Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia would have been extremely excited last night seeing an epic two-minute video during the world-famous Super Bowl, highlighting opportunities of collaboration with the NFL (American Football) he spoke about in his policy address last week.
At the sports section of his vision for Ghana under his Presidency, Dr. Bawumia announced that as President, he will make Ghana an African hub for alien sports, by colloborating with international bodies for such sports, following his successful engagement with the NFL for an historic African NFL camp in Ghana.
“My government will also seek school-level collaboration with international sports bodies like the NBA and NFL to make Ghana a hub for these emerging sports in Africa, to create more opportunities for young people,” Dr. Bawumia said.
“We have already tried this with the NFL, the governing body for American Football, which agreed to host in Ghana, in 2022, the first ever NFL Flag Football in Africa after my engagement with them. This paved the way for 10 young Ghanaians to be selected to the United States to represent Africa in a global NFL tournament last year. Another set of young Ghanaians, who were picked after the 2nd NFL Africa Football was also held in Ghana last year, are currently in the United States to represent Africa,” Dr. Bawumia added.
During the 2024 Super Bowl last night, the NFL indeed showed a powerful video documentary of the pathway programme they held in Ghana, which Dr. Bawumia mentioned.
The Ghanaian kid, clad in Ghana’s recognisable public basic school uniform, fantasised about playing the American sport, until Osi showed, gave him a ball and showed him a real pathway to the game, which was the African Camp the NFL held in Ghana, which Dr. Bawumia spoke about during his address.
Osi, a two-time winner of the Super Bowl, was part of the high-powered NFL delegation, including its Vice President, which first held discussions with Dr. Bawumia in April 2022 before the historic African camp later in the year.
The documentary was essentially communicating hope to the African child that regardless of where a child is born, the child can also play American Football, because every child is “born to play”, as Osi told the Ghanaian child.
It also reinforces what Dr. Bawumia said, during his address, and would have given his vision of making Ghana an African hub for emerging sports by collaborating with international sports bodies like the NFL, “to create more opportunities to young Ghanaians,” a major boost.
In April 2022 after it’s meeting with Dr. Bawumia in Accra, which also included Ghanaian NFL star, Jeremia Owusu Koramoah, the NFL tweeted about how Dr. Bawumia desired to partner the NFL to develop talents in Ghana and Africa.
