SANITATION RACE: SMILING MAYOR KEMOKAI vs. JAPAN
We have read in many places that Japanese people take sanitation seriously and that in trying to clean their cities, they would take no prisoners. We have seen pictures of Japanese people cleaning their stadiums after sporting events without being required to do so by law. Pictures also emerged of Japanese fans cleaning the stadium in Qatar after a match involving their national team. In Sierra Leone and FREETOWN in particular, we do the absolute reverse. We would freely dump rubbish on the streets and public spaces like the only stadium. Even in churches people stick exhausted chewing gums at the back of furniture. So we are not surprised that we are swimming in filth in this city.
We don’t blame Smiling Mayor Kemokai totally responsible for this but we have to let the people know that she has flunked the opportunity given to her to turn things around as she promised before being sent to City Hall. In fact, her so-called TRANSFORM FREETOWN thing suffered the most spectacular failure of all political initiatives ever in this country, including Joseph Momoh’s GREEN REVOLUTION. The whole TRANSFORM FREETOWN idea is only paper and social media. Her priority is smiling at the camera daily. This was the only Mayor who went to Kroo Bay and stood beside dirty pigs and flooded out homes with devastated residents and still smiled. This was around the time a German politician resigned for appearing to laugh during a visit to a community devastated by flood.
May Kemokai has had FIVE years to put proper systems in place and at least begin the process of getting residents of this city to start thinking like the people of Japan when it comes to sanitation.
In a few months she will face the people of Sierra Leone and her only message would be around the idea of the central government making it difficult for her to deliver. We will be listening. We don’t know whether she will seek re-election at the FCC but wherever she ends up we will be around to help the people understand how she performed in office.
ZELENSKY NOW FIGHTING ON TWO FRONTS
As if the fight against the invading Russian military is not a serious enough headache, President Zelensky of Ukraine has now opened another front. This one is inside his own government and it’s against the dreaded disease called CORRUPTION. Politicians close to the embattled president have resigned and he has sacked a handful of others. We are talking here about corruption in the middle of a very costly war in terms of human lives and damage to infrastructure. How can anybody explain this?
While soldiers are dying in battles against the Russians, politicians are busy inflating the cost of military supplies and pocketing the excess cash. We don’t know how much money the Ukrainian government is getting these days from trade and taxes but we can say that America and Europe are putting good money into Zelensky’s treasury to keep basic services running and possibly paying the soldiers and feeding them. It is that money that some of Zelensky’s people have been stealing. The country is in a delicate position facing the invading Russians so Western nations are unlikely to cut off funding and press Zelensky too hard to be accountability but when people in those donor nations begin to ask very serious questions around the issue, their politicians would inevitably consider their own political future and refuse to sign on what now looks like a blank cheque.
We think Zelensky should do the following even as Russian artillery continues to hit his cities.
1. We want him to give the world an idea of the amount of money lost to corruption since Russia invaded his country for their so-called Special Military Operation. It’s good for the world to know the scale of the thieving.
2. Zelensky should arrest and prosecute all his officials involved in stealing from the suffering people. The trails would also serve as a process of shaming those making money out of the suffering of their people.
3. We know that those corrupt individuals have partners at home and abroad including the companies supplying the materials for the military in particular and some commanders who are profiting from the war.
4. The donor nations of the West should do something to let Ukraine know that when it comes to fighting corruption there should be no double standards – the accountability standards set for other countries must apply to Ukraine, war or no war.
COMPLAINING ABOUT REFEREES AND KILLING THE GAME
These days every football administrator is complaining about bad refereeing with some even alleging that the committee overseeing the work of referees is actively working to undo their teams in the current Sierra Leone Premier League. We hold no brief for referees and in the not too distant past we have had cause to call on the SLFA to do something about that aspect of the game as a way of increasing the confidence of ordinary spectators about the fairness of decisions on the field of play. We called attention to ARROGANCE and the belief some referees hold that only certain clubs should win the title.
In recent times however, we have had reason to believe that some football administrators have taken their complaints about match decisions too far and that the SLFA should let them know that they have a responsibility to maintain and protect the integrity of the game. We will understand when ordinary people take to the field to express their displeasure over certain decisions but we will not accept or understand the following:
1. When a man of Mohamed Kallon’s caliber is accused of slapping a match official - for now it’s just an accusation but for a man like that to be mentioned in such a situation says a lot about his temperament and his comportment on the technical bench in a local game. We recognize him as a legendary figure in this game but if those close to him are not strong enough to say this, we are. He has disappointed many lovers of this game.
2. Kallon is in big trouble with the continental body CAF over the same disciplinary issues and instead of addressing that openly, his media handlers are busy blasting the SLFA for making the CAF decision public. We can’t really understand this. The real issue is that Kallon has been heavily sanctioned by CAF. He didn’t even appeal the decision. Isn’t that enough to tell him his legendary status was now being questioned?
3. The other day Benjamin Gordon, another football administrator, actually entered the field of play and told his players to leave the field because he disagreed with the referee’s decision. In modern football such behavior is unheard of. It only reminds us of the infamous AKIBOLA SAY GAME PACK days in this country. The man then issued a statement withdrawing his team from the league until God knows when. Even as we write this the SLFA has not raised a finger against him.
4. Here’s our point: referees can be terrible but for administrators to continuously bring the game into disrepute by attacking match officials and posting stuff on social media against them makes no sense. It destroys the reputation of the game and with an SLFA boss that is paying more attention to his next meeting with his mercurial electorate, the rest of us looking for really tough action are going to be disappointed again and again. He is not interested. He is afraid to hurt his allies.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (26/01/23)
