SLBC BOSS WEEPS FOR CASH BUT WHO CARES
The Poet of SLBC has been crying all over the place recently, begging for money to run his moribund organisation. We don't think anybody is taking notice of such melodramatic poetry-reading. However, we have the following practical solutions to what we believe are existential problems facing the corporation:
1. The Poet must rationalise his staff. This is the only organisation in the world that paid off and then promptly re-employed the same excess baggage to do sweet nothing.
2. The SLBC employed people including those in senior management positions against the letter and spirit of the Act that created the institution. We refer to the section dealing with qualification for certain positions. Please correct that.
3. Let's face it...the best thing to do now is to close the SLBC so that the people can take over their institution and give true expression to that facade of a motto YOUR VOICE MY VOICE. We have nothing to lose with you being off air.
Here is a Public Service Broadcaster running around begging for money. You have lost the support of the public.
RUNNING SIERRA LEONE LIKE A BUSINESS
At the start of his administration, De Pa vowed to "run Sierra Leone like a business". Let's call the company Sierra Leone Plc, with the motto, Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Here's how we think we can run this business.
1. Let's set up phoney companies every day, and use front men to bid for and win the juiciest government contracts including rice and uniform supplies to the police and military, road construction, solar lights and much, much more. When one of such companies runs into difficulty with the law, we simply close it down and open another one, NO LIABILITIES - that sounds reasoning. Doesn't it?
2. Let's open an insurance company and monopolise the industry. Also let's be interested in raincoats and boots supplies to government ministries and the security forces. It rakes in a lot of money. We pray for permanent rainy season.
3. Let's also make sure that all serious catering contracts are kept very close. It's very important because there are many conferences these day. Or we can at least contrive one every month. For example, a conference hosted by Bababode's Freetown City Council on RIDDING FREETOWN OF STRAY DOGS AND PIGS - 250 DELEGATES breakfast, lunch and dinner. Good Kill eh?
4. Let's not pay any taxes. That includes excise duties and all that nonsense called GST. Long Live Sierra Leone Plc.
5. Let's tell our people to generate their own electricity using the much-maligned Kabba Tiger (the NPA becomes the most unreliable back-up). We will sell them fuel - in which we also have shares - and make a lot of money.
6. Let's tell the people to provide their own private security because MUNU has failed and armed robbers are all over the place. No talk of civil liberties or free speech unless it's in support of De Pa. Those proclaiming the third term project would be invited to work in the vineyard.
7. Let us hope a mobile phone company collapses and we take over it in a roundabout manner using one of our own. HAHAHAH! That is, in addition to the contract to construct some resettlement places of some sort even without the foggiest idea in construction work. SALONE FOR BUSINES INDEED! God save the Cotton Tree!
JOHANSEN IN THE WELL OF PARLIAMENT: CHICKEN COMING HOME TO ROOST
And it came to pass that the madam of the SLFA finally appeared before the big men of Tower Hill to talk about football and her organisation's relationship with Pope John Paul of the Ministry of Sport. It was a week after the Pope had also met the big men on the same issue.
The Pope's appearance didn't make much headlines because all he told parliament was recycled material. It was already in the public domain. He had given countless unnecessarily fiery interviews denouncing the SLFA and accusing its executive of match-fixing and corruption.
We have transcribed a few lines from De Madam's address to parliament. We have also included our comments just to point out that the whole thing is really messy now. Only De Pa himself can end this internecine war in Sierra Leone Football.
MADAM JOHANSEN - "We, as the FA, like everywhere else in the world, are here to administer, supervise, facilitate football in the country. That is what we do...whatever the government allocates to the FA, we should be aware of that and that budget should come from the FA...We have not been able to do that. We are not in control of the budget".
POLITICO - You know, De Madam knew long before she went begging for the Pope's support in her bid for the leadership of the SLFA that the Pope was a very meddlesome man. She knew she was making a serious mistake by bringing the Pope into the activities of the SLFA so blatantly but the pressure that comes with trying to win an election in the most illegal of ways, was paramount.
By the way, does it have to take a complaint by the Pope himself for De Madam to tell the country the SLFA was not in control of the budget for the national teams? She's been hanging in there snugly hoping that things will change. Now, she's shouting foul. Is that fair on the people?
MADAM JOHANSEN - "How can the minister of sport sit down and appoint the head coach, the whole technical backroom staff, even to pick on the players that should be here? It's ludicrous, it's a farce, it's a big joke. It never happens anywhere in the world. The fight is all about control of the national team...on match-fixing, it's a zero tolerance affair now with FIFA...and for a minister to do this to his own country, I think it's an absolutely disgraceful act, I honestly do".
POLITICO - Huh! Riveting stuff eh? Well we knew all along that what you were doing was more than a big joke and that before long the whole thing will collapse and the truth will reveal. Why didn't De Madam shout when the remnant of Nahim Khadi's regime was being taken for a ride by the minister in the days running up to her controversial election? Unu lef we bo!
It's up to the pope now to learn his lessons. Stay in your lane, sir.
RANGERS MANPOWER SOLUTIONS? Ayyyyyyy SALONE! ANOTHER CHAP CHAP
Our people have fallen prey yet again to another massive scam running into hundreds of thousands of dollars. The lives of thousands of young people have been shattered. The police stand accused of sitting by while the crooks carried out their project. Can somebody please explain and take responsibility for this catastrophic failure of policing?
Wasn't this job placement offer in one of the countries with the most strict immigration policies too good to be true? What kind of jobs were these anyway? This is a very serious matter. And it will not go away soon.
We understand the police actually arrested the man at the centre of this scam but released him without the necessary safeguards and the suggestion now is that he may have left Sierra Leone with his goodies.
In opposition, the Red Movement made a lot of political capital out of the Green Movement's bungling of the job placements in troubled Iraq from which many young Sierra Leoneans benefited. The same desperation that drove those young people to go to Iraq, drove this new group into the hands of criminals whose activities were not difficult to see through anyway. What are the Reds saying now?
As for the Green Movement, they are waiting for Osuofia to issue a press release on social media. The Green Movement has truly lost the plot. A so-called flag bearer whose flag was torn long ago still bestrides the party like a colossus. The rest of the members are not even capable of doing anything without Osuofia. Good luck to them. Tough luck, Sierra Leoneans
(C) Politico 05/06/14
