Opinions of Friday, 28 January 2005

Columnist: Dodoo, Francis Dr.

Ghana's Deaflympics Scandal

What are we really waiting for before we do something about this? It's the same officials who are selling the visas...have you forgotten a couple of years ago a national coach was caught selling visas and that nothing was going to happen to him until athletes threatened to boycott the commonwealth games? Wasn't it only then that he was dropped from the team? And wasn't he dropped only for that one trip? Wasn't he reinstated as national coach? And doesn't he continue to represent beloved Ghana as national coach? wasn't it under the watch of the same deputy minister?

Now, if the deputy minister wants credit for band-aiding this most recent scandal, I'd advise that he work on stopping the fundamental problem rather than simply keeping the lid on it by promptly taking care of things when the cat gets out of the bag so that a scandal doesn't brew.

Joe Aggrey has been around Ghana sports long enough to know what the problems are, who the culprits are, and how to resolve this kind of crap once and for all. This kind of behavior is disgraceful to all of us and reflects very poorly on the country. its a shame that we let it go on for so long. nobody seems to care. and everyone seems to be waiting for it to be one of their children who is stranded by such action--or for one of their daughters to be raped by a coach-- before they raise a stink about it. But, by then wouldn't it be too late? do we have no conscience? who are we really protecting when we condone such misbehavior? certainly not our reputation as Ghanaians! Certainly not! and do we not understand that this directly related to our declining sports performance? doesn't take a genius to figure out how!

So how long will mother Ghana permit this to go on? how long with this corrupt sports establishment continue to rule over Ghana? your guess is as good as mine! certainly this will continue until good people decide it is time to stand up and be counted! these are people's children being subjected to the abandoment and rapes that occur annually! a word to the wise...


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