I do not have the president in my pocket – Kurt Okraku shies away

Mr. Kurt Okraku had a fruitful discussion with Ghana’s president on reviving football in Ghana[/caption] Unlike the former Ghana Football Association boss Kwesi Nyantakyi who suggested to the world that he had Ghana’s president in his pocket, the newly elected GFA President, Kurt E.S Okraku has refused to trek that path. Kurt Okraku who was speaking on TV3’s Hot Issues said his recent visit to the president was a formal introduction and the first time he had met the president in person. Mr. Okraku on October 30, 2019 paid a courtesy call on President Nana Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House in Accra. The visit by the new FA boss was to officially and formally introduce himself and seek the blessings of the president following his electoral victory on October 25. He explained the meeting was brief but productive and he came out of it feeling hopeful of government’s support in turning football around for the better. “I came out of the engagement feeling very good,” he told host of Hot Issues Nuong Faalong. When asked in a rather light note if he did not leave with the president in his pocket, he laughed, “no, no, no, not at all, not at all, I think that we had a real opportunity to know each other and that will be the beginning of perhaps a long relationship At the meeting, the president assured Mr, Okraku: “You have to know that, so long as I am in this seat, you will have unalloyed support in the way you want to take Ghana football. It is not right that so many years have passed, and, yet, we have not won the big cups again. We have to go back to the winning ways that used to characterize our football. You have a big task ahead of you,” President Akufo-Addo in May 2018 directed the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police Service to arrest the then president of the Ghana Football Association, Kwesi Nyantakyi, for defrauding by false pretense. The president’s order followed the release of a recording by investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas, titled, “Number 12”, in which Kwesi Nyanatakyi was heard claiming he had President Akufo-Addo in his pocket and can secure any contract, noting, “it’s just a matter of paying”. The documentary led to the suspension of Ghana’s flagship league as well as dissolution of the FA. New measures were instituted with the support of the world football governing body, FIFA, culminating into the election of Mr. Kurt Okraku’s administration in October this year. Source: 3news.com | Ghana]]>