Will our sports be better without proper funding?
When was the last time we as a nation celebrated a major continental championship in the game of football? Where is the glory and pride we enjoyed and boasted of as well as the promise we looked forward to right from the seventies?
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It is sad, but we must admit that things have gone sour to the extent that students in our second cycle institutions are asking whether they are the same first class sportsmen and women we had in the past as their thoughts about our sports in recent time spell nothing positive.
While all the national attention was focused on how to eliminate the Comoros Island in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, the news of the latest slashing of sports budget by 40 percent made interesting reading.
For years, I have had cause to warn this fantastic country of ours to be wary of the strange name we adopted on the eve of independence and how negative it would affect our progress over that outlandish meaningless epithet.
Last week, I made it categorically clear that there was no way we could kowtow to such countries like DR Congo and others we spent our money on to liberate from their colonial masters.
I told you about how we found ourselves enjoying the success story of TB Mazembe because some of our best footballers were in their team which won the 2015 African champions league.
That was the result of their little financial background which could lure our best materials into their fold to fetch for them that glory and pride while we languish down the ladder and for decades not making any meaningful impact.
It must be noted that a lot of countries are making it and the greatest attribute is not only in good planning and implementation, but also the blessing that was bestowed on them from their prayers.
Could somebody tell me why the Sports Ministry should have their budget slashed from 39 million cedis to 22 million and what it actually means. Maybe the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning think there are too many important problems and that the games can develop on their own with all sorts of sponsorship to generate their own funds.
But this is not the first time the sports funds have been slashed down in recent times, and this may not be the last. We are all conscious of the way things are going, and the sad story of some of our programmes have been boycotted for lack of participating fees.
This makes a mockery of a nation like ours in the face of our other African neighbours, and it is possible the situation would be made worse with the current trend. Last Saturday, the Deputy Director General of the National Sports Authority (NSA) Saka Acquaye complained bitterly about the government's continued slashing of allocation to sports in this country, saying that the last four conservative slashing would kill our sports.
Time was when we were competing favourably with leading sporting nations in Africa and the Commonwealth and we could boast of sweeping medals at such high profile games but our economic challenges have turned things upside down, and we are just toddlers before others.
At the last Glasgow Commonwealth Games, we were there with a large contingent, but you can imagine that we were counted among the lowest as we fought hard against countries like Nauru,Sri Lanka, Barbados, Fiji and St Lucia with only two bronze medals when countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Jamaica, Singapore and others could boast of making a good impression at the Games.
Today with the trend of backsliding when our own National Unity Games which provided the platform to unearth talents for the country to compete in international levels has been halted for lack of funds, where is our hope of motivating our young talents to wake up and fight for the glory of our land?
Is it not the end of the journey when the funds being provided can only pay the monthly emoluments of the workers at the Ministry of Youth and Sports and agencies under the Ministry?
Are we really thinking of sports? It must be noted that it is through our sporting prowess that the national pride will be broadcast overseas, and it is a sad story to think that we are allowing things to go this way.
Is somebody somewhere giving the situation a second thought, to ensure that the commitment and patriotism we had in the past is reversed. Let's hope the natural law is obeyed!