NDC to make sports a national priority
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) in its 2016 manifesto dubbed; Changing Lives, Transforming Ghana has rolled out plans to reinvigorate sports in the country.
The manifesto hinges on infrastructure and human resource development as the main drive to bolster the sports sector.
On infrastructural development, the NDC seeks to build new sports stadia in five regions in the country namely; the Upper West, Upper East, Volta, Eastern and Brong Ahafo.
Again, the NDC government will also construct a new multi-purpose indoor sports dome for basketball, volleyball, handball, weightlifting, table tennis and aquatics.
The party also promises to refurbish and complete some sports complexes into ultra-modern sports facilities.
The Azumah Nelson Sports Complex in Accra will be refurbished to serve as a sports and recreational center for the youth while the Winneba Sports College will be revamped into a full-fledged practical and academic human resource development center, affiliated to the University of Education, Winneba.
The El-Wak Stadium will be renovated and expanded whiles the Nicholson Park at Burma Camp will be redeveloped into a mini stadium, in collaboration with the Military, the party observed.
On the schools front, the NDC promises to revive the traditional Inter-Schools and Colleges sports programmes to help unearth talent.
Again, one of the new community day senior high schools in all the ten regions of Ghana will be fitted and developed into a center of excellence in sports.
The party also promises to introduce a policy for an ‘admissions quota’ for talented sports and other creative students in SHS and public universities
At the National level, the NDC seeks to support the various National Teams to qualify for and win laurels at international competitions such as the African, Olympic, Commonwealth and World Cup Tournaments, as well as establishing a scheme to fund sports activities with particular emphasis on the lesser-known sports
The party also pledges to facilitate the recruitment of qualified technical staff at the district level, as sports coordinators, to help develop sports at the grassroots level.
The publication of the manifesto is captured under the “GNA Tracks Election 2016 Project”, being funded by GOIL, the foremost indigenous oil marketing company and CIMG 2015 Petroleum Company of the year.
The project seeks to sensitize the electorate on the various issues raised by political parties, the elections management body and other governance institutions.
It aims at ensuring gender and social inclusion in national politics and to provide voice for the youth, vulnerable groups, opinion leaders and the broader spectrum of the society, and to contribute to the achievement of peaceful polls.
Another objective of the project is to create a platform to dissect the manifestoes of all political parties and provide in-depth analysis of each thematic area to the electorate to enable them to make an informed judgment.
Source: GNA