Football: Full Speech of Ndan Yaa-Na Abukari II delivered on the visit of RTU to the Gbewaa Palace
The overlord of the Dagbon Kingdom and President of the Dagbon Traditional Council, His Royal Majesty Ya-Na Abukari II today Saturday 21st August, 2021 received the leadership, players and supporters of Real Tamale United Football Club at the Gbewaa Palace in Yendi.
The team came to present the Division One League ( DOL) Zone One Trophy to the Ya-Na. Real Tamale United make a return to the Premiership for the first time in 8-years.
The Yaa-Na’s speech was read on his behalf by the registrar of the Dagbon Traditional Council Mr. Abdul Fataw.
Below is the full speech:
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great pleasure to have you here in the Gbewaa Palace of Dagbon Kingdom. It always refreshing to see a gallant child returns home from battle with mission fully accomplished and very determined to fight more battles. On behalf of myself, the chiefs and good people of the Dagbon Kingdom I wish to warmly welcome you to the Gbewaa Palace.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to begin by extending my sincere commendation to you the management, players and supporters of R.T.U for the great skills and team work you exhibited during the just ended Division One League. The great skills and team work you showed during the league has rekindled the trust and confidence of the great supporters, investors and Ghanaian’s in R.T.U. We could see the determination on the faces of each and every one of you to end the long absence of the great R.T.U in the Ghana Premier League. Once again on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Dagbon I wish to commend you for making the entire Dagbon and Northern Region proud.
Ladies and Gentlemen, football and other Sporting activities offer a lot of opportunities and benefits to society. The benefits range from investment and job opportunities, peace building, health benefits, source of entertainment etc. All this benefits were taken away from Northern Region and Dagbon in particular since the year 2013 when the team went on relegation.
The return of R.T.U to the GPL is now an opportunity for northerners to get jobs through the sale of products on match days, a source of entertainment for the teaming football fans. Source of peace building among the people of the north, just to mention a few. Dagbon which was quite during Ghana’s Premier League during our long period of relegation will now be full of activities when the league begins. We therefore say never again shall R T.U go on relegation. I wish to use this opportunity to call on all northerners, Chiefs, Politicians, investors, Philanthropist etc to support R.T.U to continue to stay in the GPL and deliver the results that we shall all be proud of.
Ladies and Gentlemen, there is a Dagbani adage that when you tumble don’t look at where you fall but rather look at where you tumble to learn the valuable lessons. Throughout the period of our relegation we have learn valuable lessons as a team. I would entreat the management and entire team to be guided by the mistakes we made in the past and not repeat them us we enter the new era of the team in GPL. I therefore wish to offer the following suggestions to management of R.T.U as we go into the GPL:
1. Player selection should be the sole responsibility of the Coach and the Technical Team, devoid of political, chieftaincy and all forms of interference.
2. Achievable targets should always be set for the team with very lucrative incentives to ensure everybody works towards that.
3. More qualified players should be recruited to support the current squad.
4. Unity among management, players and supporters should be encouraged to strengthen the fighting spirit of the team.
5. Effective strategies should be adopted by management to attract Investors to invest in the team.
6. Priority should always be given to the progress of R.T.U than our parochial interest.
Ladies and Gentlemen, When we work in unity as a team and guide ourselves with team spirit victory shall always be ours.
Once again on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Dagbon I wish to thank the management, players and supporters of R.T.U for our return to the Ghana Premier League.
LONG LIVE R.T.U, LONG LIVE DAGBON.
Thank you.
By Saaka Yakubu Issah