GOOD THINGS CAN COME OUT OF SIERRA LEONE
What a week this has been for Mama Salone. Forget about the ongoing voter registration and the talk about faulty machines, long queues and delays and the unnecessarily divisive nonsense about faulty machines being carefully selected and sent to certain parts of the country. Let’s talk for a minute or two about the new UK Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly and the US tennis star Francis Tiafoe. The whole nation is praying for these guys because they have Sierra Leonean blood running through their veins.
Cheverly’s mum was a Sierra Leonean and the British politician has spoken publicly about that and for Francis Tiafoe both parents are from this Land that we Love. Of course Cleverly is a member of the British government and his job is to serve that great count so we shouldn’t expect any radical shift in policy to make Sierra Leone a little heaven in West Africa. That’s not the way they do things. He may cast a sympathetic eye over Sierra Leonean issues when things come up but even that will be in the context of what the British government decides so please let’s not start reading too much into that appointment. All we can do now is to wish him the best in his new role and pray for him. He is our brother.
Francis Tiafoe is already in the history books and we will hold the details for now until the US Open ends with our brother winning his first Grand Slam on the soil of his adopted country. We don’t have the facilities at home for another Francis Tiafoe to spring up locally but we hope he will inspire the people of this country to start the process of producing a local guy to compete in a Grand Slam. It’s possible.
So even with the normal doomsday political audios all over the social media, we still have something to celebrate this week. Why can’t those threatening, war and destruction for political reasons call a halt to all of that until the US open ends with Tiafoe taking the trophy?
THOSE SOCIAL MEDIA ECSL REGISTRATION FLYERS
There are dozens of flyers all over social media with one politician, activist or social media influencer or the other urging people to go to ECSL registration centers to register their intentions to vote in 2023. Let’s pay some special attention to the politicians for a moment because even those who abandoned the people years ago are now creeping out of their small corners to drag the people from their homes, business places and offices to register.
These politicians are spending a lot of money for so-called mobilization drives to register the voters. It’s so interesting to read all their patriotic words. Despite all the complaints about faulty machines and all that, we have been assured by ECSL that all those who are qualified and want to register will be registered. We wish them all the best.
We just want to put other things we’ve observed at the onset of the registration process on record:
1. There’s been a dramatic rise in demand for loud hailers in Sierra Leone. Suddenly orders are being placed by business people because every politician needs these little machines to get their potential voters to the ECSL registration point.
2. Community radio stations serving our rural population have lost their spark. Advertising revenue, already hit by social media, has suffered further because the TOWN CRIER has returned with modern day equipment.
3. Young people who have been calling for attention from politicians from all sides of the political divide are now in some kind of employment. They are the ones being sent to small settlements to bring out voters. The next phase of their employment after registration is the campaign period which will begin in earnest just after Christmas. It wouldn’t matter whether campaigning would have been formally declared or not.
4. We warn those social media flyer politicians that the people of this country know what to do with their votes. Politicians who go to sleep for FOUR YEARS only to wake up on the eve of elections would be sent to permanent political slumber in 2023. Stop fooling yourselves on social media.
NATIONAL TEAM COACHES SHOULD NOT HEAD LOCAL CLUBS
Today we want to join many other Sierra Leoneans in calling for the football authorities in this country – the Ministry of Sports, the SLFA and the NSA to end this practice of appointing coaches for the national team who are also in charge of local clubs. It is a practice that should end immediately. We are not saying this because of the really poor results we’ve been getting recently in our international engagements. We are saying it because it is wrong.
This country is spending a lot of money on football, in particular considering competing demands in education, health and infrastructure. So we cannot accept that if we send teams abroad they would perform abysmally and return home quietly to wait for another spending spree on tournaments we NEVER win. We need good results for the sacrifices we are making to pay allowances, bonuses, airfares, hotel bills and expensive meals. We want to send players abroad with a winning mentality, not people who simply go there to do selfies and return home to be seen the next day playing in one of those nondescript mini-leagues around Freetown.
The SLFA should immediately sack all national coaches who are engaged with local clubs. We can’t even imagine Gareth Southgate retaining his job as England Manager and returning to manage Middlesbrough. Why do people always try to do things differently back home?
We serve notice to this SLFA which is trying to use compensation tactics to remain in post that we will continue to work with our compatriots who are totally against national coaches also working for local clubs. We don’t want any divided attention when it comes to national affairs. We don’t want coaches using the national stage to promote the interest of local clubs.
We will be back on this matter if no action is taken.
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