If anyone is asked to list one ministry which has been hit with several controversies over the past years, where evil machinations so often befell the sector minister, arguably the Youth and Sports Ministry will come up tops.
It is perhaps the most talked about Ministry, and has seen Ministers come and go in a rapid manner.
Some of the past Ministers even lasted only 30 days in office after appointment.
Recalling the circumstance under which President John Dramani Mahama sacked his former Sports Minister, Elvis Afriyie Ankrah and his deputy, Joseph Yammin, following the shambolic organisation of Ghana’s participation in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil; a leading member of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) strongly holds the view that someone with an angelic persona is needed to sanctify the ministry since almost all who have occupied the office have failed.
The immediate-past Minister Afriyie-Ankrah lost his position while on international assignment in faraway Brazil during the 2014 World Cup.
One young Minister who showed promise but didn’t last long on the hot seat was Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka. What led to his departure, stoking controversy, is still fresh in the minds of Ghanaians.
Mallam Issah, who served under the Kufuor administration, is in the Ministry’s history books as the shortest-serving Minister.
But one name stands tall among the 22 Ministers that served at the ministry is Enoch Teye Mensah, for his long reign (1993-2001), although he did not qualify the country to the World stage – a feat Yaw Osafo Maafo could boast of as the first Minister to have achieved.
Later, Akua Sena Dansua and Afriyie-Ankrah replicated the feat in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups respectively, although they were reassigned after some months in office.
Consequently, Central Regional Communications Director of the NDC, Allotey Jacobs believes there is more to this than meets the eye. To him, the ministry is possessed by a “demonic spirit”.
“There is an evil spirit at the Youth and Sports Ministry’s…I am really sure,” he claims.
According to him, the “mafia” which has engulfed the sector must be scrubbed by the new minister, Hon. Mahama Ayariga after charging him to be vigilant and circumspect with his workforces and the Ghana Football Association [GFA].
“There is no peace at the Youth and Sorts Ministry,” he stressed
Speaking on Adom FM, Allotey Jacobs also known as “Educated Fisherman” expressed worry over the way and manner the local league [The First Capital Plus Bank Premier League] is being managed.
“…it (the league) has become unattractive and its being poorly managed…those responsible must make the game more eye-catching,” he said, adding that if measures are put in place at the Sports Ministry, its subsidiaries [mainly GFA] will put its house in order to prevent another embarrassing appearance at a global tourney in the future.
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(Selorm) | 
(Nana Kwesi)