NDC Strikes at Ghana sports

Recent events on the sporting scene indicate that the NDC government led by Prof Mills is moving all out to politicize sports and fill every sector with operatives.

Following the P.V Obeng’s mantra that the Party should take charge of every inch of space in the society, the NDC has decided to strike at the National Sports Council, Ghana Football Association, the other Sports Associations and the Ministry of Youth and Sports to rid these institutions of perceived NPP elements.

The Vanguard can authoritatively state that long before the transition team led by P.V Obeng concluded its work, a decision had been taken to replace the Chief Executive Officer of the Sports Council with Abuga Pele, former NDC MP or Agra, the President’s most trusted friend since their University of Ghana days.

The Kumasi stadium tragedy appears to have perfectly worked for the NDC to enable them readily replace Oduro Mensah, the CEO of the Sports Council. The Administrative Committee set up by the government does not entitle the President nor his Sports Minister to impose the sanctions they are purporting to carry out when the committee was not set up under the provisions of the 1992 constitution.

The heat has now been turned on the GFA with the Minister demanding to fill all the National team positions with NDC operatives like Kojo Bonsu also known as Michael Mensa Bonsu of ASH TEAD and ADIDAS fame, the indicted Ade Coker and Jones Abu Alhassan, Steve Mawuyega etc. The Minister is said to be demanding to be signatory to all GFA accounts especially those of sponsors and to be directly involved in making payments. Indeed management members like J Y Appiah of GHALCA fame and Owoahene Acheampong who had fierce battles with E.T Mensah in his days as Sports Minister are to be removed from the Black Stars Management Committee.

Without caring a hoot about FIFA’s threat of sanctions, the NDC is bent on taking hold of the GFA and controlling affairs even if it will cost us the World Cup in South Africa 2010. The GFA President Kwasi Nyantakyi is summoned to the Ministry everyday with the persistent demands that some faces are not acceptable in Ghana Football. The NDC witch hunting machine is even targeting national team players and technical staff whose only crime is to have played their patriotic part in lifting high Ghana’s flag on the African and World Stage. The Minister’s attack on Muntari was orchestrated and pre-conceived. There is certainly trepidation and shock at the Sports Council and the Ministry with stories of key figures earmarked for transfers, dismissals and undue harassment.

P.V Obeng’s clamour that the presence of the NDC must be felt everywhere has become the foundation for ruthlessness and impunity. Strangely, the NDC appears not satisfied with the large presence of its operatives like Abu Alhassan , Jordan Anagbla, Raji who lost at the NDC Takoradi primaries, Admun, Francis Doe and a host of others who freely operated under Kufuor’s administration.

The popular sentiment that sports should be non-partisan has been thrown to the dogs and there is every indication that the over thirty Associations under the Sports Council will soon be filled with NDC chairmen and General Secretaries to add to the Oko Djanies, B.T Babas, Elizabeth Kings etc.