The day Ghana was spelt as S-H-A-M-E

A worker sent a form for salary advance to his manager who refused to sign it based on the reason given. The manager said the situation the worker had stated as an emergency couldn't be.

The worker had written that he needed the money for a family emergency: his wife had given birth.

"It is not an emergency," the boss insisted, "you had a 9-month notice."

We knew four years ago that Brazil 2014 will happen and fortunately we qualified a year ago. So how did the payment of fees to players become an emergency for which we had to marshal all forces like we were being rushed like the Israelites out of Egypt after the Passover, to display our shame to the world?

Four years ago, South Africa 2010 came to an end and the attention of the football-loving world turned to Brazil. Having done Ghana and Africa proud by its performance and being cruelly denied a progression to the semi-finals by a certain Luiz Suarez - for which some of us have stubbornly put aside our cultural and religious injunction to forgive our fellow men and continue to call on the ancestors to continually tickle his proboscis unto biting works - the Black Stars were being supported by all to qualify for Brazil 2014 and make us even prouder.

Our road to Brazil started with a qualification to the second round of the qualifying rounds as the third-ranked side in Africa, and in the second round, we topped our group which included Lesotho, Sudan and Zambia, with five wins out of six. In the third round, in November 2013, we sealed our qualification with a drubbing of Egypt, a score line of 7-3 over two legs that sent ripples across the globe and, once again, confirmed Ghana's status as a footballing nation.

Having been to the World Cup twice already – in 2006 and 2010 – and with the FA being run by key hands who were involved in the previous participation, if there was an concern, it would have been about how the black Stars could improve on our sterling output in the past and beat our own benchmark.

The FIFA World Cup was taking place in June 2014 and so we had at least five months to plan from the time we sealed our qualification.

And we did plan. Or at least showed semblance of planning. The committees were in place and work was on-going. But, as is said, the devil is in the detail and when the cow dung (read what I really wanted to write here) hits the fan, that is where the quality of the preparation usually becomes evident.

And, boy, did it hit.

The straw grade of our preparation is best demonstrated by the appearance fee saga and how as a nation, we didn't just wash our dirty linen in public but actually used palm oil instead of water!

So we had at least five months to plan to play for three matches at least. We had this same period to know that we will be taking twenty three players to the world stage. And we did have this period to put in all the necessary arrangements for this to happen in a normal way, just as nations with reasonable foresight, and same technical skills as we do, did.

But what did we do?

When all you know is how to use a hammer, you think every problem should be solved by hitting. And hit we did, in the gut of every right-thinking Ghanaian and African who has a modicum of pride.

I have heard officials and even the President say that it was an emergency because we were being held to ransom by the players. Just as that manager told his staff that a delivery after nine months gave at least nine months of advance warning, so we had at least five months of warning of an emergency, if we can even call it so.

What was displayed on a grand scale on the world stage was a picture of a country which was plagued with ineptitude, indecision and plain foolishness. A country that was reactive and didn't think of options upfront before starting a project. A nation with inexperienced ministers who don't know when to keep their mouths shut and what to disclose versus what not to disclose. A country without an plan.

What makes it more painful is the fact that, in my humble estimation, on the field, we played excellent football and, in the game against Germany, gave the world one of the best meals of football: flair, pace, excitement, end-to-end action. A moment of pride later in the Portugal game was to have Asamoah Gyan surpass the legendary Roger Milla to become the top African scorer of World Cup goals. Post our elimination, no one is talking about our football. No one. The enduring image is of a convoy of cars with flashing lights escorting dollars and of players kissing their money. Ah!

And as a Ghanaian, I pray for grace to overcome this embarrassment.

Beyond that grace, I pray that this plague is eradicated from other aspects of our national development and institutions. Because I see it all around me as well. For instance, ask why almost four years after we started commercial production we still don't have a gas plant ready. Hopefully, this year we shall have the plant in full operation. But ask why we didn't plan the gas plant alongside the infrastructure for the crude oil production?

Hope is a good breakfast but a bad dinner, it has been said, but in Ghana, we have deteriorated to the point of having hope as desert after dinner. We don't plan anything and the future just seems to happen to us, without our input. All we seem to do is to just show up.

This is just not right and the shambolic manner we portrayed our national flag in Brazil should tell us that the consequences are not pretty.

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Nana Awere Damoah

Author/Facilitator

http://nanadamoah.com/

http://ispeakofghana.com/

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