BABABODE CAN’T PAY FOR FCC RECEIPT BOOKS
We visited the Government Printing Department (GPD) last week to verify information we received from our source at the Freetown City Council that the local government authority had run out of receipt books. We can now confirm that we saw a stack of receipt books produced for the Freetown City Council for 2012 and 2013. We gathered from the GPD that persistent calls for the council to pay for and remove the receipt books from their stores have fallen on deaf ears.
So no receipt books for 2012 and for the first half of 2013? How has the FCC been conducting financial transactions? Our source at the council gave us some clue but we want Bababode to react to what we have published first so that we can judge the plausibility of his explanation. We urge him to take this matter seriously. We will not spend all this time researching the issue only to allow it to die just because Bababode refuses to address the premise on which our findings rest.
We warn Bababode not to tell us the problem started under disgraced former Mayor Herbert George-Williams. Bababode was very much an integral part of the former Mayor's kitchen cabinet at FCC. We are residents of Freetown and we want answers. By the way sir, this is the end of the first quarter of 2013 and you have still not collected local tax in Freetown. By the way are you afraid of issuing the municipal taxes because your predecessor bucked his feet on them? See you on Thursday!
ERSG COMPLETELY MISSING IN ACTION
Has anybody seen or heard from or about this guy recently? We have seen him only once since he met President Koroma at State House to announce the start of his mission. And that was way before the November elections. Quite a few ERSG's have come and gone but none has been as complacent and not of much use. Please don't blame those of us who badly miss his predecessor, the much-vilified Michael Schulenburg.
He was in a class of his own. Recent political developments in Sierra Leone have clearly demonstrated who was coordinating all the attacks on Schulenburg and why.
We really can't wait for this UNIPSIL project to be closed. We only regret the fact that some of our brothers will become jobless. But isn't it better to lose your job than to be treated in the way this new ERSG treated local staff that caused a strike only a few weeks into his ineffective leadership? The war-weary people of the Central Africa Republic probably need the UN body more than we do.
GBAMANJA BRINGS OUT THE BEGGING BOWL ON OBASANJO’S DAY OF GRACE
The next person to get a Sierra Leonean passport will be Olusegun Obasanjo. As a citizen of ECOWAS, he doesn't need a visa to come here but he will get more than that now. He will soon have the same right as any Sierra Leonean. It's not bad because there are Sierra Leoneans who are now part of other countries. The only difference is that there was no short-cut like we are about to do for Great Obasanjo. His accelerating recognition in Sierra Leone defies the saying that NO SHORT CUT TO THE TOP OF A PALM TREE.
The General is now a registered student of Fourah Bay College. Can somebody please give us his admission number? We hope there will be no clash with another student, including those that are dead.
We need somebody to tell Professor Gbamanja that we were not very impressed with his belief that Obasanjo can solve all FBC's problems – roofing the amphitheatre, erecting a multi-purpose building on campus, re-building the guest house and so on. Come on Prof. we all know why the University made Obasanjo an honorary student of FBC. Why didn't the Prof wait to make those demands in private meetings with Baba. It was just too grovelling – you put the Yelibas to shame.
You see, the rest of the alumni are not as endowed as Baba but it's important to respect them and help organise them in such a way that their small donations would be meaningful - a kind of widow's might affair which even Jesus Christ appreciated.
May be if FBC opened up to the private sector in Sierra Leone and abroad, all these things will fall in place. What can FBC do to help itself? Baba for election campaign. Baba for FBC alumnus. Baba for oil contarct. Baba for everything Sierra Leonean. God save us!
HOW DO POLICE BOSSES SPEND THEIR TIME IN RETIREMENT?
Sierra Leone Police bosses are very powerful people when in office. They organise the SLP on their own terms by posting officers to different stations, recommending them for promotions. Normally with the IG's knowledge of the nation's criminal underworld, they are able to move things in a way that leads to gains like huge bank accounts, property and vital contacts. Sometimes they set up security companies with high sounding names.
This week a former IG, Brima Acha Kamara, gave us an idea of what he's been doing since he was sacked by De Pa. We heard on radio that he's been organising his Limba ethnic group into what he calls Limba Development Union. Since Acha comes from Binkolo, we believe he can answer this: Is EKUTAY still alive? The point is we have seen a lot of tribal groupings of this nature including EKUTAY which was so arrogant and greedy for power in the days of JS Momoh that it became an albatross on his neck and was to help destroy his presidency.
Acha is tired of being politically irrelevant and so he has designed a clever trick and regretfully he again has young hands to use to further his ambition.
We have seen Sam Sesay on the roads recently, telling people he is capable of taking over state governance after De Pa. The chips are falling in place.
SALONE SOJAS OFF TO SOMALIA: OUR HOPES AND FEARS
Sierra Leonean boots will soon be on the ground in war-torn Somalia as part of a UN peacekeeping force. In Politico, we recently ran a debate covering both sides of the debate as to whether to put our troops in that theatre or not. Now the decision has been taken to send the troops and we must, as Sierra Leoneans, support them and wish them well.
We hope all their logistical arrangements are in place as we don't want body bags coming to Lungi airport because Pallo Conteh was attending an SLFA meeting and couldn't sign the documents for the release of funds to purchase the necessary equipment.
Unlike Pallo Conteh we are not concerned about the ethnic make-up of the troops going to Somalia – they are all Sierra Leoneans. The defence minister must know that Sierra Leone will never have a mono-ethnic army. We have gone past that warped mentality.
SALONE PLAYER WITH EXPIRED PASSPORT: THE SHAME OF TUNISIA
Officials of the Sierra Leone Football Association are returning home tonight after the national team suffered at the hands of the Carthage Eagles 2 - 1. Our push for a place in Brazil has suffered a major setback and we must win at least two straight games in June to stand any chance of doing any SAMBA DANCE in the home of Pele.
There are a few questions we want to ask: How come Aziz Deen Conteh travelled to Tunisia only to declare that his Sierra Leone passport had expired? The FA was well represented in Tunisia and we hold them responsible for this.
Next Question: Why was John Kamara's invitation letter cancelled only a few hours after the boy had told his team he was travelling to Africa to play for his country upon receipt of a letter from the same FA?
We hear the FA told John there was no money to meet his travel expenses, but the NORMALISATION COMMITTEE had two people on the ground in addition to two others from the NORMAL FA. Why was it that only 16 players were on the bench?
We have nothing against the normalisation committee even though we believe they are undemocratic and FIFA had no business interfering so much in Sierra Leone football. We respect the chairman and the other members of the committee but we now conclude that they themselves need to be normalised so that they can conduct the elections quickly and pull back.
We can't pay for a player from Greece with a valid passport but we bring a player from England with an expired passport and we travel with about ten officials, all on per diem running into thousands of dollars.
The Tunisians are a much more cohesive and battle-ready side after their recent experience in the Cup of Nations in South Africa. We put out a ramshackle team of players some of whom have poor playing time even in nondescript leagues in Europe. They had no time together because like their coach, they arrived in Tunis in twos and threes, hours before the match.
It was a nice holiday break from the extended winter in Europe but those of us in Freetown believe that unless the backbone of the national team is home-based and we prudently rationalise the players we invite to play, we must expect heartbreaks all the time. Sorry Guys!
