Re: ‘Where is the love, Mr President?’
Please allow me the opportunity to respond to a rejoinder from the sports ministry entitled, Re: 'Where is the love, Mr President?', which appeared in the Friday, November 13-15, 2015 edition of The Mirror.
Advertisement
In that rejoinder, the ministry sought to question my motive - justice for all - in fighting for the rights of the glorious senior national women footballers, the Black Queens, while also tackling the heavy-handed sports minister, Dr Mustapha Ahmed.
The Black Queens had just won a gold medal at the All Africa Games, at the expense of Cameroun. Yet, their jubilation was turned into humiliation by subjecting them, the heroines to a villain's treatment, instead.
For the record, it is not "far-fetched" to state the FACT that, to date, the Black Queens' bonuses for the Brazil 2016 Olympics qualifiers and the pre-All-Africa Games qualifiers have not been paid, to say nothing of their bonuses for the All-Africa Games matches they won, culminating in their gold medal!
What is worse, while the Black Queens dug in their heels at their temporary accommodation, during the standoff, the insensitive sports minister, strangely, "threatened to eject" the gold-winning Black Queens, a FACT confirmed by a member of their hotel's management, who stated in an interview to the media, that in good conscience, they could not heed that order.
At that point, the official offered that the hotel took the wise decision to provide the Black Queens continuous boarding and lodging at the hotel's expense. In effect, the defective sports minister had not only threatened, but IN DEED, ejected the gold medalists!
The gold-winning Head Coach of the Black Queens, Yusif Basigi, himself broke the story to the media, of having been shortchanged, paid $10,000 originally, only to be stripped of half of it by some sports ministry official.
When the sports minister diverted $200,000 from the All-Africa Games budget to make an outlawed cash payment to the Black Stars after their AFCON 2017 qualifier in Rwanda, did Avram Grant, the Black Stars' expatriate coach not get paid $20,000; double the 18 Black Stars players' allowance, per standard procedure?
Why, then, was Yusuf Basigi, a gold-winning patriot, robbed of his due reward?
The words of the Ghana Boxing Authority’s President, Peter Zwennes, "... it's the money we want, not the words. We're tired of the promises", a reference to vain promises to it by President Mahama, are apt.
Even more pressing for the Black Queens, "... it's the money" they need, "not ... words" like "... we are persuaded that he (President Mahama) will accord them due recognition at a later date".
Until the Black Queens get paid, the sports minister and his subordinates, including public relations 'disaster', Otor Plahar, should only be paid "at a later date". That's my word.
