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NewsTranscript
00:00 - How you doing? - I'm doing okay.
00:02 (laughing)
00:04 This is your intro.
00:06 It's a very scary intro.
00:08 - Yeah, but it's your life, so you know all about athletics.
00:12 - It's true, indeed. Since my school days,
00:14 athletics has really made me who I am today.
00:18 If not for athletics,
00:20 I wouldn't be where I am today.
00:23 And I wouldn't even know what I would be doing by this time.
00:27 - So if anyone had asked you,
00:30 "Aside from athletics, what else would you have done?"
00:32 - That would have been a very difficult question for me to answer.
00:36 Because my life has been athletics, athletics, athletics.
00:40 - So aside from athletics, what would Bowie have done?
00:43 (laughing)
00:45 - I wouldn't have any idea.
00:48 Because right from my school days,
00:51 I was a serious athlete in my school.
00:53 Even before I went to Ghana school,
00:55 I was an athlete through the athletics
00:57 that I was given scholarships to go to Ghana school.
00:59 Through athletics that Mr. BT Bawa
01:02 saw me and brought me to praises.
01:04 Through athletics that I got to University of Ghana.
01:07 Through athletics that I got to Sports Authority.
01:10 And through athletics that I'm here today.
01:12 (laughing)
01:13 So everything of my life is athletics.
01:15 - So you don't have anything else to say?
01:17 (laughing)
01:19 But tell us your life beginning. How was it like?
01:22 - I would say it was pretty, pretty tough.
01:25 Growing up in Tamale with my dad,
01:28 who was doing very good initially,
01:30 but later stages wasn't doing too well.
01:33 So I had to live with friends.
01:35 I actually attended Catholic school, St. Peter's Primary in Tamale.
01:38 Those days they were given food.
01:40 "Go to school, they will prepare food for you."
01:43 And I had a lot of good friends like Amalga,
01:46 Dominic Derry, Grigore Derry, they were all Catholics.
01:50 So it was just a divine that I didn't become a Catholic.
01:54 Because I grew up with Catholic friends.
01:57 I was the only Muslim boy who was allowed to be among the CYO in Tamale.
02:04 So I would go to church, cathedral with them.
02:06 On Wednesday we would go and sing hymns.
02:08 Saturday we would go to CYO meetings.
02:11 So it was there that I started with these Catholic friends.
02:15 So I got to athletics.
02:18 There was one Mr. Aduchim, I don't know where he is now.
02:22 But wherever he is, I greet him.
02:25 He encouraged us to do sports when we were in school.
02:28 So sometimes he would take a bicycle,
02:30 we would run to the team and run back.
02:33 That's where it started.
02:35 We would run back to the team, back to school.
02:37 While he was paddling the bicycle?
02:39 Paddling the bicycle, he would mark everybody in the school to run.
02:42 We did one interzonals and I was first in 200 and 400.
02:50 We went to the interzonals.
02:52 I wasn't having spikes at that time, so I ran barefooted.
02:54 I had blisters all over my legs, so I couldn't come back to run the finals.
02:58 But for some strange reasons, when the team was selected for district,
03:03 I just followed them.
03:07 I wasn't qualified, I was not invited.
03:10 For some strange reasons, I joined them for training.
03:14 We were training, training, training, training.
03:16 When they were going to go to the inter-district, they did trials.
03:23 Again, and I beat everybody.
03:26 That's where the story started.
03:29 Fast forward, I was given a scholarship to Ghana High School.
03:34 When I went to Ghana High School, I beat everybody in the school.
03:41 That made me popular in the school.
03:44 There was one PE master called Appau Mensa.
03:49 He did a lot.
03:51 Appau Mensa saw me and knew that I was interested not only in sports,
03:55 but also in academic work.
03:58 So, anytime Appau Mensa went around to see who among the sports boys was in class,
04:05 when he came to the class and saw me in the class, he was okay, he would leave.
04:09 So, if JB is in the class, I'm okay.
04:12 So, Appau Mensa really wanted me to combine academics with sports.
04:20 So, even though I was very good at doing my sports in Ghana High School,
04:24 I was doing so well academically.
04:28 So, when we got to O-Levels, I passed the O-Levels.
04:31 It was a real thing that you see a sports person who was doing very well,
04:35 had so many records in Tamale.
04:38 I was even a national athlete, passing the O-Levels.
04:42 So, my initials, I wanted to go to Tamale High School,
04:45 but my headmaster said, "No, you're coming back to Ghana High School."
04:50 But there was one person that I need to mention, Mr. Charles Adama.
04:55 He was the best of Ghana High School at that time.
04:58 He actually let me see, he opened up the world of sports to me when I was a student.
05:05 Those days that Said Awita, Kip Kitar were running,
05:11 whenever they won a race, he would call me to his office, me and my brother,
05:14 he would say, "Oh, JB, you see this person, he has won $50,000.
05:18 In the future, if you also do well, you also will win that kind of money."
05:22 Anytime Awita went for inter-zonals or inter-schools,
05:26 he would make his wife to prepare very good food.
05:30 Because you needed the food.
05:31 Yeah, we needed the food.
05:33 So, those people that really encouraged us,
05:37 and they always told us that to take our academic work as serious as the sports.
05:43 So, we never left it back.
05:45 After training, we go to class.
05:48 After class, we go to training.
05:50 That was what we did.
05:51 Because we knew that our background wasn't good.
05:54 And in Ghana High School, there was a sixth form school,
05:57 and when I was in Form 4, I was given a prefectural position.
06:00 Huh?
06:01 Yeah, a sixth form school.
06:02 A Form 4 student was made assistant sports prefect.
06:07 So, I could go to dining hall with my khaki shirt and with my white top,
06:10 among the seniors, sixth formers, making announcement,
06:14 and I was making announcement to my classmates.
06:16 It was fun.
06:18 It was fun.
06:19 I never took that position very seriously.
06:22 And when I look back, that was a very great honor.
06:26 Giving me to be a prefect, even though a junior school,
06:30 a sixth form school, and a Form 4 student,
06:33 given a prefectural position to sit with sixth formers to eat in the dining hall.
06:38 Whenever they were doing anything, I was always with them.
06:40 And the headmaster, Mr. Boile Nasaka, he's now Boile Nasaka and Chas Adama,
06:45 they really did very, very well for me when I was in school.
06:49 But as a young boy who was following Catholics,
06:53 how were you able to withdraw yourself from the Catholic family
06:59 and got back into your initial religion, which is Islam?
07:04 It all started from the childhood.
07:07 When I was growing up, we had a Macarthur that we were going.
07:10 Even though I had a very good friend, a close relationship with the Catholic friends,
07:14 I was still attending my Macarthur.
07:16 If you don't attend the Macarthur, they will beat you.
07:20 Now that you've collected.
07:23 So I was always having good friends, Catholic good friends,
07:27 and I was also attending my Macarthur, and I was observing my prayers.
07:31 That went as far as I started getting close Muslim friends when I was in sixth form.
07:38 Oh, really?
07:39 Yes.
07:40 Oh, then you should have just been a Catholic.
07:43 Then you would have rose to the high.
07:46 It took me that long.
07:48 Wow.
07:49 Yeah, it took me that long.
07:50 Even though I was close to my classmates in Ghana school,
07:53 Osman, a wounded lion, Paul Napare, who was a very...
07:59 Wounded lion is a nickname.
08:01 Those days we had them in secondary school.
08:04 Yes, in secondary school.
08:06 And I had a very good Christian friend, like Paul, one guy called Paul Napare,
08:10 who still talks, a very good Christian friend.
08:13 He gave me certain advice when I was in school,
08:16 and I still appreciate what he told me in school.
08:18 Anytime I talk, I mention it to him, what he told me.
08:21 What were some of them?
08:22 No, no, I don't want to mention the names.
08:23 Just say one, just mention one.
08:25 No, you know, when we were in school, and we were so famous,
08:28 because I was very famous in Ghana school,
08:30 and things were not too difficult for us.
08:35 We were trying to do some small bad things,
08:38 trying to go and see fowls running about.
08:41 Oh, man, those ones are normal stories.
08:44 And kill the fowls.
08:46 So, JB, come, come.
08:48 Why have you killed that fowl?
08:50 So, no, no, no, don't do that.
08:53 Please stop it.
08:54 Those are normal stories.
08:56 But rarely you see your mates who call you to chastise you for doing something bad.
09:02 Because those things, you know, those things were not actually good things.
09:07 But he just called me,
09:09 Fowl Napare just called me to my dormitory,
09:12 and told me that a fowl, JB, is something bad.
09:14 So, you were called JB in school?
09:15 I was called JB, I was supposed to be called JB.
09:17 The fowl became so enormous in the southern sector.
09:21 But when I go to Tamale...
09:23 So, what is a JB?
09:24 No, JB means Jabla in Dagbane.
09:26 Ah, ok, ok.
09:27 So, in the northern or in Tamale, it would be...
09:31 Like the younger twin?
09:33 No, just a twin.
09:34 Just a twin?
09:35 Yes, so every twin is called JB.
09:36 Yeah, ok, ok.
09:37 Because we were doing sport, our JB dominates.
09:40 So, if you hear JB from Ghana school, it means they are referring to us.
09:43 Ah, ok.
09:44 So, you are a twin brother, right?
09:46 Yes, I'm a twin.
09:47 I'm a proud twin.
09:48 I'm the younger brother of twins.
09:50 Ah, me too.
09:51 So, you are my younger brother.
09:53 That's why I'm actually called Nabila.
09:55 Ah, ok.
09:56 Yeah, the Nabila is from there.
09:57 From there, ok.
09:58 Yeah, so you know, from a part of the country, you are known as the younger brother of twins.
10:06 So, the accounts would say Tewia.
10:08 In Dagbane, they call you Juna.
10:10 Ah, so that's basically it.
10:12 So, I was born a twin and I'm still a twin.
10:15 Why didn't this with your twin brother?
10:17 We were doing sports together.
10:19 In Ghana school, we were doing our 4x4 was fairly spectacular.
10:23 People came out with all sorts of wild stories that sometimes we would change our race.
10:29 We never changed races.
10:31 Because you are a carbon copy of each other.
10:35 I remember the last time I met him, I was like, "Ah, is this Baba or his brother?"
10:38 That's by how long I've known you.
10:42 When I see him, I still get confused.
10:44 We never changed races.
10:45 Some people think that maybe we wanted time for him to run.
10:47 I would come and run for him.
10:49 No, no, we never did that.
10:50 You are too identical.
10:51 It would be very difficult for people to actually identify you.
10:53 No, we never did that.
10:55 But we are pretty, pretty, very close.
10:57 So, how did some of the things you said were bad that you did,
11:00 how did that mold you to become a much better person?
11:03 I'm so fortunate that most of the times I get very good friends.
11:07 Sometimes, I start to do something, someone would just call me, "Hey, Jeebie."
11:11 Don't do it.
11:12 Don't do that. Stop it.
11:14 You are too decent to do that.
11:16 Almost all the time, if I want to start, which is no good,
11:20 even up to today, someone would just come to you.
11:25 Either he calls me Jeebie, that is Senior Jeebie, that he knows me in school.
11:28 He calls Jeebie, he's my colleague.
11:30 He calls me Fuseni, he knows me from home.
11:33 If he calls me Baba, then he knows me from Southern Ghana.
11:36 Oh, okay. And that has really helped you a lot.
11:38 It has really helped me a lot, even today.
11:40 Certain things, sometimes I would do something,
11:43 even currently, someone would just call me or come to my office,
11:46 "Baba, how did you say this? You've done this."
11:48 At the next time, I thought, "If you have said it this way,
11:51 or done it this way, I just thank that person."
11:54 You're fortunate to have people guide you in some of the things you need to do.
11:57 Yes, yes, yes. My friends, I always have good friends.
12:00 I don't know one way or another, people come to me,
12:03 if they are not good to me, within no time, they have been exposed.
12:08 Oh, wow.
12:09 Yeah, they have been exposed.
12:10 People don't understand, sometimes I'm so good to certain people,
12:13 and some people find it difficult in coming closer.
12:17 Yes.
12:18 Yes, because I always give people the first right of trust.
12:22 Until you betray me, then I will tell you in your face that,
12:26 "No, I can't work with you. This is what you've done.
12:28 I've given you an opportunity to do A, B, C for me,
12:30 but look at how you have betrayed me.
12:32 We can still be friends, but I will not have that trust for you again."
12:36 I will tell you.
12:37 Wow. At what point did you move from being an athlete
12:42 and get into the administration of athletics?
12:44 Everything happens, shall I say, by divine direction.
12:49 When I was just leaving athletics around 2007, 2008,
12:53 there was a competition in Cote d'Ivoire, in Benin,
12:56 that Ghana was supposed to go, and we went to Eluwag.
12:59 Me, it was one Richard Ajepon and Christopher Makra.
13:04 We decided, "OK, let's try and send a team to Cote d'Ivoire,
13:07 to Benin, Cotonou, for a race."
13:09 So what did we do?
13:10 So Richard Ajepon contributed a thousand Ghana, a thousand dollars,
13:13 and Mrs. O'Krine, who was a self-officer,
13:16 then we went to Sandu Osajima, he was the chairman at that time.
13:19 He also gave a thousand dollars.
13:22 We gathered all the monies, we gathered a national team,
13:25 we took the team to Cote d'Ivoire.
13:28 Cotonou.
13:29 Cotonou, Benin.
13:30 We were just leaving athletics, but we went there as officials.
13:34 Little did we know that one day we would be in charge of athletics.
13:38 So we took the team to Cote d'Ivoire, and we brought it back.
13:41 And when I came here to do my national service,
13:44 I was initially sent to the Chief Sport Development Officer's office.
13:48 So one day, the Ghana Athletics Association were doing a meeting,
13:53 an executive board meeting, and I was asked to go and serve them.
13:56 So when I entered, Sunny knew me very well at that time.
13:59 He asked me, "Bawa, are you here?"
14:02 I said, "Why don't you come and help in the athletics office?"
14:05 He said, "Oh, I'm ready to help."
14:07 That's how it started.
14:09 And Sunny wanted me to become the secretary general at that time.
14:13 But that was the time that his move-out came.
14:16 So it was that up and down, up and down, and then he left.
14:20 But Fududu also came, and I finished my service at that time.
14:27 So I applied for an NSA job, and when they were doing the shortlisting,
14:33 the first list came, my name was not there.
14:36 The second list came, my name was not there.
14:39 The final list came, my name was not there.
14:42 - Three separate lists. - Separate lists. My name was not there at all.
14:45 So I went to the late Addoko to tell him that if he can do something for me.
14:50 So when the final list came out, and my name was not there, he cannot help me.
14:54 So whoever that I want to speak to, I should go and speak to that person.
14:58 But he cannot help. I thank him.
15:01 And before then, I used to sit with Mr. Wolonyagra at Lagon.
15:07 - Oh, okay. - We used to sit at the lavish bench.
15:09 There was a lavish bench just beside the Lagon Hall handball court.
15:15 Now those benches have been removed.
15:17 We used to sit there every Saturdays.
15:19 We would sit there and chat. I never knew who he was.
15:22 But we would just meet there on Saturdays.
15:25 Sit there and chat. Sit there and chat.
15:27 I never asked him who he was. I never asked why we were sitting down there.
15:31 But we were just sitting down there every day.
15:33 So when I was going, and someone told me that Mr. Addoko was coming to talk about NSA.
15:37 I said, "Oh, that is good." So I called him and I actually said yes.
15:40 So the day that I was leaving the sports authority here for good,
15:44 I met him just behind his office.
15:47 Then he asked me where was Addoko.
15:50 I said I was going home because my colleagues have all given their interview letters.
15:55 I was the only person who wasn't given.
15:57 So I didn't see the reason why I should stay.
15:59 They said, "No, no, no. Come, come, come. I need you."
16:01 Then he called for the human resource officer who was one, Aunty Mary.
16:07 Aunty Mary also said he wasn't there, so he refused to give him the letter.
16:10 He made the assistant give him the invitation letter for the interview.
16:14 - Oh, okay. - The interview was supposed to be on the next Tuesday.
16:17 It was supposed to be on Friday. So I was supposed to have an interview on the next Tuesday.
16:21 When I went to the next Tuesday interview, just here at the media center here,
16:24 I spent almost two hours in the meeting.
16:28 When the results came, I had the highest mark.
16:32 I had 48 percent, 48 over 50 percent.
16:37 - You wrote an exam? - No, no, it was just an interview.
16:41 I had the highest mark, 48 over 50.
16:44 So he called me one day, "Oh, I'm proud of you."
16:46 I don't know why he was telling me he was proud of me.
16:48 Then he said that the interview came and I had a very good mark.
16:51 So he was trying to send me to Tamale.
16:53 No, he first of all asked the question that among those who were employed at that time,
16:59 who wanted to go to the regions to develop sports?
17:03 I was the only person who opted to go to the regions.
17:06 Then he said, "Okay." He would send me to Tamale as the RSU, then RSU, the Real Sportive Office.
17:12 I said, "Fine, I will go."
17:14 He gave me a letter. The day that I was supposed to report to Tamale, that was the day the letter was revoked.
17:19 So that is why I remained, I stayed in Accra.
17:23 - Why was the letter revoked? - There was a lot of agitations.
17:26 A lot. People didn't agree that I should be the regional sportive officer.
17:30 I'm so new. A lot of confusion.
17:33 - Oh, the history of when did you come? - When did you come?
17:36 - Okay. - So I was actually given a letter.
17:40 The day that I was supposed to leave Accra for Tamale to resume my new office,
17:45 that was the day that that letter was revoked.
17:48 So I was given an option. Either I want to stay in Tamale,
17:51 - Stay in Accra? - Yeah, I want to still go to Tamale.
17:53 I said the NSA job is a winner-take-all job.
17:56 It's the boss that determines everything.
17:58 So even if I have experience in how to develop sports up north there,
18:03 I wouldn't have the opportunity. I would rather stay in Accra.
18:06 I stayed in Accra for six months without doing anything.
18:09 - Wow. - Yeah, still I got to act like this.
18:12 - How would you describe that period? - That period was tough.
18:15 I would come, walk around the NSA, sit around and go home.
18:19 Come, walk around, sit, find any place, because I wasn't having an office.
18:23 - What time was this? - That was between 2010, January 2010 to June 2010.
18:30 I just walk around, come and sit around, walk around and close, sit, walk around and close.
18:36 But there was no real work for me until there was an issue in Atlantis.
18:41 The judge, Safwaye, was having an issue with Atlantis, so he was removed.
18:46 And I was asked to go and be a caretaker in Atlantis.
18:51 That was the initial idea why I was given the job in Atlantis.
19:00 I should go and take care of the office for them to look for a substantive person to come and take over.
19:08 So I didn't go there as a substantive secretary general. I went there as a caretaker.
19:13 - Wow. - And the story is for everybody to see now.
19:17 Okay. Hello. Welcome back to Prime Tech with me, Mufti Abunabila Abla.
19:21 And tonight I'm speaking to the chief executive officer.
19:26 He's no longer the chief executive officer. He's the president.
19:30 President of Ghana Athletics, Bawa Fuseni.
19:33 He's been sharing with us his life story.
19:36 Bawa, you were telling me the story of how difficult the days of you starting at the National Sports Authority was.
19:44 Yes, it was pretty tough. It was very rough at that time.
19:48 It was very rough at that time.
19:51 Between January 2010 to June 2010, I didn't have a place to sit.
19:59 I came and walked around. I entered at 10 o'clock from the other gate.
20:04 While I waited, at 2 o'clock I would exit another gate.
20:08 - Were you paid? - I was paid. I was being paid.
20:12 I was asked to go and be the caretaker of Atlantis.
20:17 Yes, so that was a very huge challenge.
20:21 Extreme, extreme challenge.
20:23 Because I got to the office, there was nothing there for me to refer to.
20:27 There was no handover. There was nothing.
20:30 Yes, the Adjou Secretariat had handed over to Mr. Adokor.
20:36 He didn't hand over to me. He handed over to Mr. Adokor.
20:39 Mr. Adokor just asked me to go and sit in there for him to look for a substantive person to come and take over.
20:45 So my first competition was pretty tough.
20:49 Because I didn't know how to do the budgets. I didn't know how to write memos.
20:53 But prior to that, I was assistant Amponfi Junior in the swimming association.
21:00 - The current Amponfi Junior? - Amponfi Junior, yes.
21:02 I really understood him when I came here in the end of 2009.
21:09 So all the memos that he was asking me to write, he would directly write the memos, I kept them in my box in the house.
21:18 So when I resumed, I went back and took all the memos.
21:22 So when I wanted to write a memo, I would refer to that particular memo and I started writing.
21:27 Until I became perfect in memo writing.
21:30 - So you learned on the job? - On the job, yes.
21:33 I learned on it.
21:35 There was no way I could, there was no, no, there was no way I could attend to.
21:40 Those who were there when I came, later on I got to know that all what they were teaching me or that they wanted to do were absolutely wrong things.
21:49 - How? - They were just there to make sure that I failed.
21:56 One critical example was that I was to do a budget for the African championship.
22:02 I asked the then chief coach to come and help me do the budget.
22:07 Everything that the man asked me to write in that budget, when we got to Misaddo course site to go and I defended, he was actually pointing to those things as errors in the budget.
22:20 And there was one particular issue that I stood on that saved me.
22:24 Because when I was actually went to Mauritius for African championship in 2006, the athletes were given progressive bonuses.
22:31 But when I wanted to add this into that budget, he said, "No, no, no, no, what Sandy did was wrong. Sandy didn't do anything."
22:37 I said, "Ah, I was there when Sandy was giving athletes vitamin, education, cancer, so many of them were given progressive bonuses."
22:45 When they progressed from one state to another state, they were given bonuses.
22:48 "Why don't you want me to add that bonuses onto the budget so the athlete can also..."
22:53 I said, "No, no, no, that was wrong. I refuse."
22:55 I said, "Captain, there."
22:57 He find ways to Misaddo course to remove it from the letter that were moving from the NSA to the ministry.
23:05 By the memo that I wrote to him, it was included.
23:09 They went fast forward, they went to the championship in Kenya.
23:13 He was the same person who went and told the athlete that, "I don't know anything. I didn't add progressive bonuses into the budget."
23:22 Was that deliberate?
23:23 It was deliberate.
23:25 So the athletes were furious.
23:27 Geza, Aziz, you know, maybe if you have time, if you get time, you can call them to, you can call them to collaborate.
23:33 So they came.
23:35 When they arrived on that day, all of them marched to Mr. Agra's office.
23:39 Mr. Agra told them that that is an athletic issue.
23:43 It was Bawo who did the budget, so they should go and ask Bawo.
23:46 So I was giving marching orders to one of the corporate bosses up here.
23:50 And thankfully that I worked with Professor Dodu.
23:55 He taught me how to handle documents, how to keep documents.
23:59 So when I was going, I packed all the documents that I had with me, then we went.
24:04 So they frequently asked about their local allowance.
24:08 I said, "Local allowance is coming. The ministry hasn't yet given it.
24:12 But when it comes, I'll let you have it."
24:14 They wanted a progressive bonus, I said, "They should ask Commodore."
24:19 I showed them a memo that I wrote to NSA, including progressive bonuses.
24:23 I also showed them the copy, the letter the NSA wrote to the ministry.
24:28 The bonuses were a sponge from it.
24:31 I said, "Is that my signature?"
24:34 He said, "No, this is my signature."
24:36 Those things were included.
24:38 He wanted to know the reason why it was removed.
24:41 I asked him.
24:42 That was where the meeting ended.
24:44 So they at least had to turn their backs to him?
24:49 No, no, no. They didn't do anything.
24:52 They didn't say anything. They didn't do anything.
24:54 The meeting just ended like that and everybody went his way.
24:57 That must have been some difficult starting days for you at the Arctics office.
25:00 Pretty difficult office.
25:02 So you can understand later in my administration, some people were not getting favoured from me.
25:08 People didn't understand why there was that kind of friction between me and some of them.
25:13 We always gave them opportunity.
25:15 They always came back to prove to us that there are not people that we can work with.
25:20 I can give you thousands of examples.
25:23 One example, when we went to Daegu in 2011 for the World Championships,
25:29 we were the first in Africa, so we were expected to at least go to the finals.
25:36 When we got there, the Arctics ran very poorly.
25:41 So we called the chief coach.
25:43 What was the problem? He diagnosed the problem perfectly.
25:46 That either Aziz is not in form or Aziz is having an injury.
25:51 We were to fly from Daegu to Maputo for the African Games.
25:57 So we asked him, "So what do we do to rectify it? We need to win a gold medal in Maputo."
26:02 He said, "When we get to Maputo, you either drop Aziz or he will do trials to pick the best four."
26:09 We gave him our absolute support.
26:12 Whatever he was going to do to get the team gold medal, we were for it.
26:16 At this point, you were in charge of running the athletics in the country.
26:19 Yes. So we went there. He didn't do the trials. He didn't drop Aziz.
26:24 And Aziz was the ankle-leg.
26:27 Aziz took the baton. Ghana was leading, handing the baton to Aziz.
26:33 Two steps ahead of Nigeria.
26:35 Nigeria ran him down just at the tip. Ghana became second.
26:41 So Prof. Odudu became angry. He said, "Zabawa, this guy is deliberately sabotaging us."
26:47 So what role was Prof. occupying then?
26:49 No, Prof. was the president at that time.
26:51 Oh, okay.
26:52 Yes, I was the second general at that time.
26:53 He said, "This is my account. We are with him."
26:56 We were giving you our absolute support.
26:59 To make decisions?
27:00 To make the decisions.
27:01 You said you were going to do A or B. He didn't do either of them.
27:05 Who was the coach?
27:06 That was Albando Kweza Okomodoro.
27:10 So he either didn't want to win the gold medal, or he was thinking something else.
27:18 That was the time Prof. Odudu told me, "Zabawa, I can't work with this man.
27:23 He kept on sabotaging us. Why should we keep on working with him?"
27:29 That was the start of another controversy with him.
27:34 But the Athletics Federation, or the body, has been fraught with lots of controversies.
27:42 I remember, aside from the one you were just talking about,
27:45 then came the championship that took place in Botswana.
27:50 Then when we came back from Botswana, this girl, Martha Bisa, went to China.
27:55 To Niger.
27:56 To Niger, where she won the gold medal.
27:59 You were supposed to have a very good will.
28:03 I think within that period, the good will kind of disappeared.
28:07 No, it just vanished.
28:09 There were some forces that didn't believe that Prof. Odudu should be the president.
28:14 So no matter what we did at that time, whether good or bad,
28:18 people would find something negative about it.
28:21 Look at the Martha Bisa case.
28:23 Nobody ever asked, "How did Martha Bisa win that medal?"
28:27 Nobody ever asked.
28:29 It was the same Prof. Odudu who was going through data that I produced for him.
28:34 And so Martha Bisa was constantly running 2-12, 2-11, 2-12, 2-11.
28:39 So now this girl can do something.
28:41 Then took her to Botswana African Youth Games.
28:44 At that time, the entrance was even closed.
28:48 Prof. Odudu had to use his connections as a world athlete to get her entered.
28:53 He went there and she played tight.
28:56 And at the youth level, they don't allow one country to present two athletes in one event.
29:00 So it was two Kenyans.
29:02 So the second Kenyan was dropped, and Martha Bisa became the second person to run in Niger.
29:07 When they came back from Niger, they took her from Kumasi to Accra.
29:11 Camped her in Accra.
29:13 And one Prof. Yandok was training her.
29:18 And to prepare her for Niger, Prof. Odudu took her to the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.
29:25 The bashes!
29:27 But he knew what he was doing.
29:29 He took her again to the African Championships in Marrakech, Morocco.
29:34 Even though she didn't do well, she kept on improving her time.
29:37 But he was preparing her for Niger.
29:39 For the big one.
29:40 For the big one.
29:41 When he got to Niger, he won.
29:45 Nobody ever asked how did he win.
29:48 And when she was going to Niger, she had her PIDM seal with Prof. Odudu, around $3,500 or so.
29:56 Prof. Odudu gave her a laptop to study so that she was going to give her a scholarship to go to the US.
30:03 One weekend, the controversy started at the airport.
30:09 A group of people had come from Kumasi.
30:12 They had arranged to take her from the airport to Happy FM to go and do an interview.
30:17 The association had also organized with Joy FM for an interview.
30:23 I remember.
30:24 So that controversy started there.
30:27 Whether she was going to Joy FM or she was going to Happy FM.
30:31 So...
30:32 At year four!
30:34 At that time, I wasn't the secretary.
30:36 So my brother came to...
30:38 Filipino was the secretary, right?
30:39 No, no. One Dominic. Dominic Kankam.
30:41 Oh, yeah. Dominic Kankam.
30:43 So at the airport, my brother came to pick me up.
30:47 He said, "You know, teach him your number. Let's go. This is trouble."
30:52 We just left.
30:54 So I don't know how the manager and the girl went and slept with Prof. Odudu for two days.
30:59 Prof. Odudu told her that she wanted to send her to the presidency.
31:03 To meet the president.
31:05 So he organized it.
31:08 The president himself was Mahama Yadiga.
31:11 That was where another trouble started.
31:15 About 10,000 Ghanaian cities. Prof. Odudu wanted to send the girl to 10,000 Ghanaian cities.
31:20 And that's how the story started changing so many stories.
31:26 The story developed legs, head, tail.
31:28 You didn't even know what was the actual problem.
31:31 But the 10,000 Ghanaian cities, the ex-president Mahama gave her.
31:37 They went to Afrikiko.
31:39 The money was still with Richard Akokofi.
31:41 And the mother asked for the money.
31:43 Richard called Prof. Odudu.
31:45 "The money is with me. So give it to the girl. It's the girl's money. It's not our money."
31:50 So he gave it to her.
31:52 At that time, Prof. Odudu secured a scholarship for her to go to the U.S.
31:56 So Prof. Odudu came there to advise the mother that she should keep some of the money in the bank.
32:01 So that when she's going to school, they can give her a packet of money to go to school.
32:06 According to the story, the mother said, "No, no. They are not going to put the money in the bank.
32:13 The money is for them. So they are going to spend the money the way they want it."
32:17 Then he left.
32:18 Somebody overheard the woman talking to Prof. Odudu and quickly called Happy FM.
32:23 So Happy FM connected the woman there to speak.
32:28 So the woman also said that, "You can't go to the bank. You can't go to the bank.
32:32 You can't go to the bank. You can't go to the bank.
32:34 Nobody can show you what you are going to do with the money."
32:37 That was the story. And the story grew up.
32:41 I remember BBC were interested in this story.
32:43 Yes. BBC came to investigate it for two good years.
32:47 But they didn't do the story.
32:49 No, they couldn't do the story.
32:51 At the end of the story, it was false.
32:53 Two years, BBC interviewed for two years.
32:56 I remember Pierre Sedgwick. He was so interested in this story.
32:59 They came to Ghana here.
33:01 They did the interviews.
33:03 They interviewed a lot of people, including former athletes, former executives.
33:08 They had two children's meetings, interviews with me.
33:11 But they never came because we were exchanging emails.
33:15 We exchanged emails for two years.
33:18 BBC did the story, the investigation story, for two years.
33:21 Did that issue affect the Ghana athletes?
33:26 Seriously. Seriously. It affected them seriously.
33:30 People used it. Even this court case was just part of it.
33:34 Yes, the court case.
33:35 Yes, it was just part of it. It affected them seriously.
33:38 But I wish the girl should have stood on her ground to tell the truth.
33:42 Because nobody had access to the money.
33:46 The scholarship they were offering her was a real scholarship.
33:50 That was the same scholarship that your mama at that time, the president's mama at that time,
33:54 made mention in Parliament.
33:56 They thought what your mama mentioned in Parliament was different from what the Atlanta Association was giving her.
34:00 You know, before the president goes to speak, the minister feeds the president.
34:04 So we also feed the minister the plan that the Association had for her.
34:09 She also had a scholarship.
34:11 So, through that, the president mentioned it in Parliament.
34:14 So people thought that was a different scholarship.
34:18 They thought it was the president who was giving her the scholarship.
34:21 You see. So when that issue came up, that was why the Atlanta did a story.
34:27 In their side, they were...
34:30 [Music]
34:56 (explosion)
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