TAKE THE NEXT STEP TOWARDS THE AfCON: GO LEONE STARS!
We are up against one of the powerhouses of African football this weekend in Liberia. By the current standings in our group, we have no choice now but to take down anybody standing in our way. It’s that serious. The great Super Eagles of Nigeria are coming to face us in Monrovia. We are playing away this time because our stadium is under renovation. We have a lot in common with Liberia and there’s a huge migrant community from Sierra Leone in that country so we are fine as far as support base is concerned.
We have played against Nigeria many times and we have proved to them that even small brothers can punch really hard when pushed against the wall. We are sorry to tell Nigeria that our backs are now against the wall in this AfCON business so they should expect to have a real fight on their hands.
Looking at their line up on paper, many pundits would simply write off this small nation called Sierra Leone. Not so fast guys. Here’s why?
1. We have a proud history against Nigeria. No need to go into any details here. They know that playing against Leone Stars is a serious business. They have a potential banana skin in front of them in the city of Monrovia.
2. The backbone of our team is created from young guys playing at home. They would like to play in the big leagues of Europe and they know that there will be scouts in those stands watching the game. They know they have an opportunity now to force those scouts to visit them in their hotel after the match.
3. The Super Eagles are mostly based in Europe, playing big time football. They are on holiday now but they are thinking about holding their positions in those clubs. Any injury would hinder a lucrative move or staying relevant to their clubs. It will reflect in the way they play.
4. These days the Super Eagles don’t really dominate and beat countries like they did in the days of Finidi George and Kanu Nwankwo. They have lost a bit of that spark. We are ready to exploit that.
5. Tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans are coming to that stadium to see our boys beat Nigeria. We will show people how passionate we are about football.
IF YOU SAY IT’S A NEWS CONFERENCE, LET IT BE
We are not going to start any big lecture here about what a PRESS CONFERENCE is or why PRESS CONFERENCES are called and how they are conducted. All we want to say here is that political parties in Sierra Leone have generally organized small party meetings and then invited journalists to witness and report on those meetings. All the parties do this and we have reached a point now at which some clean break from that practice must happen.
In a press conference, as opposed to a political rally, we expect only a handful of the conveners and invited journalists in the room. The rest of the people get to know what was done and said in that room by the reporting that follows the conference but the whole thing has been turned upside down in Sierra Leone such that there are always more party stalwarts in the room than journalists. And it can be a pretty scary environment to operate even for journalists trained in how to work in hazardous terrain.
1. SLAJ has just complained about a rude and scary attack on Umaru Fofana after the Tolongbo press conference on Wednesday. That’s so unnecessary. We are waiting to see how the party reacts but in the past they have simply ignored such complaints. A free and independent media is an INDISPENSABLE part of the DEMOCRACY we are all crying for.
2. In a democracy, journalists MUST be safe. Their job is to report what they see and hear and sometimes drop some perspectives based on facts. To have partisans ambush, roundly insult and threaten a credible and highly professional guy like Umaru just after a news conference is beginning to look like what would happen in North Korea.
3. In a press conference Journalists should be able to ask questions based on what is presented. If the conveners decide not to take questions, that’s fine but in the kind of news conferences we are witnessing now Journalists are normally too scared to ask questions as they look over their shoulders from partisans looking menacingly at them.
4. SLAJ should go beyond issuing statements and hold people and organizations responsible for their crazy actions against Journalists. SLAJ knows what to do.
MORE MIGRANTS PERISHING IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
In the last 48 hours, more souls have perished in the Mediterranean Sea as they tried to reach Europe by the back door. We don’t yet have a breakdown of where those migrants came from but there’s no doubt that many African lives have been lost again. The initial reports we are getting is that about ONE HUNDRED children may have drowned when the fishing trawler went down. We ask God to have mercy upon their young souls. They died because of reckless and desperate decision making by their parents or guardians.
We know some of our brothers and sisters are fleeing because of the harsh economic realities in the world today but many others simply want a stable life to raise their children. Look at what is happening in Sudan. The people of that great country went to bed one night two months or so ago only to be woken up by artillery rounds and small arms fire. Sudan is now destroyed beyond recognition and the people are fleeing in all directions. Some of those African brothers and sisters may well have died in this disaster or may be on their way to the same dangerous crossing.
Meanwhile, Europe is closing doors and even planning to deport those who are already on ground. We have to think well as Africans to find a way to stop wars, unnecessary political contests and concentrate on development. Much of the war machines now in use in Sudan is produced outside the continent and sold to us so we can kill each other.
Contrast to the way Ukrainian refugees are treated in Western capitals to what our people are going through. We are seen as people from faraway places looking for food while their neighbors in Ukraine are good guys. When will our leaders learn this simple lesson?
WE SAY GOODBYE TO OUR PILGRIMS
We understand more than FOUR HUNDRED Sierra Leoneans are flying out soon to perform this year’s Hajj in Saudi Arabia. This is a crucial pillar of the Islamic faith so we wish our relatives all the very best and urge them to kindly remember to pray for mother Sierra Leone. We want our country to prosper in peace and love.
We call on the authorities to make sure all the pilgrims that have registered and paid their monies get on a plane and land in Saudi Arabia in time for the program. We don’t want a repeat of that scenario not too long ago when our pilgrims were left stranded in Nigeria because the Saudis closed their airspace. We also don’t want our people to be spending days and nights at Youyi Building just to get on a bus to reach Lungi. People going to fulfill religious obligations should be treated with complete respect.
ARE THE OTHER PARTIES NOT CAMPAIGNING IN FREETOWN?
The people of Freetown must be forgiven for believing that there are only two parties in the coming election. Campaign days were recently allotted to the different political parties, more than a dozen of them in fact but they are completely missing in action. The truth is they are not able to mount and campaign because they can’t raise the money required to achieve. They don’t have the structure or personnel to deliver an effective campaign.
We told the PPRC sometime ago in this column that going by their constitutive act, many of our so-called political parties should be closed down because they are undemocratic, in terms of how they select their leaders they are confined to single room office spaces in one or two places and in the leader’s laptop computer. The PPRC knows this. In trying to accommodate people, PPRC has unleashed a group of parties that are totally unable to run themselves but they are going around posing as political parties.
We call on the PPRC to follow its own laws after this election and take some parties off the list. We feel extremely happy that no Goodluck Jonathan money is coming this way this year and we hope no state money is going to these social clubs. Those who want to run Sierra Leone should be first able to take care of themselves and follow the law.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (16/06/23)
