CORONAVIRUNS LANDS IN SIERRA LEONE AT ALST
It didn’t come as a surprise to many Sierra Leoneans when Principal announced to the world that we now have a positive coronavirus test. Principal himself said a few weeks back that it was now only a question of WHEN not IF the virus will strike this country. That WHEN question has now been answered. The date is Tuesday 31st March, 2020. It now goes into our history books as the day coronavirus hit Sierra Leone, despite our best efforts to stop it.
We always knew that the last days of March would be extremely crucial for us because all those who came to this country from Europe and America a few days before we closed our airport and were quarantined would be due for release. We hoped and prayed that this cup may pass us by but here we are with ONE case and possibly more. They say in all things that God. So what do we do from this point on?
1. Let’s not continue feeling sorry for ourselves. We have this case within our grasp now and we are tracing contacts. Hopefully this index case will come through the ordeal and survive. We should now turn our attention in a serious and sustained way to what is happening on our land borders. We haven’t heard much from Liberia in the last few days but Guinea is becoming desperate. WE MUST RAISE OUR GAME NOW.
2. We are aware that Kotor Juldeh visited the border areas last weekend and urged the people to join the security forces deployed there to fight the disease by stopping people entering undetected because they may well be infected. We now call on the new man in charge of our fight against the coronavirus to speak to us about the situation on those borders.
3. We also call on the good people of Sierra Leone to stop this business of stigmatizing those infected by sharing their photos all over social media and making cynical comments about them. They are human being like us who wish to be well at all times and to enjoy life. We must protect our brothers and sisters when they are in difficulty.
SEND SOME CIVIL SERVANTS HOME IMMEDIATELY
The protocols dictated to us to help fight the Coronavirus is the same as those we used in 2014 against the Ebola Virus Disease which killed over FOUR THOUSAND Sierra Leoneans. There is this strong emphasis on personal hygiene. Frankly, this is something we really don’t need to wait for any virus to alert us to nor do we need the state or WHO to tell us about it. The reality however is that we must deal with the situation we have at hand right now.
We have observed how the hand washing part of this personal hygiene requirement is being implemented and we can conclude that a lot of effort is being made by ordinary Sierra Leoneans to keep to it but the authorities at Youyi Building have something to explain to us. Here we go:
1. There is a hand washing position at the main entrance to the compound at Zonta by-pass which all visitors on foot are made to use, after three minutes’ walk to the main entrance to the building itself, another hand washing is required, another three minutes on the lift, another hand washing is rigidly enforced. Is this not just too much guys? Should we unfortunately record a single case in this country, we can’t even begin to imagine what Youyi building will look like.
2. There are many civil servants sitting in those offices who should simply be asked to stay home. There will be zero impact on the overall output of ministries. Why not send them home now and drastically cut the number of people hanging around doing nothing and with the possibility that they may infect people with the coronavirus? Or we can ask them to work for only two days a week on a rotational basis. No free salary.
3. Why can’t we try sanitizing the whole of Youyi building? Otherwise, coronavirus or no coronavirus please properly sanitize the lifts. Too many people use it daily. Who know?
4. While on this what was the Lands man doing on social media the other day announcing his own coronavirus protocols and ending up with the scary handshake with his deputy? We know this guy likes to be in the public eye for some unnecessary reasons but the government spoke as one on those protocols. Or is there something we should know?
5. Anyway can somebody in Youyi building do something about street food? We saw a guy with very dirty hands the other day selling tapalapa bread and butter to school children. Scary stuff!
CONGRESS MANOEUVRE: SLFA DRAGGED TO COURT AGAIN
The queen of the SLFA is returning to the High Court this morning not facing criminal charges this time but to respond to complaints from some of her members who say the last extraordinary congress in Kenema was rigged and by that fact the judicial bodies SELECTED/ELECTED were unconstitutional. That, in fact, those bodies have been put in place so they can find a reason from anywhere to disqualify all her opponents so that like in 2013, SLFA will have a president SELECTED /ELECTED by default.
The matter is before the courts now so we are not allowed to discuss the case one way or the other but what we can say is that we are keeping a close eye on this matter and we will be in court to witness proceedings. We can also make the following points about general issues concerning the SLFA as ordinary but interested citizens of this great country.
1. The queen is aware, beyond doubt that she cannot win any SLFA election in a secret ballot. Since 2013 the strategy has always been to stop any other candidate from going through the qualification process. We’ll see how that plays out this time.
2. We have a word for FIFA and we want them to take this seriously because the good people of Sierra Leone will not accept any rigged election this time. FIFA should simply go ahead and set up a NORMALIZATION COMMITTEE with powers to conduct the election. We do not believe the structures established by the queen can deliver a clean vote.
3. We still don’t understand how FIFA can continue drawing one roadmap after the other just to get the queen to face her opponents in a free and fair vote. Sierra Leone is a DEMOCRACY and we cannot allow people to remain in office beyond their call of duty.
4. Those that have a direct stake in football administration should do everything possible under the law to end the menace of political manipulation and rigging in SLFA so the nation gets the football administrators we deserve. It cannot be a cool thing to rig an electoral process and then run to FIFA for cover.
5. We believe that FIFA banned Sierra Leone recently on the basis of a lie, drip-fed to them from our football secretariat in Freetown. FIFA has in fact contributed to the struggle in Sierra Leone by conspicuously refusing to release their match-fixing report after all these years. How can they investigate TEN people, convict and punish TWO and then refuse to talk about the rest. The EIGHT Sierra Leoneans have suffered in silence all these years. The FIFA representative to the SLFA congress in Kenema recently, promised to send the report on his return. Two months on, we are still waiting.
MAYOR PLEASE DON’T ISOLATE THE MESS ON KING JIMMY BRIDGE
Our Mayor of the Sun emerges has from self-quarantine looking reasonably good. We say so based on the social media picture we saw of her receiving Veronica Buckets from one of the many banks in this country. Now we want our Mayor of the Sun to tackle and defeat the mess in the middle of King Jimmy Bridge. She knows what we are writing about. We will not allow that messy flow to continue.
We therefore serve notice that our Mayor of the Sun should expect us to make the case for the good people of Freetown as far as this issue is concerned in a very powerful way in the coming days. See you soon.
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