60 years of past or present glory?
For goodness sake, did I really see Azumah Nelson (in white beard) being sent to do the usual trotting he did in the early 80s when he was in control of the World Boxing Council (WBC) featherweight crown leading to the super-featherweight title, at the Independence Square last Monday morning?
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President Akufo-Addo’s gesture to hand Ghana’s 60-year anniversary flame to Azumah Nelson to be sent across the country showed how he recognises sports as the nation's important ingredient to growth. I really enjoyed every bit of the great sporting icon's steps as he was joined by some physical instructors who enthusiastically added more colour to the occasion.
Azumah's trotting reminded me of those days when people woke up from their sleep to think of nothing but sports. Well, we could as well think of the days David Kotei Poison won the World Featherweight Championship in the early 1970s and which became a wake-up call to the people of this country that a lot could be achieved through sports.
Let's cast our minds back to the achievements of Brazil who before 1958 had nothing worthy to boast of, but through football forced the world to turn their attention to all they were doing.
They produced the world's super stars and captured all focus and became an advanced nation in no time, especially when they managed to win the World Cup for five unprecedented times.
Who says Jamaica is not following the footsteps of Brazil for seizing the world sprints through such stars as Asafa Powell and Usain Bolt. The two have made it, and today, they have made the world feel their presence, thus making Jamaica a whole new Nation.
Were these achievements not the result of a whole long planning from nothing to sporting excellence? Can you remember that during the Hilla Limann regime, Brazil won fresh respect when their well-manufactured Volkswagon saloon cars were brought down and distributed to our members of Parliament to the admiration of the whole nation?
Yes, at least some of the invited dignitaries to our annniversary, like the President of Togo, Faure Nasingwe, and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, even at his 90 years, admired how the perpetual flame was handed over to Azumah, and applauded their appreciation.
Being 60 years calls for serious assessment of our achievements and shortfalls. Over here, it is the time of retirement from the Civil Service, and if there is anything, in the celebration of our long-year anniversary, we are supposed to look at our highest point at such World Championships like Olympic Games, Commonwealth and other professional standards.
And who says we can ignore our people who set the pace and built the foundation of our future dreams like the Nyarko brothers, Willie Kwarteng, Adjin Tetteh and others who made the Gold Coast’s presence felt in the Vancouver Games in 1956 and looked forward to posterity to improve on their achievements.
We can say that the highest point our nation could boast of in the Commonwealth Games was the days of the 1956 Melbourn Games, where our sprinters like Mike Ahey, Stanley Allotey and E.A. Mends won gold medals in the sprints and set a fresh records in the 100x4 relay, and were pronounced as the fastest athletes in the Commonwealth Games history.
We cannot also forget the prowess of Alice Anum and others who made the nation proud at the Edinburgh Games in 1970. Truly, the dreams of the pace setters were clearly on focus as the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome saw the likes of Robert Kotei and Ike Quartey winning silver medals in high jump and boxing respectively.
That, indeed was the year good old Muhammad Ali (then Cassius Clay) won a gold medal to tell the world that he was ready for serious professional boxing which made him the greatest sportsman ever. In our case, it is worth calculating whether the expectations became a reality as the years passed by.
Looking back at the past 60 years of our nationhood, one sport that has reminded us of our greatness must be in the fistic sport and we can never forget our sons like D.K. Poison, great “Prof” Azumah Nelson, Ike Quartey and others who became ring masters in their own time.
In reality, before independence, we had already proved our worth with Roy Ankrah (the Black Flash) conquering the Commonwealth title in Featherweight.
The youger generation's galvanisation saw Poison rising up to win the world title in the featherweight division on defeating strongman Ruben Olivaries of Mexico in Los Angeles, USA. He did not end there, and went ahead to defend the title against strong men like Hariju Euhara of Japan and his compatriot Shige Fukuyama before he was overthrown under our noses by Danny "Little Red" Lopez in 1977.
That feat was a great encouragement to Azumah who rose up to wrestle the WBC Featherweight crown from unbeatable Peuto Rican Wilfredo Gomez and went ahead to defend it for several years before crossing over to annex the super-featherweight crown from Jeff Fenech of Australia.
Azumah’s effort was the source of inspiration for Ike Quartey who also picked the bigger title like the WBC Welterweight and reigned for some time to raise the image of his country.
When we come to talk about football, it must be noted that when the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) reached its 13th edition, we had won the championship four times and we were the shining example of the game on the continent. But 35 years after that fourth glory, there is nothing to tell the world that we carried the torchlight. Today, nations like Egypt and Cameroun have overtaken us, with others fighting to make nonsense of all that we could boast of.
At the club level, which annual continental championship commenced 53 years ago, we can only boast of five occasions when the cup came to this land. Kumasi Asante Kotoko made it in 1971 and 1983, while Accra Hearts of Oak made it in the year 2000 and the Super Cup. They later in 2004 won the maiden edition of the Confederation Cup.
Do we say these past glories are worth celebrating? It is a pity that we presently do not have one sporting icon to look up to for inspiration, and since, the younger generation seem to be in the dark.
Looking back, the reality is that we should be ashamed at the way we took off and reached the top of the ladder, only to plunge down, while others are doubling up to make the challenge almost impossible to predict.
Maybe the doubling of the seed money for sports in the last budget will help us start afresh.
