Okraku’s rise to CAF ExCo

 The rise of Ghana Football Association (GFA) President, Kurt Okraku, may come as a sucker punch to many of his critics in Ghana especially.

For those critics, nothing good can be identified with his administration. It has been stretched to the extent that any negative occurrence in the game is quickly attributed to him or his administration.

In fact, Kurt Okraku’s name in some quarters has become the definition of any negative occurrence in the game in Ghana.

However, it beats the imagination of all how such a person, who is often the most criticised, maybe apart from government officials, continue to earn international recognition.

The Black Stars have failed to shine; climaxing that catastrophe with a failure to qualify for the next edition of AFCON. The other national teams have all struggled under him.

For this reason he has been chastised.

But in the face of these failures, Kurt Okraku was elevated to an Executive Member position at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) at its congress held recently.

One would then ask the obvious question whether it is the case of a dislike for him that has shrouded the efforts he is putting in to develop the game in Ghana.

In a rare encounter with him recently, one of the questions I asked was why is he criticised on daily basis for the work he’s doing?

But his response was quite instructive.

Drawing an analogy from good old book – Bible, he practically preached to me about the story of the Lord Jesus Christ who was not accepted in his own home but was accepted outside his jurisdiction.

“My brother, I have no idea why people criticise me that much. They may have their reasons for doing that but I look beyond them. Even our Lord Jesus was despised by his own people. I am focused on doing the best for Ghana football. Maybe, if I don’t get the recognition today, a future generation may recognise my effort,” he said.

He may be true in a certain sense. Many times, people do not treasure the good things they have until they lose it. This is very common in many facets of life.

Irrespective of where one stands, his elevation to the high office of a CAF Executive Member is one Ghanaians cannot intentionally ignore.

Mr Okraku is the sixth Ghanaian to be occupying that office and faces the challenges of keeping the flag of Ghana high and improve the image built for the country by his predecessors.

Perhaps the efforts at the WAFU Zone ‘B’ level were so minute that it escaped the lenses of his critics but obviously, a top post at CAF is too big to be ignored.

He deserves the commendations of every Ghanaian. What he needs is the support of all but that is not to suggest that he has grown about criticism. Ayekoo Mr Okraku!

 By Andrew Nortey