Sunyani-Ghana, July 04, GNA – Mr Kwame Saarah-Mensah, a former Chairman of the Governing Council of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, has called on the government to hugely invest in schools and colleges sporting development.
According to him, the provision of sporting facilities and equipment should be a priority, saying inter-schools and colleges sporting competitions, District, Regional and National sporting festivals should be reintroduced to offer the youth the opportunity to excel.
Mr Saarah-Mensah, also Ghana’s former High Commissioner to India, gave the suggestion when he was speaking on the topic “John Evans Atta Mills and Sports” at the John Evans Atta Mills 10th Anniversary Memorial Lecture organised by the Bono, Bono East, Ahafo and the Western North Regions in Sunyani.
“During the era of Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, a lot was invested in schools and colleges sports, academicals were formed to participate in various sporting disciplines at the national level”, he indicated.
Mr. Saarah-Mensah cited sportsmen and women such as Owusu Mensah (Osagyefo’s Golden Boy), Sam Bugri, Stan Allotey and Joshua Owusu (Commonwealth Gold medalists), Alice Anum, Hanna Afriyie (Athletics), Frank Odoi, Sam Acquah (Football) and a lot of others were unearthed and represented the nation whilst in the colleges.
He said through that the youth would become the ambassadors the nation required, saying if sport was well-promoted it could be a huge foreign exchange earner for the nation and thus the need for the country to make every effort to attain the full potential.
Delving deep into the persona of the late former President about sports, Mr Saarah-Mensah said the courageous, selfless and far-sighted leadership of Prof. Atta Mills was needed now to satisfy the passion of the nation at its international sporting events.
He stressed development of sports infrastructure was so dear to the heart of the late former President and therefore ensured the reconstruction of the national hockey pitch to international standards.
He observed Prof. Atta-Mills did his best in the promotion and development of sports by contributing immensely to ensuring good sports management propelled Ghana to attain greater heights in international competitions, while believing sports development should be considered as a business.
Mr Saarah-Mensah said marketing of sportsmen and women should be done professionally, explaining contracts should therefore be negotiated by a team of experts for a percentage of the contract sum to go into the provision of first-class sporting facilities and generally for sports development.
He added contracts for professional footballers were now in millions of dollars and with the potentials available to the country, if harnessed properly the country could reap a lot of financial benefits.
