...Sounds on da ground and seens on the see-ins

It's been a while since I blogged here and I am ashamed. Anyway, I am back. :-) What's driven me back? The upcoming African Cup of Nations Football tournament in Ghana - yes, I am excited. It is expected to draw 1 million tourists to Ghana, which is more than we got all through 2007 probably and it is bound to infuse a lot into our economy. Ghana has rehabilitated two stadiums and built two new ones for the tournament and there have been some infrastructural developments as well. You can ask around, even though people are excited about these developments, a lot of people feel the government could and should have done more. Why can't we do something great while we are at it? Who is asking? Amandzeba Nat Brew does in his Pioto song, his most recent hit.

Pioto is one of the hit songs from Amandzeba's latest album, Lolo Juju. Interesting combination if you ask me, 'lolo' in the Ivory Coast refers to breasts and 'juju' is well, voodoo. Hmmm. I love Pioto, it's one of those 'do something for yourself/country songs', and Amandzeba is not a stranger to those, you can listen to Tsema, Biako, Afrikah, Demara, etc. One of his most famous songs, Wogbe dzeke, talked about our history and this resonated very well with Ghanaians. I don't understand the Ga lines in the song (which is where pioto is mentioned- which means briefs, underwear) but the Twi lines talk about working hard, because Ghana would only improve or succeed if we do. That's all you need to hear anyway.

I will be taking shots mostly at the powers that be in this blog though. I can't seem to come to terms why we built a couple of new stadiums that are covered and refused to cover the rehabilitated Accra and Kumasi stadiums. Last time I checked, it rains much more in these places than Tamale. We do play football in May, June and July. I think the capacities of the new stadiums are good and I like how they built athletics tracks at the Tamale stadium but not at the Accra one. This should send more activity to Tamale in general. The Tamale stadium holds about 21,000 thousand, 50% of which are seated. What is that? My people do not deserve to sit and enjoy a game of football? Or they are used to standing during football games in general? Of course, we need them to stand and cheer but would they not get tired?

There is already an acute accommodation shortage in Sekondi and Tamale. Tunisia, one of the teams assigned to the Tamale venue has already made it clear they will be commuting there. From where? It is believed the Tamale-Kumasi road is great, but I wonder, can it handle the traffic? Have you seen the road to Sekondi? Granted, it doesn't have pot-holes, but in today's age, where Sekondi is placed near countless tourist attractions, it's one lane road to the harbour city. Can't the government put in policies to make Sekondi and Tamale more attractive? Why haven't we done so in the past? Now, we have hotel companies scrambling to build in and around Accra and Kumasi and the government sits there unconcerned. In the meantime, some other sources say there are hotels and places in Tamale and Sekondi. Why are the teams staying away from these places, are they not up to standard? When we are doing it, we should do it well.

For the tournament to succeed, Ghana needs a great transportation infrastructure. The Accra-Cape Coast road is one-lane each way albeit it being more up till Buduburam (which is after Kasoa). I won't even start on the Accra-Kumasi road. We have the kind of infrastructure suited for two decades ago. The government has tried to improve it, but they did not do enough. It's been shoddy at best. Someone calls it mediocrity. We need to be excellent, and if our leaders and administrators don't set the bar high, how can we expect our people to follow suit? People will say, we don't have money - I thought investment is the NPP's favorite word? Don't tell me we don't have money - read the news (at least some ministers have money to pay 250 million cedis to contest a presidential slot).

I just thought of Ashesi university, and I feel much much better. But stillllll......

Full Pioto lyrics, includes the audio.
Photo by Mark Hurst