The Presidential candidate for the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo believes the recent disqualification of the Black Starlets from the 2015 African U-17 championship is as a result of poor record keeping in the country.
CAF took the decision to disqualify Ghana following a protest by Cameroon claiming overage players were fielded in Ghana’s final qualifier.
Cameroon protested against seven players who they suspected were unqualified, with the organising committee finding one of them guilty after thorough investigations and went ahead to punish Ghana.
Speaking at the second Aliu Mahama Memorial lecture in Accra, Nana Akufo-Addo pointed out that the poor record keeping in the country is a contributory factor to this recent development.
“According to the current statistics, less than half the number of children born in Ghana today are going to have their births registered,” he said.
“Therein lies the genesis of the lack of reliable data for all sectors of our society. This has manifested in dubious voting registers and in our Under-17 football team being disqualified for fielding overage players.
“No modern society functions effectively without reliable data and we should start with making sure every child born in Ghana is registered.
“Many aspects of our national life are not functioning properly and this undermines all the best-laid plans.”
Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo-Addo will lead the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the 2016 Presidential elections in December.
