They say the truth hurts, and I will contend that it hurts exponentially. The Anas number 12 expose has brought that painful truth to a sharp focus. And I am not under any illusion to crystalize the notion that some Ghanaians take pride in our poverty and revel in our destitution. A couple of weeks ago, I posted a piece on this site entitled, ‘Anybody Who Is Against Anas Is A De Facto Enemy Of State.’

The following is the link: https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Anybody-who-is-against-Anas-is-a-de-facto-enemy-of-State-661677 The reaction was expected. But what really surprised me and solicited this rejoinder was the strawman's argument that Anas is not an angel. To be honest, I even admire those who had the balls to call me a fool and all sorts of names. But to pitch the above tangent is to literally ask Anas to dance on the head of a pin. To err is human goes an English proverb. Psalm 146:3 expressly states not to put our trust in princes and men. However, sometimes to survive you have to rest survival on what is more expedient.

In exception to those who are directly benefiting from the wanton raping of the country, everyone else wishes that almighty corruption will go away. Unfortunately, wishes are not horses, and Ghanaians do not have the option of wishing it into oblivion. Somebody needs to do that dirty job of slaying that monster called corruption. And if we are looking for an angel or a holy man to do that job we will wait till eternity. It is important to stress that no one is an angel and so is Anas. On the other hand, there is an important job that the country is crying for a chief executive. Nobody has been willing to step to the plate for this all-important job that has the potential of salvaging us from the quagmire of corruption and unchain all our hidden possibilities.

It is important to have different shades of opinion. That is the essence of living in a plural society; it guards against mob mentality. For that reason, I am prepared to listen to diverse opinion on any matter of national importance and possibly raise the level of discourse. My assertion is unequivocal. To go against Anas is treasonous, and the counter argument is that he is not an angel. The poetic ones have captioned it who watches the watchman.

Now, let’s hypothetically assume that Anas is corrupt. In my candid opinion, I will not worry about the corruption of Anas, because he is a private man. His corruption will affect only a handful of the people he deals with. And the bug stops with them. On the flip side, the corruption of a person like the chief executive of cocobod affects all the cocoa farmers in the country and for that matter everyone else. If he enters into a shady contract to supply ineffective insecticide that compromises the productivity of cocoa trees, it limits our foreign exchange earning capacity. Again, if the secretary for transport signs a contract for a road that after completion should last for ten good years, but deteriorates in just two, it piles up the financial burden of the state. This determines how much money will be available to pay nurses, teachers, police, etc. in the subsequent financial years. If I have to continue with the examples I will end up writing a book.

Let me now encroach into the eye of the storm. Football is the pastime of a prodigious section of the Ghanaian population. I detected something wasn’t right when I was in Ghana in 2012. I realise that Ghanaian football fans were more interested in what happens in La Liga, English Premiership, Bundesliga and Seria A than what happens in our own. I enquired from some few football fanatics I knew and I was told that Ghanaian matches were bereft of excitement because they were fixed before the players come to the field.

A lot of people have misconception about what drives an economy. The speed at which money changes hands is what ramps up value in an economy. And there is a caveat, that is, genuine business. It doesn’t have to be mining gold, bauxite, or producing cocoa that constitute economic activity. What do doctors produce? They provide an intangible invaluable economic service that can be quantified and valued. Football, like music, is entertainment which is also an economic activity. It employs labour like players, coaches, administrators, caterers etc. Let me analyse a classic example in Europe. The English Premiership contributed £2.4bn to the U.K. government treasury in the 2013/14 season. This tier alone directly engages 6,239 who earn very good money, besides 65,623 in its supply chain. The preceding figures are just for the Premiership. In addition to this, there are more than 400 divisions hosting in excess of 7,000 clubs. Can anyone imagine how much all these add to the U.K. economy in terms of employment and income? It is huge.

Football in Ghana has been destroyed by those in charge. The highest paid footballers in the Ghanaian premier league, takes home less than £500 a month while their counterparts in the English premiership pocket £240,000 a week. There are those who will argue that I cannot compare the economy of England which determines such handsome salaries, and that of Ghana. And this is my answer to such strawmen. The economy of Spain cannot be compared in any circumstances to that of England, yet their highest paid footballer Ronaldo takes home more than Alexis Sanchez. The players in the Indian 20/20 cricket league are paid better than English cricketers and therefore attracts lots of English players to India, and it will be ridiculous to compare economic conditions in India and England.

So far, I have only discussed economic issues I will leave the rest to your fertile minds. Football is the premier game of the world. In most places around the globe, it is a religion. I used to be a fanatic football fan before I left the shores of the country. Distance is what numbed my passion, but football still holds a special place in my heart. So, if the corruption of Anas will clean up football management in Ghana, I will look the other way. If the corruption of Anas will lead to cleaning up our rivers, I wouldn’t hesitate to sign him a blank cheque. I will even ask him to bend the rules if that will sanitise the judiciary. Like St Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:23 for the sake of his faith, I will, also for the sake of Ghana, do anything for the elimination of corruption except murder.

Philip Kobina Baidoo Jnr

London

baidoo_philip@yahoo.co.uk