The October 25, 2019, Ghana Football Association presidential election was fascinating on many levels.
Midnight trips, betrayals, shady deals, and oaths of loyalty, October 24th and 25th, produced some of the most incredible events.
Transparency. Accountability. Integrity.
These were buzzwords that fell freely each time a candidate opened their mouth to speak.
If you did not know better, you would assume that Kurt Okraku, George Afriyie, Nana Yaw Amponsah, and Amanda Clinton had all hired the same public relations consultant.
One after the other, they all promised to be the antithesis of everything Kwasi Nyantakyi represented.
At the time, Nyanyakyi had become a cautionary tale of how not to govern.
Yet, for all that had been uncovered by the number 12 exposé, he still divided opinion.
Some believed he was a victim of circumstances. Entrapment, they called it.
Others believed his real character and the true value of his virtues were what Tiger Eye PI and Anas Aremeyaw Anas exposed.
However, pretty much everyone agreed that he had stayed in office longer than necessary.
He was in office from 2005 to June 2018.
So when the Normalisation Committee, set up by FIFA with blessings from the government of Ghana, introduced a two-term limit for subsequent presidents, it seemed like the wisest thing to do.
The spirit behind the two-term limit was to prevent the scenario where an all-powerful figure could bend the governing body to its will and rule in perpetuity.
Six years later, all of that work has been undone.
Last week, the Ghana Football Association secured FIFA and CAF approval to extend the two-term limit by an additional term.
It was the penultimate step in the execution of a plan that was first exposed in 2022, a year to Kurt Okraku’s re-election bid.
It proved what I had long believed; Kurt Okraku was no different from his predecessor.
Just like Kwesi Nyantakyi, Kurt Okraku has metamorphosed into a domineering, insatiable figure who is not content with the existing regulations and has succeeded in bending the law to his will.
Like Nyantakyi, Okraku is not only filled with lust for power, but has succeeded in devouring everything in his wake.
Like Nyantakyi, the brute force of nature that Kurt Okraku has become has systematically reduced men who were previously credible opponents to either disenchanted bystanders or “controlled opposition”.
That is why, despite knowing for years that the Constitutional Review Committee was going to do this, no one stood up to it.
It is also why you have not heard or seen the evidence of any coordinated campaign to challenge the development, more than 72 hours after the news broke.
On Monday, the GFA’s General Secretary Prosper Harrison Addo went to town to sell the idea to the public.
Part of his message was that the proposal was made three years ago, and by “the clubs and other members of Congress.”
It is the classic Kwesi Nyantakyi move: do it through third parties that are unwaveringly loyal to him. But to create the impression that it was an endorsement of his good stewardship when in truth it was created, sponsored, and engineered by the regime itself.
More than anything else, it is the ultimate proof that Kurt Okraku is cut from the same cloth as Kwesi Nyantakyi, the man who sacrificed the progress of Ghana football on the altar of his career.
Kurt Okraku knows that, within the current setup, there is no one capable of taking over and effectively running the Association better than he has.
Not because of his saintly or progressive governance, but because he has not created a strong, structured, and principles-driven organisation.
Today, the Executive Council is filled with members who can publicly state that they would rather watch Nigerian films than watch Ghana Premier League matches. Not because they are arrogant, but because they do not fully appreciate the essence of the position they occupy and what their duty to the product is. Or what that kind of commentary can do to the product.
The Executive Council, just as it was under Kwesi Nyantakyi, sings the same tune as its President.
Congress, the GFA’s highest decision-making body, just like the Executive Council, follows in tow.
So personnel-wise, the GFA is hardly better than it was before 2019.
What about youth football?
Beyond the trillion national teams it has set up, Okraku’s regime has no clear path for youth football development. No real structures or sustainable revenue sources for youth football either.
The GFA launched its DNA not long ago.
In plain terms, it is the blueprint for talent identification and development.
The DNA prioritises expressiveness and freedom, guiding players to think for themselves and trust their instincts in their formative years.
Yet, the GFA’s appointment of coaches to the Under-17 team has not matched that.
Apart from Laryea Kingston, every other substantive Black Starlets coach has been a results-first coach, a coach famed for micro-managing players on the pitch.
Samuel Boadu, Abdul Karim Zito, Frimpong Manso, and now Dr. Prosper Ogum.
Frimpong Manso and Zito perhaps typify this more than anyone else.
Even among the results-oriented coaches, there is still a difference in approach.
Last week, Dr. Ogum was hired to replace Frimpong Manso, who got the job only seven months ago. Frimpong Manso is known for his prioritised physique, endurance, stamina, and athleticism, and it reflects in his recruitment.
Ogum gravitates towards technical ability and expressiveness but is still a results-first coach.
Does he now discard the squad that has been assembled and camped for seven months, or should he go against his nature and work with a squad that is not fit to execute his brand of football?
How is this even happening when there is supposed to be a document that was introduced to cure this kind of confusion?
Club football
The Ghana Premier League still accommodates cash-strapped clubs that need periodic radio campaigns to honour their contractual obligations to players, even though the GFA and its licensing board approve their business plan for each season.
Last season, the league was played without a sponsor, with television coverage that was underwhelming to say the least.
The government has committed to pump millions of dollars annually, but that is that. There is nothing more coming from the GFA. No plan to restructure the league, or even legislate how they operate, to cure their well-documented ills.
They will just take the money and enjoy until the well runs dry.
National teams
Under Okraku’s leadership, Ghana has suffered successive group stage exits at the AFCON and has not qualified for this year’s tournament in Morocco.
For a country that made the semi-final of the tournament for six consecutive tournaments from 2008 to 2017, that is a travesty.
The Black Stars qualified for the 2022 World Cup and could seal their place in the 2026 tournament. The Black Queens have also finished in third place at the WAFCON, but neither do they match up to Ghana’s competitive pre-Kurt Okraku past.
While all of that is happening, Kurt Okraku has, in six years, risen from obscurity on the continent to being president of the West Africa B sub-region and is now a second vice president at CAF.
That is the same path Kwesi Nyantakyi took to FIFA.
The news of his appointment to the CAF second vice president’s seat was not met with a lot of excitement.
Not because he is hated.
Not because Ghanaians are jealous of him.
People simply do not care.
Beyond the emotive niceness of having a Ghanaian in such hallowed realms, why should anyone care about his ascension?
After all, what has his personal development brought to the Ghanaian game?
So why is the Kurt Okraku-led regime seeking to extend the term limit?
Just more of what came before.
Only this time, with less national team success.
But everything happening now is exactly how Kwesi Nyantakyi became public enemy number one; a demi-god who cannibalised one of Africa’s most successful football countries, while superintending over years of decay.
Like his predecessor, Okraku has crossed the divide between good and evil.
Having successfully subdued all adversaries and compromised the relevant constituencies and gatekeepers, he has now moved to stay in office longer than previously permitted.
When the Constitutional Review Committee presents its proposal to Congress next week, it will also be presenting a mirror to the soul of Ghana Football. And the image in the mirror would not be a pretty sight.
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