Members of Parliament in the country have rallied support for the senior national team, the Black Stars ahead of the crucial encounter with Nigeria.
Ghana will on Friday, March 25, 2022 host the Nigerian national team in the World Cup play-off game which will once more rekindle the age-old rivalry between the two countries.
Ahead of that match, MPs on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, took turns to make contributions on the floor of the House in support of the Black Stars for them to beat Nigeria.
This was after the New Edubiase MP, Adams Abdul-Salam made a statement in which he said having failed to qualify for the last FIFA World Cup in 2018 in Russia, will be heart-wrenching and devastating for Ghana to miss out on this year’s tournament slated for Qatar.
“It is evident and has almost become a cliché when we say football is what binds us together as a nation. Anytime the Black Stars are playing such important games, the whole country rallies behind the team to urge them to attain victory.”
“Also, Mr Speaker, even though the joy, emotional and psychological benefits that victories of Black Stars bring us cannot be quantified in monetary terms, there are some financial gains when we qualify for the World Cup. For instance, Mr Speaker, by just qualifying for the World Cup, the country is guaranteed a whopping $10.5 million from the prize money.”
Touching on the rivalry between the two West African powerhouses, the New Edubiase MP said “there is no rivalry on this continent as marked as ours with our Nigerian brothers, albeit a very healthy one. We contest with our Nigerian brothers on almost every facet of life, including music, education, and even the most trivial, who prepares the best Jollof. However, Mr Speaker, the biggest rivalry between us stems from football.”
“Our brothers from Nigeria, have not recovered from the Abedi Pele’s-inspired famous Senegal ’92 AFCON semi-final win over the Super Eagles. Also, when we hosted the AFCON in 2008, we handed them a painful 2-1 quarter-final defeat. This crunch World Cup final playoff allows the Black Stars to assuage the pains of Ghanaian football lovers and appropriately appease them following their grave disappointment at the just ended AFCON in Cameroon, where we finished last in our group.”
Mr Abdul-Salam also expressed worry over the “seemingly lack of openness in player call up for this important encounter.”
Explaining further, he said “the tradition is that, few weeks to every international football match, selection would be announced to the general public. Mr Speaker this is not the case for this game because, until yesterday, the squad for the game had officially not been released. I do not know the reason behind this decision, but I hope it is in the best interest of the Ghanaian football fans. With the proper player selection, preparation and mindset, there is no reason we cannot beat Nigeria and make it to Qatar this year.”
On his part, the Talensi MP, Benson Tongo Baba said all odds are in favour of the Black Stars in the crucial encounter and called on Ghanaians to back them.
“If we go on statistics, Ghana stands tall over Nigeria. I believe that riding on this, we should all come together to support the Black Stars. This House also has a responsibility apart from probing what went wrong. We should take initiative and send a special message to the Black Stars as representatives of the people so that they will be aware of the fact that all of us, as one body, fully support them to emerge victorious in the match in Kumasi and subsequently Abuja,” he said.
On his part, the Deputy Majority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, lauded the New Edubiase MP for the statement in support of the team and called on his colleague MPs to forgo their political affiliations and rally behind the team.
“We all love the Black Stars. We want to see them succeed, but we often get disappointed. We, the politicians, in our commentary, sometimes it is partisan. This is about football, it’s not an NDC, NPP matter. Let us wish them well,” the Effutu MP said.
