The GOC elections: How it finally came off
The spirit of sportsmanship, democracy, fair play and maturity were at play when members of the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) finally converged at the Swiss Spirit Hotels and Suites Alisa (formerly Alisa Hotel) last week Wednesday to hold their annual electoral congress.
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The daylong event, which was graced by a representative from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Donald Rukare, also led to the election of a 15-member new executive to steer the affairs of the GOC for the next four years.
They were Ben Nunoo Mensah, who contested the incumbent president, Prof. Francis Dodoo and won by 33 votes to 28; Paul Atchoe, Michael Nunoo and Evans Yeboah, who also won the positions of first, second and third vice-president respectively.
Mr. Richard Akpokavie retained his position as the Secretary-General of the GOC, while Richmond Quarcoo also defeated Joseph Mingle to win the Assistant Secretary-General slot.
The president of the Ghana Taekwondo Federation (GTF), Frederick Lartey Otu, who contested the position of treasurer, also beat close contender, Christopher Essilfie, by 32 votes to 29, while Theophilus Wilson Edzie, from the Swimming Federation, polled 31 votes to beat his opponents to become the assistant treasurer.
Five other representatives for Olympic Sports, including Herbert Mensah, Linear Addy, Mawuko Afadzinu, Albert Frimpong and Isaac Duah, were also elected while Rev. Emmanuel Nikoi of the Ghana Netball Association won against Prof. William Ampofo to become the sole representative for non-Olympic sports.
The position of the representative of National Federation Affiliated to the GOC was picked by Joseph Kwasi Ogah. Three other members, Melvin Brown, George Owusu Ansah and Jerry Amert Shaib, were elected to be part of the executive.
Prior to the congress, some members of the federation raised a number of protests in relation to the list of delegates, including the query of the eligibility of the status of the Ghana Olympian, as well as that of the Athletes Commission, whose representatives had been enlisted to be part of the delegates.
After series of meetings by the stakeholders, the three- member electoral commission of the GOC, comprising the chairman of the Ghana Boxing Authority, Peter Zwennes; the vice-president of the Ghana Table Tennis Association, Kenneth Ashigbey; and Mr Thaddeus Sory, a legal counsel of the Ghana Football Association; in consonance with the GOC leadership then stood their grounds and presented the list of delegates for the elections.
The federations, who had earlier raised red flags over the list, further petitioned the disciplinary, grievance and dispute resolution subcommittee (DGDRS) of the GOC who eventually, ruled on the matter at the eleventh hour and disqualified three representatives of the Athletes Commission from taking part in the process.
Subsequently, as of the evening of Tuesday, March 14, 2017, dark clouds still hung over the much-awaited GOC elections slated for the next day, March 15 because the list of delegates was still a bone of contention.
Even as the congress commenced with the reading of budgets and other matters, aside the elections, the controversy over whether members of the Athletes Commission must be included in the list reared its head when Prof. Dodoo brought the matter up that the IOC had responded to the ruling of the DGDRS that every morning after a member of the group had sought the position of the IOC on the ruling which sought to disqualify the representatives from the Athletes Commission.
The situation threw the entire congress into a kind of debating club. But after some back and forth with their arguments, members concluded that the decision as to whether to include the athletes or not must be voted upon, whereupon 31 voted against their inclusion with 30 delegates voting for.
After that, 61 delegates were cleared by the Electoral Commission of the GOC to cast their ballot to elect 35 candidates as new executives for the positions of President, three Vice-Presidents, Secretary-General, Assistant Secretary-General, Treasurer, Deputy Treasurer and other representatives to steer the affairs of the country’s Olympic Committee.
Earlier, the fixing of a substantive date for the elections nearly dented the brand GOC when the Prof Dodoo-led administration reneged on its earlier agreement to call for Congress immediately after the Rio Olympic Games as agreed by members in a resolution just before the Rio Olympics.
Even though Prof. Dodoo’s tenure had elapsed before last year’s Summer Olympics in Rio, the federations had to extend his tenure and that of his executives to stay in office with the clause that elections must be held immediately after the Rio Olympics last August.
However, after the RIo Games, the leadership began to drag its feet until Mr. Nunoo-Mensah and a team from other federations stepped in for the matter to be resolved.
Mr Nunoo Mensah, had with the active support of other federation members, thrown a challenge to the leadership of the GOC to show commitment towards holding the electoral congress which had then been scheduled for November 5 last year.
Eventually, calm prevailed and an emergency congress was held during which a definite date of March 15, 2017, was scheduled for the electoral congress. A three-member electoral commission was subsequently set up to oversee the elections amidst the opening of nominations from February 21 to March 7 until the list of delegates, as released by the electoral commission, also nearly stampeded the smooth process.
Notwithstanding the seeming acrimony and charged tempers, Mr. Nunoo-Mensah’s election has been hailed by many people within the sports fraternity as a positive step because they believe his leadership will chart a new course for the Olympic body in Ghana.
Mr Nunoo Mensah has already given the assurance in his vision statement that his administration would create a transparent and accountable GOC, which would involve all stakeholders in sports, working either at the board or sub-committee level to push Ghana sports forward.
And as part of measures to ensure that the GOC works again, the new leadership is forming eight sub-committees namely, Finance, Olympic Solidarity & Projects, Events & Programmes, Fund-raising/Marketing & Sponsorship, Legal/ Constitutional, Medical, Communication and National Federations Relations, to drive the GOC and its activities.
Although lack of funding for the development of sports infrastructure, competitions and training for the national teams are still the bane of Ghana sports,
Mr Nunoo Mensah is upbeat about the need for the GOC to self-finance its activities and has given the assurance to put structures in place to possibly raise a minimum of GH¢500,000 in the first year of his tenure.
He also promises to liaise with the government to ensure that some institutions such as the GNPC, GCB, GOIL, ADB, among others, adopt and support some of the national teams or sports disciplines.
It is, therefore, worthy of mention that in spite of all the allegations and counter allegations, the seeming tension and division among members of the GOC and the immediate past administration, members of the federations still exhibited a high sense of maturity and, above all, a true spirit of sportsmanship during the period leading to a peaceful and smooth transition of power, a process which has been acclaimed as being a deviation from the transfer of power from the era of Mr B T Baba to Prof. Francis Dodoo.
It is the wish and hope of members of the GOC that Mr Nunoo Mensah would leave a legacy of decency and true leadership, which will build the image of the GOC and make it a more attractive brand the world over.