BEING ON THE FIFA COUNCIL IS FINE BUT HERE IS THE TEST
We want Queen Johansen, our glorified member of the FIFA Council to tell this nation why CAF should NOT give the points from Wednesday’s abortive qualifier to Sierra Leone after Benin REFUSED to play because some of their players were found to be COVID positive. A press release we saw from the SLFA says absolutely nothing new. We hear they want to appeal against the postponement of the match to be played in June instead of CAF punishing Benin for clearly misbehaving in another man’s country.
Here are a few more issues:
1. In typical Sierra Leonean attitude, we pay more attention to foreigners and allow them to get away with many things while killing our own brothers for those same things. A group of people who flew for just over two hours from Benin to Sierra Leone were allowed to bypass established COVID procedures at our airport claiming to be tired. That was a very stupid excuse indeed. We understand our own SLFA officials prevailed on NaCOVERC to conduct the test the next day. Why?
2. Our SLFA and NaCOVERC officials ought to have known that our visitors had something to hide. Otherwise why would they lie about being “tired” to take a COVID test after a brief flight? Is the test equivalent to doing a marathon?
3. We will not even talk about this rudeness about doubting the credibility of our COVID test. We have tested thousands including diplomats and our results have NEVER been disputed anywhere in the world. What is so special about those five players that we should finger their tests? Didn’t they have those players when Nigeria beat them on their own soil? By the way, why did big Nigeria not question the Benin result for Alex Iwobi? He is a bigger star compared to those third-rate Benin players who tested positive.
4. We have no problem with them doing what amounted to a medical evacuation for their COVID players on a chartered flight. The disease will fester onboard that flight until they reach Cotonou.
5. We want Queen Johansen to go to CAF and tell them we deserve the points because there will be no end to this nonsense. When they return in June we will now rig the test, find five of our players positive and then call the match off again. Is that what CAF wants? Anyway our test is valid and the result must stand. We have read the CAF rules. They are very clear.
ALL COMPANIES SELLING WATER SHOULD REGISTER OR SHUT DOWN NOW
It beggars belief to know that of the recorded 165 water companies in the country; only about 20 are registered with the Electricity and Water Commission. Most of the water companies are operated by Sierra Leoneans which is good for the local content policy but this revelation that only 20 are registered has once again brought into the open the question of the brazen defiance of laid down rules by our entrepreneurs. These are the people who complain of not getting loans from our local banks. A simple requirement like registering their businesses with a legitimate regulatory body set up by government they wouldn’t adhere to.
An official from the Commission expressed doubts about the quality of the water some of these companies sell to the public. We’ve always had very strong reservations about the hygiene standards in the processing of some of the products we consume from these water companies. They are all over the place and some operate in dark and isolated places. Health experts say typhoid is generally caused by drinking of contaminated water; and that is why we will have a lot of questions about the filtration process of some these companies. Some of their names are comical or meaningless, and their plants are nothing but sweatshops period!
The waster sold in plastic sachets is even handled poorly in many cases in the final production line; the sachets would be strewn on dirty floors and then placed into bundles, ready for the market. Most times consumers hardly wipe the sachets, perfect recipe for typhoid and other intestinal infections.
We believe Standards Bureau should have a big say in this. Maybe they should conduct unannounced raids to uncover the litany of unhygienic processing of water by many of these companies we are talking about.
Now it looks as if in every street corner there is a full megaphone blast from vehicles as they noisily market their products, very annoying.
BOOM BOX NOISY DRUGS SALES, WHAT A NUISANCE?
These days we see young men all over Freetown in particular selling medicines that they claim can cure all kinds of diseases one can think of. They traverse every street and corner with huge speakers booming out too good to be true messages about the potency and efficacy of their drugs. It is quite shocking when you listen to the mostly misleading messages coming from their sound boxes about the curative power of their medicines and the illnesses they target. The speakers are often in full blast and quite a nuisance they are. People are importing all kinds of medicines into the country and giving them out to barely literate or even illiterate peddlers.
How many unsuspecting people, desperate for a cure are not instead purchasing substances that have gone on to affect their organs or brought on other ailments? We will never know the number of people that are dying from this unregulated selling of medicines.
Some of their messages about serious diseases are not just misleading but shockingly comical in nature. We are quite perplexed that this madness could be allowed to continue when we have the Pharmacy Board and the Medical and Dental Association, two bodies that are often quite ethically sensitive to matters about medicines. We suggest that some tough regulatory measures be put in place to curb this unhealthy merchandising of presumed health products.
FIFTY DUMP TRUCKS HERE: SO WHAT NOW?
Fifty dump trucks from the Russian Federation are in Freetown with a promise of TWO HUNDRED more, well according to social media reports. This was a fantastic Christmas 2020 to the good people of Sierra Leone. Despite all the grandstanding and social media talk about how clean Freetown is under the Mayor of the Sun, sanitation is a serious challenge in Good Old Freetown. We have persistently mentioned the raw sewage flowing from the middle of King Jimmy Bridge. We probably don’t need these kinds of dump trucks to deal with that but all we want to do here is to point out the sanitation problems still facing this city. Ignore all the spin from the Mayor’s Delivery Team. In fact, who are they and where are they from?
Anyway, FIFTY trucks are here but we believe they will only make a difference if other actions are taken to support the work that the trucks are here for.
1. We have to pass the necessary laws to make it EXTREMELY COSTLY for those who dump rubbish on the streets expecting the state to clear it for them. We are talking about those who collect the rubbish in their homes and then in the deep of night, throw them on Kissy road of all places and other less prominent parts of the city.
2. We are also talking about those who pour rubbish on the left side of the road leading to Fourah Bay College campus from the Model end, just after the car wash center.
3. We must also deal with road side traders who couldn’t care less about the rubbish they deposit on our streets daily.
4. We are also talking about those who throw rubbish from cars, and other means of transport in the city. If we can successfully enforce the use of seat belts, we can get transport drivers to stop their passengers from throwing rubbish on the streets.
5. Let the FCC stop the spin and CLEAN THE CITY.
Copyright © Politico Online (01/04/21)
