SIERRA LEONE HAS A NEW AIRPORT
We congratulate all those who made it possible for the country to have a new airport. Our reporter was part of a conducted tour of the place a few weeks ago and he came back praising the work done by the new managers of the place – SUMMA GROUP and indeed the government and people of Sierra Leone. Our reporter said contrary to all the social media arguments about whether this was a new airport or an extension to the old one, what he saw was a new airport that pulls us level with some countries in the sub-region at least. Today, a few more people from our staff visited the airport and they confirmed what our colleague said weeks ago.
So now we have a new airport and we can understand why to some extent the celebration that greeted the commissioning looked a bit over the top. The New Direction is looking for every opportunity now to convince the people that Principal deserves a second mandate. Here was a perfect one.
For the rest of us there are few points we would like to highlight.
1. We are looking forward to SUMMA GROUP changing air travel in Sierra Leone for good. We want many powerful international flights in that airport today. We don’t have time to waste. That will create jobs and lower the cost of air tickets.
2. Our brothers and sisters who were brought over from the old airport to work should behave themselves. They are now in the hands of an international business organization that has invested a lot of money in that project. They are not a charity. They want revenues and would not tolerate tardiness and corruption. We know what we are talking about.
3. Those Sierra Leoneans who spend more than half of the working day watching Nollywood movies in office should be ready to face the new reality of working with SUMMA GROUP. Corporate organizations reward hard work, not political patronage.
4. We call on the government of Sierra Leone to secure the facility against criminal elements who always try to steal. We also don’t want to be greeted at the airport by DREG MAN DEM offering to move our bags from the airport to our vehicles for money. Let’s keep those boys as far away as possible. They were a real disgrace in that old airport.
PUBLIC OFFICES MUST BE OPEN DURING ELECTION CAMPAIGNS
So while the airport commissioning was taking place across the river, some of us went to Youyi building to transact some business and we found an almost empty building. For now we don’t want to mention the specific ministry we went to but we report that the whole place was deserted. The authorities were all in Lungi and their staff took advantage of their absence to abandon their offices.
Apart from the obvious disappointment of traveling from rural Freetown to process some paperwork in one of the ministries in that building only to be told by a messenger that all the bosses had all gone to Lungi, we feel absolutely scandalized that politicians and civil servants in particular who had no business at the program should treat the good people of Sierra Leone who pay their salaries like people who don’t matter.
Now we are so scared that when ECSL blows the whistle to start campaigning, all government offices would be closed down because the bosses would be part of the campaign and Youyi Building would become totally empty.
We call on those running our public service to make sure civil servants stay out of politics and work for all the people of this country. What we realized on Friday was that even ministers who had no business with airports, abandoned their offices to go to Lungi just to catch the eye of a man they meet every week in cabinet. This must be discouraged.
SOON THERE WILL BE NO REFEREES IN THE SALONE PREMIER LEAGUE
The SLFA has finally moved against one of their referees. They’ve suspended the guy for so-called bad officiating. The SLFA press release says the referee overruled one of his assistants and the resulting play resulted in a goal with the obvious controversies. We have a league in which even genuine goals attract a lot of noise and occasional fisticuffs.
So far those who call themselves members of the football family have applauded the action because their whole life is full of complaints against referees, especially when they lose matches. What if that action of overruling the referee assistant didn’t result in a goal, would the SLFA have still gone ahead to suspend this referee.
We recently complained about the quality of refereeing in Salone Premier League matches and we identified ARROGANCE AND LOYALTY to certain clubs as the main drivers of this phenomenon we call poor officiating. Let’s not hide it: there is some amount of corruption involved but it happens towards the end of the season when winners and relegation-threatened teams begin to appear on the radar.
Here’s what we think:
1. This particular referee is now being used as a scapegoat for the failure of the SLFA and the referees’ committee to recruit referees who are good at the job and can stand above petty corruption and primordial attachment to certain clubs. The SLFA hopes to quiet the noise about poor refereeing with this action but they are making a sad mistake because if anything people are going to keep asking for more suspensions.
2. We suspect all referees would have been suspended for poor officiating by the time we reach the second round of the league because despite their FIFA badges, many of our referees are below the standards we are used to seeing abroad. Those we see on TV have their own limitations but they are not influenced by the sort of thing we just mentioned above.
We are waiting to hear what the chairman of the referees will say about this SLFA action. Or could it be that they were represented at the meeting where the decision to suspend this referee was taken? Those celebrating the action of the SLFA now should be ready to accept when whole matches start being canceled for poor officiating. Our problem with this decision is that we are not sure the SLFA will be consistent. They have done this to pacify vocal sections of their so-called football family.
WHEN PARLIAMENT CLOSES DOWN IN THE COMING WEEKS
Some members of the current parliament know they will not return to Tower Hill after the June 24 2023 elections. In fact some of them landed there by mistake or riding on the wings of certain people and institutions. We will certainly not miss a good many of them from all sides of the House and we can't wait for Bio to close the House. Here are those we will not miss.
1. MPs who didn’t contribute a single word to all the debates throughout their tenure. They spent five years only voting along party lines and helping make the House ungovernable at different times in the life of this parliament.
2. Undertone MPs. These are people who are good at making undertones while others are speaking. They are very effective in that. People are not sent to Tower Hill to be making undertones so we will not miss them.
3. Absentee MPs. There were times when Speaker Bundu went out of his way to complain about absenteeism among MPs. When IGR released a report on that and other matters some MPs took up arms and attacked one of the most credible organizations in this country. We will help them leave parliament by taking their attendance card to their people.
4. MPs who took opposition politics to a whole new level. We don’t want to go into the details, including how Speaker Bundu described them when he took action to stop the police from arresting and prosecuting them for serious disturbances in the House. We will definitely not miss those few guys.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (06/03/23)
