"God why Ghana", was the voice of an over 41 years old man sitting by me when Asamoah Gyan missed the last minute penalty. A lady also closed by buried her head in her palm and spurted tears roller-coasting to the ground like a thunderous rain.A certain man was reported shouting that, Ghanaians do not have faith in the lord.
Such were the story that greeted Ghanaians after the Black Stars lost to the Uruguayans after the penalty shoot-out.
These stories among others are testament to the common bond that soccer brings to our land. For a brief moment the hullabaloo about the lackluster attitude of President Mills and the flagrant display of arrogance by Nana Addo were all briefly forget for the high-spirited passion.
Similar stories indicated that some citizens of other African countries like Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia etc were calling for the head of Suarez and the entire Uruguay team. Such is our pride. Our pride as a united continent.
For a moment I thought the victory of the Black Stars at the ongoing South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup would surely be the victory of Ghana and that means the victory of the major political parties inter alia, NPP and NDC.
However, my pride as a Ghanaian was flushed out when on 4 July, 2010 a woman who had clad herself in the colors of the NPP was shouting "thank God" for the elimination of the Black Stars from the race at the Kaneshie Market. According to her, Mills will be making a helluva noise about his record (success) at two World cups should the Black Stars advanced from the quarter final stage of the competition.
That is not all, on 5 July, 2010 a known NPP youth activist made similar comment as the Kaneshie Market seller and even suggested the Stars should have been eliminated at the Knock-out stage.
More damaging was a comment from an NDC youth Activist who was lampooning Nana Addo and his "short-man devil", party for their slogan of defeat for the Stars. That, to me was below the belt especially for a youth activist of a ruling party to be making such frivolous and indiscriminate statement.
Such were the loose comments from supposedly patriotic people of Ghana. Such were the "Believe in Ghana", agenda of Nana Addo and the "I Care For You", mantra of Mills.
Our country deserves better than this cosmetic chanting of unity by our political leadership especially when they are faced with the problem of "trust deficit".
If there is any lesson at all for us to rally around, it is that, our unification lies not in our political institutions but rather in our social institutions.
I am proud of the Stars and hereby call on all well meaning Ghanaians to come out in their numbers to give the men a huge, huge hug for such a long long battle with destiny.
I must say that, Ghana is better off but for the sacrifice of the Stars at the world cup which has endeared us to the world comity of sports.
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