UNCLE BOB IS CHAIRMAN OF THE AFRICAN UNION: REALLY?
The Grand Old Man of African politics has been put in charge of the African Union at a time of so much wahala in the world and in Africa in particular. We have the Boko Haram terrorism in Nigeria that is also threatening three other countries in the region. Somalia remains a failed state breeding terrorists. There is disgruntlement with dictatorship festering in Eritrea. Newly-independent South Sudan cannot hold itself together. Sudan is still divided. CAR has also failed. Many Libyans are wondering whether regime change was necessary at all, and so on. So where does the 90-something-year-old man begin to prove himself a good leader of all Africa?
Honestly, it will be too much to expect him to deal with all of this during his tenure but we certainly expect him to be very careful not to try and teach our leaders how to do the following:
1. Constantly accuse the West of causing poverty and disease in our countries even after 50 years of independence if only to hide their failure. Some of our countries depend on organisations like the European Union for half their annual budget. And Mugabe and the EU are strange bedfellows. Tricky eh? Long live constipated politics in Africa!
2. Provide services, including land rights to our people based solely on the colour of their skin.
3. Make it impossible for any democratic succession to take place within ruling parties by ruthlessly suppressing dissent.
4. Prepare their wives to take power when they die – Sexually Transmitted Power, it is called.
5. And run our countries as if they were the private property of our leaders.
We wish old Uncle Bob well in his new role and we are waiting to hear his first fiery speech on the trial of African leaders at the International Criminal Court and the madness in Libya.
DE PA ANDTHE MEDIA IN SIERRA LEONE (2007 - 2017)
An MP from Kailahun, Mustapha Braima recently accused De Pa of neglecting the good work of the media in this country in his usual speech to parliament. The MP had a stint in journalism on his way to Tower Hill so that should partially explain why he bothered at all.
On the face of it that was a good call but if media people bring themselves to the point of expecting such presidential accolades, then there's a big problem.
Apparently, in reply to MP Braima's charge, a ruling party MP told parliament about huge amounts of monies paid to some media groups for certain services. Not in as many words, but the point he was making was that if the government could pay such money to the media, how can anybody then tell the nation De Pa neglected the media. That's what this is about.
Anyway, media houses that take money from government for whatever project should deal with whatever comes out of that. It's not our business. There are practical ways ruling party MPs can prove that De Pa has not abandoned the media that gave him a voice in 2007. And because they have such big majority in parliament, ruling party MPs should have no problem with that.
1. They can simply enact a law that would expunge those sections of the 1965 Public Order Act that make nonsense of our pride of being a member of the league of democracies.
2. They can stop conducting media trials and allow the IMC to the job for which it was set up.
3. They can provide enough resources to the Access to Information Commission so that their functions do not remain on paper.
4. They can also provide enough resources to the SLBC and insist on it being truly independent. The people who voted for these MPs are fed up with SLBC continuing to operate as the mouthpiece of De Pa with a control freak as DG who keeps taking the station’s gems off screen for some puerile reasons. We will return to this in subsequent editions.
5. They can simply answer their phones when media people call to inquire about events taking place in their constituencies.
PASSPORT PRICE GOES UP AS AGBA KHOLIFA DODGES MEDIA
We can confirm that Agba Kholifa will soon announce a steep increase in the price of passports. The price will go up by more than 100% because, according to immigration sources, “Sierra Leone must be in line with other countries” as regards the price of passports. That's wonderful. But we are still not be in line with other countries regarding the price of fuel.
We are waiting for the details about the passports but in the meantime can Agba Kholifa please come forward and talk to us about the jailing of that traffic warden who, we believe, was doing an honest job when Agba caused the young man to be locked up at the maximum security jail? That's a case of human rights just as it is with every Sierra Leonean being able to afford a passport.
The SLRSA has openly challenged Agba Kholifa to step forward now because he failed to show up in court to press those charges. More than 100 journalists turned up three times to cover the case, only to be told Agba was not in court.
This passport announcement is deliberately being made now to divert our attention from this major human rights question facing Agba Kholifa.
As far as we are concerned those who want to travel abroad and can afford visa fees and air tickets, can also afford the proposed passport charges. But there are many more traffic wardens like Musa around who need to be saved from enormously powerful people like Agba Kholifa.
As for that senior police officer, we are also waiting for the driver of that private vehicle which was illegally on the road – expired insurance – to be brought before a court like any other citizen of Mama Salone. If the traffic warden was abusive and was charged because of that, let the man behind the wheels of a vehicle with expired insurance cover be charged too. Otherwise, we will continue asking questions about selective justice and whether the SLP is really a Force for Good.
LET'S BAN EUROPE-BASED AFRICAN STARS FROM AFCON
The Confederation of African Football (CAF) must seriously consider the participation of African football stars based in Europe in future tournaments. We know those players bring a lot of flair, colour, noise and apparently advertising revenues to the competition. We know there is the AFCON For Home-based Stars but hardly does anyone notice it. Viewed purely in terms of football, we believe the foreign-based stars should be banned from the main AFCON. Here's why: they are totally committed to their big contracts in Europe and take very little or no risk when they play for their home countries.
We are not picking on these guys, but just examine how they have performed so far in the current tournament in Equatorial Guinea and think about what they do in Europe every week. Look at Sadio Mane the Senegalese who plays for Southampton, Diafa Sackho the Senegalese who told the world he was suffering from a back injury and pulled out of the Senegalese side only to play for West Ham and score the winning goal in a league cup match.
Yaya Toure, the Ivorian giant on whose shoulders rests the power of Manchester City has had to be substituted twice after below average performances. He seems not interested in the whole AFCON project.
Frankly, we have reasons to believe that some of these guys came to this tournament hoping their countries would be eliminated at the group stage so they could rush back to Europe to keep their places in their clubs.
CAF should spend a lot of money developing the game at home so within the next three years the rest of the continent will pull up to the standards of the game in the northern and southern African countries and then only local boys will be allowed to play in AFCON.
Some of the players coming from Europe with their big reputation and cash have no respect for coaches and even political authorities. They believe in the power of money. Let them stay in Europe and let's develop the game in Africa.
© Politico 03/02/15
