EU PARLIAMENT'S CORRUPTION CASE TAKES A NEW TWIST
As we say in Freetown the game is getting bigger and bigger at the European Union parliament. The authorities in Belgium have made arrests and found big money kept in suitcases allegedly by senior members of the EU parliament.
International media outlets are reporting that those MPs received bribes from the state of Qatar to influence debates in the EU Parliament, especially on the question of the rights of workers in that country. So while European politicians were busy questioning FIFA’s decision to award the World Cup hosting rights to Qatar, some members of their own parliament were busy closing deals.
In the last 48 hours, we’ve been told that somebody who was definitely involved in the deals has entered a plea bargain and would now answer all questions. Now, those who took part should be ready to pick a call from the police in Belgium.
We just want to say that the usual suspects are not involved in this – this is not happening in any African country. It’s happening inside the parliament of the European Union and we are watching things from thousands of miles away.
On behalf of the good people of Sierra Leone, we want to suggest a few things to do with the money that allegedly came from Qatar.
1. Put all that money into the Bank of Sierra Leone. We hope such a massive injection of hard currency would help stabilize our economy.
2. Please send us all the money so we can treat mental health patients and take care of other special needs people.
3. Anyway, if the money came from Qatar as alleged, please send it back. They will use it to further improve the lives of people in their country. Why not? We will not allow the Belgians to keep that cash and call it proceeds of crime. Countries in Africa are poor today because banks in certain countries helped greedy dictators in some African countries hide their loot. Let the good music play.
PLEASE DON’TBRING KISSY ROAD TO HILLSIDE BYE-PASS
We know our SMILING MAYOR has totally given up on sanitation in Freetown. She has also given up on this whole question of controlling street trading. She thinks trying to organize the traders and restrict their settlements in Freetown is a vote loser. Instead of paying attention to these crucial issues, she is busy writing letters to ECSL asking for street by street registration figures. How she came to contest as Mayor in Freetown when a few days before nomination she was living in Waterloo rural area is something she doesn’t want to talk about. In fact she believes nobody remembers what actually happened.
All we are saying now is that as good people of Freetown, we don’t want to see what is happening now along Kissy road, transferred to Hillside Bye-pass road - we are talking about all that throwing of rubbish all over the place, selling second hand goods on the sidewalks and traffic chaos. Left with SMILING MAYOR she couldn’t care less about all this. She is always waiting to see the government take decisive action like the one at Abacha Street, so that she can run to social media to tell the world that “I was not consulted”.
The other day we saw pictures of buckets of rubbish packed on the roadside in that place. What is really happening in this city that SMILING says she has TRANSFORMED?
MUSA TOMO THE DRUMMER BOY OF BO RANGERS
The other day, somebody on social media went as far as asking the good people of Sierra Leone to do everything possible to get Musa Tombo back playing for his former club side, Bo Rangers. We don’t understand why some people choose to act with such hypocrisy. Anyway, it’s up to Bo Rangers to re-sign the man despite the position taken by the SLFA.
One quiet evening Musa Tombo flew all the way to Libya to sign up Al-Etihad in war torn Libya. Many in even the sport media only knew about the deal when controversy broke over his passport and the so-called refusal by Bo Rangers to grant him release. That turned out to be a lie.
Tombo signed the deal and was introduced to the fans in an open stadium. To cut a long story short Tombo was granted compassionate leave to return home after he threatened to kill himself with a bread knife. Now the SLFA has confirmed he has a contract with the Libyan club which he MUST attend or buy himself out of the contract. So what is our business with that? How about other Sierra Leoneans who are in trouble all over the world for breach of contract? The guy signed his deal; let’s allow him to sort himself out. We have other things to attend to.
Anyway, he was a good drummer at the Kenema stadium. Maybe that’s a good way to keep busy. We should be collecting pennies at all matches until we raise enough cash to buy him out of that contract. We may achieve that in 2035.
FRANCIS ZAPPA KOROMA ON THE BRINK AGAIN
The whole country knows that it’s only a matter of time before Zappa Koroma either resigns from The Killers or is sacked for poor results. When fans almost rioted the other day after a shockingly poor performance against lowly Old Edwardians, even his ardent supporters thought he was gone. However the next day the club chairman, Anthony Navo rushed to his defence. That’s not a bad idea at all and we know why.
All we can say to Navo and the other leaders of that club is that they will soon come to agree with the fans that Zappa MUST GO. In fact he should never have been appointed to that job. We have nothing against the man but clearly, we shouldn’t allow people like Zappa to continue stealing a living by pretending to be a class A. coaches.
Zappa has moved in an unprecedented way from one club to the other – that alone ought to have opened the eyes of the leaders of EE Lions to the fact that what they needed was somebody with a long term project backed by good ideas as to how to keep the reputation of EE Lions intact on the field. The guy was at Diamond Stars, and then he moved to hapless Freetown City Football Club and told the world of the big football development he was going to do at FCFC. We woke up one morning shortly after that and read a public notice announcing Zappa as coach of Kamboi Eagles in the east. Within a few weeks, Zappa was on the move again to his current destination. Now the fans want to put him on the road again.
For how long would Navo continue to rescue Zappa from his own fans in the face of bad results?
1. No football club should sacrifice the expressed wishes of their fans just to keep a certain coach in office. No club does that anywhere in the world.
2. The EE Lions executive risks a direct confrontation with their fans should they continue holding on to Zappa even after that massive demonstration the other day against his management style.
3. We predict that Zappa’s fate would be sealed as a football manager depending on his next two matches.
4. This guy was a great player for club and country. He was very well respected but to assume he would of necessity be a good coach is wrong. Zappa should resign now.
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