Speaker Bagbin hands-over a Renovated Wa Sports Stadium he solely Funded

Speaker of the Ghana’s Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Bagbin has lived to the accolade accorded him as the “father of the Upper West Region”

He has renovated the VIP stand, Safe zone, Wash rooms, Dressing rooms as well as the popular stand of the Wa Sports Stadium. The objective is to make the stadium befitting of the status of a regional capital, to provide comfortable and safe avenue for the community to watch, play and nurture talents in football.

Speaking at a handing-over ceremony, Speaker Bagbin said he has always held the view that one of true characteristics of a leader is his interest in the welfare of those he leads and that Leaders must acknowledge that they are leaders because a group of people agreed to be led by them.

As the old maxim goes, “‘You are, so I am, but I only exist because you do’. I grew up at a time when community-organized games provided the bulk of our childhood ebullience and contentment – from singing, drumming, dancing around a bonfire at night in the chief’s palace, to the elders who were gifted with the art of storytelling, and then to the boys like myself who gleefully participated in bare-footed football matches. At times the ‘football’ was carefully crafted by us out of socks and polythene bags – I can say without hesitation that no joy could equal those moments of exhilaration, which were clearly visible on the faces of all participants and observers.

“As a firm believer in the transformative power of sports, especially football, I have always appreciated that there is no division in the concept of the game, regardless of politics, colour, education, class, or tribe. It is only on those rare occasions of participating and spectatoring that we can all fully comprehend that the game’s fundamental strength is in its ability to bring people from completely dissimilar backgrounds together,” he noted

For this reason, he said he saw a purpose in providing a facelift to the Wa Sports Stadium.

He further explained that as a football enthusiast and a proponent of gender parity in sport, he made the conscious, additional decision to support women in football, which led to him adopting an all-female football club recently christened the “Sung Shinning Ladies Club”.

“I can assure you that the intense desire to unearth the football talents that this region has was a prime motivation,” he said.

“Ladies and gentlemen, words alone cannot express my pleasure and delight at this moment. I have always felt a deep sense of gratitude for the investments made in me by this region in the form of knowledge, education, advice, guidance, the sweet company of relatives and friends, and most significantly, the trust reposed in me to represent and handle the concerns and aspirations of the constituents of the Nadowli-Kaleo Constituency. I cannot put a price on all that I have benefitted from this region, but what I know is that I will remain a proud son of this region,” he stated.