For whatever reason for which they took the decision to seek asylum in Brazil, the Bible quotation from the Book of Hosea which says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” could not have been truer for the 193 Ghanaian football fans. 

They simply were uninformed about the consequences of their intentions. In this age of internet connectivity, who can lie at such gargantuan proportions especially when it comes to something as sensitive as human right issues?

The 193 fans are part of the 500 cheer leaders who were sponsored with the tax payer’s money to go to Brazil in June to do nothing but to cheer the Black Stars on to victory during the 2014 World Cup. The reason for their being sponsored to Brazil did not come to fruition.  Yet, with no respect to their sponsors; they decided to abuse the privilege given them and bring shame on us, their benefactors, because they had to pursue their personal interests.

In their defence to back their application to stay in Brazil, the fans are reported to have argued that they are Muslims fleeing inter-religious conflicts in Ghana.

If any of the 193 knew, if they had that internet awareness, they should have known that their falsehoods were going to find them out in a matter of hours.  And so it did, because now, we live in a world where news travels as fast as lightning. 

If they ever thought they were going to tell fibs to the Brazilian authorities and be welcomed with open arms because theirs was a confidential matter, then they failed.  But that apart, why would they have thought that the authorities in Brazil would not have cross-checked their claims with their Ambassador who lives here in Ghana.

News reports so far indicate that the Brazilian authorities are considering the request of the asylum seekers.  They have listening ears and maybe diplomacy demands that they do not dismiss them summarily.  But thank God the government of Ghana did also act swiftly on the issue and came out to deny the claims of the fans with an official statement. 

The claim of the 193 asylum seekers is a non-starter.  They know that up until they left us in June, Ghana was relatively peaceful and perhaps one of the religious tolerant nations in the sub-region.  This is easily verifiable at the click of a button. 

Religious conflict is one of the last things that even our worse enemies could have wished for us.   Surprisingly, these fans were among the carefully selected individuals who were supposed to be not only football fans but also fans of the ruling party.  How could they have let the side down this badly?

In any case, what business did these people have staying behind in Brazil two weeks after the reason for their being there had fizzled out?  The visit of the 193 and another 307 was made possible with our scarce resources.  One would have expected that when we could not accomplish our World Cup ambition beyond the second week of play, someone would have taken quick steps to put them back on the earliest possible flight back home in order to have made some needed savings, no matter how small, for the nation. 

Having stayed on till this day, who is paying for their accommodation and feeding costs?  Having embarrassed us to this level, would we ask for refunds from them?   There must be a deterrent action taken against these fans for the humiliation they have brought on us.

We should not allow a repeat of this international ridicule in future.  So, for the next time we have to send any group of people outside the country on taxpayer’s funds to support a national team, be it the Black Stars, the Black Queens, the Starlets, or at any international games, the officials should put some mechanisms in place to ensure the return of such persons to Ghana.

Though adults in their own rights, passports of groups like this where intentions could never be fully ascertained should not be left on them.   In addition, such fans should be made to sign a bond, agreeing to be sent back on the next available plane should Ghana gets thrown out of the games for which reason they had been sponsored. 

 The 193 have shown that patriotism should not be the benchmark when it comes to the selection of cheerleaders.  The question to ask rather is whether the person has any reason to return to Ghana?  We have been bitten once; we should be twice shy in future.

As for the would-be “returnees”, we eagerly await their return to open our eyes to the areas in the country where the religious conflict is happening.  They peaceful Ghana they left behind in June, is still intact.   They should not forget that they owe Ghanaian taxpayers apologies, first for the humiliation caused us and staying on in Brazil at our expense in these times of economic hardships.