Breaking: Humul Khrusum Tahiru Withdraws from Contesting Upper East RFA Chairmanship

Read the full Press Release below:

PRESS RELEASE

September 20, 2019

*WITHDRAWAL OF INTENTION TO CONTEST THE UPPER EAST RFA CHAIRMANSHIP*

Ladies and gentleman of the press, thank you for accepting to attend this press conference at a short notice. I declared publicly my intention to contest the Upper East RFA Chairmanship on Monday, September 16, 2019.

After going round for endorsement from second division clubs in the region as the rules of the election says, and detecting the glaring unfairness and deliberately placed obstacles on the field, l have reached the conclusion with the help of my team, to rescind my decision. I am not withdrawing because I do not have the chance to win the election, but my withdrawal is based on the fact that the situation we find ourselves in the Upper East Region has made it almost impossible for more than one person to contest this year’s election. The Upper East Region has few division two clubs (precisely 23) and per my checks 19 have endorsed for one aspirant.

I on the other hand also had some clubs willing to endorse me for this contest but was not going to be enough since the remaining isn’t enough and also has a possibility of being shared because another person is contesting. Technically, these endorsements will still not qualify me not for the contest in this year’s election because there is bound to be double endorsement since I can’t tell which of the endorsements the other candidates will use.

Based on this reason and others, I withdraw and will not contest for the Upper East RFA Chairmanship this year.

I however commend the Normalization Committee (NC) of the Ghana Football Association for the innovations introduced in this year’s election. This year, interested persons could either pick up forms from GFA or download the forms from the internet, unlike previous years where the forms could be picked from GFA or the offices of the various RFAs. (Those of us in the football industry will appreciate the difficulties involved in picking forms from the RFAs, especially when an incumbent is contesting).

At least that problem has been addressed and I pray that it will never surface again so as to ensure a level playing ground in all RFA elections.

Another good thing is that the NC has reduced the number of supporting clubs from a minimum of 10 to a minimum of 5, kudos. However, the “at least five members” clause in the election guideline creates room for another abuse by persons with influence (be it financial or incumbent power) I wish I can get explanation on this since the nomination table on page 1 of the form has created space for five only to my understanding only five is enough. I pray a lawyer does me this favor.

I wish to suggest that, in future the GFA should not add the “at least five members” clause and rather limit the number of supporting clubs to exactly five, so that in regions where there are few division two clubs, more than one aspirant can get endorsement to create a contest.

As it stands, with a little influence (be it financial or incumbent power) one person who doesn’t want a contest can grab endorsement from all the few clubs, to deny others endorsement.

On my rounds for endorsement, some clubs who had endorsed an aspirant earlier, wanted to endorse my forms thinking that they could endorse more than one form. You cannot blame them because they did not know even though this has been an existing law and some of those who knew had varied views for respect of the football and the discussions we had I will leave it at that so as not to offend anyone because we have come a long way and we still have many more years to Insha Allah

I pray we all as people in football be empowered with information to make decisions that would improve our lives, clubs and possibly attract sponsorship or support for ourselves and players.

Losers are those who feel comfortable in their corners and don’t take challenges, I challenged myself and even though it didn’t go as planned, I emerged as a winner, after the lessons I have learned. I only feel disappointed that my team went through the stress they did.

I am also not happy that all the efforts by women in sports will not yield the needed outcome. There are some persons who encouraged me when they learnt I had intensions to contest for the position.

It is my prayer, that the next four years will see clubs being empowered with information, branding and marketing skills. It is also my prayers that they will not deliberately be kept in

the dark, but will be allowed to also see the light to be in the position to make positive decisions.

Interestingly these challenges are not peculiar to my region and so people elsewhere who have heard or experience this will understand.

All that my team and I wanted was a contest.

I thank Allah for the lives of club owners and administrators who are not afraid of change and are willing to take their destinies in to their hands and work hard to benefit from their sweat and sacrifices in the near future.

God bless all members of the football fraternity

God bless the Upper East Regional Football Association

God bless the Ghana Football Association

God bless anyone who is contributing to better our Football industry

Signed

Humul-Khrusum Tahiru 0244691706/ 0208286365