Ghanaian football legend Osei Kofi has attributed the Black Stars’ failure to secure the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title to unfulfilled promises made by former President John Dramani Mahama.

Rev. Osei Kofi, a member of Ghana’s victorious 1963 and 1965 AFCON squads, believes that these unmet commitments have hindered the nation’s recent football successes. He pointed out that before the 2015 tournament in Equatorial Guinea, former President Mahama made a symbolic gesture to past AFCON winners, which Kofi deemed insufficient to lift what he described as a historical curse stemming from unmet promises to earlier victorious squads.

Speaking on the issue, Rev. Kofi highlighted, “When we were going to Cameroon [for the 2021 AFCON], I heard a prophet on Asempa FM saying that if leadership didn’t look back and cater for the old ones that won the cup, they wouldn’t get to the quarter-final, and truly, we came back with one point.”

Quoting from the Bible, Kofi emphasized the importance of fulfilling promises: “In Ecclesiastes chapter 5:4-6, it says, ‘When you make a commitment or promise, you should not postpone fulfilling your vow. Failing to keep your promises is considered foolish, and God does not look favourably upon such behaviour.’ If you know you won’t honour it, don’t make the promise.”

Despite Ghana’s impressive journey to the 2015 final, where they led in a penalty shootout against Ivory Coast before narrowly losing, Kofi contends that unresolved promises dating back to Ghana’s earlier AFCON triumphs have had a lasting negative impact. He pointed specifically to promises of houses made by former leaders such as Dr. Kwame Nkrumah and Ignatius Kutu Acheampong, which were never fulfilled.

Kofi criticized the difference between a promise and a token, highlighting the disparity in rewards given to players over the years: “The recent team placed second in Equatorial Guinea, and they were given Cherokee cars. In 1965, when we won the cup and brought it, there was a big banquet. Acheampong promised houses to the players if they won the cup, but after he was removed from office, the promises were not fulfilled.”

Kofi concluded by suggesting that if Mahama had fulfilled his promises, Ghana would have won the 2015 AFCON: “The five penalties, Ghana scored the first two, and Ivory Coast missed. Ghana needed one more to win, and we missed. The token took us to the final, but it couldn’t win the cup. He needed to fulfil the promise, and we would have been champions.”

His comments have sparked discussions on the importance of fulfilling promises to past players and the potential impact of these commitments on future successes.