What Are We Waiting For?

Stakeholders at a seminar in Accra on CAN 2008,which Ghana is hosting,were unanimous on one thing:the seeming lack of action by the event organisers to get things off the ground.

The participants,who included Ghanaian stakeholders, the Local Organising Committee and some British tradesmen minced no words in their observation that not much seemed to be happening by way of preparation.

And fears are that 2008 will soon catch up with us, with nothing to show on the ground as hosts, apart from the already existing infrastructure that even badly need some extensive renovations.

Conservative observers believe that between now and 2008, the country has about two years within which to seriously tackle infrastructure development and build two new stadiums and rehabilitate the Accra and Kumasi stadiums.

However,the inertia in getting anything started has been everybody's worry. The question being asked is, what are we waiting for?

And that is a legitimate question as time seems to be running out for the country, given the volume of work and the grand tasks that have to be accomplished before kick-off to CAN 2008.

Indeed,as every schoolboy knows, what is crucial in all this is the availability of funds to kick-start the various tasks.But, as were the lamentations at the seminar, the budget outlay for the various tasks had to date not been made available by government.

What is holding off the release of the funds may be anybody's guess but we feel greatly worried at the seeming apathy to an event we enthusiastically bid for and won.

If it is a matter of difficulty in raising the huge $600 million to fund the event,then we must be bold to quickly throw in the towel for CAF to look for a new host rather than hold the entire country to suspense and subsequent embarrassment.