KWESI APPIAH CRACKS THE WHIP BUT AT WHAT COST? by Kweku Zurek – Tweet me @arsonv

From L-R Dede, Jordan, Appiah, Muntari and KPB    

Kwesi Appiah (Nicknamed Silent Killer for the way he blacklists players from his squad) named his 21-man squad for Ghanas’ friendly against Turkey handing out three debuts. Four names that are conspicuous by their absence from the squad are Sulley Muntari, Kevin Prince Boateng and the Ayews(Jordan and Andre).

GHANA V TURKEY Kick off-21:30 pm [7:30GMT] at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium

By their exclusion Appiah aka Silent Killer is making a statement to the effect that he is the boss of this team and all players will accord him the maximum respect (Whether he is a white-man or not). Even Andre and Jordan who received “presidential pardons” have been asked to write to the GFA rescinding their retirement and copying their clubs so as to avoid a club versus country row over future call-ups (Apparently the pardons were granted on condition that they wrote an apology letter).

BENCH!

I DON’T EXPECT JORDAN TO BOTHER WRITING BECAUSE HE STILL WON’T BE GUARANTEED PLAY-TIME

Kevin Prince Boatengs’ return was interceded by Yaw Boateng Gyan (Black Stars management committee member /NDC Executive/family friend) but he must also write a letter to the GFA copying his club AC Milan before he can be called back into the squad. Meanwhile Muntari who displayed some petulance after being substituted during a World Cup qualifier against Lesotho must also write an apology letter before returning.

SILENT KILLER  

NOW IT’S CLEAR TO EVERYONE THAT KWESI APPIAH HAS A FIRM PAIR BUT AT WHAT COST?

To me, born in 1990 some of the best football I have ever seen the Black Stars play was at the 2010 world cup where Dede Ayew, KPB and Muntari (who came-off the bench to start and star against Uruguay with that rocket) were in devastating form and it can be argued that along with Gyan they led us to that quarter-final berth. In my view that squad was the best team Ghana has had in the past 30 “trophyless” years. Make no mistake about it because when Dede, Muntari and KPB are fit and on form they will walk into any Ghana squad.

Muntari-78 caps 19gls     Dede-43caps 4gls 

Jordan-10caps 2gls          KPB-9caps 1gl

Ghana has a World Cup qualifier against Zambia next month in Kumasi. This friendly date on Wednesday was the last chance for the Black Stars to fine-tune their set-up for that crucial tie but rather in the lead up to this game the house doesn’t seem to be in order with calls for players to write officially to rescind their retirement and the Stars goalie Fatau Dauda warming the bench in South-Africa.

The GFA spokesperson Ibrahim Saanie Daara, admitted on Joy FM that there are a lot of issues in the Black Stars camp before adding that not every issue must be played out in the press (the  Chippolopolo might never have a better opportunity to beat Ghana).

FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking-AFRICA (JULY)

1.   Cote d’Ivoire – 962pts

2.   Ghana – 830pts

3.   Mali – 735pts

4.   Algeria – 730pts

5.   Nigeria – 700pts

The Black Stars are currently ranked 24^th in the world; 34 places ahead of Turkey (ranked 58th), this means that the rankings points gathered from playing Turkey and Zambia (ranked 60th) will contribute to whether Ghana will be amongst the top-5 teams in Africa come September. (Septembers’ FIFA rankings will be used to determine the seeded teams for the final round of Africa's 2014 World Cup qualifiers). I thought Appiah would have rather used this period for tweaking his team but he has handed out 3 debuts to Spain-based goalkeeper Razak Braimah, midfielder Yussif Raman Chibsah and striker Emmanuel Banahene (These 3 have no chance of seeing play-time against Zambia).

The Silent Killer should remember that, football fans (especially Ghanaian football fans) are very fickle but it is very difficult to argue with a successful coach (unless you are an interim-Benitez coaching a Chelsea). He is enjoying overwhelming support from the GFA hierarchy who have continuously backed his every move till date but If (GOD FORBID!) Ghana fails to qualify for the world cup, heads will roll and the heads won’t be that of the GFA hierarchy but his.

P.S.-There will be nothing silent about his killing as he will be constantly bombarded on radio call-ins before the axe will finally drop.

SOMEWHERE IN SERBIA, OLD-MEN ARE WATCHING THE SOAP PLAY-OUT WITH BATED BREATH.

DEAR GHANA POLICE, NOT EVERY ACCUSED PERSON IS TONY MONTANA by Kweku Zurek.

or ATAA AYI, if only Ghallywood had made the movie…

TONY MONTANA

In the movie Scarface (I think), the lead character Tony Montana played by Al Pacino has a case in court which he will surely do time for, Tony some-how beats the case with the help of a very good lawyer.

It’s a Monday afternoon (5^th August 2013) around 2pm and I have just got home from a trip where my “trap didn’t catch the bayla” and also I didn’t get the “3 points”. I switch on the TV to watch a little early 2000s programming (in 2013) and surf my way to the news on GTV.

In an interview session, a policeman with a name tag (plate) bearing the name YOHUNO has just made a statement along the lines of “we feel like giving up when accused persons can afford 12 lawyers… if they didn’t do it then how come they can afford 12 lawyers?”. (Might not be his words exactly but very, very, very close).

DCOP YOHUNO    

I am very shocked at the sound of this and I feel the interviewer should probe a bit more but she doesn’t and lets it slide because a lawyer would join them later via a not too clear telephone-line to counter that point. Later on, I google “police-man yohuno - ghana” and up pops the identity of the police officer; DCOP Christian Tetteh Yohuno, Greater Accra regional Police Commander. The DCOP should have let his PR officer earn his keep but maybe he looks better on TV than the PR guy.

POLL - HOW DO THE GHANA POLICE GET PROMOTIONS?

a.   Number of cases solved

b.   Party Colour

c.   Years in Service 

Indeed the constitution under Article 19 (2) c and f guarantees the accused persons’ right to innocence until being proven/pleading guilty and also the right to defending himself in court either in person or by a lawyer of his choice (the constitution uses lawyer and not lawyers). In Artcle 32 (1) e and f, an article that deals with the detention of persons under “Emergency Law” the accused “shall be afforded every possible facility to consult a lawyer of his own choice…” (Still lawyer not lawyers). In f it adds that “at the hearing of his case, he shall be permitted to appear in person or by a lawyer of his choice (still… lawyer not lawyers). As to the “lawyer and lawyers” bit, it might either be; semantics or the denotation/connotation of the word or its usage that I am not getting but if you want to be a stickler, IT also uses “HE” and not “SHE” when referring to accused persons.

WHAT HAPPENED TO BEING INNOCENT UNTIL BEING PROVEN GUILTY BEYOND ALL REASONABLE DOUBT?

The question I want to ask is; “since when did being able to afford competent legal counsels contribute to making an accused person guilty?” Perhaps the DCOP would like it very much if every accused person couldn’t afford counsel and would have to rely on legal aid i.e. the state affording him/her a lawyer (and with my luck he will get the slowest horse in the legal stables in GH).

A LAWYER IS ONLY AS GOOD AS HIS BRIEF.

The DCOP added that he cringes at what is becoming an all too familiar scene where 1 state attorney gets pummeled by 12 very competent lawyers of an accused person (Zimmerman anyone? Plus it’s very difficult for journos to fit all those names in the story). The DCOP was too quick to lay the blame at the doorstep of the state attorneys, what if the evidence gathered by the Police is not good enough to secure a conviction even if the state attorney was a lawyer from a John Grisham novel.

DCOP Tetteh Yohuno made mention of another situation that had me baffled, but in a different way.  He told of a situation where an accused person plead guilty to a criminal charge but the case has still been in court for 3 years. I can’t understand why a case where the accused has admitted guilt will last in court for 3 years but I don’t find it unbelievable (after-all the wheels of justice grind slowly but still they grind and this is GH).

He added that it feels like the police keep arresting the same “criminals” over and over again because convictions are never made.  I have always been worried about the investigative procedures of the Ghana Police (it’s not quite like watching CSI but it’s not very easy conducting investigations in Accra, if you like ask the “crack” American team that were brought to investigate the market fires). As to arresting the same “criminals” over and over again it can create vigilante cops who will adopt a shoot to kill policy (or in an ideal world a super-hero like The Punisher, who will be cop by day and vigilante at night) which won’t be good for any of us because it won’t afford us a chance for Lady (or is it Mother, why isn’t this sexist?) Justice to prevail.

NOBODY LIKES BEING SNITCHED ON

In order for the police in Ghana to be able to put criminals (who are really guilty) behind bars they need the help of the citizens of the land because like it or not we live with these people. We all want to be able to sleep peacefully at night and also don’t want trigger-happy vigilantes patrolling our streets. So, every once in a while we must snitch on our criminal neighbours (but please don’t follow them around like Zimmerman).