Hindsight: A review of Bawumia’s bold solutions for sports

The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) manifesto took a rather interesting approach to sports.

For other sectors, they premised their promises on their past accomplishments.

Take education for example, the party quickly reminded everyone of the gains of the Free Senior High School policy.

“The Free SHS and TVET programmes are the cornerstones of our education sector,” the Flagbearer noted before saying, “My administration will continue to invest in and elevate these initiatives to provide better opportunities for our young people,” Dr. Bawumia stated.

There was a sharp departure from this approach when it was time to discuss sports.

The Vice President, who currently combines his role and flagbearer, and has a better understanding of where the government has come from completely sidestepped their record.

There was not even an update on their flagship programme for sports; the Multi-Purpose Youth Resource Centres.

Dr. Bawumia and the party should have explained the circumstances that led to their failure to honor the twelve manifesto promises from 2016, and the state of the additional four in 2020. That would have contextualized the narrative around their plan for sports and how they intend to execute the same.

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia at the NPP’s manifesto launch

Instead, the NPP microwaved its uncooked promises from yesteryears, with some, to borrow Bawumiah’s words, “bold solutions” to wash it down.

Repeated promises.

For eight years, the idea of a sports development fund has been at the heart of the NPP’s plan for this country. That in itself is a recognition that the country needs to move away from relying on the consolidated fund for all sports expenditures.

That is commendable. However, what they have not told us, is why for over seven years, they have failed to establish the fund. Or what the revenue sources are. The practicality of these revenue sources and how much can be generated annually.

The significance of these cannot be overstated because they are directly tied to the kind of projects that can be funded.

Perhaps their inability to create a source fund is why, for almost eight years, the NPP government has not honored its 2016 promise to build additional stadia for the regions without such facilities. Interestingly, that promise found its way into the 2024 manifesto. This time, the party expanded it to cover one more area, instead of the five mentioned in 2016.

For a country going through austerity, how will the party fund projects that will cost not less than $100 million?

Especially when they are not emergency or essential services-related expenditure?

One of the pivots on which the NPP intends to develop sports is to create an inviting business environment for the private sector to invest in sports. This has been trumpeted for years without any clarity on how they intend to do this and for which disciplines. When Dr. Bawumia met the press on Sunday, the expectation was that he would use the opportunity to clarify what specific percentage is available to investors and the full scope of incentives on offer.

Dr. Bawumia needs to clarify these matters sooner rather than later.

Bold solutions

Good leadership stays in touch with the pulse of the nation. It is the reason the NPP’s promise to change the narrative around Olympic sports in the country is refreshing to hear…to a point.

But what has been the current government’s track record? The Akufo-Addo and Dr. Bawumia-led NPP government have superintended over two Olympic Cycles, four World Athletics Championships, and two Commonwealth Games since 2016. There have been two African Games too.

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The 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, was the party’s first assignment. You are probably aware of the visa racketeering and impersonation scandal so I will not repeat them.

The bigger disgrace was how Ghana’s cyclists showed up without the appropriate bikes. In the end, Peter Spencer, an Australian biker at GC Bike Fit, created a GoFundMe account to raise funds for Team Ghana. As of today – Monday, August 23, 2024, the campaign has raised an amount of AUD 6,151.

It was embarrassing. But it was not enough. We had to localize it.

Six years later, Ghana’s self-sponsored cyclists blamed their poor performances at the African Games on the same issue.

“If you look at the approved bicycles for this competition, they’re all made with fiber. But ours are all aluminium bikes which are heavier and more difficult to ride.

“So that gives our competitors an advantage because the fiber-made bikes are lighter and easier to handle,” Alberta Adobea, one of Ghana’s cyclists complained.

In track and field, Ghana’s record long jumper, Deborah Acquah will most likely not compete for Ghana again because the Sports Ministry, Ghana Athletics, and the Ghana Olympic Committee, cannot decide who promised to pay for her surgery.

She last competed for Ghana in 2022.

To say that the government has dropped the ball in this area would be putting it mildly. It has been an unmitigated disaster.

Regardless, I would like to give them the benefit of the debt.

What Bawumia and his assigns need to do, is to clarify which disciplines they will prioritize, and how much it will cost to deliver on their mandate.

We are not exactly sitting on a bottomless pit of cash. So our scanty resources need to be allocated judiciously.

If there is one idea that sums up the entire NPP manifesto on sports, it is the promise to upgrade pitches.

It is as though the framers of the manifesto live in an alternate reality, completely oblivious of the entity mandated, however poorly funded, to do the same job. That entity has not disappeared from the surface of the earth since December 2016. It has been manned by Kwadwo Baah Agyemang and now Seth Panwum.

This was the state of the Tamale Sports Stadium during a league match in February this year
It is called the National Sports Authority. If there are any ideas to revamp it, now would be the time. As we speak, Ghana has no FIFA or CAF-certified venue to host its competitions. For years, we have relied on special dispensations and conditional approvals to host matches in Kumasi. If Dr. Bawumia has any magic, he ought to use it now. Not wait for Ghana to be asked to play its home matches abroad.

It appears not a lot of consultations were done before the NPP’s plan for sports was developed.