Mahama Ayariga - Minister of Youth and Sports
Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Friday, February 13, 2015
Youth and Sports
Minister Mahama Ayariga, yesterday insulted journalists saying, “You ask
useless question,” on a live radio programme.
He did not understand
why journalists should ask him to give a breakdown of the budget for the Black
Stars’ participation in the just-ended African Cup of Nations (AFCON 2015)
tournament in Equatorial Guinea, which he presented to parliament on Wednesday.
The minister refused
to disclose the budget before the tournament and Mahama Ayariga, who is also MP
for Bawku Central, had said bizarrely on radio earlier that disclosing the
budget would have meant giving Ghana’s tactics to its opponents.
Additional Cost
It turned out that apart
from the $5.8 million claimed to have been spent on the tournament, some media
reports claim the government spent additional
$6 million to airlift mostly the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC)
supporters to Equatorial Guinea to support the Black Stars.
According to Starr FM’s online
report, the initial report that government spent at least
$165,000 to fly 250 fans in two chartered flights to the oil-rich country to
watch the Black Stars’ semi-final game, was entirely not accurate since it has
now been revealed that government actually spent $1 million on six separate
trips for all the six games played by the Black Stars, making it $6 million.
Mahama Ayariga had
told the same Starr
103.5FM that the ministry
was not involved whatsoever in flying Ghanaian fans to Equatorial Guinea, but
it was turning out that the ministry actually invited the fans to submit their
passports for processing before they were forwarded to the office of the Chief
of Staff, where all the travels were coordinated.
Useless Matters
When Mahama
Ayariga was called on Adom FM to
throw more light on the budget yesterday, he said “You are using valuable time to discuss useless matters. Please, I
think that this is very regrettable and it will dampen the spirit of the boys
who were trying to kill themselves only to come back and even the food that
they ate, they will hear on radio that their minister is (answering questions)
about the food that they ate. It’s sad; it’s sad; it’s sad.”
He fumed, “If I decide to grant you an
interview as a minister, I expect you to ask me useful questions…you want to
take over the job of the auditor? Are you the auditor?”
“It is very
unfortunate that you choose that this is what you will discuss. I thought that
at this stage, those who are interested in sports in Ghana would now be asking
me questions about how to sustain excellence in sports in Ghana. How are you
going to get infrastructure for the development of sports in Ghana? How are you
going to manage these players so that in the next tournament they will be able
to perform exceedingly well and take the cup. How are you going to make sure
that all other national teams do so well? Sadly you are asking me about…the
money that was spent on food,” he said.
Per Mahama Ayariga’s
logic, the Black Stars performed beyond expectation and therefore there was no
need to ask about how funds were managed at the tournament.
“You should ask
questions that will add more value to the sports ministry and not ask questions
about things and procedures you don’t have any knowledge about,” he said adding
“it is not my job to respond to useless questions as far as the AFCON 2015 is
concerned. Talk about the developmental issues of the ministry and not
questions that will not benefit us.”
“I am not the Auditor
General to be explaining the budget to journalists and so if you need any
explanations, just go to the Auditor General and not me. You need to be fair to
the Black Stars” he insisted.
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