Rawlings told us Ghana had nothing to offer us for winning AFCON 1982 – Opoku Nti
A member of Ghana’s 1982 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winning team, Opoku Nti, says the benefit the squad had for winning the tournament was boarding the presidential jet.
Speaking on Prime Take with Muftawu Nabila Abdulai which will broad the on Saturday, July 27 at 7:30 pm on JoyNews, the former Black Stars forwarded recalled a stirring message from the late CK Gyamfi, the team’s coach, delivered on behalf of then-head of state Jerry John Rawlings, it was never fulfilled.
“Before the [AFCON 1982] final, we were there when the late CK Gyamfi came and said, ‘This is a message from our head of state [Jerry John Rawlings] and it reads like this: ‘If you win this Cup, we are going to honour you and this honour will benefit you and your children.’
Every step, whether eating, training, after lunch or supper, he would read this message to us,” Nti recounted.
It is believe that the message was meant to inspire the team to go all out and win when rumours in Ghana alleged that then Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi wanted Ghana to throw the match.
“We didn’t even know that in Ghana, there were rumours that [Muammar] Gaddafi wanted us to sell the match to him [for Libya to win the AFCON]. Lo and behold, we won the Cup.”
The team waited in Tripoli for several days before the presidential jet arrived to bring them home. Boarding the jet, Nti says, was the only honour they had. “Maybe, the benefit we had was being on the presidential jet,” he stated.
He added, “It took us from Tripoli, Libya and we were happy. We had to refuel when we got to Tamale, and when we got to Tema, we saw two jet planes.” The flight back to Ghana turned into a terrifying experience as the pilot performed risky manoeuvres. “While in the plane, something happened, and we were all crying in the plane.
“The pilot was flying dangerously: he would take high up and come down again… he did that a couple of times and we were all scared to death because we hadn’t seen anything like that before. We all thought we were going to die. Even those who were outside waiting for us to land were all shouting.
“If you want, go and look at the picture of our arrival carefully, no one was laughing. We couldn’t laugh because our hearts were gone.”
There was enough history for these players not to be so expectant: 1963, 1965, and 1978. Promises made to these winning teams were never fulfilled, but this group thought theirs was a different era despite a warning from some members of the 1978 group who were promised houses, but never got them.
“Some of the 1978 squad members told us there was a promise for them if they won the AFCON during Kutu Acheampong’s era. They were promised houses, but it never happened. So they told us we must ask for even cars because the state had seized so many cars at the port,” Nti explained.
They made no demands at the instruction of their technical team members, and their hopes were dashed when they finally met with Rawlings.
“The coaches, CK Gyamfi, Osam Duodu were like, ‘These boys, you are too troublesome, he [Rawlings] said he will honour us. When you’re given a car, is that honour?’ It was back and forth.
“They eventually took us from the airport to Konda Barracks and that was the first time we met [Daniel Alolga] Akata Pore . He told us the old man, he called Papa J [Jerry John Rawlings] old man, is sleeping but will join us soon.
“We were there for about 30 minutes before he came. He greeted us and spoke for a long time. It was from politics to many other things.
“He said what we blacks can do if we were given the same opportunities as the whites, we are better.
“In the end, he said Ghana has nothing to offer you, except to say ‘We salute you.’ To be honest with you, it pierced our hearts,” Nti recounted. The lack of promised rewards had a lasting impact on the players. Ghana has not win the AFCON since then and many attributes the country’s near misses to not honouring promises made to past winners.
“If Ghana is suffering… maybe some players cursed Ghana, I don’t know, but this thing got so many players to decide not to play for the nation again because the sacrifice was too much,” Nti reflected.
The disillusionment carried over into the next AFCON where Ghana, despite being defending champions had its worst outing to date. The team exited the group stage without a point.
“It’s all gone now, but you see, it didn’t augur well so from there defending the Cup at Bourke, we were eliminated because no one was willing to sacrifice again. Who wants to die again for the nation? They said a nation that does not honour its heroes is not worth dying for,” Nti concluded.
Prime Take airs every Friday at 7:30, Saturday at 7:30 pm, and Sunday at 11 am.
