Opinion: One Year of Mr Promises!

Sports Minister Edward Osei-Kwaku will have his first in formal interaction with the sporting media when he hosts the Sports Writers Association of Ghana at a luncheon at the Accra Sports Stadium tomorrow evening. It has not been officially linked to the sports minister's first year in office. But the sports minister is one year old as the political head of Ghana sports promotion. He took office in November 2001 after Papa Owusu Ankomah who stood in for jailed Malam Yusif Isa had been drafted to lead the ruling New Patriotic Party's front bench in Parliament.

Tuesday's reception would be an informal gathering but there is every reason that the writers will give the minister a lot of food for thought. One year into his administration the minister has succeeded in carving a niche for himself in the sporting fraternity as the man who promises all. The jury is still out on his output, though.

There are those who believe that he has done nothing in his one year of administration. That might not represent the absolute truth. Quite recently, Osei-Kwaku appointed a committee to examine the state of Ghana sports and make recommendations for a radical shake-up. Last Tuesday, the committee presented its report before the television cameras at the Accra Sports Stadium. Contents of the report were not immediately known but sources indicated that the committee put together draft proposals for a new sports bill to give a new direction to sports promotion in this country.

That is a big plus for the minister. On the whole, though, there are too many promises standing in his name.

There is nothing that the minister has not promised in his one year of leading sports as the political head. He has promised a new stadium wherever he has been. There is going to be a new stadium at Nkawkaw, a modern complex at the Kaladan Stadium at Tamale. Gyandu Park is to be renovated into a modern stadium with facilities for all manner of events.

Last Tuesday, he addressed National Sports Council's first meet the press series and promised seven sports stadia with modern facilities. At the same ceremony, the minister assured the media that the Kaneshie Sports Complex, one of the cruelest jokes of a sporting arena is to be re-developed into a modern complex at the cost of one million dollars.

A day after the date with the media he was in Parliament to answer questions tabled by three of his colleagues in the House.

Kwakye Addo, National Democratic Congress member for Afram Plains South, Joseph Tsatsu Agbenu (NDC-Afram Plains North) and Stephen Amoanor Kwao (NDC-Upper Manya Krobo) wanted to know efforts the Ministry is doing to promote sports in the country.

The answer was a cocktail of promises. The minister said lesser-known sports like swimming; badminton, basketball and baseball will receive his ministry's attention and developed. Conceding that the nation at the moment has no swimming pool, Osei-Kwaku said the site for a swimming pool, which should have been constructed as part of the renovation of the Accra Sports Stadium for the hosting of the African Cup of Nations in 1978, has been cleared of the structures that hanged dangerously. The place would be redesigned and reconstructed or the pool will be constructed somewhere else.

He told the House that basketball courts will be constructed in all 10 regions of the country to boost the development of the game, not a bad idea given the dire state of facilities in the country.

One of his first public outing as Minister of Sports was to visit Bukom, the cradle of Ghana boxing. What he saw nearly made Osei-Kwaku weep for Ghana sports. He promised a gymnasium to help unearth and groom boxers to replace the Azumah Nelsons and the Ike Quarteys who are now only footnotes in the global art of self-defence. Nearly one year on, the gymnasium is still awaiting construction.

He took one hard look at the athletic tracks in Accra and Kumasi and pronounced them unfit for the exercise for which they were laid. The replacements are still on the drawing board.

It is good to make promises. But where is the ministry going to get the needed funding for all these promises when the budget allocation of his ministry for the year 2002 is only c23 billion cedis, hardly enough to pay salaries and other emoluments of the staff under his ministry?

The answer appears to lie in private initiative. The ruling New Patriotic Party believes in private enterprises as the engine of economic growth. The sporting sector is a very classic example of where private participation could yield positive results. But there is very little evidence on the ground to support the notion that private partners are being encouraged to invest in sports.

It is a shame that in this country, all sporting installations are owned and operated by the state through the inefficient organization christened the National Sports Council, a body that is too weak to look after its own.

Cash-constraints mean that the Sports Council is unable to attract high-calibre staff to propel it into the 21st century. The council is saddled with equipment that dates back immediately after the Second World War. One would have thought that the minister would begin his assignment by looking at human development under his ministry. When the staff is motivated and well trained, getting them to push the development agenda would not be such a Herculean task. As it is the Acting Chief Executive Dr Emmanuel Owusu Ansah has no roof over his head. He commutes to work daily from his family home at Tema or from Winneba. Yet the Sports Council has properties, some of which people who have long left the employment of the council occupy. In one particular instance, the residence of the Chief Executive, which was occupied by Ohene Djan in his capacity as Director of Sports, has now been sold to a private developer. There is no evidence that the Sports Council or the State Housing Corporation has received a cedi from the sale.

One hopes the minister appreciates the fact that attempts at redirecting the course of Ghana sports should start with the calibre of staff directing the technical build-up as well as the administrators running the various events. Since the 1960s when sports administrators and technical personnel were sent out to learn how to administer sports, Ghanaian sports administrators and their technical personnel have not benefited much from training. This writer is recommending series of courses at the National Sports Council if sports in Ghana will get a lift.

The minister ought to appreciate that one year of his leadership of Ghana sports has not improved the fortune of this country in the international sporting arena. The solitary bronze medal from the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester should inform him that he has not impacted positively on sports development. If he cares to listen to the FM stations and read the readers column in the sporting press, he would have a fair idea of his rating in the minds of the average follower of sports in this country. On Tuesday, the sporting press will tell him more. One hopes he takes the criticism in his stride and improves the way the Ministry of Youth and Sports is handling sports promotion in the country. One hopes that on Tuesday, when he meets the sports writers and broadcasters, he will limit himself to issues about sports. No one denies that Youth is the other arm of his ministry. Sports Writers though have a clear-cut brief - sports. Happy anniversary!