Three days ago Sports men and women in the country gathered together at the Banquet Hall of the State House. It was the 40^th MTN SWAG Awards and since there is a saying that life begins at 40, the expectations of sports enthusiasts gathered at the night was very high.

Ahead of the event the usual publicity and hype was at its peak as people begun to speculate who would win in the various categories.

Now for those who had the time and privilege of attending, I believe you have done some assessment of the programme.  So if i were to ask you to assess the event, what will you say?

The event started late as usual as organizers have made a decision that they will always wait for guests to walk in as and when they liked and invited guests also come in late because they know the event will start late. The late start and closing of the SWAG awards night has become part of the event but this year was a slight improvement of the last two or three years. SWAG, just like many event organizers in the country need to work on their time.  

The welcome performance was quiet intense with cultural display and poetic utterances.

Entertainment for the event was generally reasonable although I expected more. After six years of interaction with the SWAG awards organizers I have observed that they like to use more traditional/cultural entertainers. All the cultural displays were enjoyable – the welcome song, the one that was used to welcome the SWAG President was superb and the interlude of the northern dance were all great. I totally enjoyed it and I like how they usually came in unannounced. Their entries were all dramatic but spot on. Music from a band played during dinner. The songs and vocals were very good but the music was quite loud for my comfort knowing that it was to accompany dinner. Toning it down a bit would have made it fantastic. What I found odd was that not much attention was given to the name of the band – all the attention went to the leader of the band, one Uncle Desmond. Upon further probing a day after the event, I was told the band was Afro Waves.  A good band like that has to make sure their names are placed in the minds of the guests by the time the event was over.

In my view there should have been one popular guest performer to offer some variety.

I salute the Masters of Ceremonies (MCs), Nathaniel Attoh and Yaw Ampofo Ankrah. I wondered what had happened to the usual gender representation of the MCs.  Anyway, the two men did the job and that is all that matters. They were quite a pair – the boisterous and loud Nathaniel who was ably supported by the cool and calm Yaw Ampofo Ankrah. I loved Yaw Ampofo Ankrah for his softness and brevity. He stuck to the script whilst Nathaniel chose to embellish his words and give a lot more details than was sometimes required. The good thing about Nat’s long talk is that he gives you depth and perspective and I am sure people appreciated it. You always have to walk out of an event with some inside 'filla' and he certainly gave us a few.  My main issue with the “MCing” was that on two occasions the microphones where left on back stage unconsciously and one could hear the ruffling and comments being made. Also, in a few instances, speakers left the stage for a minute or two before the MCs noticed it and came to continue with the programme. I don’t think that was good. My view of a seamless event is an event that flows end to end and which does not expose guests to any discomfort even if it is for a few seconds. All in all the MCs were fine.

One of the things I loathe about awards events in Ghana are the long speeches and for this event the speeches were all delivered within acceptable limits. Almost all speakers raised pertinent issues and critical questions which needs to be considered. For example the classification of some sports as “lesser known” sports was raised by the CEO of MTN Ghana, the SWAG President and Guest of Honor as well. It is apparent that the country does not have any serious plans for other sports outside the football arena and this has resulted in absolute neglect. Is it a joke for Ghanaians to describe Golf, Tennis, Cycling, Swimming as lesser known?  As the CEO of MTN said it is rather our attitude which is lesser known and I will venture to say lesser appreciated. As indicated by the Guest of Honor Nana Kobinah Nketiah there is the need for better planning to attract funding for the sector.

When the time for the presentations of the awards came everyone was fully ready since it came right after dinner. The coldness of the food showed how long it had been left on the tables, begging to be served. By the way, couldn’t the cateress have kept the warm until it was served? In future I recommend strongly that dinner is served early.

The Décor and ambience? Fantastic in my view; with an over generous splash of Yello which I believe was enough to keep the MTN people happy. The yello color blended in well with the National colors and along with the lightings, the ambience was really warm, exciting and cool. I loved it.

The protocol/ushering team also did better than the team who were engaged last year.

My big moments for the night was really the good speeches delivered, the décor and ambience and the cultural performances. My admirer for the night is the young Martha Bissah who won Discovery of the year and Athlete of the year.

My challenge to SWAG is this: start early next year, have a theater style event (we need to explore something different from the dinner style), close early and I will be your ambassador forever. Also SWAG needs to use digital communications more aggressively than they attempted to do this year. With MTN as a sponsor, this should not be a problem. Life after 40 is a tough one: people expect you to act more maturely and with aptitude and I trust SWAG to live up to that expectation. Well done to the SWAG Executives and congratulations to all winners and sponsors.

So I guess now you know what my rating will be without me telling you but back to the question I started with what is your assessment of the awards.