By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
It was after 2pm, the Sierra Leone Football Associations (SLFA) congress had just started in the eastern district of Kenema. President of the SLFA, Isha Johansen, took the microphone and made a big commitment.
“Within the next two weeks we will start work in Kenema on the artificial turf. And Kenema will also have perhaps the best artificial turf in Africa,” she said.
And then she called on the FIFA representative, Solomon Mudege, who was present at the congress, to confirm the statement.
“Yes, I stand to confirm that work will commence in two weeks. We’ve been to the site, the materials are there, it’s just remobilization that needs to be done and they (contractors) will be on site to commence work in the next two weeks,” Mudege said.
That confirmation was made in front of all delegates, media and observers present in Kenema for that congress. That statement was the start of Mudege making himself an accomplice to everything else that went wrong in that congress. But that is a subject for another day.
Recounting the timeline
Madam Johansen’s commitment to fix the artificial turf came on February 1st, 2020, more than a year since the artificial turf had arrived in Sierra Leone.
February 28th, four weeks after Johansen’s statement and two weeks after the expiration of her two weeks promise, they were in Kenema again, launching the project.
President Julius Maada Bio and his wife were in Kenema on a separate purpose. The FA snapped the opportunity and got the President to kick a ball and declare the start of the project.
Kenema’s own “political godfather”, Chief Minister Prof. David Francis, was the maestro here.
During that launch, Johansen said: “Good things come to those who wait.” Ironically, Kenema is still waiting.
And the FA Secretary General, Christopher Kamara, said: “SLFA will be back in the last week of May, this year (2020) to officially hand over the state-of-the-art artificial turf pitch to the people of Kenema.”
March, April, May, and Jun, the project is in limbo. Like most things in this county, the FA announced on the 11th of June this year that the project has been postponed because of COVID-19 and the rainy season.
Take in to consideration that the first day Madam Johansen made the promise to fix the pitch in two weeks’ time was on the 1st of February, this is exactly 59 days before Sierra Leone announced its first COVID-19 case, 51 days before Sierra Leone’s airspace was shut to flights and of course a good four months before we got in to the rainy season proper.
How the FA is now pinning the postponement of the work on COVID-19 and the travelling restrictions on the contractors is at the very least baffling.
Work on the field is expected to restart in October. Or it might last till the rapture; no one knows.
This is the timeline in the SLFA’s promise to fix the Kenema artificial turf.
Granted, maybe most of the delay is not the SLFA’s fault and some things were out of their hands. But the way they have gone about this whole project: the pump, the promise and the publicity - all for what?
What happens now?
This is one of those projects that really started on the basis of developing football and later evolved to appeasing a political base - all tied to the SLFA’s looming election.
Last month, a spontaneous visit by the Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Nyelenkeh to check on the progress of the project sparked a feud with the SLFA for the umpteenth time. The National Sports Authority followed up the visit with its own visit and investigated the delay.
A letter from the Chief Minister’s office last week suggested that all the parties are now on the same page regarding the work. These days it looks as if the Chief Minister’s word has more sway in the FA than the Minister of Sports’. Maybe it is as a result of the natural order of things, one in which Professor Francis is a more senior member in the cabinet than Nyelenkeh. Or maybe it is because in the Chief Minister SLFA has found their political backer. Too many maybes, maybe.
Whiles a deal has been struck on the table to once again stall the work, the greatest losers in this deal are the people of Kenema. Their hopes have been dashed once again. For three months more they will continue to watch the US$960,000 worth of materials for the Diamond Blade pitch be in ruins, as rain beats them and sun shines through them.
Back in February when I spoke to the Secretary General of the Kenema District Football Association, David Samu, he said they were excited about the possibility of having such infrastructure in the district.
“This will raise the profile of the game in the district,” Samu said.
For the district’s only Premier League club, Kamboi Eagles, this mean they will have to most likely play a whole season away from the district because of the works.
The delay with this project and the concerns of “substandard work on the drainage system” has been an embarrassment to the KDFA President, Dennis Lansana. This is so because he is a staunch supporter of Johansen and even before that congress in February he was losing his grip on power. All this fiasco might come back and bite Lansana, soon.
This Artificial Turf Gate has unfolded before us like a soap opera, with villains and heroes. And we also know there are several subplots that are still rolling out. It’s a plot that keeps on giving, even when you think it is over.
No development project should have this much circus around it, if it is truly meant for the people. If the circus is too much, meaning it’s all for publicity.
And right now, this Kenema artificial turf project looks much more like a proper publicity project than anything else.
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