AGYEI BUDU IS COMPLETELY RESPONSIBLE FOR DEFEAT

Monday, February 13, 2006

While it may be true that Prempeh was robbed by sports officials in the Ashanti Milo Football competition, a tournament in which we actually did not need to participate to get into the national football championships, the blame lies in our own backyard.

Mr. Agyei Budu

Prempeh College traditionally has a contract with one Prempeh master, Mr. Agyei Budu, popularly called "Almighty," who operates a business that manufactures such identification cards for students. Prempeh placed the manufacturing rights in the hands of Mr. Budu supposedly because he is a part of the Prempeh family and could therefore do the job faster than an external company.

Our two first-choice strikers discovered on Sunday, December 4th that their ID cards were missing and approached Mr. Budu, as the school contractual agreement demands, to have him make a replacement.

Budu did design new ID cards for the students that showed a graduation date of July/August 2005, thereby implying that the boys are no longer Prempeh students. Realizing the error, the players sought a rapid correction from Mr. Budu the next day (Monday, December 5th). The following approximate conversation ensued:

Players: Sir, you made a mistake on the ID you just issued us. We are supposed to graduate in 2006 and not 2005 like you have it.

Mr. Budu: Get away from me.

Players: Oh Sir, we need to play tomorrow. Remember the Milo football competition is scheduled tomorrow and we need valid ID cards to play.

Mr. Budu: I will correct it when I can. Come back tomorrow.

Players: Sir, you cannot do it tomorrow as it will be too late. We play Adu Gyamfi Secondary at 8am tomorrow and so we may leave here by 7am.

Mr. Budu: Get away from me, I will do it when I feel like it.

Eben Asuming Dankwah of Butler, who topped the scorers chart with 10 goals in 8 matches received the goal king trophy (with his name and a citation engraved on it) and a Nike soccer boots. Sofoline boys were itching to see him dominate this year's competition.

The Sports master came and begged his colleague Mr. Agyei Budu to correct the error the day before the match and Budu scoffingly refused to cooperate, adopting a make-me-do-it-if-you-can attitude and walked away freely, refusing to do a job which he was contracted to perform. He basically left our devoted Sports master perplexed, wondering why he alone is the dedicated star.

Chillingly, no Headmaster or Deputy headmaster ordered this man to go to work. Once upon a time, an Assistant Headmaster would have ordered this defaultant man to work instantly to justify the money paid him, but not at the present-day Prempeh College, where people do not understand the concept of boss-and-subordinate.

Consequently, our outstanding new-found striker and goal king of the Prempeh.org Soccer league, Eben Assuming Dankwah of Butler house could not lead the Prempeh attack. It may be recalled that Dankwah and K. Manu formed a powerful striking partnership in the soccer league that resulted in Butler going undefeated in 8 matches. The partnership had been so perfectly honed by the soccer league that soccer experts expected a dominant Butler-bred strike force from Sofoline.

Manu and Dankwah know each other's game so perfectly well that one could smell the presence of the other at any location on the field without having to raise their eyes to look!

Dankwah scored 10 goals in 8 matches in the soccer league and became the striker for our 2006 Milo campaign. His goals-per-chances ratio is strikingly similar to England's Michael Owen, who needs just one touch to score. In fact, Dankwah's ratio may be far better because for every 5 chances that he gets, he puts at least4 of them in the net. The boy is so good that, even with his back facing goal and his eyes closed, he can use the backheel to send the ball through the legs of three successive defenders into the corner of the net in a smooth, easy gallop of a horse!

Manu explained to prempeh.org that the reason why he (Manu) did not win the soccer league goal king was that the defensive game-plan of all the houses was to clamp him down with several defenders, and any time that happened, he had a way of relaying the ball to Dankwah, who needs only one touch to score. This was to be Mr. Lartey's secret masterplan.

Yet while K. Manu was completely clamped down by 3 or 4 opponents (i.e., Adu Gyamfi School), his equally dangerous but unknown strike-partner was on the sidelines because of Prempeh College's administrative clumsiness and Agyei Budu's negligence and lack of affection for our school.

This defeat would have never befallen us if Dankwah had been in the game. The final score would have been 20-1 in favour of Prempeh considering the chances that were wasted by our less potent replacement (no disrespect intended!!). Asafo Adjei, the second player who stood on the sidelines with a false ID card, could have scored at least 3 goals.

The fact that this happened in the administration of Headmaster Owusu-Achiaw, who is the current Vice-Chairman of Schools & Colleges Sports and President of CHASS is what amazes our editorial team. Prempeh.org intentionally kept mute for 60 days and practiced "watchful waiting," hoping to see any administrative action against Budu.

But sadly, nobody at Sofoline administration has realised that there is something wrong with that behaviour. And that forms the basis for the next series of articles.

Read on...