Black Starlets travel ordeal: Have we failed our young talents? – Former NSA Board Chair quizzes

It’s treacherous. It’s unfathomable. No matter how anyone looks at this, it’s criminal, to say the least.

I cannot believe Ghana’s Black Starlets — team of prestige, a team of honour went through this ordeal to represent the country you and I were born.

Before you begin to question my disappointment, note that the Starlets are our foundation. The glitz and glamour of the Black Stars are dependent on our young talents of today.

Ghana has a rich history in the under-17 football, having been world champions in 1991 and 1995.

For a considerable period of time, Ghana held a competitive advantage in the African and world under-17 competition.

These young ones from 10-23 October 2026 will participate in the WAFU Zone B under-17 tournament taking place in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

The winner and first runner up from the tournament will qualify and represent the zone at the African Under-17 Championship next year.

The Ghana National Under -17 team, the Black Starlets, will do us the honour of representing our country at the said tournament.

In tournaments, Participating Member Associations are required to transport their teams to the venue of competition.

In this case, considering that the distance from Accra to Ouagadougou is estimated at 960km by road, we expected the team to be transported by air.

However, the Kurt Okraku GFA decided to ask our sons to travel by bus from Prampram to Ouagadougou. The team is currently in Bolga en route to Ouagadougou.

The security challenges of a trip anywhere within Ghana can be contained by the state security apparatus.

The same may not be the case with trips outside the territorial boundaries of our country. We are all aware of the insurgency of the jihadists and several other militant groups operating in the Sahel.

It was a bad decision for anyone to subject our young sons in the Under-17 team to such an ordeal.

Not long ago, the whole country was thrown into a state of mourning following the massacre of tomato sellers and other traders by jihadists along the Ghana-Burkina Faso border.

God forbid, if anything bad happens to these boys, Kurt Okraku and his insensitive GFA leadership must be held responsible.

Security is always a dicey issue in Africa. In 2010, tragedy befell the hawks of Togo when the team decided to travel by road from Congo Brazzaville to Cabinda in Angola through the thick forest bordering the two countries.

The unfortunate incident is still fresh on our minds. The decision to subject our under-17 team to a similar ordeal means we have woefully failed to learn from history.

Who in his private capacity would subject his sons and nephews to the ordeal the GFA has subjected the Under-17 boys to? Since when has it become a crime to be patriotic and nationalistic to play for the under-17 team of Ghana? The boys deserve better.

Unlike the senior national football teams, the ‘Osagyefo’ Kurt Okraku administration has always treated the junior national teams with disrespect, contempt, and carelessness.

This manifests in arrangements for travel, accommodation, feeding, and apparel and logistics. No wonder the progression of players from the junior national football teams to the senior national football team has unbelievably stagnated.

The situation has, however, deteriorated beyond redemption since ‘Osagyefo’ Kurt Okraku ascended the presidency of the Ghana Football Association in 2019.

Since then, Fatawu Issahaku is the only player of repute that has progressed from the Under-17 through Under-20 to the Black stars. Issahaku’s development even started with GFA/Airtel under-12 competition and GFA’s under-15 team in 2017 before the advent of Osagyefo’s reign.

This competitive leadership has been lost through greed, selfishness, personal benefit, and economic gain by one person and his cohorts.

Before 2019, how many players of the Dream FC family and friends gained selection to the junior national teams? In just 7 years, it’s alleged that more than 22 players have been invited to the junior and subsequently senior national teams, while other equally, perhaps even more talented young men have been ignored.

This is the sorry state of football in our country. A rescue, reset, re-possession, reclaim, or re-engineering may be the only way to save us from the totalitarian rule of ‘Osagyefo’.