MESSI WANTS TO LEAVE BARCELONA: HOW UNGREATFUL?
Lionel Messi, the Argentine footballer has asked to leave Barcelona, a club he’s been with for the last THIRTEEN YEARS or so. Messi is a great footballer. He has been voted the best footballer in the world SIX TIMES. The guy is a real joy to watch out on the field but asking to leave Barcelona immediately after his team received a disgraceful spanking from Bayern Munich in the last Champions League raises a lot of questions and accusations of ungratefulness. There may be underlying causes but surely the decision to quit was triggered by that defeat.
There are many questions now about just where the guy is headed – Manchester City, Manchester, even Arsenal are said to be trying to sign Messi. The situation is difficult right now as contractual matters between Barcelona and Messi’s agents continue to be sorted out. They whole thing is looking messy and the Messi brand is bound to suffer if this is not resolved without delay.
But why is Messi really pushing so hard to quit Barcelona? Here’s what we think.
1. Messi has no problem taking defeats. In fact they absolutely receive defeats in La Liga but to suffer an 8 – 2 defeat is too disgraceful for the best footballer in the world. He believes his continued stay at that club will damage his reputation because people will always remember the day the MIGHTY fell.
2. The new manager, Ronald Koeman is not sure his rebuilding drive will be done with Messi at the center of things. How dare he even dream of sidelining Messi at Barcelona? Messi is Barcelona. The club administration surrendered to the diminutive Argentine long ago.
3. Messi thinks he will make more cash working with money bags in PSG or Man City. He is very close to the end of his playing time so now it’s time to make money.
4. Like an old boxer, many players in La Liga have capture the essentials of how Messi throws his punches on the field so they can now dodge very well and land punches of their own effectively. Having reached that stage, it’s time to move on. The day a village bully is thrown in a wrestling match is the day he should retire or move to a new village.
5. Messi is absolutely fed up living in Spain. Let him move on and enjoy the rest of his playing days.
NAMING THE CITY COUNCIL BUILDING: HERE’S OUR TAKE
Work is progressing very well on the new building that will house the Freetown City Council. From the look of things our Mayor of the Sun will occupy that building before she is due to renew her mandate in 2022. We are told that she continuously dreams about moving into that beautiful shiny building very quickly and register as the first Mayor to operate there because she is not sure about the outcome of the contest in 2022 or whether the Red Camp will still put her forward as their candidate in the first place.
Anyway, it will be over soon. For now we are interested only in finding a name for that building – a suitable one. Please we don’t want people to draw us into that kind of farcical argument that followed the naming of a section of the Juba Bridge after Sengbe Pieh. Let’s just deal with history around this building. We know that on that same site once stood what was called the Wilberforce Memorial Hall – obviously paying some respect to William Wilberforce who we were told in school, played a pivotal role in the abolition of slavery in England and the designation of Freetown as a British Crown colony. We are not pushing that line today.
The building was destroyed by fire in the 1950s after a performance by two amateur musicians, Roland Wyse and Bra Faux of the then SLBS and was reconstructed in the early 1970s by the North Koreans and named City Hall. It served as home for theatre until it was burnt down again during the 1999 attack on Freetown by SOBELS.
So what do we name this new building? We ask because we understand the Red Camp had promised to name it after King Messi. We don’t know how the fact that King Messi is no longer in power and has withdrawn to his Seat of Power might affect that earlier promise. To find a way out, that let’s organize a competition for people to suggest names for the building. In subsequent publications, we will suggest some names for Mayor of the Sun to consider.
WILL THE HANDS FINALLY GO OFF OUR GIRLS?
We don’t yet know to which extent the new sexual abuse crimes court will succeed where advocacy and threats appear to be failing in the fighting against rape and other forms of sexual abuse of woman and girls. Queen Fatima has travelled throughout the country shouting HANDS OFF OUR GIRLS but we keeping hearing horrible stories daily.
When we come to write the history of our country, covering this period, Principal and his wife Queen Fatima will be commended for leaving no stone unturned to take on and defeat the menace that is about to blight the good reputation of Sierra Leone.
Principal has done a lot since coming to power to fight rape in particular. He has declared a State of Emergency on that, committed a lot of money to the fight, spoken out frequently about the issue and Queen Fatima has launched one initiative after the other all aimed at tackling this very serious problem but it would appear as if things are not improving in a noticeable way at all. Now having a court specifically set up to try such cases is the latest move by Principal to turn the tide against a group of men operating in small dark corners, raping our women and girls and sometimes subjecting them to other forms of abuse.
While we applaud this move – and we are quite sure millions of Sierra Leoneans are also happy about the setting up of this court, we would like to say a word or two on what we hope to see in this particular court.
1. We don’t want to see the kind of delays we witness in the existing courts. We hate too many adjournments to accommodate very busy lawyers who take such cases. We should also not pamper state prosecutors who repeatedly come to court to tell magistrates and judges that they were busy looking for their witnesses. Is that the way to conduct things on our behalf?
2. The forensic examination report on alleged victims that is normally used in court should be above board. So let’ do a proper FORENSIC LAB right now to complement what the judiciary has just done. Manty says we should have the lab soon. How soon ma?
3. Let’s also train the FSU people who normally investigate these cases and pay them reasonably well. The training MUST include dealing with the media. Such cases have massive public interest so they should never be surprised when journalists turn up to ask questions regarding such cases.
HEAVY DUTY TRUCKS STILL USE JUI-REGENT ROAD DESPITE BAN
When the Chinese contractors completed work on the Jui-Regent road in 2014, very bold signposts were erected along the route prohibiting use of the road by trucks weighing more than 10 tons or vehicles carrying sand, wood and stones. Trailer trucks and heavy machinery must keep off, so it was sanctioned to be.
All those trucks banned from that busy route linking east and west Freetown are not complying with the regulations anymore.
At night well-organized scenes unfold at the various Police checkpoints; the loaded trucks would queue and wait for ‘final instructions’ before they are allowed to continue their journey. It came as a surprise to hear an official of the Sierra Leone Road Safety Corps admit that fatal accidents along the route have increased in recent times blaming some on heavy trucks. He was gracious enough to acknowledge that the truck drivers are flouting the order but never explained what they would do to ensure compliance.
Perhaps he never wanted to offend IG Sovula’s men. And so the lives of people will continue to be risked as a result of palms being greased. The road itself is favored by commuters and motorists as a more convenient alternative to travel from Adonkia to Waterloo in a comparatively shorter time. At Grafton checkpoint the sight of one of the signposts almost uprooted and leaning back and nearly swallowed up by tall grass, could not give a better picture of abandonment and rejection of the very message it carries.
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