OBSERVING AFRICA DAY: HOW FAR ARE WE FROM THE PROMISE OF INDEPENDENCE?
There was a lot on social media on Monday this week about AFRICA DAY. Yes AFRICA DAY, marking the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), now called the African Union (AU). The OAU was formed principally to help liberate the whole continent from the EVIL known as COLONIAL RULE. It was difficult and bloody but the continent is free today.
This year we didn’t see any of those elaborate celebrations and speech-making. We saw a virtual benefit musical concert organized by top names in African entertainment because of the coronavirus pandemic that has ravaged the rest of the world and is now beginning to hit Africa. We pray for Africa.
More than half a century since the OAU came into being and despite the challenges facing its successor, the AFRICAN UNION, our continent still has a lot of work to do to make us proud of being African. We highlight a few areas of concern.
1. Why do Africans still need a visa to enter some other African countries? In some of the sub-regional bodies in Africa like ECOWAS there is no visa requirement to travel to any of the FIFTEEN member states and it has worked quite well. Why can’t we just do it continent-wide? The sky has not caved in on ECOWAS because people just turn up at airports with their passports and are given a NINTY-DAY stay, has it? Or even in the East African Community.
2. Why do we still have such appalling xenophobic violence directed at other African brothers and sisters particularly in South Africa? In fact, this is happening to a country that should be grateful to the rest of Africa for its liberation from one hundred years of apartheid.
3. Our highly skilled professionals are leaving the continent in droves to the benefit of those countries that enslaved the African for FOUR HUNDRED years and then followed it up with cruel colonialism. We have to find a way to keep those good brains in Africa. We need them.
4. Why do we so easily resort to armed conflict over the slightest disagreement? Some of the most brutal wars are over now but there are still little pockets around us. We have to find other means of settling disputes which are part of the human condition. When we engage in armed conflict and spend our little money on arms and ammunition produced by those who enslaved and colonized us, we kill our own people and make arms manufacturers rich.
5. What are we doing to let the world know that the story of Africa is not only a story of war and famine? Great things are happening in Africa. Let’s tell our own story to the rest of the world. Isn’t that what they are doing? Nkosi Sikele Africa.
WEARING A FACE MASK IN PUBLIC MAKES SENSE
So people using public transport as from the 1 June this year will be required to wear face masks or face some sanctions? As far as we are concerned that is a great move. We say so because wearing face masks is a key strategy in the fight against COVID 19 and we really can’t understand why many people in this country have largely ignored this.
Somebody told us the other day that the government would have to pass the necessary law to make it mandatory for people to wear masks in public. We understand that but in an emergency like this where lives are being lost in such huge numbers do we really need the government to whip us into respecting a basic public health regulation like wearing face masks in public places? There’s nothing wrong in making such academic arguments and the government should probably do a law and give it a certificate of emergency, but as long as people are in public places we encourage them to wear face masks so that they do not infect others with COVID 19.
We will be on the streets of Freetown and other cities around the country on the 1 June to see if this is the latest Sierra Leonean affair to be politicized. We are really good at that and it’s strange that there are always people who are willing to believe what wicked politicians tell them. Yes, they are mostly politicians and their surrogates. We must win against COVID 19.
EOC WHY DID THE CAR RENTAL COMPANY WITHDRAW ITS VEHICLES?
The last institution we want to see having difficulties at this time is the Emergency Operations Center – the very heart of the COVID 19 response effort of the government of Sierra Leone. As far as we know there is money in the organization’s official bank account at the Bank of Sierra Leone. In fact, the government is doing a lot to be transparent about the use of the funds – obviously thinking about the consequences of King Messi not properly accounting for the Ebola funds. The other day we saw the THIRD REPORT on the state of the account. So why then did the vehicle hire company leave? Our sources say it’s over unpaid rent. That is difficult to believe given what we know about the health of the COVID 19 account. Are there administrative bottlenecks or what?
Let’s just say this: sometimes when journalists ask questions about people and events, it’s not that they don’t know the answers, it’s about two things: to give the subjects of those questions to clean things up to avoid being held to the public gaze, or to invite people who know about the issues in question to come forward and complete the investigation. In this case, the latter is done and dusted. We are expecting the EOC to have a look at the former and act. We believe they are an important but fragile institution and a loss of public confidence in their ability to deal with COVID 19 will affect all of us. So guys deal with these little issues quickly.
PLAYING FOOTBALL WITHOUT FANS IS A COMPLETE JOKE
Football leagues are resuming in Europe with teams playing in empty stadiums. It’s a brave thing they’ve done in Germany with the other major European leagues getting ready to go in the coming days – hopefully. While we applaud that, we think playing competitive football at any level with the fans creating the atmosphere in the stands is rubbish and should be discontinued. It is just not the same thing. Can anybody imagine Arsenal and Manchester United meeting at Old Trafford in an empty SEVENTY EIGHT THOUSAND capacity stadium?
Frankly we believe the other countries including Sierra Leone should simply do what the Dutch did by closing down the league and awarding the championship and other positions to the top teams without relegating or promoting and teams.
A day or so after we made that call for our local league, our clueless SLFA issued a statement saying they would not call the league off and are prepared to wait until COVID 19 was defeated. Nobody in this world knows when that will be. Our SLFA is piling one uncertainty upon another.
There is no doubt however that if FC JOHANSEN were leading the table at this time, the queen of football would have done what we called for long before the Dutch did what they did. That’s a fact! We however warn them that trying to run any of our matches behind closed doors would serve only the purpose of the queen and her staff. The rest of us have zero interest in that.
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