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Hughton needs our full backing to succeed
• Hughton (centre) and some of his Black Stars players
On Monday – March 20, 2023, Chief Coach of the Black Stars – Chris Hughton, was officially unveiled to Ghanaians at the SC Mall in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The outdooring took place three days ahead of the coach’s first official assignment at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi where he led the Stars to pip Angola 1-0 on a nervy Nations Cup qualifying afternoon.
Many commentaries have been made about the near-dawdling performance in that home game, the first by the Ghana team since their ill-fated World Cup in Qatar 2022.
But whilst many had their eye on the game, others too were concerned about the absence of the Ghana Football Association (GFA) boss and his deputy during the unveiling of the 64-year-old coach.
“We are utterly surprised not to see the GFA president Kurt Okraku and his vice Mark Addo at the introduction of the coach, and that sends a lot of signals,” was the voice of one of the many fans who called on a radio sports programme.
Even though the GFA Communications Director Henry Asante Tsum was fully represented, the fans think “it was dolefully not enough.”
The impression that is being bandied around is that the FA failed to be around to ‘grace’ the occasion because Hughton was not their choice but that of the government.
It might not exactly be the truth, but the multi-million-dollar question on the lips of Ghanaians is that when was the last time the GFA top brass – right from the halcyon days of Kwesi Nyantakyi, failed to attend the unveiling of a new Black Stars coach?
Some assert that the FA would have loved to have a coach other than Hughton for the Stars’ job – reason for which it opened applications for that purpose. However, following successful negotiations with the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the FA – the man who has been in charge of the team since the exit of Otto Addo – was fully endorsed.
Whatever the case, what is needed now is giving Hughton the all-embracing support and backing to succeed. The FA, clearly, must not lose sight of the fact that when Hughton succeeds, the FA succeeds too; when he fails, they fails as well.
Having served as Technical Advisor of the Black Stars through to the Qatar World Cup, the Ghanaian-Irish should have an appreciable amount of knowledge about the players and what could be done to improve on their performance and ultimately revive the dwindling fortunes of Ghana football at the international level.
The performance of the team in their reverse fixture in Luanda against Angola strappingly suggested a brighter future awaits the nation’s football with Hughton in charge.
Unlike what we were getting accustomed to by his predecessors, the coach did not tarry at all and made quick changes when the team was down to a Lucas Joao 50th minute strike.
Nippily – and in order to get the right response, Hughton introduced Joseph Paintsil, Osman Bukari and Inaki Williams for Semenyo and Sulemana, and Mohammed Kudus.
The substitution was scrumptiously deadly as it did not take long for them to make an impact, as Paintsil set up Bukari to rap home a dazzling redeemer.
Painstil, who was strangely overlooked for the Qatar World Cup, nearly snatched a late winner after latching onto a pass from Salis Samed, but his shot was blocked to the relief of the home crowd.
Upshot of the entertaining game left Ghana at the top of Group E – and just a point ahead of second-placed Central African Republic (CAR) who beat Madagascar 2-0.
As things stand now, the Stars need just a win in their next assignment at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi – somewhere in June, to book a place in the Cote d’Ivoire African Cup of Nations tournament.
Slowly but surely, Coach Hughton appears to be on course to building a formidable squad – capable of taking on the rest of the world – and he must be accorded all the needed backing to executing this mission.
By John Vigah
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Cervical Cancer alert: Avoid sex at early age
The Programmes Manager of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Mary Efua Commeh, has advised young girls to avoid sex at an early age.
This, she explained, will give the cervix the opportunity to mature before they become sexually active.
“You need to delay what we call the first sexual intercourse as much as possible to give the cervix the opportunity to mature before the person becomes sexually active,” she said.
Dr Commeh stated this in an interview with The Spectator in Accra on Tuesday as a part of the Cervical Cancer awareness month.
According to her, cervical cancer was the second leading female cancer in Ghana with a total of about 3,072 cases annually, and out of that, 1,815 deaths are recorded, representing more than 50 per cent.
She indicated that “If young girls are going to be sexually active, then you need to talk to your parents about being vaccinated.”
She explained that vaccinating young girls against human papillomavirus (HPV) has been found to be a very effective way of preventing cervical cancer.
“There are countries that started HPV vaccination years ago and they are not seeing any cervical cancers now because they would have eliminated most of the high-risk HPVs in their women. So if the high-risk HPV is not there, then obviously the results on cervical cancers are going to go down,” she added.
Dr Commmey said the HPV vaccination is recommended for young girls aged nine to 14 years, adding that it had been found to be highly effective, not just for cervical cancers but for other HPV-related cancers, such as anal cancers, cancers of the vagina, genital warts, amongst others.
She further elaborated that the idea is to put up a barrier before the HPV comes in and that once a young female encounters it, she is already protected.
She also mentioned that for cervical cancers, the main cause is called HPV infection, saying generally, all sexually active women acquire HPV at some point in their lives.
However, the Programmes Manager of NCDs at the GHS mentioned that the body has a way of clearing the HPV, explaining that it is a natural mechanism that goes on, unfortunately, there are a few women whose HPV persists.
Moreover, she noted that the numbers for Cervical Cancer tend to be much higher because at times, clients would wait, and try all sorts of medications before they finally report to the health facility saying “we actually lose some women before they get to the hospitals with over 75 per cent of the cases coming in its third and fourth stages.”
Dr Commey, therefore, called for public awareness while ensuring the availability of information for prevention and control.
By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu
Entertainment
Maxi Sway teams up with Kweku Darlington on ‘Efie Bayie’
One of Ghana’s fastest-growing musicians, Maxi Sway known in private life as Alex Bonsu, has teamed up with music sensation, Kweku Darlington on ‘Efie Bayie’.
The song is off his new External Play (EP) dubbed, ‘Love and Life’ which is made up of five songs.
The EP written and performed by Maxi Sway, drew inspiration from real life situations.
According to Maxi Sway, ‘Efie Bayie’ was inspired by something unfortunate which happened in the life of his producer Ssnowbeatz.
He revealed that “some years back as it was almost close to the B.E.C.E examinations, Ssnowbeatz fell sick and had to write the exams at the hospital with a few Security Personnel around.”
“Ssnowbeatz told me it was a very difficult time because he was out of school for a while and had no time to even revise or prepare for the exams. He failed the papers because of his health and even didn’t go for the results,” he said.
According to him, after hearing the story of Ssnowbeatz, “It got me thinking and it inspired the song Efie Beyie.”
The video was directed and shot by Mista Morgan.
The songs on the EP include, Meganja, Efie Bayie, Wayo Love, Come Closer and Seke.
The songs making waves were produced by Klassic Beatz and Ssnowbeatz.
