{"id":52581,"date":"2014-09-30T22:33:21","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T22:33:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=52581"},"modified":"2014-09-30T22:33:21","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T22:33:21","slug":"day-28-why-nyantakyi-swore-with-the-quran-and-did-he-lie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/09\/day-28-why-nyantakyi-swore-with-the-quran-and-did-he-lie\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 28: Why Nyantakyi swore with the Qur\u2019an, and did he lie?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\u201cFired up\u201d and \u201cready to fight\u201d best describe Kwesi Nyantakyi on Tuesday when he appeared at the Presidential Commission of Inquiry.<\/p>\n
Before 10am one would have thought the entire day was to be dedicated to him. The FA boss came with an entourage.<\/p>\n
Fans. Well wishers. Serial callers. And his fellow FA members. They sang. They danced. And they besieged the Media Center of the Accra Sports Stadium.<\/p>\n
He did not disappoint on day 28, although the weightier matters were shifted until the following day.<\/p>\n
Kwesi Nyantakyi the Muslim<\/strong><\/p>\n The GFA president\u2019s appearance was always going to have subplots and it began right from the beginning.<\/p>\n Justice Dzamefe:<\/em>\u00a0\u201cWhat book would you want to swear by?\u201d<\/p>\n Nyantakyi:<\/em>\u00a0\u201cThe Qu\u2019ran.\u201d<\/p>\n This completely took the gallery off guard, and it showed in the inflected tone of Moses Foh-Amoaning.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you a muslim?\u201d<\/p>\n Nyantakyi:<\/em>\u00a0\u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n With an absence of a muslim name and a religious life out of public view, Nyantakyi\u2019s decision to swear by the Islamic holy book raised a few eyebrows, especially as he is known to frequent the Trinity Baptist Church at East Legon, where his wife also worships.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”1AkKiDbz21TBBthU9XPdN2L3lCFbtcTT”]FA sources close to the GFA boss told Citi Sports a bit more.<\/p>\n \u201cNyantakyi\u2019s mother is muslim and that\u2019s where his Northern accent comes from. He was raised a muslim and was actually incredibly active as a member of the National Muslim Students Union in his tertiary days.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, to be sure that Nyantakyi is really a muslim (as there is still some doubt), our sources say he may be asked to swear again on Wednesday.<\/p>\n But before the Nyantakyi spectacle, his acting general secretary caused a stir of his own.<\/p>\n Black Stars code of conduct<\/strong><\/p>\n The GFA\u2019s Acting General Secretary Emmanuel Gyimah told the commission that while some of the Black Stars players have signed and returned a new code of conduct, others say they have handed the contracts to their lawyers for counsel.<\/p>\n The decision to have players sign a code of conduct has become necessary following concerns that the playing body had forgotten what it means to wear the national team jersey.<\/p>\n But Foh-Amoaning was unhappy, as he expressed dissatisfaction at the lax way with which the players have been handled pointed out that \u201cplayers must be told they are not bigger than the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n He said any player who felt he could not accept the terms of the contract should be shown the door, for there were many more players desirous of donning the national jersey on its terms.<\/p>\n According to Gyimah, some of the players who remain in the team were yet to sign the contract, claiming to have issued the contract to their lawyers.<\/p>\n Mr Amoaning wondered if the players had been given a deadline by which to respond to the contracts, and counselled that the GFA set a date by which to kick out players who had not signed the contract.<\/p>\n Ghost names?<\/strong><\/p>\n The acting General Secretary of the GFA also revealed that the Black Stars management team members received over $500,000 as appearance fees, providing two \u201cghost names\u201d to justify the monies received.<\/p>\n His testimony appears to sharply contradict that of his boss, Kwesi Nyantakyi, who said at a press conference on July 2 after the World Cup that management committee members did not benefit from any bonuses, but rather \u201chonorariums\u201d.<\/p>\n Gyimah said that a total of US$577,700 was paid to seven (7) members of the management team even though only five (5) went to the tournament.<\/p>\n The extra two (2) names provided as a management members were Jordan Anagblah, a former vice-president of the FA, who died in June 2012 and Emmanuel Kyeremeh, owner of Berekum Chelsea who did not go to Brazil.<\/p>\n