PETITO’S 27-WORD PRESS RELEASE – MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS
We are indeed entering a very important phase in the political history of Sierra Leone. In this period only a few things are certain:
- De Pa will definitely leave office at the end of his second term as the democratically-elected president of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
- De Pa is also very interested in who leads his party – the Red Movement – to the next election. And he will face opposition from within the movement depending on which way his succession plan goes.
- With De Pa going, the field is open again. Opposition forces see a strong possibility of removing the Red Movement from office.
What is not certain however is the reaction of those who will lose out in the succession battle. In the case of the Green Movement, the party splintered with The Dalai Lama setting up his own political party – that fragmentation brought about the defeat of the Green Movement. Now could the Red Movement suffer the same fate? This question has come so early because of the recent sacking of Alimamy Petito Koroma as minister because of incompetence.
So when a newspaper suggested he was changing political sides following his sacking, he issued a one-sentence press release denying the suggestion.
PETITO - “I, Alimamy P Koroma have no intention to move to another political party or form a new one. I remain a member of the All People’s Congress”.
POLITICO- We hear you sir. And we wish you well as you “remain a member of the All People’s Congress”. But we are in touch with people close to you who are telling us that you definitely have presidential ambitions. There’s nothing wrong with that. The point though is that achieving your dream on the ticket of the party that sacked you for incompetence is as impossible as Leone Stars winning the World Cup.
Your press release is a politically-correct gesture but our speculations would continue unabated.
THE SAGA OF THE SACKED FEMALE COACH- DID SHE GIVE PLAYERS DRUGS?
Isha Johansen has to be much more convincing about the reasons she gave in a press release as she tried to explain why the female national coach Hannah Williams was summarily sacked after that debacle in Nigeria. All she’s said for now leaves us with the absolute conviction that she’s been used as a scapegoat. Here’ what the FA is now saying after their terse initial press statement.
JOHANSEN’S SLFA – “besides her failure to provide technical leadership in the away leg of the National U-20 Championship against the Nigerian U-20 on Saturday 26th October where the team lost 10 - 0, Coach Williams administered certain medication to the entire squad which rendered them ineffective to match their Nigerian counterparts”.
POLITICO–We are waiting for the FA to prove with results of clinical tests of blood samples that indeed our players were on some kind of drugs that affected their performance. Here’s how Johansen describes the drug that was supposedly administered to the player:
JOHANSEN’S SLFA – “The drug TONKAT ALI is primarily used to increase the flow of blood to and from the heart and also to excite the user sexually. The purpose of administering the drug to the players was to enhance their performance against the Super Falconets of Nigeria. Coach Williams in her admission administered the drug to almost every player on the team without the knowledge of the accompanying team Doctor and the other members of the delegation.
POLITICO – What she describes above sounds like the joke of the century – a drug used for “sexual” excitement administered to a football team just before a match? We can only imagine what happened to the players after 90 minutes. And where was this team doctor? Where were the other per-diem delegation members? Are the players Zombies?
JOHANSEN’S SLFA - From the technical reports submitted by other members of the delegation to Nigeria, the girls appeared unfocused, unusual and jaded as a result of unusual menstruation and diarrhoea due to the side effects of the drug.
POLITICO – Huh! This is getting unnecessarily too gory now. Let’s face it, bad technical leadership and sexual excitement drugs or not, against the Nigerians our team would always be as helpless as a customer in a barber’s chair. Why didn’t Isha Johansen celebrate the fact that the Nigerians scored only ten goals? Now she has the opportunity to clear their system as they face the Nigerians in Freetown. We shall see.
MINISTER ATTACKS PARASTATAL BOSS OVER TITTLE-TATTLE
We will not mention names in this tweet because our Parastatal must have returned home looking calm and gentle after a day of really frightening events in his life. We can imagine him answering this question from his wife and children: “How was work today, Dad”? He would certainly have said: “very well, nothing unusual”. Well, if we were standing there, we would shout from our corner saying, “come on dad, say the truth and let the devil be shamed”. Hahhahahahaha.
Our Parastatal boss, according to reports, received a heavy slap from a minister whose favourite pastime is taking part in mask devil parades over something the minster had no direct business with. And this happened in front of his cabinet colleague who merely urged our Parastatal man to “don with dat, nar wam hat”.
We are waiting to see what the Parastatal boss will do after this event. In fact that department has a history of such things happening. Many years ago, a board member attacked the boss of the same Parastatal and gave him the beating of his life. It was headline news on the SLBS of old. Please hang in there for details like names, place, actions and reactions. Trust Politico! Meanwhile you need to know that it was over internal restructuring in the department under a ministry which this minister – no longer there – used to head. HAHAHA
BABABODE’S TOUGH TALK ON KING JIMMY BRIDGE IS JUST TALK TALK
Where, in God’s name is Mayor Bababode, the chief of Freetown? We have been listening to some of the interviews he has been giving to radio stations after the King Jimmy Bridge disaster and we can’t really put a finger to what Bababode has actually done based on the many things he said to reporters.
The other day we visited the wreck and found things in the same place we had left them when the disaster struck. If we are not careful there are more people in the place today than were there before the bridge went down.
Among other things Bababode promised to clear King Jimmy Bridge and such other places of homeless people and street boys and girls. Bababode knows nothing like that has happened. We invite him to visit Hill Cot road, Congo Bridge, Congo Town Bridge, Aberdeen and Wallace Johnson Bridge Lumley. What’s really happening to Bababode’s council?
By the way, as we approach another tax season, will Bababode please declare the amount of money he collected on radio for all to hear and what you’ve done with the money? It’s very important for you to do that otherwise people will be very reluctant to continue paying taxes without realising the benefits of their tax like people in other West African countries. Besides it is a provision of the section 107 of the local government act of 2004.
And what about Victoria Park? How come the development project which came to a halt under Herbert George-Williams is still in that disgraceful state in the middle of our city without anybody telling the people what is going on. Bababode is quietly hoping that everybody will stop talking about Victoria Park. No way sir! In a city with no open space for our children to play, you can be sure that Victoria Park will remain in the news for a long time.
© Politico 06/11/13
