After disappointing group-stage exits in the last two AFCON tournaments in Cameroon and Ivory Coast, the Black Stars endured yet another setback, failing to win a single match in the 2025 AFCON qualifiers. This marks one of the team’s worst campaigns in recent history.

Ghana’s struggles extended beyond football, as the country also failed to make an impact at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

For the first time in years, no Ghanaian boxer secured a spot at the Games despite multiple qualification attempts.

Speaking at the JoySports National Sports Dialogue, Kofi Adams stressed the urgency of addressing these shortcomings.

“Our recent sporting performances highlight the urgency of this reset,” the Minister said.

“Ghana’s failure to qualify for the 2025 AFCON in Morocco and our inability to send a single boxer to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games should not just be seen as disappointments but as a signal that our development system needs urgent attention,” he concluded.

Adams’ comments signal a potential overhaul in Ghana’s sports sector as the nation seeks to regain its competitive edge on the international stage.

This comes after Black Galaxies’ disappointing 0-0 draw in the first leg of the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifiers on Sunday at the Accra Sports Stadium.

In an interview with Asempa FM‘s Ultimate Sports Show, Dr Nsenkyire emphasized that while the female national teams have been performing well, the male teams, including the Black Galaxies, require significant changes.

“The various national teams need reforms. It is about doing the right things,” he said.  “Should the Black Galaxies fail to qualify, what happens to the players?

“For the female teams, it seems they are doing well but the male national teams have failed and I believe that the Executive Council are working to ensure that we perform,” he added.

The Black Galaxies will face their counterparts in the return leg at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium on Saturday, December 28.

The winner of the tie will secure a place in next year’s CHAN tournament, which will be hosted by Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.

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One of the key reforms proposed by the Council is a change to the way constituency-level election results are declared.

Speaking on JoyFM’s Midday News, the Chairman of the Council, Rev Dr. Ernest Adu-Gyamfi, stated that under the current system, the election results are declared at both the polling station and the constituency levels.

According to him, once the election results are declared at the constituency level, the Electoral Commission (EC) has a set time period in which to gazette the results, after which anyone who has an issue can file a case within 21 days.

He explained that even though the gazetting of the election results is the legal responsibility of the EC, the process is actually carried out by the Ghana Publishing Corporation.

“In the last election, even though the results were declared around the 8th, 9th, 10th, most of them had been declared. The election took place on the 22nd, which means that it was done 12 days after, and then whoever had the case had 21 days within that period to file the case.

“Then the respondent has about seven days to respond, and then they go through all kinds of things before. By the time the case itself was ready to be heard, it was already past two months.”

According to Rev Dr Adu-Gyamfi, as part of the major reforms, the current system allows for a returning officer to declare results at the constituency level, which should be considered final.

On constituency election petition cases, the Peace Council revealed they have reached an agreement with the Judiciary on measures to make sure these cases do not drag into court.

He stated that another reform was that no judge would have more than one case at a time in terms of parliamentary adjudication.

“So if there is a case in one court and another case comes up, then the case will be handed over to the next immediate high court that is closest to the constituency, and we came up with some formula between the first case and the next immediate. Assuming we have three cases, who will be the next person to handle those things? So that we remove the suspicion that the Chief Justice assigned the case to this person because the person has a political interest or whatever it is. So we have given out a certain formula to handle these things.”

“Assuming something happens in Madina constituency, then we are handling it in the high court in Madina. If there are two or more cases within that enclave, then the next case will be properly handed to the next court in Adenta, which is the closest. If there are two or more cases, let’s move it to Abokobi to ensure that no judge will have more than one case to handle to ensure that we get these things done as soon as practicable,” he said.

The Chairman explained that the goal of the proposed reforms is to ensure that any cases relating to the election results are resolved well before the next president is sworn into office on January 7.

“Regarding the proposed change of Election Day to an earlier date, the chairman agreed that an early election will afford the president-elect ample time to form a full government before taking office.

“So that on the 7th of January, the President is sworn in, parliament is sworn in and we have the full complement of people to work with, but we agree that this is necessary so that after this election, from next year, proposals on these things will start. So early next year, that proposal will come up so that by 2028, the election will be moved early, maybe to November so that we can have all these issues resolved before the 7th of December,” he said.

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In a joint statement signed by Eric Tamakloe and Nana Yaw Quansah, Chairman and Secretary of the Union of the Ghana Federation of Labour respectively as well as Kofi Frimpong and Dan Mensah, General Secretary and National Chairman of the ALMCs, said the current state of affairs of the NLA reforms are imminent.

They agreed that it is important that is done because there is a huge potential available to the Authority to work and generate huge sums of revenue to support government’s development agenda.

The ALMCs stated the Authority was struggling to generate income to pay winning prizes, lotto commission, staff salaries and emoluments.

It said due to the massive encroachments on the NLA market to feed on its flagship product, ‘the 5/90’ game, where huge sums of money could be generated from its operations, the ALMCs offered their total support to the measures being put in place by the current management of the NLA to undertake some reforms in a bid to streamline some aspects of its operations.

The statement urged the management of the NLA to take steps to harmonize the operations of the private companies with the NLA, and also urged the private companies not to be recalcitrant and adopt confrontational stance but should bear in mind that Section 4 of the Lotto Act, 2006 (Act 722) gives the Authority the sole mandate to operate and regulate lottery in Ghana, and within the parameters set for them.

It said ALMCs and the NLA Staff Union thus proposed that the Authority should introduce a clear-cut regulatory framework in accordance with the National Lottery Act, 2006 (Act 722) and Lottery Regulation, 2008 (LI 1848), review the licensing fees by introducing a realistic rate, and in addition to charging licensing fees, revenue sharing should be instituted to ensure fairness and equity.

They also called for regular flow of communication to be adopted to avoid suspicion, rumors, speculations and levied agents and writers of the private lotto companies on a monthly basis to generate more income for the NLA, the statement added.

“In this case, proper records must be kept to ensure accountability and no company will have the right to conduct any draw without NLA’s authorisation,” it said.

It appealed to all the parties to refrain from using politics and the media as battle grounds, which has the tendency to not only inflame passions but also muddy the waters; but engage in dialogue to resolve any contentions that exist.