GOVERNMENT’S “MOVIE” ON COMMITTEES

Of what use is an additional ritual on the numerous rituals (naming ceremony, funeral rites, Dipo rites, festival initiations, swearing in of presidents etc.) Ghana has? For more than a decade, this ritual of setting up committees on issues that arises on the shoulders of incompetency and bad management practices is an ache to my being.

In 2014, the Ghana Black Stars had the opportunity to qualify for a World Cup staged in Brazil. Before their departure from the country to participate in the games, there were reports from the morning show on sports from Asempa FM and Countryman Zongo in corrupt deals of the Ghana Football Association officials accompanying the team to Brazil. With a poor start from the Stars, Ghana was eliminated in the group stages. 

Thus generated a lot of concerns to the public. Issues of incapability on the side of the Coach and corrupt management from the Ghana Football Association arose from the camp. On their return, the government of John Dramani Mahama set up a committee to work on the reasons for our failure to break out on the world cup. The committee was to issue the commission’s white paper which entails their investigation on the goings of the football satgr of Brazil 2014

The Justice Dzamefe commission presented the documents and as at now, there us nothing that has been done to it. Recently Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a renowned investigative journalist, has threatened to release tapes of corrupt officials in the GFA.

Also in 2015, June 3, a tragic incident of explosion happened at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle with 153 people falling victims of the explosion. People who use the Nkrumah Circle road used the Goil Filling Station as shelter from heavy rains and flooding from the several days of flooding in the city. Due to the flooding, water had mixed in with the fuel and it triggered an explosion from the gas tanks killing 95 people on the instant and also spreading to nearby business shops and houses. Aftermath of the incidence, the former interior minister, Mr. Mark Wayongo, inaugurated a five member committee to investigate on the causes of the incident. The committee was chaired by Mr. Justice Isaac Douse.

The recent explosion occurred at Legon specifically Atomic Junction. This left 132 injured. Government is to set a committee to investigate the cause. A report on the investigation on the cause of the explosion has been presented to the interior minister, Ambrose Dery, on October 13, 2017. According to Ghanaweb, the details of the report gas been kept under wraps.
Setting up committees to look into causes of issue is relevant but to what extent has these causes been attended to. There are still issues of corrupt officials in the GFA even after the White paper. The situation has worsened as the Black Stars failed to qualify for the 2018 world cup to be staged in Russia. The issue is same with the June 3 disaster. No measures has been put in place to curb the issue. For the National Petroleum Authority, comments are reserved. They just licence any filling station to work without probing further in the sites and other information of relevance.
The committees arebjust like the movies on ABC, Hollywood, Bollywood etc. If the government finds it necessary to set committees, the government should also be available to work on their reports. Deal with problems of the issues and the negligence on the side of bad management officials