ORMAN TOLD TO QUIT: BUT HOW DID HIS MEETING WITH OUR FIRST LADY GO?
We can confirm that Dr. Orman has finally received his letter confirming he must leave New England pretty soon. Well not as pretty soon as in Tejan Kabbah case because that lasted 9 months. The letter we are talking about is asking Dr. Orman to leave next week. As we indicated two weeks ago, we have assembled lots of information on the tenure of our man. In the weeks following his departure, we shall do what good journalists all over the world do with such highly-valued documents in the interest of our country. Watch this space.
Still with Dr. Orman, we were at a meeting he had with our lovely First Lady. Orman went to see the gracious lady to present some money donated to the Ebola war by a Sierra Leonean lady who collected money from some event she organised in China. Ok that was good. But then Orman tried, strenuously, to link himself with our lady's late father...well he described the late man as his mentor. In the same breath, he mentioned his imminent departure from New England and appeared to suggest he wouldn't mind if the First Lady intervened to save the Titanic.
This is a fact that would stand the test of time: This First Lady is not known as somebody who interferes in the way her husband runs this country. She is widely respected for that. Why did Orman think this was the time for that to start? Please Orman, leave in peace. That charm offensive failed in spectacular fashion. The episode will be captured in the last chapter of our book on your sojourn at New England, titled, Ban Ki Moon and the Demise of True Public Service Broadcasting in Sierra Leone.
WOUNDED SWASAL DECLARES WAR ON MORIBUND SLFA
Let the war begin. We understand that the Sports Writers of Sierra Leone have agreed to pretend as if nothing news-worthy was happening as SLFA. In other words, no reporting on SLFA. Let's be clear, there's nothing official coming out of the meeting but trust the instincts of journalists in such matters.
We knew since last week that SWASAL was planning a fight. The association was badly wounded by the isolation and deportation of their members who went to Roger Milla country to cover a football match involving Leone Stars. It was a real disgrace.
We hear that an indefinite blackout is now in place. We don't know how long that would last but let's make the following points quickly.
1. A blackout is what the SLFA has been dying for. They don't want people talking about the things they do like postponing an annual congress, referencing FIFA when they have their own constitution, fighting with the minister over the management of Leone Stars, facing a court action over a possible breach of contract, facing rejection by their own members and all that. So they want a blackout and you have just given them one.
2. There's so much to talk about the SLFA that a blackout would harm the content of radio programmes done by SWASAL members. What else would they talk about?
3. A blanket ban like this is definitely too difficult, even somewhat impossible to maintain beyond the first few days. SWASAL itself is not together and some sport journalists are not SWASAL members. How do you get them to conform?
4. SLFA would work actively behind the scenes to wreck the ban and there are many fifth columnists in SWASAL who are ready to go the SLFA way. There's international travel around the corner. Hahahahahahah!
5. Sport journalists are likely to be sacked because they cannot produce local content for their newspapers. If it's for international sport, any idiot can go on line and get it. What's the big deal?
6. Frankly, the frequent use of MEDIA BLACKOUTS in every dispute, has made the instrument very blunt. Think about that guys.
WE JOIN THE SEARCH FOR ADAMU EZE, THE LOST MAN OF KONOLAND
As we went to press last night, Adamu Eze, the man at the center of the Ebola wahala in Konoland was said to be still in hiding. The police are on his trail and wish to give him his day in court. Well as good citizens, we think we can assist Munu Boys by joining the search for a man who is used to a life on the run. His name has been mentioned in a number of disturbances in the place. But we must add that we have no evidence he has ever been successfully prosecuted even once. It's important also to say that we accuse him of nothing at this stage. It's up to Munu Boys to make a case against great Edamu Eze.
In the meantime, we have joined the search for the man. We have deployed a drone to fly over Konoland and other sensitive tracking equipment to pick up a car's number place in Koidu from our office in Freetown.
We warn Munu Boys that even though they have not put a ransom on Adamu's head, we would expect a large payout if we provide the intelligence that leads to his arrest, national service or no national service. We would like to recover the cost of deploying our drone and keeping the other equipment in service everyday.
We have about a dozen questions to put to WHOM IT MAY CONCERN after all this Adamu chaos. We want to explore the guy's sudden fall from grace. We heard a lot about him in the early days of The Red Movement's tenure. The he was being constantly accused of attacking the Green Boys. Something is definitely wrong. The questions are coming.
NEC PULLS BACK FROM EBOLA COLLECTION, IS THAT RIGHT?
The word from the National Electoral Commission is that the commission has decided to forget about collecting Ebola money from its staff. We saw the notice to the staff. very funny, huh! We hope the authorities there don't change their minds again by next week. From the outset this was an unfair way for the pretenders to the throne of the SISTER OF CLUNY to ingratiate themselves with De Pa. We are dealing with Ebola now and we have no interest in who takes over NEC at the moment.
In fact, we should demand some explanation about how they arrived at the money they charged each staff for the Ebola collection and whether they will now return all the monies collected from equally overzealous staff who may have paid up in pain only to satisfy their bosses and tittle-tattle their more reasonable colleagues. Remember what the SISTER OF CLUNY said on the eve of her departure - that she detribalised NEC. What an ill-advised a statement!
We call on all government departments to stop trying to catch the eye of De Pa with Ebola collection and concentrate on running certain services even in the midst of Ebola.
The down trodden at NEC should be fine this weekend. And please, be careful how you interact with your bosses next week. They are now absolutely livid that their day at State House is never likely to happen before De Pa drops his pen on a new appointment.
Ebola is dying slowly in Sierra Leone. Long live fairness in our workplaces.
