A Deputy Information Minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has pointed out that there is a lot of lessons for the ruling government to learn from its poor organisation of football fans to cheer the Black Stars of Ghana at the World Cup in South Africa. He said the government was not under any obligation to sponsor the fans to the games, and it owed the fans the best of treatment once it chose, out of its own volition, to organise such a trip. Okudzeto Ablakwa who was contributing to a discussion of the airlifting of about 1,500 football fans to South Africa on Metro TV, said it was unfortunate the fans had to spend five days stranded at the El-wak Stadium without proper facilitation. "Government was under no obligation to take people, you are taking people just because you want to add to the support for the Black Stars and you want to involve the people and all of that and now the thing has become a negative and you wish that we didn't even do it in the first place. I think that there are serious lessons that we need to learn from this." Okudzeto Ablakwa said there was no need in the first place for the committee responsible for organising the trip to have invited the fans to Accra while they were still sorting out visas for them. And he also thinks the committee would do well to tell the public how much it cost to fly the fans to the World Cup to avert a situation of people speculating how much. He said what he had heard from members of the committee is that pending the progress of the Black Stars, the cost of accommodating and feeding the fans could rise. But he said even an initial figure of flight costs will fill a needless vacuum likely to engender speculations. Again he said the ruling National Democratic Congress must be able to identify whoever the philanthropists are that are sponsoring about 500 of the fans. MP for Manhyia, Matthew Opoku Prempeh (Napo), also on the programme, said while he thought there was nothing wrong if philanthropists have decided to support a worthy cause, however coming from the NDC, "it is very rich." The problem we have in this country is that certain people took everything into the political realm and it's coming back to haunt them. I dont see anything wrong if my fellow has been successful in life and is giving $1.5 million to fellow Ghanaians to go and watch the match, he should be praised. But he is not going to be praised because of what his compatriots have done to others. NDC drew the dagger and they are going to fall by it. I'm not going to relish in that because it destroys the spirit of voluntarism and philanthropy in this country." Napo said on a daily basis, politicians set themselves up to "something nasty", explaining that previously, there was news of philanthropists taking football fans to the Ivory Coast, however only a month later, it emerged the story was not as told. "I would say, if somebody has paid for it I dont find anything wrong with it, personally, but because NDC took people who had volunteered to do things for others to a different realm of politics, that is why they are going to suffer." The member of parliament also felt the NDC could have done better with organising the trip, coming on the heels of the excellent organisation of the Hajj prilgrimage that the New Patriotic Party, during its reign, grappled with unsuccessfully. By: Dorcas Efe Mensah/myjoyonline.com/Ghana