AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS 2008, THE LESSONS LEARNED: RE-INVESTING FOOT BALL “ENERGIES”

Now that the soccer hoopla has waned down let's invest our time and energy into launching Public-Spirited Awareness Campaign to wage battles against corruption in government and other social vices that eating so deep into the marrow of the Ghanaian.

After the flag-waving, crowd-cheering, and the band –playing moments, there's the need to use the enthusiasm we exhibited during the recent soccer tournament in Ghana, to raise funds and create public awareness to promote healthy lifestyle, fight poverty, Illiteracy, road accidents and tackle other social issues.

I visited Ghana during the last Africa Nations Cup soccer tournament which was excellently hosted in Accra and other three cities. Among the mega-watt fanfare and other observations, I found out that the country for once united for a common cause— winning the game. Every Ghanaian, rich or poor, female or male, adult or child was hyped for Ghana to win. Meetings and dinners were postponed to make time for the match between Ghana and other countries. I learned the professional mourners made no sales as most funerals were also rescheduled. Even the President postponed his trip to Italy just “to give the Black Stars the moral support.” The T'-shirts and other soccer paraphernalia which cost around GHc 200-300 a piece were bought rapidly by Ghanaians, as if they were been given away .

And, when Ghana beat Nigeria, 2-1 the streets of Ghana were thrown into frenzy--with some few incidents and accidents here and there... With such zeal and nationalistic spirit, I wonder what we could achieve as a nation if we invest same energy and enthusiasm into other pressing national issues.

If the equivalent amount of time, energy and money spent on the Soccer Tournament had been responsibly spent on specific social issues, we can only imagine what the potential benefits and outcome might have been. It's hard to imagine that such energy and zeal focused on poverty, accountability, responsibility and other social ills would have given us a viable country than what we have now..

In the Western world, there are awareness campaign to fight or promote every socio-economic or health issue. Recently, obesity has become the target in America. Consequently, the source of this health hazard is being attacked. The health advocate group has pushed for food packages to be labeled with their nutritional contents for the safety of the consumers. Some restaurants are even required by law to let their consumers know what they're eating. For example, a typical McDonald's lunch of Big Mac, large fries and a medium size of Coke has about 1,320 calories, which is about 66 percent of recommended daily calorie intake for adults. But, one thing is clear: The information on the food packages won't make consumers slim and free from diseases because obesity is an equal opportunity employer; all over the world, especially in U.S.

Nevertheless, knowing the components of okra or goat soup and 'Banku' or “fufuo” at “Heavy Do chop bar” at Kokomele would be a step in the right direction. I wonder how many calories have we in 'Waakye' and cow skin.

On that basis I naively, took upon myself to conduct my own unscientific survey in Ghana... My dear friend; Kwame Odiamon (alias Koo Mintah)—was my first interviewee .I went into his house when he was sitting behind his mountainous cocoyam fufuo with akrantie soup. Well, I didn't know that was the right time to interrupt his serenity, but I had the feeling he had a lot on his mind on the subject of diet and counting calories.

Mindful of the fact that Koo is the type of person who hardly lets a public debate go by his door-step without his input and being a captive of his own TV set, that was the perfect opportunity for him to spell 'relief '. He jumped on the opportunity to offer his 'expertise ', with no room for negotiations .

Judging from the assorted ('bitters') drinks lined up on his dinning table I was convinced my work was caught up for me. Koo Mintah swears the 'Alomo Bitters' doesn't contain any calories, so he takes a full glass every day before his meal, just to compensate for his lack of physical exercise and information on his diet intake. He even proved to me how his mental faculty has been fortified by the bitters. I wonder what that has done to the structure of his stomach. He seems to complain of stomach pain every now and then. He's definitely going to need tons of antacids; to control his frequent gas build –up in his “.system”. I wondered whether his uncontrollable frequent fart moments had anything to do with his over-consumption of “bitters”. I couldn't tell. These days he seems to let it go at any given moment, without notice or excuse.

It's no wonder, he claims the “bitters” not only enhances his manhood, but his bed-room activity has gained the Olympics –quality standard. Oh well, that's very subjective; given the fact that his kids say he snores in the living-room couch before the day gets old. Maybe, he should stick to the Viagra, instead. But, that's his business. Who am I to question his manhood, not to mention his performance and sleeping pattern? Sometimes, one's better off when things are left to one's imagination.

Yes, we don't have access to our diet or calories information and even if it is provided chances are that it is not everyone who will read it. But, that shouldn't prevent us from trying to start counting our calories to combat obesity and other health hazards that we are currently experiencing in our part of the world.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that, Ghana has a lot of issues to tackle. So we should design a national awareness campaign to raise funds to manage some of them.

The government could team up with the advertising and music industries, cell phone companies, radio and print media establishments to map out sensitization programs that will be directed to reduce if not eradicate some of the social problems confronting the nation. Among these problems are: teenage pregnancy, high school drop-out, obesity, public corruption, poor attitude to work, road accidents and poor reading habit.

A national publicity campaign can also be used to promote healthy lifestyle, career counseling, time and money management and good parenting. We can also drum up public support to fight for laws to protect our water bodies and air pollution, occupational and consumer safety.

With the same enthusiasm as demonstrated for the soccer games, I believe products such as T- shirts, caps and scarves can be sold to raise funds to fight some of these evils that we have in our midst. I wonder what the response will be if there is a national campaign to attack junk-food industries. The Coco-Colas, Nestles, PepsiCo's and Unilivers will pay attention to their consumers' needs and health. They spend huge sums of money to advertise their products—which are sometimes killing us softly---so the consumer will have to find ways and means to ensure that these manufacturers live up to the standards expected of them.

The fact is a National Health Insurance Plan without health education will not live long because we have to manage ever increasing number of sick persons.

Aggressive National Campaign against drunk driving, illiteracy, driving- using- cell phones, over-speeding, dangerous driving, arguing with spouses or passengers while driving for example can reasonably reduce the number of occupants in our hospital wards. Similar campaign to maintain good hygiene and cleanliness will reduce the man hours and the cost of managing the sick.

*Kwaku Adu-Gyamfi
NJ, USA

The Author is asocial commentator and a founder of the Adu-Gyamfi Youth Empowerment, Educational and Apprenticeship Foundation, at Asuom, E/R.