A test case for the GOC, Ghana Sports!
Barring any unforseen circumstances, the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) will be at the polls on March 17 to elect new officers to run its affairs for the next four years.
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But like all other leadership positions of trust, which are elective, that of the presidency of the GOC, doubtless, has been the cynosure of all eyes and which will be the most competitive yet.
The presidency of the GOC has attracted a lot of controversy in recent times with some members of the sports federations calling for the post holder, Prof Francis Dodoo, to stand down for reasons we shudder to recount here.
Whatever the sins of Prof Dodoo as to make some of the members wish that he quits without recourse to the democratic process stand to be tested at the polls next month as we are cocksure that the incumbent president will file to run for re-election.
We are happy at the development that already a time-table has been set by the three-member Election Commission of the GOC with directives to the various sports federations to have their interested nominees pick the relevant forms to contest the positions (story on back page).
It will be a test of Prof Dodoo’s popularity and credibility among the federations, some of whose members have been dragging his name in the mud and forcing him, as it were, to relinquish the post.
It is our pleasure that, in spite of the apparent stark differences among the leadership of the sports federations and the incumbent GOC president, all the factions have seen reason to change the president and his team or maintain the status quo only through the democratic process.
We applaud all the stakeholders for their exemplary show of patience in the face of the inflammatory attacks on their work and person and hope that when the elections come to be held, it will be without rancour and divisiveness.
It is in this spirit that we expect members of the football fraternity to conduct their affairs with decorum and to allow the democratic process hold sway among their ranks.
Indeed, in recent times the pressure has been building on the leadership of the Ghana Football Association (GFA), notably its president, to resign following the Black Stars’ repeated failures to raise the national banner at international tournaments.
The most recent had been the unenviable fourth-placing of the team at the Gabon 2017 AFCON for which the FA president continued to get the bashing to throw in the towel.
For a moment it would sound as though the FA president was the coach of the Stars for a foreigner or the uninitiated, but in our world that should be expected, whether or not one still had time left on his mandate.
However, we think it is time we started to remove leadership of our football by the same manner that they were ushered in: that is, through the elective mechanism and not by a fiat or a coup d’etat.
We believe the football lobby is very strong in the country as to mobilise support to unseat any FA president the football electorate may deem to have exhausted his welcome rather than the resort to verbal attacks and unwanton schemes.
After all, if the highest body of sports administration in the country, the GOC, could take the challenge in its strides, why not a sub-body such as the FA, which is one of the 41 disciplines under its umbrella.