ALPHA CONDE’S DISPUTED THIRD TERM IS DEAD
Old Professor Conde went to bed last Saturday night feeling good about life and enjoying his presidency. He would wake up to the sound of gunfire on Sunday as his own selected and trained boys moved in on him to end his TEN YEAR hold on power in Guinea. By the end of that day the Professor was out of his normal surroundings facing a completely changed country. He is widely reported as saying that his country should have no FORMER President because like SEKOU TOURE and LANSANA CONTE, he would also die in office. That wish has obviously now gone up in smoke.
We are concerned about another military group arriving on the political scene in West Africa and we are looking forward to seeing how the world and our sub-regional bodies deal with the new people in Guinea. Right now, we have to remember Conde for his attitude to our country since the NEW DIRECTION landed here.
1. Conde accused Kotor Juldeh of working with opposition forces to defeat him in his THIRD TERM bid. It was a ludicrous and cynical ruse to damage the good relationship between the two countries.
2. At the slightest excuse Conde closed his borders with Sierra Leone knowing how crucial the main border is, for movement of people and goods. He didn’t give a damn about the consequences on both sides.
3. Conde sent troops across into disputed Yenga to remove a demarcation post, dangerously ratcheting up tension between Sierra Leone and Guinea. It took maximum restraint from the State House in Freetown to prevent skirmishes along that border.
4. Principal traveled to Guinea for a summit with Conde and managed to get him to re-open the Pamalap border which he had unnecessarily closed for months. He promised a reciprocal visit to cool tension and further strengthen the bi-lateral relations. He did not act on his promise. In fact we are told that Principal indicated to some of his aides after meeting Conde that there would be no summit in Freetown because the guy was not keen.
5. Even today there are TWENTY-TWO young Sierra Leonean boys in a Guinean jail. They were locked up after a kangaroo trial on bogus charges. All diplomatic efforts to get them out have failed. We hope the new people in Guinea will release them along with other political detainees. Conde was NOT a good neighbor.
BABADIE KAMARA MOVES HIS BO RANGERS PROJECT UP
Babadie Kamara set himself ambitious goals when he took over Bo Rangers. This was a club with a lot of potential but like the others in Freetown; it remained in a marginal position competing basically to be either in mid table or just above relegation. So the new Team Chairman said by the end of his tenure he would have put Bo Rangers on a sound financial footing, build a clubhouse and then win the Sierra Leone Premier League. The first two have been achieved. We saw the figures when the imposing club house was opened for action recently. Now Babadi Kamara is pushing for the third. We admire his determination.
Bo Rangers now have what looks like an impressive technical line up in the training ground and some more money is pouring into the coffers. Bo Rangers are leading the Premier League that resumes this weekend after the COVID-19 break. They have invested heavily.
The real issue now is that players of Bo Rangers, including Musa Tombo who likes being in the headlines for all the wrong reasons MUST prove worthy of that investment on the field of play, they have to always dominate and then beat teams at home and away. No excuses. They have a very supportive fan base that must behave well even under pressure.
All eyes are now on Babadi Kamara and Bo Rangers to deliver. We wish them well and warn them that there are many banana skins along the way to the championship. They could easily slip and fall and prolong the third item on Babadi’s agenda so he could declare victory and MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.
RASTA SENGS REOPENS SCHOOLS BUT ADMISSIONS STILL ON
Going by the calendar released by Rasta Sengs, schools are back in session. This is something we should celebrate because he is making commendable efforts to keep the normal school calendar in place but we are not exactly celebrating. We are not celebrating because many of his own schools have still not completed admissions so just a few children are turning up in uniforms. The rest are standing behind their parents near the offices of school principals seeking admission. Many of those children are struggling because they entered those schools as SECOND CHOICES.
By now Rasta Sengs should know and openly admit that his principals do not recognize any children trying to enter their schools from a second choice position. It’s a real shame. We observed one principal behaving like God on earth in a certain school and even ordered staff to keep parents about one hundred meters away from the office because second choice candidates and their parents were anathema. From another school, we were told that Rasta Sengs himself addressed some parents on some burning issues.
We repeat what we said the other day: If the schools are not prepared to accommodate candidates from a second choice position, why have that fantasy prescription? There are children who scored more than the misbehaving principals are looking for in these schools that have been rejected just because the children selected those schools as second choices. What’s going on?
We also reported about an attempt to squeeze money out of a woman we know at a government school. She refused and moved her child to another school. We have reason to believe many other parents have simply collapsed under pressure and paid big cash for spaces they genuinely deserve.
SOVULA FAILS TO STOP THE STEALING OF CARS IN SALONE
There is now an ongoing but undeclared war against all Toyota vehicles in Sierra Leone, particularly RAV 4 Vehicles. Criminals are waging that war by stealing RAV 4 vehicles all over the place totally unchecked. As far as we know the record of Sovula’s people in recovering stolen vehicles and successfully prosecuting the criminals is patchy, nothing to write home about.
In one case, a guy, one of the few now before the courts, allegedly stole a vehicle from a senior citizen in the west of Freetown and drove through police checkpoints in the midst of a raging social media campaign to find the car. The guy crossed the border and drove deep into neighboring Guinea before he was arrested by police who merely took their chance by asking the extra question.
Frankly, it’s almost as if the boys in blue have given up trying to stop cars being stolen in broad daylight in Freetown in particular. They will never say this but this is where we are now as a nation. We know of cars being stolen while their owners were in church or decided to stop by a fast food joint to get something for the family. We cannot continue like this at all.
We believe that if Sovula and his people put bait cars in ten locations in Freetown, making use of technology, they will round up the few people stealing cars in Freetown and put them away for a long time with ease but waiting for distressed people to run into your stations to complain and then giving assurances will not work.
When we recently called attention to the role the many scrap yards in Freetown are playing in this criminal project, we were ignored. We call on Sovula to read those comments again.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (08/09/21)
