Party politics vs national unity in Black Stars support

Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng Opinion Jun - 20 - 2014 , 04:22

Controversy over selection for the World Cup is not unusual; pundits and fans debate who should be in and who should be out even long after the tournament is over. In Ghana there was such controversy over the selection of the players to be in the final squad to Brazil.

The general default position is that the coach knows best. However, in a classic only-in-Ghana situation, the selection that generated hullabaloo was over the selection of supporters to cheer the team in Brazil.

The principal author of the brouhaha was the Deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Joseph Yammin, who announced that the majority of Ghanaian supporters sponsored by the government to go to the tournament should be from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) political party.

Comments have been aired from both sides of the “debate” on predictable party lines but the matter should not be allowed to disappear in the usual Ghanaian way. It has raised important questions.

Further to the deputy minister’s announcement, a number of NDC supporters have come out to hail him for voicing their wishes. Indeed, one NDC constituency chairman hailed Mr Yammin as a hero and declared that the youth of the party would now know that they had a voice in government.

There is nothing wrong with that. This is the stuff of politics. However, we need to know whether the deputy minister was expressing his personal opinion or reflecting government policy.

In fact, it is questionable if a minister or deputy minister can express a personal opinion on matters within his or her official domain that is different from the government stand.

Therefore, unless the government, or the minister, disavows the statement we can and should assume that what Mr Yammin said is the policy of the Mahama government.

Personally, I find it difficult to square such a policy with President Mahama’s avowed intention to treat all Ghanaians equally, and indeed to be inclusive in his governance. Indeed, on the eve of Ghana’s ill-fated match against the USA, Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur told the Black Starts and their handlers in Brazil that all 25 million Ghanaians were supporting them and praying for the team.

I think this inclusive sentiment is what President Mahama would want the nation to hear.

However, unfortunately for the President, Mr Yammin’s sentiment is the one making waves. Politically, the President may find it difficult to dissociate himself from those comments because the people in his party who see Mr Yammin as a hero will see this as a betrayal, as they see it every time the President attempts a move to the centre.

Equally difficult for the President would be how he orchestrates his escape from the consequences of Mr Yammin’s stand. He cannot have it both ways.

As for Mr Yammin it would be better for him to hope that the Ghanaian brevity of memory is even shorter on this issue than usual because this issue will follow him for a long time to come.

It is what will probably define the rest of his political life and may even decide how long that life lasts.

Mr Yammin may well have been reflecting the status quo. After all his only “justification” is that the NPP took their members to Germany 2006.

This is from Deputy Minister Yammin: “We’re taking (NDC) supporters to Brazil. I will say without a shred of doubt that the majority of those supporters will be members of NDC. In 2006, about 250 supporters were sent to Germany and my checks indicate that only seven NDC members were part of the team. I will not be a hypocrite and say we’ll share it equally. You can take it or leave it. We’ll give them their small number and ensure majority of the people we send are NDC supporters.”

This is extremely sad coming from a minister of state who is paid not from party funds but state coffers. Unfortunately, there are people like Mr Yammin who feel that our nation exists for the pleasure of providing privileges to politicians and their supporters. The arrogance is breathtaking.

While the majority of Ghanaians wish to see a more united country, a small but vocal number of tunnel-vision politicians stoke the fires of sectarianism in this country.

In 2006 I encountered this extreme form of “party over country” when a lady told me that she wished the Black Stars to perform poorly because President Kufuor and his party would use a good performance for political propaganda.

Of course, any government would use any good fortune to its advantage but for citizens to turn against their national team on that account was curious.

I met the same situation in Kumasi during the last African Cup of Nations when hundreds of people were rooting for Cape Verde against Ghana. Such people take their inspiration from sectarian politicians on both sides.

In most countries, reaching the finals of the most glamorous tournament would be the glue that binds the nation. In Ghana it appears that not even the pulling power of the national team is sufficient to push some people away from their entrenched party-political positions. Politicians can behave that way but the government cannot do the same.

The government should use the team’s participation to unite, not divide us further. After all, the team that is representing us was not chosen on party lines.

Would Mr Yammin also want the majority of players to be from his political party? Or, is the money being used to finance Ghana’s participation coming from an NDC fund?

During the last qualification match in Cairo, some supporters wore shirts with President Mahama’s effigy on the front; this raised the usual political temperature and took some of the shine off the Black Stars victory.

Some people have argued that there is nothing wrong with spectators wearing a shirt with the President’s picture on. That may be so, but what was the point of it?

In my view, that shirt display diminished both the country and President Mahama.

Putting the President’s effigy on football jerseys was something you would expect of Africa’s unlamented departed dictators such as Mobutu and Eyadema.

In any case, I have it on good authority that the President was embarrassed by that incident.

In my view, football support should have nothing to do with party politics. The NDC-NPP politics is not the natural dividing line in Ghana. It has become the dominant paradigm in all our national conversation. This is wrong, and couldn’t be more wrong where support for the national team is concerned.

So, who should be selected to support our national football teams in such situations? This is an easy one to answer. Football supporters rather than party supporters should be sponsored to support the national team.

Week in and out, real genuine football supporters go to various stadia in the country to support their local teams.

Those people who travel from Dormaa Ahenkro and Berekum to support their teams in Accra; supporters who follow their teams from Kumasi to Wa and vice versa are the people who sustain football in this country.

In addition to such gallant supporters we also have hundreds of amateur administrators and coaches who train youngsters across the country, usually at their own cost. It is people like these who should be sponsored by the state to support the national team at tournament.

No one can stop Mr Yammin from taking as many of his party supporters as he wishes to any tournament on earth or elsewhere in the galaxy, but that should not be at the expense of the nation.

To paraphrase the opening lines of the Freedom Charter of South Africa’s ANC, Ghana must belong to all those who live in it.