reaction on SFO’s Actions at GFA

Ghana is a country of laws and the laws of the land must prevail. For a young democracy like ours to grow and be sustainable, the laws of the land must be supreme, with equality before the law. These are the basic tenets justice and peace, the offspring of good governance.

Ghana is gradually gaining notoriety for lawlessness and outright disregard for the laws of the land. It is becoming a society where some have become untouchables and see themselves far above the law while the few downtrodden are surely and unjustly punished by the same law. A goat thief, for instance, may be given ten years of jail term while a Minister of State or someone with strong “connections” may bolt away with millions of the taxpayer’s money in broad daylight with no one daring to question him.

The best strategy now is to look everything through the lenses of POLITICS. “When you find yourself in political office you can steal as much as you can. Surely your government will not prosecute you, so you are safe as long as your government remains in power. If the unfortunate happens and your rigging could not offset the popular vote and you happen to see yourself in opposition, don’t worry if the new government wants to prosecute you, just call it political witch-hunting (persecution) and the poor foot soldiers of your PARTY will run to your rescue, to save you from going to jail. So either way, you are safe.” This is the order of the day.

For once, our security forces have gotten it RIGHT. What SFO did is highly commendable and every well-meaning Ghanaian must commend them. In as much as we want GFA to be independent, free of government influences, they are not above the laws of Ghana. How dare they think they are untouchable and hence can do whatever they wish with any money that comes into the coffers of the Association without accounting to the taxpayers, whether it is from Government or from corporate donors?

Why don’t they go to SFO to answer any questions if they have nothing to hide?

They Security agencies have done well by following the due process of law, obtaining a court order, before storming the premises. This is what happens in advance democracies everywhere in the world. FBI can storm the premises of Major League Soccer (MLS) to take anything they want but of course only with a court order, so can the Scotland Yard storm The FA premises, but again only with a court order.

The GFA officials must know that even your own business you are running, some arm of the Government have oversight over it and if the Government feels something untoward is happening, they can take action but again only with the permission of the courts of the land.

Anagblah, Nyantakyi and his group must march to SFO and answer questions and if there is nothing they are hiding there is nothing to fear.

SFO, congratulations for the great job! Keep up the good work. Your actions are putting Ghana on the way to not only sustainable democracy but advanced democracy, where the law rules and nobody is above the law, including the GFA.

Desire L. Ankah, CFE

Executive Director,

FPACC