On a day the Black Stars is struggling to get supporters to fill the stadium ahead of a crunch Nations Cup qualifier against Uganda, the last thing the team needs is to have a brazen show of violence perpetrated for and on behalf of the team captain Asamoah Gyan.

And for his brother Baffour Gyan to brazenly lead a group of misfits, thugs to attack an errant journalist is the height of irresponsibility and damn right lawlessness which should be condemned in no uncertain terms.

I reluctantly write this piece because Asamoah Gyan is a personal friend. I was in the same school team with him at the Accra Academy. I played colts football with him in the late 90s and early 2000s and has since been an admirer.

In the most difficult periods of his career, when he missed a penalty in South Africa and another against Zambia and became more or less a persona non grata in Ghana, some of us became more and more an Asamoah Gyan advocate, a diehard supporter of man who was filled with promise and destined to achieve great things for himself, the Black Stars and for Ghana.

I can't stay aloof when my icon is digging his own grave; supported and surrounded by sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear and not what is right.

And for the uninformed who would be wondering the rationale for this piece, well, the news is that Baffuor Gyan, the senior brother of Asamoah Gyan has been declared wanted by the Ashanti Region Police High Command for allegedly leading some macho men to attack a journalist who at a press conference asked what, in my opinion was one of the most stupid, irresponsible questions of all time.

Daniel Kenu of the Daily Graphic was reported to have asked the Black Stars captain to explain confirm or deny if he had used Castro as a sacrifice. Castro a popular hiplife musician together with a lady friend had been declared missing for several weeks when they went jet skiing in the waters of  Ada.

The two and several others were in the company of Asamoah Gyan who went for holidays in Ada early July.

Castro is still missing; presumably dead. His family is grieving. Gyan who was such a close pal to Castro is still grieving. The nation is still grieving over such a colossal loss.

The last thing the country needed was a brainless question that would ignite emotions. And how in God's name a journalist would ask such a question on such an occasion baffles me but in democracy, such unintelligent questions can and must be expected.

The answer though is not violence. It can never be violence. Gyan had the most gracious opportunity to let Kenu know how stupid his question was and provide him with an answer that will disable him from asking any such question in his entire life time as a journalist.

It is a known fact that not all sports journalists are able to interview David Duncan. Even when he makes himself available like Gyan did, most journalists would remain mute. They only stick their recorders in his face while a few journalists ask the questions. Why? Because Duncan would not entertain such obtuse questions. You would have the right to ask but you would look stupid after asking before Duncan would give you a befitting response. Call him arrogant but it is all part of democracy, isn't it?

Now Gyan may not be as arrogantly astute as Duncan. He may not be as eloquent as Duncan but a simple silence in the face of such a question would have been enough answer for Kenu and people who think like him.

Silence they say is golden and this was a golden opportunity missed by Gyan to shame his critics and put his haters to sleep. But for his close associates to have chosen the path of violence is to ask right thinking members of society to have sympathy for the journalist and rebuke Gyan for it.

Gyan may not have sanctioned the act, he may not have known about it but for the act to have been perpetrated in his name with his senior brother leading the onslaught is a cross that Asamoah Gyan must bear.

This is not the first time. Stories of this nature with the name Gyan right in the middle of it has come, one too many.

The name Asamoah Gyan is a brand. He is the captain of the Black Stars and an embodiment of an institution that remains so dear to the hearts of many.

We cannot associate the captaincy of such an institution with violence. We cannot have misfits perpetrating violence in the name of Asamoah Gyan at the least provocation.

Today it is Kenu who asked a question; tomorrow it will be me. May be this opinion piece may just be the trigger to turn such cowards back at me.

This country is not a jungle. The macho men that went beating the errant journalist are not necessarily the best in their trade. What if others decide to go for revenge? Would that be the right way to go? Obviously not.

With the violence, Kenu had been made a hero and has won sympathy when all he did was to ask a poverty stricken question.

Support for the Black Stars is at an all time low due to the embarrassing episodes of the Black Stars in Brazil.

Such acts of violence would only erode the support of well meaning Ghanaians. We don't need that. Do we?

 

The writer is an Assisting Editor at Myjoyonline.com. His email address is nathan.gadugah@myjoyonline.com