By: William Nii Okai Bruce
Painstaking investigation has revealed that Ghana’s Ohene Djan Sports Stadium
located in Accra has not been renamed as peddled around.
According to our findings, it is only the Ministry of Youth & Sports which has
the authority to name government properties under its care in consultation with
the President.
Meanwhile, a number of Ghanaians have lambasted Mr. Alfred Vanderpuije, the
chief executive of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) for interfering in
matters beyond his jurisdiction.
On an Accra-based FM station, Mr. Bernard Monarh of the People’s National
Convention (PNC), among others, admonished the AMA boss to abstain from
interfering in other people’s responsibilities if he had no work to do at the
Assembly.
The Stadium under the care of the National Sports Council was named by the
Sports Ministry in consultation with the President, in honour of Ohene Djan, the
first Director of Ghana’s sports administration.
Ohene Djan was appointed by Dr. Kwame Nkrumah in view of his rich managerial
acumen.
In the course of Ohene Djan’s reign he tackled the transformation of Ghana
football from manpower perspective, and groomed some retired international
footballers drawn from all the regions of Ghana to understudy British Coach
George Ainsgley and Hungarian coach Joseph Ember.
The groomed coaches included Ben Koufie, Asebi Boakye, Tim Darba, Solomon Gray,
George Dramani, Kwame Appiah, Ben Sissu, A.K. Ekudi, Baba Yipa and K.N. Nketi.
Ohene Djan, Minister Plenipotentiary and Ambassador Extra-Ordinary, established
district offices to run sports in the country and further encouraged the
formation of sports clubs as well as Schools and Colleges sports competitions
which unearthed the likes of Alice Anum, B. Kankam, Frank Odoi, Sir Cecil Jones
Attuquayefio, Malik Jabir, George Daniels, and Ohene Karikari who is now the
deputy Chief Sports Development Officer of the National Sports Council.
He also instituted the Founder’s Day Games to commemorate Dr. Nkrumah’s birth
day (September 21), every year.
Under Ohene Djan’s administration, Ghana won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1963
and 1965.
He was elected as FIFA’s Africa representative, and was as well emerged
Secretary/Treasurer of the West Africa Soccer Federation and consequently
brought the headquarters to Ghana.
Ohene Djan was among the vanguards in the fight against apartheid in
international sports, particularly South Africa, thus championing the cause of
African Unity and African Personality in sports, among other things.
