GUINEA REOPENS BORDER AFTER RE-ARRESTING DADIS
Closing Guinea has reopened their border with Sierra Leone several hours after closing the place down for fear that former junta leader and his friends who were sprung from jail in a surprise attack last weekend would find their way into this country and so escape justice. Reports from Conakry now say all but one of the main guys, including Dadis Kamara have been re-arrested and are back in jail. The situation is still volatile in Col. Mamady Doumbuya’s country but at least the guns have fallen silent once again.
There are pictures on social media showing a brief ceremony announcing the re-opening of the border to the delight of those around. There are many reasons why some in the background celebrated the reopening of the border:
1. The two countries trade a lot and there are huge migrant communities on both sides moving in and out of both countries even more than that between Sierra Leone and Liberia to the south-east.
2. Any security threat in Guinea directly affects us on this side. Guinea has always been a good friend of Sierra Leone.
3. The security officers on both sides of the border have resumed the business of collecting their daily bread from passengers. The owners of the cottage industry serving travellers between the two countries are also extremely happy.
Meanwhile we should announce that anybody declared wanted in Guinea should stay away from our country. The republic of Guinea has SIX land borders and the Atlantic Ocean. We encourage fugitives to choose other countries or seek safe haven in a trawler in international waters
SLFA AND KAMBOI EAGLES: A STITCH IN TIME….
The decision by Kambio Eagles to take out an injunction putting the national football league to a halt has not gone down well with many in football management and possibly a good number of fans but for different reasons. The fans want to go out and have fun with the nation’s most popular game at weekends so they hate the injunction. The administrators also want the ball to roll as we say in Freetown but they don’t like what will come out in Justice Fisher’s courtroom when evidence is presented.
From our little corner, we think this is a big opportunity to challenge certain behaviors and attitudes in this game to the benefit of all. We will not listen to any noise about FIFA regulations and this and that. Justice Fisher works really hard in his court so if we have to wait for another two weeks to get this case out of the way, we are fine with that. The SLFA saw this coming but as usual there are guys in there with their unofficial advisers who told the boss to IGNORE Kamboi Eagles. See where we are now.
As Sierra Leoneans, our dog in this fight is the game itself and unless we say some home truths about the way things are going with this game, we should be prepared for anything including waking up one morning to find out that a team had been declared champions with kicking a ball. We are stretching things a bit far but permit us to do so as we argue that nothing surprises us anymore with this game.
1. Without prejudice to the issues before on which the case will be decided, how can anybody explain the fact that a senior stakeholder admitted to knowingly fielding two ineligible players, damning the consequences. Well, the stakeholder probably was aware of how those consequences would affect the league table.
2. Again, how can a team leading by 4 goals to 2, refuse to replay TWELVE minutes of their match that was disrupted by crowd trouble and expect people to accept this was the NORMAL run of things?
Anyway, all those big guys in Kenema now hiding behind the young fan club people whose names are on this case, should bow their heads in shame. Their eyes were wide open as things went from bad to worse for that legendary club. They failed their people because of political infighting. We pray the team is not held hostage to their political ambitions. We know what we know.
We still don’t know the details of that hastily arranged meeting at the sports ministry but we understand an attempt was made to settle out of court. We are waiting.
SLAVE MASTERS MUST PAY REPARATION FOR THE SLAVE TRADE
The President of Ghana may be having a rough time with his economy at the moment like many other presidents given the harsh economic realities of today but when he appeared at the UN the other day he re-opened a conversation we always like to take part in.
He called on those who enslaved Africans for many years to try and make amends for that. This is not the first time civic and political leaders from Africa have made that call. The guilty parties in the industrialized West have always played down the issue.
Nana Akuffo Addo has thrown that debate wide open again and this time we believe we should push things so hard that we will eventually reach a conclusion.
For some people every time we mention reparation they think only in terms of container loads of money being sent down to Africa. Yes we want all the money they refused to pay us for work done in those plantations and in building certain cities but that’s not all.
1. Let’s start with an apology that is genuine – an apology that comes from the heart. We are not impressed by those qualified apologies they keep churning out. They apologize but quickly tell us that our ancestors also played a part in the trade. We don’t want to litigate that here again. Give us an unqualified apology and let’s take the next step.
2. End the unfair world economic practices forced upon Africa in particular. We are talking about the system operated by the World Bank and IMF. The burden those bodies have put on Africa is on that we cannot carry. We want a seat among the permanent members of the UN Security Council with full VETO powers.
3. Stop encouraging and sometimes participating in wars in Africa. All those arms shipments and mercenaries are not needed in Africa. The beneficiaries are those who enslaved Africans all those years ago.
4. Stop racism in the West. There’s a constant racist KNEE on the NECK of the African diaspora.
Let’s start with these actions while we calculate the amount of cash we deserve. The pay day MUST come NOW.
NO LIFT AT YOUYI BUILDING: WHAT’S GOING ON?
Please let’s not wait for Chinese engineers to come to this country to repair the lifts at Youyi Building. We cannot overemphasize the importance of that building which houses several ministries, departments and agencies of government. We have witnessed how people struggle on a daily basis to access their offices, especially those beyond the third floor. It’s so serious that some ministers have taken some of their activities to other places.
How did we allow all the lifts in that building to go down without alerting those responsible to the consequences? We have seen Chinese workers there repairing that lift in the past just like they are doing to the stadium. Why should we allow that to happen?
There are workers in that Youyi Building who, even in normal times, would find excuses to stay away from work. Here’s a perfect one delivered on a silver platter. We are watching that situation closely.
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