THE CONCERNED Citizens Action Front has urged the government to take advantage of the rare opportunity of hosting CAN 2008 to showcase Ghana’s rich cultural heritage to the outside world and enhance tourism.

Mr. K. Nimako-Amprako, chairman of the movement in a statement issued in Kumasi, noted that the pace of preparations towards the soccer fiesta by the Local Organizing Committee and sponsors was slow.

According to Chairman Nimako-Amprako football is the most important national pastime, which has become a national passion for which reason promotional advertisements should have acknowledged the role our culture plays in national settings by depicting some portraits of our cultural heritage in the billboards, posters and other advertisements on national television.

The Movement regretted that billboards and posters currently being displayed were stale because they do not give any meaning to what Ghanaians stand for.

The chairman explained that Ghanaians are a people of cultural heritage and anything that takes culture away from them is of no benefit to them and therefore would receive less patronage.

Following this the Movement has appealed to organizers and sponsors of the tournament to, as a matter of urgency, come out with new posters, gimmicks and billboards that would take into account our national image as a culturally-inclined people.

It suggested that chiefs who are the repositories of our rich culture and land owners should be taken onboard during these preparatory stages in order that they galvanize their elders and people to embrace the soccer fiesta to its logical conclusion.

Mr. Nimako-Amprako pointed out that the Movement’s suggestion was worth considering because CAN 2008 is a national event and the nation’s interest reigned supreme, hence the need to seize what he described as a golden opportunity to sell our national image to the outside world through advertisements at all entry points to the country.