Last Sunday morning. I sat in my humble abode at Agona Duakwa, searching for a TV station that would help digest my Hausa Koko breakfast. As I licked my oral cavity holding a remote, I skimmed through various channels and hit one which attracted my curiosity. A live soccer match was on, one side in green, the other in yellow. Who were these? But hearing background sounds of ‘Aaah,’ ‘oohhh’ and ‘tweaa,’ my gut instinct told me Ghana soccer was happening somewhere.
I gazed closer and got more excited: Ghana’s University of Development Studies (UDS) was slugging it out with Paulista University of Brazil in an Inter-University World Cup final.
This was live on an international channel. The score then was 1-1. My Hausa Koko now abandoned, I joined UDS in my seat, kicking with them, heading with them, and together saying a prolonged tweaa in one near miss.
It was extra time, and I prayed we wouldn’t go into penalty kicks with the possible repeat of the Asamoah Gyan disaster 15 years ago. I quickly called colleagues waiting in my balcony to come join our forward line, and make a winning goal easier. In a few minutes, it was a goooaaaal! UDS had scored.
We jumped in jubilation and with bated breath, yelled on the referee across the tube, to end the game and rule out an equalizer. The referee apparently heard us and blew the final whistle, without a word of protest from Brazil. We heaved a sigh of relief.
With such a huge victory in the background, Ghana’s media unfortunately tuned out, and rather hyped on front pages grinning presidential hopefuls, including others who could become Ghana’s president only by a miracle.
Bombarded with such trivia, it is not surprising the media skipped the UDS win in Breaking News. Local and national celebrations were nowhere to be found in Ghana, and the UDS heroes must have tiptoed their way up to Tamale.
The bold headline we missed was ‘Brazil Bows to Ghana in World Soccer.’ The details: Ghana’s University of Development Studies, in an inter-university world championship has humbled defending champions Paulista University of Brazil by 2 goals to 1.
In world soccer, any victory over Brazil, even among lizards, should be closely monitored for headlines. No Brazilian soccer team has ever been a pushover anywhere on earth: from women’s soccer to primary school boys.
The UDS victory was not at the expense of a university college in Marshall Islands, where soccer is unknown. Paulista University is a top ranked university in Brazil the soccer capital of the world, whose stadium in Rio De Janeiro was until recently the world’s biggest with a 120,000 capacity.
Paulista won the world inter-university championship in 2023, and vowed to defend the trophy this year when an underdog UDS, bared their chests and snatched the trophy for Ghana.
Few countries ever beat Brazil in soccer and get away with it. For Ghana, victory over Brazil has been rare this century. Our hey days were the early 1990s: Italia 1991, where Ghana beat Brazil 2-1 at quarter finals, and proceeded to semi finals and finals, eventually becoming world champions. In our euphoria remember we marked the grand victory by naming a street near the Accra stadium after ‘Starlets 1991.’
Then came the bigger win in Ecuador 1995, where our Starlets tamed Brazil, to win the World Cup for the second time. I was part of the huge carnival at Kotoka to meet our heroes that day, and earned a lively chat with famed Coach Sam Arday, a fellow Winnesec old student.
That year, however, there was a related scandal which made no headlines: a brazen display of arrogance by Brazil at the awards event in Ecuador. Having been beaten by an African team from Ghana, a humiliated Brazil refused to show up for their silver medal. They boycotted the event with impunity. Years thereafter they have learned their lesson and respected the verdict.
But why am I celebrating UDS? Apart from my patriotic instincts, I have followed the fortunes of UDS since the early 1990s. As far back as 1991 when I was Legon’s Dean of Students, I was part of a special symposium in Kumasi organized by the University Hall of KNUST on the theme, ‘Do we Need a Northern University?’ The speakers were my good self, Madam Hawa Yakubu, MP for Bawku; and Professor Raymond Benin. The Hall Master for University Hall at Knust was Prof Kwesi Andam who later became VC. In preparing for the symposium, I remember rummaging through the Parliamentary Hansard of the 1960s, noting the lengthy debates on the issue, and the unanimity achieved on the need for a Northern university.
UDS is indeed one monumental achievement of Jerry Rawlings, that marks the nation’s drive towards national integration. This should compel the nation to look at universities as a major resource for talent hunt. Let universities introduce the sports for credit policy introduced in Legon in the 2000s, and spearheaded by Dr Owusu Ansah, Legon's Director of Sports and Yours Truly, when I was Chairman of the Sports Advisory Board. But as part of our celebration of UDS let’s also revisit an earlier proposal, to name the University after JJ Rawlings who established UDS, and also donated his $50, 000 World Food Prize as seed money for the new University.
If Rawlings’s own sense of modesty compelled him to decline the proposal, the time is NOW. Let’s enable Rawlings to posthumously join the Celebration of a J. J. Rawlings University of Development Studies.
Congratulations UDS! You are World Champions. As it is, however, the euphoria after the match last Sunday made me absent-minded; and I have even forgotten if I ever finished my interrupted Hausa Koko breakfast.
Perhaps, it has quietly entered the celebration in Tamale: the Hausa Koko capital of the world.
