MINISTER OF HIGHER EDUCATION GOOD MORNING SIR
Hope you are doing well sir. We have observed that you have suffered two policy reversals recently. That’s not a good thing in politics. You probably know more about that than hacks like us trying to understand what’s happening within the walls of the cabinet office.
1. Your position on polytechnics being transformed into universities was over-turned at the last minute – in fact as students gathered on the campus of Eastern Polytechnic to demonstrate. We read your letter reversing that position. We also read what an official of the Tertiary Education Commission posted on a whatsapp forum on the same issue. In terms of policy formulation and implementation, that wasn’t great.
2. Njala lecturers have just called off a strike action over your refusal to reverse the appointment of two of their colleagues to positions they were not supposed to hold at this times because the laws guiding such appointments was not followed. The whole thing has been reversed and the University Court is back in charge of something they ought to have been doing anyway.
So what’s really happening in your corner sir?
CREATE A MINISTRY FOR LAW AND ORDER
On behalf the decent and hardworking people of Sierra Leone we call on Principal to hurriedly create a MINISTRY for LAW and ORDER. Whether he does that as part of a wider reshuffle of government or not is not our primary concern. We’ve been hearing a lot about a coming reshuffle but while he thinks about that Principal must make a big statement about his commitment to end lawlessness in this country by creating this ministry right now.
Principal, you must have been hearing a lot about acts of lawlessness and soon people will begin to blame you for failing to take action when criminals are flagrantly encroaching on their civil liberties. It may surprise you to know that there are parts of Freetown now that gangs have taken over. They are NO GO areas at certain points of the day. Principal, you cannot allow that to happen on you watch. Here’s our idea of what this ministry will look like.
1. First of all re-structure what we now call MINISTRY OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS. Create a department to handle immigration, NCRA and that drug agency with a Director General in charge. The new LAW and ORDER ministry will take the police and other security units and concentrate on them.
2. We have a lot of questions for the man now running the current Internal Affairs ministry. Our questions are about specific incidents in which we believe he failed to prove himself ready for the job. Remember what happened to Justice Biobele and John Tambi within the space of two days?
3. The new ministry will be very well funded to recruit the best people and train them well, so well that we will have very little or no complaints about police tactics against peaceful Sierra Leoneans.
4. The day the new minister takes office there will be a meeting in the criminal underworld. At the end of that meeting some of those criminals in attendance will resign and become normal people again.
5. The new ministry will build another so-called maximum security prison. We will bang criminals up there for long periods and make our streets safe again.
ANOTHER WEEKEND OF FOOTBALL IN KENEMA CAN VIOLENCE BE AVOIDED.
East End Tigers of Freetown are heading east this weekend for a crucial encounter with Kamboi Eagles. On the face of it this should be a good game but we cannot easily rule out the possibility of violence breaking out in that place once again. Why this is happening all the time in Kenema is something to investigate.
During the Premier League season of 2019 with Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai as chairman, the match between Kamboi Eagles and Diamond Stars of Kono was abandoned because of crowd trouble. Recently the match with Mighty Blackpool ended in violence, next was the turn of East End Lions – the match was abandoned in the last quarter.
We witnessed the East End Lions clash with Kamboi Eagles while on some private matter out there. Here’s what we think happened and how to proceed from here.
1. It was very clear from what happened right in front of us that the vast majority of the local fans are very decent people who went out there to support their team but there was a small group of troublemakers who may well have played a part in the trouble that occurred. They must be identified and stopped.
2. It was strange that the violence started from the area of the field from which much is expected in terms of comportment in a public space. We know that those who occupied the only covered stand must have paid more and generally belong to a social class that should assure us of their overwhelming concern for their family or reputation to protect. Were they invaded by troublemakers?
3. Why were Kamboi Eagles fans put in the area of the pavilion behind the reserve bench of the away team and the singing and dancing crowd allowed to enter the part of the pavilion occupied by the visiting team? Our information is that the whole clash started when the dancers approached the away team that was losing with some provocation. The incident is being investigated so we will hang this here for now.
4. Was it a tactical way of EE Lions escaping what looked like a certain defeat? Yes the fans invaded the pitch but had they shown even a modicum of zeal to continue the match for the last quarter of an hour we would have reached a conclusion.
5. How will the Premier League Board deal with this matter? Should they decide to play out the last FIFTEEN minutes of the match, we urge them NEVER to return to that rocky pitch out in Kenema. In fact they should simply take that field off the list of Premier League playing grounds in the interest of players and fans.
What’s the point of having everything in place to spread an artificial turf if after more than THREE years you still can’t do the job? On the eve of an elective congress the president who neglected the field all these years turns up in Kenema to announce that the project will begin in two weeks and that the artificial turf there will be the best in the world. Who is going to fall for that gimmick? What’s wrong with Kenema?
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