As Nigeria falls, Ghana rises!
Ghana’s national teams and their players are doing very well these days. Indeed, as a friend told me, Ghanaian football is a direct reflection of present day Ghana – successful, ambitious, enterprising, friendly, attractive, developing and lucky! He would not comment understandably about the State of the Nigerian nation but says Nigeria’s football is in […]
Ghana’s national teams and their players are doing very well these days. Indeed, as a friend told me, Ghanaian football is a direct reflection of present day Ghana – successful, ambitious, enterprising, friendly, attractive, developing and lucky! He would not comment understandably about the State of the Nigerian nation but says Nigeria’s football is in a free fall…going…going…going…..almost gone!
I saw Ghana from close up in 2008 when Africa witnessed, probably, the best organised African Cup of Nations in the championship’s history. Ghana put up such a show that gave Africa something to think about for decades to come. Although hugely successful as an African project, in my opinion, not even South Africa 2010 matches up to the spirit, colour and public participation of Ghana 2008. For me, personally, CAN 2008 has been my most memorable and enjoyable experience outside of actually participating as a player. Since then, even politically, Ghana seems to have found its feet and has been marching on to greater heights. The country has discovered a rich reservoir of the Black Gold and is taking precautions, learning from the disastrous story of Nigeria, to put in place checks and balances that will not turn the country’s oil boom into oil doom; the country is conducting its democratic experiment to the admiration of all including the West; the country has become one of the choice destinations in West Africa for tourists from around the world; its economy is growing steadily; its political transition is going smoothly and peacefully; its cocoa plantations have bounced back and the country has returned as the world’s second largest cocoa producer. To top all of that, Ghana’s football is back to its old glory! From its 20 million population Ghana is breeding a stream of quality football players that are doing well in several European clubs and have helped to return the country’s football at all levels to their pre-1980 peak! That was the time when Ghana won almost everything in African football with some of the most exciting players to have graced the African football fields. They include Mohammed Polo, Abdul Rasaq, Opoku Nti, Opoku Afriyie, George Alhassan, Adolf Amah, and others. Today, the emergence of a new generation (Asemoah Gyang, Abedi Ayew, Prince Boateng, Mohammed Muhtari and so on) is testimony that once again Ghana is getting its football administration and development right. My friend tells me it is a reflection of the political fortunes of the country.
In the 1950s and 1960s, I read of how Ghana were the Brazil of African football. How they were so dominant in Africa that they completely mastered Nigeria, defeating Nigeria’s Red Devils and Green Eagles at will even as the rivalry between them was very keen. Into the 1970s, I personally experienced Ghana and its football. Whilst Nigeria was awash in petro-Dollars and was attracting African migrants (mostly Ghanaians) to the country after the Civil War, Ghanaians had enough quality footballers to still maintain a great domestic league at home as well as export droves of others to Cote D’ Ivoire and Nigeria. Nigerian football benefited tremendously from that development. At that time every Nigerian club that did not have a sprinkling of Ghanaian players would hardly be a serious contender for national success (except Rangers FC of Enugu that were a movement of the Igbo people and did not recruit players from outside the tribe). All the other big teams had Ghanaian players – Stationary Stores, Mighty Jets, Shooting Stars, Raccah Rovers, Sharks, etc. Their presence in the country brought flair, emphasis on individual skills and expressiveness, plus the passing game that changed the face and style of Nigerian football, and improved it. The quality of the Nigerian league, Nigerian Clubs, and even the national team sky-rocketed. Ghanaian players became so integrated into Nigerian football that many of them secured Nigerian international passports and actually played for Nigeria – Yakubu Mambo, Willie Andrews, Sani Mohamed, Muhammed Lawal, Baba Otu Mohammed, Annas Ahmed, Phillip Boamah, Orlando John, to name a few. With them in the national team Nigeria started to contest seriously for leadership in African football at club and national team levels.
Into the 1980s and 1990s, the tide turned completely. As Nigerian football was maturing and started to overtake Ghana’s so did football in Ghana plummet to the lowest levels. Nigeria completely started to dominate at every level – junior, female and senior. Ahead of Ghana it won the World Under-16 tournament, became African champions at the women’s game, won the under-17 FIFA World Cup, won the African Cup of Nations, qualified for the World Cup and was ranked fifth in the world, and won the Olympic Gold. All this while, as Ghana’s football struggled to rise from the ashes, its political landscape was in turmoil.
I visited Accra in 1983. I was in the city when the coup that brought in the government of Nigeria’s General Mohammed Buhari took place. For the few days that the Nigerian borders were closed I was stranded in Accra. The city was a living hell, a far cry from the Accra of the 1978 African Cup of Nations under Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings that I remember for its clean and beautiful streets, a vibrant night life, and very friendly, happy, polite and civil population. I loved Ghana of 1978 but could not wait to get out of Ghana of 1983. The country ‘enjoyed’ only 4 hours of electricity a day and its people wore hopeless and unhappy faces. Most private cars had been converted to taxis in order for the owners to survive. All cars were old and rickety! Only the few visiting foreigners could afford the luxury and cost of riding in hired cars. Life was hard and expensive for the average Ghanaian. The Cedi (the Ghanaian currency) was worth very little, night life was dead, and poverty was upon the land boldly written on the face of the man on the street. Every young man was a ‘spy’ for the government and any one that had a bad word to say about JJ was a target for arrest. That was the Ghana of that time. The football, like the country, was in the throes of ‘death’.
Into the 21st Century and a new decade and a new government. Dead bones have risen from the grave after a horrific two decades in political doldrum. A new dawn has broken for Ghana. There is a new confidence, a new spirit and new fortunes. Ghana has a new President and a stable government derived from a free, fair and stable democratic system. Oil has been discovered in the country. There is a resurgence in gold mining and cocoa production. Ghana has become so safe and stable that US President Barack Obama made the country his first port of call (ahead of Kenya where he originally came from) when he was to visit Africa soon after he became President. Ghana has become a model and a reference point for the product of good governance. Ghana’s football is a direct reflection of this change of fortune. The country has won the FIFA Under-20 World Championship, became one of the top three in Women’s football in the continent, qualified for the World Cup for the first time in their history and got within touching distance of winning it in its second attempt, has qualified easily for the 2012 African Cup of Nations and is being tipped by pundits to win it. Thats progress.
Nigerian football is headed in the other direction. It is in free fall, going, going, and may soon be gone finally into the abyss. What is going on? If my friend’s theory is right, is this not a reflection of the state of the country itself? Can we separate Nigerian football from its political environment? Is the Nigerian government paying the right attention to its football? Can football grow in isolation of the rest of the polity?
Ghana’s example must be a good lesson. What did Ghana do to get out of the doldrums? Ghana went back to strengthen its political foundations and institutions. Finally its football became the announcement of its return as a new nation with the national teams that emerged around 2004. Since then they have returned to the top of African football once again.
The present times are not good for Nigerian football. The experiences of Ghana should serve as a useful lesson. Nigeria does not have to suffer the same fate as Ghana spending almost two decades to come back to the very top. It appears one cannot take football away from the political state of a nation. From what my friend seems to say, when we fix Nigeria our football will be fixed as well. We cant take one away from the other, can we? A country’s football is a reflection of the state of the country itself it seems. Good governance means good people and functional institutions. The product is good football!