A nation depressed

I just got out of my cocoon and learned, not to my surprise, that there were some heart-wrenching moments at the end of the game last night.

Since Brazil, I have chosen only to follow the national team after games just to validate my impressions and to save my disappointments. They have become too predictable and probably not worthy of time and emotional investments.

But, today, I feel a certain compulsion to plead on behalf of the players. They may have their problems; however, they are not entirely the problem. They are also victims of what I consider to be the effects of bad governance and poor leadership.

Bad governance and gloomy socio-political currents in a country always have a way of impacting social psychology and by extension behaviours, actions, and attitudes.

We are just at that moment in our country right now where standards of governance in our body politic could be better than it is right now.

Remember how the early Jerry Rawlings era and aura of excitement and hope once won us the AFCON? I remember how we sang goalkeeper Owusu Mensah’s name as boys and girls in school.

Remember President Kuffour’s good old days and successes, which transitioned to the healthy days of President Mills and later JDM till the Brazil debacle and national embarrassment, which brought some ministers here to come cry at public enquiries?

Remember Kwesi Nyantakyi’s sudden fall, through his fault or none, and currently a GFA boss seeking personal interests, backed by a sports minister who seems to have never had a clue?

Oh…and a compatriot coach uprooted from his motherland onto a fatherland he did not know nor understand, and where a silver spoon was shoved down his throat? Well, he has failed, and his failure was too predictable.

Sorry Ghana, for enduring that tortuous pain last night. Our soccer problem is a governance problem; it is leadership failure and a poverty of love for the country.

When leadership fails it robs off those being led and when governance and leadership become effective and efficient, they inspire the same among and within the people.

The playing team and the entire handlers of the national team cannot be immune or cocooned from the leadership and governance rot that have bedevilled the nation.

They see the daily news of rot, corruption, stealing, cheating, injustice, apathy, and a lack of patriotism. They are soccer players and Ghanaians too. It affects them subconsciously and impacts their morale.

Mine here is not to defend or critique the players. Like every Ghanaian, I too hoped and wished we qualified, and I believed if they had gone past that stage, they could possibly have done better by drawing motivation and inspiration from their early circumstances.

It did not happen, unfortunately, and in these moments of pain and disappointment, I am advocating that we all look beyond the ability, capacity, and commitment of our players.

Let us also look at the governance and leadership environment, which in themselves are not effective and efficient in lifting this country to win anything, not just soccer competitions.

We, as a country, have become overly polarized by party-colored politics and the reality is that all we have left to unite us is soccer and its promise of hope and genuine laughter. Indeed, it seems the only thing that has the power to unite us today in Ghana, even if momentarily, is soccer.

Thus, when we invest our time and emotions in the Blacks Stars, we are rooting not just for the scores or the competition, we are rooting for a reason for a united Ghana and a moment of spontaneous joy to heal ourselves from the suffocation of toxic and divisive party-coloured politics.

There is a dea(r)th of patriotism and we are all yearning for it. We thought soccer, this AFCON, was going to give us some optimism just before a dreadful upcoming election. As a country, we are hungry for unity. We are longing to laugh and celebrate together.

If you doubt our search and quest for love, happiness, unity, and the opportunity to show patriotism and moments to celebrate genuine achievement, just look at how we, as a people, are thronging and following all the now-revealed “megatons”.

Did the last one on the standing end yet? Are the guy’s legs still intact?

Well, this morning, today, we are a nation depressed; but we are also a nation at risk. Let us cheer up while we learn and let us reframe our aspirations as a people and for our country.

More importantly, for all who aspire to lead in Ghana, and I mean leadership of any kind and at all levels, let us be mindful that whatever we do in our different roles has a way of informing and impacting the national psyche.

Honest and selfless leadership breeds success while selfish and dishonest leadership, the type that seems normalized, breeds failures, the like of which we are still reeling from.

Our soccer failures have been one too many and they are reflective of our socio-political and even cultural failures. We don’t seem to stand for Ghana anymore; we stand for ourselves and our selfish interests.

This can’t continue; it needs to change and let’s find change—mindful and intentional change—in failures such as this. It is only when we are deliberate in learning from our failures and committing to doing what is right can we then create the Ghana we all want. Sorry Ghana. Yen ara yen asaase ne!