CAN WE TAKE A LOOK AT THE RENOVATION WORK AT THE STADIUM PLEASE?
We thank the Chinese government for providing the cash and personnel to renovate our stadium in Freetown. We may be wrong but we believe this is the second time we’ve turned to the Chinese to improve that facility since they delivered it to the people of this country in 1979. Please, let’s not go that way again. In fact, we should be working very hard now to do another one somewhere in this land that we love. There’s no problem doing it in Lungi. It will be a great addition to the new airport and this idea of that place becoming the new city.
Anyway, we want to make a humble request and we hope the minister of sport will act on this quickly. We urge our minister of sport to organize a media tour of the Siaka Steven Stadium so that we can have a look at the work being done. We have no doubt that the Chinese team is doing a good job. That’s not the issue. Our people are becoming restless, they have no idea what’s going on and just when the gates of that place will be opened to the rest of us.
There are many football fans that have not watched a single football match in the on-going Sierra Leone Premier League because the Siaka Steven Stadium is closed. These days league matches are played in dusty back water playgrounds around Freetown with serious implications for the health of our young players. The current situation is also impacting the financial base of the clubs. We are talking about those ridiculous gate-takings that would otherwise represent just one stand at the Siaka Steven Stadium.
We cannot end this without mentioning the unbridled violence that takes place in these dusty venues. To start with, matches are easily disrupted by pitch invaders to celebrate a goal or disagree with the decision of match officials. Above all, match officials are routinely abused and attacked by fans, including those from whom we expect so much in this game.
Mr. Minister, please open up this place and let’s see.
PROFESSOR FOREIGN MINISTER PLEASE TALK TO THIS NATION AT TUNISIA
A few countries in our neighborhood have been evacuating their people from the pressure cooker called Tunisia. We know about the Republic of Guinea and Ivory Coast taking out dozens of their people. Some of these people were students invited to that country by the government. All this while, they’ve lived a normal life, mixing freely with the people of that country while getting an education. They woke up one morning facing threats and raw violence unleashed by their friends and neighbors.
The immediate trigger for this is that their dictatorial president made a public address in which he described BLACK AFRICANS like us living or passing through his country, as part of a conspiracy to change the demographic structure of his country. How he came to that conclusion is something we are trying to investigate because the new dictator in North Africa did NOT provide any evidence.
On our side, we’ve waited for Professor Foreign Minister to tell us about the status of our brothers and sisters in that pressure cooker now that other countries are evacuating their nationals. In his usual way of doing things, Professor Foreign Minister has not said a word. We saw a press statement from our embassy located miles away in Egypt saying nothing. Professor Foreign Minister always wants to engage the media on his terms. He doesn’t want to answer uncomfortable questions. That’s not how governance works sir.
We will keep pushing until the foreign ministry in Freetown says something about our people in Tunisia. Maybe we should have asked Guinea to drag some of our people home. Please talk to us Professor Foreign Minister.
HOW IS OUR NEW MAKENI DIOCESE BISHOP SETTLING IN?
The Makeni Diocese of the Catholic Church in Sierra Leone is now headed by a new Bishop – the kind of guy the big guys in the Makeni Diocese wanted all along. When bishop Aruna who actually worked in that place was appointed by the Vatican, the leaders of the Makeni Diocese were up in arms. They told the Vatican that they would only accept a Sierra Leonean from their part of the country, certainly not Bishop Aruna from the political construct called South-east Sierra Leone. It didn’t matter to them whether he had worked in the Diocese.
A series of meetings and prayer sessions at home and abroad didn’t change anything. Ordinary church members were drawn into the struggle and some priests who quickly realized the shame and spoke against it were chased out of the area. In the end, a white priest was sent to the Diocese as a Bishop in all but name. There was no objection from the priests who championed the NO SOUTH-EASTERNER crusade. So the good people of Sierra Leone concluded that their relatives in Makeni were comfortable with a European leading them as long as that would stop their own brother from another part of the country taking the leadership there. We know that the leadership of the Catholic community in Sierra Leone asked King Messi to intervene and clear the shame but he turned the other way.
The Vatican covered the shame by sending Aruna to take over the Kenema Diocese following the death of Bishop Patrick Koroma.
We welcome Bishop Kororma to the job in Makeni. We wish him well. He is a young guy and we’ll see how he gets on with leading God’s children from that corner of the world. We hope he will do the following:
1. In his first homily he should state clearly whether he was part of those priests who galvanized the church in that part of Sierra Leone against Bishop Aruna or did he give support from the back?
2. What’s his position on the whole affair? Please our Bishop elect, don’t tell us to forget about all of that and look forward. This was a very dark period in the history of Sierra Leone so we need to complete the final paragraphs.
3. Please tell the nation how you plan to run the Diocese so that all the priests there would be proud to serve Sierra Leone and the world, not just one region of this country. What if somebody from Makeni Diocese was appointed Bishop of Kenema Diocese?
THE WAR AGAINST THE KUSH MENACE MUST GO ON
This is 2023 and we are building up to elections in June. Let’s not hide the fact that this is the time our politicians dish out drugs to young people to prepare them for campaign rallies and acts of sabotage against their opponents. Last year we saw pictures on social media of young people in the streets and in back houses high on drugs.
We see them sleeping on the streets with others struggling to walk home. We also saw a few police officers and soldiers in full uniform, totally drunk. Those posting the videos are normally trying to catch a little fun but there is nothing funny about the situation facing Sierra Leone. Yes, we have seen a few guys on social media but in reality, the problem is huge. And it would appear as if we have no control over what’s happening right under our collective noses.
We are living in very difficult times in the world – there’s war in Europe, food and fuel prices are going up daily, humanitarian assistance is drying up fast and small and dependent countries like Sierra Leone are struggling to deal with the basics of daily survival. Ordinary people are on the streets complaining. So why would anybody care about a handful of mostly young people who decide to kill themselves with narcotics.
Our point is that we have to do something immediately about this KUSH MENACE.
1. A good many of our young people are sleepwalking into danger. They are running away from joblessness and hopelessness and taking cover from hardship by consuming KUSH. It makes no sense. Some got involved under very heavy peer pressure. We must do all we can to get them out.
2. Let’s arrest the suppliers and lock them up quickly. Let’s also arrest their accomplices in our security sector and seize all the proceeds of their crime. We will use that money to rehabilitate our people and give them something to do.
3. We know the people bringing and supplying KUSH in this country. Let’s stop hypocrisy and face them now. They are killing our people. This is a WAR we must win.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (10/3/23)
