Former GFA President Kwesi Nyantakyi has responded to critics who are calling on him not to contest the Ejisu by-election. The GFA President who is serving a 15-year ban from football for corruption and conflict of interest says there is nothing wrong with it in Ghana.
According to him, the controversies on his name are mere controversies which could be motivated by jealous or politics. He noted that those controversies are not justified acts of crime under Ghanaian laws so cannot stop him.
“Controversies are not necessarily justified. Controversies may be motivated by considerations such as politics, such as envy, differences in opinion etc. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re justified.”
Mr Nyantakyi explained that despite the noise about his character, he remains a good man. He wondered what is wrong with his character that should prevent him from contesting.
“What is wrong with Mr Nyantakyi’s character? I am a man of good character. Have I been declared to be a man of bad character by any court of competent jurisdiction in Ghana or by any committee or anything of that sort in Ghana?”
The former FIFA Council member brushed aside the FIFA ruling that gave him a lifetime ban from football before later it was cut down by the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS. He said everything that happened at FIFA stays at FIFA and has no connection with Ghanaian laws.
“That is an arbitration. It is not part of Ghana’s laws. Corruption in FIFA statutes doesn’t mean corruption in Ghana law. They’re entirely different in meaning. We’re operating within the laws of Ghana so you must confine yourself to the meaning of crime as defined in Ghana.”
Also, Mr Nyantakyi reiterated his earlier claim that the people of Ejisu have been calling upon him to contest for a long time. He explained that they have been on him since 2012 but he always turned it down because of his focus on football.
“For a long time, I shied away from active partisan politics. Since 2012, I have received several invitations from well-meaning people of Ejisu to contest and become their Member of Parliament (MP). But I have on each occasion resisted the invitation on the grounds that I didn’t have the time. I was then busy with football.”
But he was not always away from the people, he noted. He said he organized an annual football competition for 45 times in the area. According to him, footballs, jerseys and boots were all provided by him. Thus, he has been in touch with the base and stands a chance at the by-election.
“What I did to make amends was to establish the Annual Easter Games. So football was played in almost all the 45 towns in the Ejisu Constituency. I provided jerseys, footballs, and boots for the players. So I did that for a long time and that to me was my way of giving back to society what they had given to me.”
“The calls intensified again and this time, I am less busy and I want to give it a try. This is a way of porting my capabilities, and experiences in the arena of football administration to mainstream politics,”