CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE TELL US MORE ABOUT A COMPANY CALLED SIERRA ORE?
As journalists we get to know about a lot of things – sometimes as soon as people start planning them. In some cases people meet many times trying to launch some initiative but they end up disagreeing, falling out completely and dropping the idea. In other cases, they almost get to the stage when they eliminate each other and the idea either dies naturally or one of them emerges with it.
In all of this they put a confidentiality clause in place to the effect that they MUST not tell anybody about it. In other words nobody should talk to people outside the group about the project until the group decides to go public often with half truths. It is precisely at that point that the first bits of information land with a journalist in some corner. This is just one way in which we get to know about things. They say walls have ears.
This may not apply in the case of the SIERRA ORE situation but we desperately need some flesh on the bones of this group that we were told wants to do something interesting in the mining sector just as Rado Yokie threw a grenade into the operation of some mining companies in this country.
Another tactic common with journalists is never to publish all of what they know about something at the same time and they keep probing and probing until the subjects of that journalistic exercise cooperate and speak out. Otherwise the journalist grows completely fed up with those concerned failing to talk to the people and then opens the floodgate of information.
So now, on behalf of the good people of Sierra Leone we ask: is or was SIERRA ORE intended to take over the operations of one of the companies recently attacked by Rado Yokie? Who are the people behind Sierra Ore please? Clearly, a few questions unanswered. We will be back with this. Remember journalists don’t publish all what they know about things at the same time.
POLICE BRUTALITY VERSUS RIOTOUS UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
The dust is settling on the Njala University campus following serious student disturbances and the involvement of the police to restore law and order. Organizations are queuing up to send press statements flying all over the world via social media accusing the police of being heavy-handed, even brutal. We hold no brief for the police. In fact, we have many a time criticized police tactics even in the area of riot control or investigating criminal behavior like the theft in the home of Justice Biobele.
Even in the Njala situation, we may have questions about the way they handled the demonstrators but we believe we have even more issues to put on the table for the whole country to consider.
1. How is it that students who hadn’t paid their fees were expecting to go through a whole semester and write an exam without being challenged at some point by the college authorities? And what is wrong with them being told not to show up for exams without paying their fees? Is this done only in Sierra Leone?
2. Was there a more peaceful way of challenging the insistence of the college authorities that all students must pay ALL monies owed the college (100%) before taking the exam? How about the timing? A public notice was out weeks before the exams, why did the student leaders not engage the authorities all that time? We know the students’ union has been banned but there are still ways they could have come up with a representative group to speak on their behalf.
3. We know that all colleges in the country always insist on freshmen paying their fees in full, but why did the authorities at Njala insist on 100% fees for ALL students? Are they coming from Mars or what? Don’t they know the reality the majority of these students face!
4. What’s the point of students attacking their own facilities to register their opposition to the actions of their college administrators? Surely a simple demonstration of singing and waving placards would never have resulted in police officers charging at and arresting students to the point of being accused of brutality. There is a very thick line between the perfectly normal democratic practice of citizens showing discontent with official action and the criminal conduct of attacking government facilities.
5. Some organizations based their press statements almost entirely on social media pictures of the events. Can we ask who shot and distributed those pictures? It’s very important to know. Pictures are very powerful in conveying meaning but equally important is the question of who took those pictures.
STRANGE FACES IN LEONE STARS: ANOTHER MIRACLE FROM THE QUEEN OF FOOTBALL
There’s always something interesting to write about the way the Queen is running the SLFA. In fact we’ve had more interesting stuff to write about since she walked free from the High Court acquitted and discharged of all ACC charges of abuse of office or misappropriation of public funds. There’s been two “break-ins” by “thieves” at the secretariat, a top level resignation, three months of unpaid salaries of workers and a huge debate over the choice of a coach for the national football team, Leone Stars.
However, even before that we have seen the most bizarre selection of players for training ahead of a crucial World Cup qualification match with our neighbors, Liberia. How the names of FIVE players from the Queen’s team – FC Johansen – made it on to the list remains a mystery of frightening proportion. This came completely out of the blue as FC Johansen pulled out of the just-concluded league from which the other players were selected – and those players have not been playing any active football. How were these Johansen players selected? In fact who are they? We have more than FIFTY players selected now for training. Fifty players?!
When people complain about the spinelessness of the technical staff at SLFA this is one way to prove them right. For how else can anybody explain this selection? Once again we have to tell the government of Sierra Leone that the SLFA is a massive wreck and the only way to rescue Sierra Leone football is for the Queen to face her members in an elective congress to renew her mandate. The Queen is in the third year of an illegal extension of her controversial mandate. This country cannot, should not and must not continue like this.
JOHN OBEY BRIDGE IS A BIG DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN
The bridge linking the coastal village of John Obey to Black Johnson and Tokeh and the rest of that side of the Freetown peninsula is in a very bad shape. We are not engineers but from what we saw the other day we would not be surprised if the bridge collapsed one of these days. It’s not the kind of news we want to carry on our front page and we pray we don’t get to that stage but if urgent action is not taken right now by those who should, a front page story will be inevitable.
The heavy rains of the last two weeks or so have washed off the top layer of the bridge leaving it very badly exposed. If that bridge goes down the vital trade between the people of the peninsular and urban Freetown will be severely disrupted. We call on those responsible to do something about this bridge very fast.
© 2019 Politico Online
