Anyone following Sports in Ghana will obviously be surprised with the final outcome of the 2021 Ghana Olympics Committee (GOC) executive elections, especially on how some ‘bigwigs’ fell off.
Names like Mawuko Afazinu, Charles Osei Asibey, Bawa Fuseini, Richard Akpokavie etc, are personalities whose loss will leave many thinking for years about the conscience of the delegates, but many are those who will not understand the ‘politics’ that characterized the campaign process that led to the eventual elections.
This election was long Decided after the GOC Congress in November 2013 in that Congress, the GOC General Assembly, in the spirit of the Olympic and to conform with article 11[1] of the GOC charter, the General Assembly voted to amend the Charter to hold elective Congress right after the Summer Olympics, and through a resolution, extended the mandate of the executives to go beyond the Rio Olympics in 2016. The corresponding election was then held in march 2017.
Fast forward to 2020, and the GOC is confronted with same challenge of ensuring the executives have a ‘taste’ of the Olympics, this time delegates at the Congress voted against a proposal to extend the mandate of the executives to go beyond the Tokyo Olympic games [which was postponed due to COVID-19.]
It is believed at that congress majority of the Delegates where not ‘senior’ executives of their federation and didn’t have the mandate to decide otherwise.
It must be emphasized that the Ben Nunoo Mensah led administration had two key executives from the Former Administration led by Professor Francis Dodoo, the General Secretary Richard Akpokavie and the 2nd Vice President Evans Yeboah were seen to be ‘mercenaries’ from the old administration, and had to be ‘cleared- from the Olympic movement.
One other critical point worth discussing is the fall out of one time close ally to the President, Charles Osei Asibey, and his decision to join ‘Opposition’ forces against his former close pal was recieved as a ‘stab on the back of the GOC’.
In December when they ‘forced’ the hand of the GOC to go for elective Congress, against the principle expoused in 2009 by the Ghana Football Association and in 2013 by the GOC itself, was also seen as a ‘selfish’ and ‘witch-hunting’ of the current president, Ben Nunoo Mensah.
Before the postponement of the Tokyo Olympic games in Japan, the president of the GOC Ben Nunoo Mensah and his Secretary General, Richard Akpokavie agreed in principle to allow the current executives to continue running the affairs of the committee until the Olympics in 2021, so he [Nunoo Mensah] will hand over the mantle to Mr Akpokavie, but at the Congress held in December, ot is rumored Mr Akpokavie had told close pals he did not trust hos President to hold on to his word, He proceeded to lobby members of Congress to vote against the motion to extend the mandate.
Delegates at the congress did not understand why Mr Richard Akpokavie was still at post as Secretary General of the Committee and still contesting another post of the same institution, they believe if he felt dissatisfied with the management style of the leader, he ought to have resigned his post, before contesting.
Key amongst the decision making processes is the Francis Dodoo-Nunoo Mensah factionalism.
Richard Akpokavie, Evans Yeboah, Bawa Fuseini are key ally of Francis Dodoo, and therefore their decision to form a ‘political’ group to challenge the election was just as a means to bring back the former Leader.
With this at the back of the minds of the electorates, it was decided long before the election that on no point was Professor Dodoo and his allies going to be brought back to office, atleast not in the interim.
The outcome of the election is a clear manifestation of fairness to allow the current executives to have a feel of the Olympics, and the concience of delegates to express loyalty as an Olympic movement.
Ben Nunoo Mensah and his current executive of 17 top Professionals can now have some peace of mind to run the administration for the next four years, devoid of perceived ‘saboteurs’.
The entire executives, all from the famous ‘Green Team’ may not be the ‘creme de la creme’ to run the Ghana Olympic committee, but the unity within the family is believed to have the magic wand to turn things around for the Olympic committee.
Credit: 442gh.com
