Ghana’s poor showing at the 2014 World Cup tournament and the scandals generated has been described as a reflection of the current state of the nation, former Chief Operations Officer of UT Group, Captain Rtd. Budu Koomson has said.
According to him, at the last World Cup, “Ghana was the darling of Africa, Ghana was the destination, Ghana was the exception…but in a space of two three years, we have become the butt of all jokes.”
Questioning how the situation deteriorated to this point, he said “ how did we get here? How did we get here? We got here by choice; not by accident!”
He said the current situation exists because of “the choices we have made and continue to make.
Ghana’s participation in the World Cup was riddled with scandals which received worldwide attention.
Player agitation over the payment of appearance fees caused the government to airlift $3million cash to the players of the senior national team in Brazil.
Two players; Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Muntari were booted out of the Black Stars camp by Coach Kwesi Appiah for misbehaving.
Subsequently, the team was eliminated from the competition after failing to make it out of the group stages.
The country’s woes deepened with reports that 200 out of the 600 the supporters sent to Brazil by government were now seeking asylum in Brazil.
Capt. Budu Koomson told Citi News the situation “has gotten to an embarrassing point.”
He opined that instead of criticizing the Black Stars for their abysmal performance in Brazil, “we should find out how they were managed…we always blame the wrong people and the perpetrators of the crime and mediocrity rather go free.”
According to him, the damage on Ghana’s image on the international scene can only be repaired if citizens stand up to demand good governance from the government.
Budu Koomson accused the government of being “too fast to grab the light for themselves without due consideration for the consequences” adding that if the government had been discerning enough not to have announced it was taking party supporters to Brazil, “nobody will be after them now.”
But Financial Analyst, Sydney Casely-Hayford disagreed with Capt. Koomson’s assessment of the situation saying, “it is an individual thing, a personal thing that they have done and I don’t think we should extend this to government.”
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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