Ghana 2008: The gains and the drains

Ghana 2008: The gains and the drains
By Kofi Akordor
THE Ghana 2008 soccer fiesta is now history. While it lasted, Ghana came under the international spotlight. It also fired nationalism and patriotism among Ghanaians and, for good reasons, pushed politics into the background.
Organising a tournament of such magnitude was not an easy task and the organisers, spearheaded by the Local Organising Committee (LOC), need to be commended. That does not take away their inadequacies when we come to that.
As should be expected, the victorious Egyptian team, The Pharaohs, will be counting their blessings, while the rest will be licking their wounds in agonising silence.
As in any human endeavour, there were gains, just as there were drains. For the gains, it is easy to point at the two new stadia in Tamale and Sekondi and the renovation of the two in Kumasi and Accra to bring them to international standards. Surely, Ghana did not disgrace itself before the international community when it came to the physical structures which hosted the 26th MTN Africa Cup of Nations, even though there were complaints that the layers of grass on the various turfs were too high or took thick for player comfort.
The tournament also inspired entrepreneurs to put up new hotels and eating joints, while others renovated existing ones. The nation also gained a lot from international media exposure. For more than two weeks, Ghana featured prominently on every major international television network, including the giants in the field, Cable News Network (CNN) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). This is something we should exploit further as a nation to attain greater international recognition as a good destination for foreign business entrepreneurs.
There were a few drawbacks, however. First, we overestimated that number of foreign visitors. Organisers gave an initial estimated figure of over one million visitors. Based on that, hotel accommodation was increased and improved in some cases. In the end, many hotel rooms remained unoccupied, while food vendors who were counting on bonanza sales took home unsold food. At the end of the day, official figures did not go beyond 10,000 visitors.
Where were those hordes of international prostitutes determined to invade the country and drown us in uncontrollable sexual orgies? What happened to the condoms the HIV/AIDS campaigners were desperately distributing all over the place?
Ironically, while people were struggling to get tickets for the various matches, most of the stands were empty during matches, except those involving the Black Stars. It was argued that the situation was due to ticket racketeering.
The greatest lesson, which was also a big source of drain on the tournament, was the glaring inequality in our national development programme. Before the tournament, there had been rumours that some of the teams were not satisfied with hotel facilities at match venues, especially those in Tamale and Sekondi/Takoradi. There was also the question of how to put the modern stadium facilities in Tamale and Sekondi/Takoradi to profitable use after the tournament.
First, it is true that development strategies in the country have been skewed in favour of Accra, the national capital, and to a limited extent Kumasi. In other words, almost all the development projects have been sited in Accra, leaving little room for other towns to develop.
As a result, the rest of the country lacks the infrastructure and facilities to support large numbers of international visitors.
Apart from a few hotels which were hurriedly put up to receive the expected foreign visitors, almost all our towns and cities, except Accra and Kumasi, lack modern first-class hotels, the type that could accommodate celebrities and those who have big money to spare.
Take estate development, for example. Under the excuse of providing more accommodation for public servants, large tracts of land are acquired to put up estate houses in Accra, while the regional capitals and other urban centres are not given equal attention for similar facilities. It is just natural that many public servants are reluctant to accept posting to certain parts of the country. Incidentally, the more estates we build in Accra, the more people prefer to come to Accra to enjoy the benefits of our national resources where it appears everything good belongs.
We should not expect our regional and district capitals to grow to attract investors and public service workers, which will ultimately ease the population burden on Accra, if we do not put in place a national development strategy to spread the national cake to all parts of the country.
For instance, why should we site a cocoa processing and chocolate factory in Tema when that factory could have served a more useful purpose in a better national strategic development plan if it had been sited in a cocoa-growing area? Where do we expect our school leavers to go for jobs, after a factory best suited for their locality has been sent to the city?
The Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre was originally designated for an abandoned military base near Ho, the Volta Regional capital. That project, if it had been sited at its original place, would have breathed some life into the social and economic activities of the regional capital, given employment to the local youth and transformed the fortunes of the surrounding communities. But those who take decisions on our behalf decided to relocate the centre in Accra, which is already over-populated and whose resources are already overstretched.
There are examples of such decisions in which projects of national importance have been located in Accra, just because in their narrow-mindedness public officials have come to that sad conclusion that anything beyond Accra has no national relevance.
We have always complained about the rural-urban drift without taking steps to stem it. We think appeals to young school leavers and all the unskilled youth to remain in the rural areas will achieve results when we do not put in place the appropriate measures that will serve as a disincentive for them to travel to the cities.
As a result of this imbalance and unplanned development agenda, our cities, except Accra and Kumasi, were not ready to receive our guests.
Another area where we were exposed was transportation. Ghana is a very small country and after 50 years we should be in a position to have a good transportation network in rail, road and air to open up the country. In which case it should have been possible for fans to sleep in Accra and go to Tamale to watch football matches and return the same day without worrying about sleeping accommodation.
Some have started talking about relocating the national capital, as if that is the answer to a bad development policy. We can start decongesting Accra now by changing our attitude towards national development. Our regional and district capitals can start hosting industries and absorbing many public servants if the right infrastructure will be put in place and entrepreneurs and investors encouraged to locate in those places.
As it is now, it is a real challenge how we are going to utilise the modern stadia we have built in Tamale and Sekondi/Takoradi when we do not have the type of teams that can draw crowds to fill the stands during matches.
May be the 26th MTN football tournament should reawaken our national consciousness to the realisation that Ghana will not attain real growth while we continue to pour all our national wealth into Accra and a few other places.

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fokofi@yahoo.co.uk