The mockery of flight GH3MD
It is an undeniable fact that discipline is the strongest pivot around which the success of any human endeavour revolves.
Advertisement
It means no matter the exceptional skills or talents of an individual, that person may never attain full maturity and reap the full benefits of his or her natural endowments if he or she does not make discipline one of the pillars of his or her personal life.
It can also be said without any equivocation that any institution or group whose membership or leadership lacks discipline can hardly survive.
There are many cases of companies collapsing because of a lack of institutional discipline, or managerial incompetence, itself a fruit of indiscipline.
Evidence of indiscipline in our nation is all over for those who care to see.
Take our choked gutters and drains as a result of indisciplined behaviour, the consequences of the haphazard and irresponsible manner in which structures have been erected everywhere, the carnage on our roads, and, to cap it, leadership at all levels that seems to have lost control, and you could not be left in doubt that this country is suffocating under the yoke of indiscipline.
The latest event which earned us international attention was not the fact that Ghana participated in the 2014 FIFA World Cup, still ongoing in Brazil, and flopped miserably, but for the fact that player indiscipline and misjudgement on the part of our political leadership have brought us into international ridicule.
We have always had problems with indiscipline among players of the Black Stars, the senior national soccer team. These have always affected our overall performance in spite of the enormous talents at our disposal.
Many of those offered the opportunity to don the national colours to defend the national flag see this as a commercial venture and not a patriotic duty.
They may not be totally wrong in their demands, especially having seen the fate of their predecessors who made similar sacrifices in the past, but for the outrageous and very often the unreasonableness of their demands.
They may also be taking a cue from the fact that those in charge of our national affairs hardly make any sacrifices. They are the first to go where the money and other juicy benefits are.
Coach Akwasi Appiah, upon taking charge of the Black Stars and against all odds, tried to exert his authority and to impose some kind of discipline among the player body.
His effort was not given the full support of the state and some powerful interest groups. Coach Appiah succumbed to pressure from all angles, including Government House, and allowed the status quo to remain. At the end of the day, it was made to look as if talents and skills only and no discipline will bring laurels to the country.
If some people are still in doubt, our ignoble failure in Brazil 2014 has more to do, as more objective analysts are beginning to appreciate, with indiscipline, greed and selfishness on the part of players and leadership, than on player quality.
While many would be inclined to put the blame on the playing body, a critical look at events before and during the tournament could not discount seeds of mistrust that were sowed in the players by those who were supposed to offer leadership and motivate them.
Otherwise, why that sudden loud noise about appearance fees, which brought so much negative publicity to the country?
Coach Appiah may have made some technical mistakes in both strategy and player selection. These are things that could not be avoided by even some of the best coaches in the game.
I am, however, appalled by his explanation that he was resting some of his best until the US team got tired. Well, the Americans never got tired and when our best came, they could not offer the needed service, so we lost.
By the way, even if we had to resort to desperate measures to douse the flame of revolt among the players, need we behave as if there are no international regulations on the transfer of currency across borders? Couldn't we have been more discreet about it?
The sarcasm in the voice of the BBC news readers as they told the world that Ghana has airlifted US$3 million by the chartered flight to Brazil to pay agitating players could not be missed. I could not hide my embarrassment.
We were not alone in falling by roadside. We could make amends for a better future, but the case of the chartered flight, which can be described as Flight GH3MD (ie Ghana’s 3 million dollars hauled by air to Brazil), may not go away easily.
Writer's email: [email protected]
Writer's blog: kofiakordor.blogspot.com