Mr President, our sporting facilities are deteriorating!

 
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential running mate, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumiah has repeatedly told Ghanaians that as much as GHc248 billion cedis resources have been made available to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government. Since the government has not officially denied this claim by the renowned economist, we assume that the story is true.

With this huge revenue available to the government, one would have expected that sports, which drive the youth away from violence would be taken good care of, but no! That is not the situation.

Almost all our sporting facilities have deteriorated without any well thought out policy to renovate them. At the Nation's Wembley, Accra Sports Stadium, the facilities have faded to the extent that football fans have started boycotting the stadium.

From the pitch itself, to the seats, the scoreboard and the erected metals holding it, everything has gone bad, but nothing seems to be done about.

A pathetic story was told last Sunday when Ghana Television (GTV) decided to televise live, the G6 special match between Accra Hearts of Oak and Kumasi Asante Kotoko played at the Kumasi Sports Stadium.

Whereas the pitch has been brought to appreciable standard, the tartan tracks surrounding it were a complete eyesore. The colour of the tracks has changed from red to black, with some parts peeling off. Any foreigner who watched the match on television would wonder if Ghana is indeed a serious soccer nation, as we have been touting.

But as if this is not enough, two relatively new stadia – Tamale and Sekondi, have also been run down. In fact, the last time the Black Stars played Uganda in a World Cup qualifier match there was no water to even water the field.

The least said about the Sekondi stadium, the better. Some years back, any time one mentioned Ghana, especially in the United States of America, the follow up question is: “Are you referring to Guyana? But today, thanks to the exploits of our sports men and women, the name Ghana is common all over the world.

Whilst basking in on this glory, we seem to have relegated the stadia that prepare these sports men and women to the background.

President Mahama is currently touring this country and promising Ghanaians that if they vote for him, he would bring back all the factories that were set up by Kwame Nkrumah, but have been allowed to collapse due to poor management.

We are not against this laudable policy to revive all the collapsed factories. Our regret though is that our sporting facilities are not featuring in the scheme of affairs.

Any country desirous of nurturing its sports talents would not sit down and allow the facilities at its stadia to run down. The budget allocation for the Ministry of Youth and Sports, The Chronicle understands, is nothing to write home about.

In fact, the budget is consumed by per diem and allowances of sports men representing the nation at the international level. This alone shows that our government does not care a hoot about the maintenance of facilities at the various stadia in the country.

The big question then is – how was the record GHc248 billion revenue spent? Leaders of this country have been globe-trotting and, therefore, know how sporting facilities are maintained but seem to be behaving as tourists instead of learning lessons about what is going on elsewhere and replicating same in Ghana.

Would President Mahama feel proud as a Ghanaian if he sees the pylons that hold the scoreboard at the Accra Sports Stadium?

The Chronicle is not surprised that the world ranking of Ghana in terms of soccer keeps on descending, because as the adage goes, you reap what you sow. Over to you, Mr. President.