In November 2000, Shaggy released what would later become the global hit song, “It Wasn’t Me”.
The song was the lead single from his “Hot Shot” album. Its impact was instant and disruptive, sweeping through charts and outselling even the world’s most popular songs at the time.
In the UK, it became the best-selling single in the same year it was released and remains one of the top-selling singles of the 21st century.
Even if you didn’t love his type of music, you couldn’t escape its catchy and memorable hook.
The keyboard was amazing. Nigel Staff produced possibly his best work on the keyboard, delivering a timeless melody that would travel through the ages.
The brass and violin were masterfully delivered, too; carefully interwoven to fill out the sound, eliminating hollowness.
As for the message, Shaggy spoke the truth about many men in relationships.
Especially Otto Addo.
He loves the song so much that twenty-five years after it debuted, Otto Addo still sings it at every press conference.
Not in exactly the same words, but the similarity between the two messages is quite obvious.
From the pitch, weather, luck, player quality, the media, and even Ghanaians, Otto Addo has blamed every bad result on something. Everything but himself.
It started from Ghana’s AFCON 2025 Qualifier against Angola. After losing at the Baba Yara Stadium for the first time in 24 years, Otto Addo said, “You have to work on the pitch to get better, because it’s very difficult.”
Five days later, Niger held Ghana to a 1-1 draw on a lush green, blameless pitch in Berkane, Morocco.
When the pitch excuse was exposed for its limited value, if any at all, Otto Addo found solace in something else: luck.
After a goalless draw against Sudan in Accra, he defiantly said, “Sudan was very lucky today. That is all.”
“The next time we meet them in Libya, they won’t be lucky.”
Luck or not, Ghana lost the reverse fixture, which was also the next game, by two goals to nil, to Sudan.
There was more to come.
Otto Addo stirred the hornets’ nest in October 2024, when he said, “I can’t compare players who have played for Chelsea, Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Inter Milan, and AC Milan to our current squad,” Addo stated.
“Those players have set a very high standard. With all due respect to our current players, they may reach that level one day, but they are not there yet. This is not an excuse for our performances; we must strive to beat every opponent.”
Even eternal optimists among Ghanaian fans know that the Black Stars generation that delivered the country’s first World Cup ticket in 2006 is not the same as what we have today. So on its own, stating that is not wrong.
However, the timing of the statement and circumstance – after Ghana’s 2-0 loss away to Sudan, the fourth consecutive game without a win, betrayed the intention behind it.
It was to deflect attention from his own failings as a coach and shift the focus to the players; a classic move to throw his players under the bus.
In the end, Otto Addo’s team missed out on a qualifying slot to a Sudanese team that was forced to hold pre-match training camps in Saudi Arabia and played its home matches in Libya.
It was the first time in twenty years that Ghana had failed to qualify for the AFCON.
Yet, the significance of that seems completely lost on Otto Addo. There has been no sense of accountability. No remorse until Kobby Stone and Victor Atsu Tamakloe forced one out of him at the press conference after Ghana’s 1-0 home loss to Niger.
That result ensured that Ghana completed the group phase of AFCON Qualifiers without a win.
This was another first in Ghana’s history.
In keeping with his lack of accountability and responsibility-deflecting persona, Otto Addo blamed the pitch last week. Again.
This time, after conceding the leveller on the cusp of full-time in the World Cup Qualifier against Chad.
“The pitch was very slow for us. It makes it difficult to outplay the defenders. They need to put water on it. The pitch was hard and we couldn’t play fast. It was a disadvantage for us,” he said.
It did not end there.
On Sunday, he delivered the latest in this bland, soulless album of excuses.
“My problem is that before we played against Chad. No matter who I spoke to, everyone concluded that we had already won. And the problem is that if this kind of mentality, also from the media, if this kind of mentality, just one percent gets in the head of the players, we have a problem,” he told the press on Sunday.
In what world can Ghanaians and the media not expect to beat a team ranked 176th in the World?
If anything at all, that expectation is in furtherance of the very high standards of the Black Stars.
At the moment, the Otto Addo-led Black Stars are fast replacing those standards with mediocrity.
Excuses and poor performances have become the order of the day.
While Otto Addo’s head remains buried in the sand, everyone else can see a pattern developing.
Six of the seven goals Ghana conceded in AFCON Qualifying were scored in the second half of matches. Out of the six, the Black Stars conceded two goals after the 80th minute: Oumar Sako’s 81st-minute leveler for Niger in Morocco, Felicio Milson’s 90+3 minutes winner in Kumasi for Angola, and Oumar Sako’s 90+2 minutes leveler for Niger in Accra.
The pattern is obvious. Otto Addo’s team fades as the games progress.
Some have suggested a lack of intensity and commitment, while others have raised concerns about tactical nous and his in-game management.
Against Chad on Thursday, all three elements came to the fore in a soulless, insipid display as Ghana conceded another late goal in the 89th minute.
Those are not encouraging numbers.
Even if you look at his overall output across the two stints, they are not any better.
In his first stint as Ghana coach, Addo managed four wins, four draws, and four defeats. Since he returned in early 2024, he has managed five wins, five draws, and five defeats. That is a win percentage of thirty-three.
If he has one redeeming quality, it is the fact that he has not lost a World Cup Qualifier across two stints as Ghana coach.
Tonight, he needs to protect that record and do JUST WIN!