THE YENGA QUESTION COULD DESTABILIZE THE MRU
So far we believe Principal has done the correct thing on the Yenga issue. The ownership of that piece of land on our eastern border with Guinea which is occupied almost entirely by Sierra Leoneans became a contested matter since the days when Alhaji Tejan Kabbah was president of Sierra Leone. True to his way of solving problems, Kabbah used diplomatic means throughout his tenure but he couldn’t resolve the issue. The two colonial powers – Britain and France actually got involved at some point but we are still in the same place on the Yenga question.
For eleven years King Messi followed the same pattern and left office with no acceptable answer to the Yenga question. All we got was spin from his government’s spokesman Kothor IB saying “Yenga is no longer an issue”. The truth is, then as now Yenga remains a festering wound that goes back more than twenty years and Principal is right to continue the diplomatic approach. And there are many reasons why we believe that is the correct thing to do.
1. Armed conflict between Guinea and Sierra Leone should be avoided by all means. Both countries share a lot in common and those ties should NEVER be jeopardized in the interest of the long-term stability of the Mano River Union basin.
2. Those boundary stones were not laid by the leaders or peoples of the two countries. We are victims of colonial madness which resulted in the same people found in their small corner of the world being divided against their wish.
3. Today the political situation in Guinea is so volatile that just to conduct an election Prof. Conde had to close all their land borders. Old Conde somehow believes there are dark forces in neighboring countries plotting to cause problems in his country. Sierra Leone has no record of destabilizing her neighbors. That’s a fact.
4. We should also not push Conde too hard because he is looking for a way to reunite his people after his forces killed so many of them just to land an undemocratic THIRD TERM in office. It will be very easy for him to tell his people that a foreign country has attacked Guinea and then use that to rally his people behind him. We should not play into his hands.
5. The delegation going to Guinea from Sierra Leone should encourage Prof. Conde to reopen the border for ordinary Sierra Leoneans and Guineans to travel and trade freely as before. All the tension is ratcheting up because people are not able to trade or visit friends and relatives on both sides of the border.
WHY STEALING FROM A MOSQUE IS NOT A GOOD IDEA
Well stealing from any house of worship is a very bad thing. In fact stealing is wrong, very wrong. So whether it’s a mosque, a church or a synagogue nobody should steal anything from a house where people assemble to worship God. We should probably say this now to that idiot who became a social media sensation over the last 48 hours for breaking one of the TEN COMMANDMENTS. The guy had apparently gone to steal, only God knows what at a mosque located in a military barracks called Juba to the west of Freetown.
Again, only God knows what the guy was thinking when he put his head through a tiny opening in a metal window where he was miraculously trapped. After struggling to free himself without luck he caused an alarm and before long ordinary worshipers arrived at the scene and the world suddenly saw the wonders of God on social media. The people had to cut one part of the metal bars out to release the thief from his divine arrest. Now the police will take over and try to put the twenty something year old mosque thief away for a few years. Let him serve time.
When mobile phones panned through the mosque we saw absolutely nothing of value worth that risk so could it be that, as suggested at the scene by the worshippers, the young man was lured to that corner by God to use him to demonstrate his majesty?
We are however not sure criminal behavior among young people will come to an end because of that disgrace. Not too long ago we saw another guy, probably the same age as the mosque thief ransacking a house in Goderich, in the same area while the people had gone to church. He was caught on CCTV. The image was then well prepared with running commentary and released on social media. This is now looking like an open season for thieves.
NOW THERE ARE “PERSONS OF INTEREST” AT THE SLFA
For some strange reason the Electoral Appeals Committee of the troubled SLFA has decided to identify SLFA secretariat staff and candidates for different positions in the upcoming elections as PERSONS OF INTEREST because they want to interview them as they investigate alleged unfair disqualifications from the recent nomination process. That characterization takes our minds back to the Commissions of Inquiry that looked into the stewardship of King Messi and his Tolongbo group. So we ask: is there anything we should read from the Appeals Committee identifying SLFA secretariat staff as PERSONS OF INTEREST?
We make this point again that there is nobody in this country dumb enough to believe that any of those committees and the whole secretariat are committed to conducting free and fair elections. We argue that the committees were packed with men and women who were told to be loyal to the Queen at all times. The SLFA secretariat sidestepped all the procedures by which such committees are constituted under normal conditions with the sole of objective of getting them to obey the voice of the GREAT Queen of Kingtom.
As far as we are concerned, all the committees are simply grandstanding. They are completely locked into the Queen’s final objective which is to remain in office by eliminating all other candidates and going unopposed in February. The Queen knows she cannot win against even the worst candidate on that list. Her members are so fed up with her style of leadership that they will easily vote for any candidate that remains on that list with her after her committees would have carried out their daylight massacre. So whether you call them PERSONS OF INTEREST or not does not bother us at all, we are monitoring the whole process and we will hold the committee members personally responsible for any negative things that might result from them being totally biased in favor of the Queen.
MANAGERIAL SACKINGS UNDERWAY IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL – LAMPARD GONE
Managing a Premier League club in England pays really well but it’s a crazy job. It’s a kind of a poisoned chalice. We are even surprised and should in fact thank God that managers aren’t suffering a heart attack on the touch line every weekend. There are instances when supporters have collapsed and died supporting one of those teams.
The life of a Premier League club manager is short, as short as losing five games in three weeks and supporters turning on the club owner first on social media and then in the stands or outside the stadium asking for the manager to be sacked.
The following guys have so far lost their jobs – Mauricio Pochettino, Unai Emery, Slavan Bilic and in the last few days, Frank Lampard. He, like Steven Gerard was expected to lead the process of getting English coaches take over Premier League clubs, to stop the endless flow of coaches from continental Europe and Latin America into England. Wayne Rooney is being prepared in Derby County using the same template the brought Lampard to Chelsea. Is it time to re-think that project?
As we write, Steve Bruce is doing badly and there are calls for him to be sacked. If Bruce loses one more match, we can bet our last penny that he will be sacked.
Anyway we wish those still standing the very best.
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