Members of Ghana’s Parliament are rallying the nation in support of the Senior National team, the Black Stars ahead of their double FIFA world cup playoffs against West African rivals Nigeria.
The MPs on Wednesday took turns on the floor of Parliament to register their unflinching support to the team as they host old rivals Nigeria in the crucial first leg encounter at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi on Friday.
Nigeria’s capital, Abuja will host the second leg next Tuesday March 29, 2022 and the winner of the two-leg encounter will pick one of Africa’s five slots to represent the continent.
The lawmakers support follows a statement made by Member for New Edubiase, Adams Abdul Salam on the crunch world cup play-off.
According to him, a win for the Black Stars and a subsequent qualification to the tournament in Qatar is very crucial to appease Ghanaians since the team failed to for Russia in 2018.
‘’First, Mr. Speaker, having failed to qualify for the last FIFA World Cup in 2018 in Russia, it will be heart-wrenching and devastating for us to miss out on this year’s tournament slated for Qatar’’ he obsered.
Mr Abdul Salam noted that apart from the emotional satisfaction that citizens get when the blacks stars win, there is monetary reward to be derived if the team qualifies to the world cup finals in Qatar.
“Also, Mr. Speaker, even though the joy, emotional and psychological benefits that victories of Black Stars bring us cannot be quantified in monetary terms, there are some financial gains when we qualify for the World Cup. For instance, Mr. Speaker, by just qualifying for the World Cup, the country is guaranteed a whopping $10.5 million from the prize money’’.
The Member for Talensi who is a former sports administrator, Benson Tongo Baba noted that all odds are in favour of the Ghana Black Stars in the decisive encounter and called on all Ghanaians to support the team.
“If we go on statistics, Ghana stands tall over Nigeria. I believe that riding on this, we should all come together to support the Black Stars. This House also has a responsibility apart from probing what went wrong. We should take initiative and send a special message to the Black Stars as representatives of the people so that they will be aware of the fact that all of us, as one body, fully support them to emerge victorious in the match in Kumasi and subsequently Abuja,” he said.
Deputy Majority Leader and Member for Effutu, Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin on his part urged his colleagues to eschew partisanship and rally behind the team as the hoist the national colours.
“We all love the Black Stars. We want to see them succeed, but we often get disappointed. We, the politicians, in our commentary, sometimes it is partisan. This is about football, it’s not an NDC, NPP matter. Let us wish them well,” Mr Afenyo-Markin stated.
