GREEN FLAG PEOPLE THRASHED AT SUPREME COURT
So what next for the people in green? Their case has been thrown out of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone thus closing the legal options open to them in this country. Are they now heading to the ECOWAS court?
We have no idea if, or when, that will happen. Some countries in ECOWAS have simply ignored the ECOWAS Court but given that De Pa's government actually implemented an ECOWAS Court ruling by paying WANZA millions of dollars in questionable contract fees, the green boys should move fast and try and get a verdict there for De Pa to implement once again.
Here's what the greens said in a press release a few hours after the verdict:
GREEN PEOPLE: "We wish to state at the onset that the striking out of the petition by the highest court in the land frustrates our efforts to legally address our concerns regarding the November 22 polls".
POLITICO: Sorry guys, a lot of things have frustrated you since your first defeat in 2007. And we can't understand why you appear to be telling us you didn't expect things to turn out this way. You've been turning against each other, taking your party to court and fighting openly in the street. Tie all of that up with your inability to know who your friends are and you have a real Tower of Babel. By using the word "frustrated", you have basically downplayed what that ruling did to you.
GREEN PEOPLE: "We are also disappointed that once again justice has been sacrificed at the altar of procedural technicalities. We are further saddened that Sierra Leoneans have been denied the opportunity to know the scale and magnitude of the widespread and systematic electoral malpractices perpetrated by the National Electoral Commission in collusion with other state actors. This, we believe undermines our nascent democracy".
POLITICO: Well Dr Jabbie and others ought to have tried to follow the procedures first. They can't eat omelette without breaking eggs. We are not even sure how many Sierra Leoneans are still interested in all these conspiracy theories about what Christiana and her people backed by Munu's blue boys are supposed to have done.
About "undermining our nascent democracy", we note that one of the biggest issues "undermining" this “democracy” is the complete lack of a vibrant opposition in and out of parliament. Your party is distracted by infighting over leadership questions while all documents and nominations De Pa brings to parliament are passed with the ease of drinking water. We are fed up.
FITI FATA CLAMPING OF VEHICLES - WE WRITE SLRTA
Dear Sarah Bendu,
We write on behalf of a company called LEONE METALS INTERNATIONAL. We would like to express interest in producing vehicle clamps at fantastically competitive prices. We mean the metal objects you use to clamp vehicles in a fiti fata manner all over Freetown.
We believe that at times you run out of the clamps by midday paving the way for many other vehicles to escape your modern day slavery. We can produce 20 daily and we reckon that in two months, you will be able to meet your target both in term of clamps and revenue. This clamp business is a real money spinner eh?
Our partners from Holland are due at the weekend and we hope to present a formal bid proposal by the end of June.
Our local office is located at that chaotic place called MODEL JUNCTION where almost all the vehicles carrying commuters including thousands of FBC students up and down that dangerous hill are not roadworthy. The drivers have no license and they carry passengers more than that required by law. We are sure you see them daily on your way to work or sitting in your veranda.
By the way, in line with reports on your department by Whistleblowers, we are pleased to say that we are amenable to discuss terms if we won the contract.
Yours Faithfully
Sharka Bundu
Business Development Executive
Leone Metals International
ORBANGU CRIES FOUL! WHOSOEVER DIGGETH A PIT...
Mercurial Orbangu was on radio last week crying and accusing De Pa's APC of using cash to get his party's candidate in a local council bye-election to abandon him. At the last minute the lady announced she was pulling out of the race on behalf of the UDM to support the APC candidate. For many of us who've followed Orgabgu's political track, we couldn't help but laugh the whole thing off as absolute rubbish.
Here is a presidential candidate who on the eve of the election decided to suddenly announce at a supposed presidential debate that he was stepping down from the race to support De Pa. And he was very shameless about it.
How dare he now turn around and accuse the same people of stealing his candidate? Didn't he teach them how to steal from other parties?
In 2012 Orbangu dug a pit for the main opposition party, now he has fallen into the same pit. This is a real dress rehearsal for 2018. Ride on De Pa!
The fingerprints of the ONE PARTY era are all over Sierra Leone today - Labour Unions, Student Unions, Governance Institutions, Civil Society groups, strong individuals, except Blyden Jenkins-Johnston and many Professional Associations are all gone either into that very deep pocket or underground for fear that the BOOT will come visiting. The only one still standing - the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) is under attack by the SEA on behalf of the government of De Pa. We are waiting for the Tsunami.
LIKE BANGLADESH SWEAT SHOP LIKE LION PHOTO STUDIO
We congratulate all foreigners investing their money in Sierra Leone. We know it's not easy because overheads are high and at every turn there are people looking to dreg on them. But despite that we feel compelled to bring to light the sweat shop conditions under which our people work at Lion Photo Studio at Siaka Steven Street. It's worse than Bangladesh. The people come to work at 08:30 in the morning and end the day at 21:30 six days a week. They have no lunch break and they are paid the equivalent of 60 US dollars a month.
We really don't know how such injustice could have been allowed to go on for so long under the noses of our labour ministry officials.
The Koreans running the place have little or no respect for our people who make all the money for them.
We call on the Ministry of Labour to fight against all such sweat shops in Sierra Leone now. They must never collude with factory owners against their own people. Nobody will pay a Korean that amount of money for such hard work inside Korea.
Please note that we have a lot of material on that place in our archive but for now we want to give the Labour Ministry a chance to clean up Lion Photo and give our people a chance to enjoy the fruits of their labour. We shall return to this issue after three weeks unless the Labour Ministry does something.
LEONE STARS - THE WHIPPING BOYS OF AFRICAN FOOTBALL
Following the example of tiny Sao Tome and Principe, players from Cape Verde, an archipelago with a population of less than half a million have buried what little hope Leone Stars had to make it to the World Cup in Brazil. We said last week that this country's dream of going to Brazil was over with that foolish 2-2 draw with Tunisia in Freetown. The defeat in Cape Verde confirms that.
The truth is that Sierra Leone Football is in deep crisis. People in this country are in this habit of hiding things even when they are in pain because they want to ingratiate themselves with certain groups and individuals. If we don't attack the issue in the right place even at this time of national grief, then we can as well say good bye to Football.
We suggest the following:
a. Pope John Paul MUST be removed from the Ministry of Sports immediately. Let his boss assign him to another ministry if he still needs his service in government. The Pope is part of the problem in the SLFA in particular and sport in general. His BLACK SIERRA LEONEAN and WHITE SIERRA LEONEAN theory has messed up everything and put the country in very bad light. What would the Pope have done if his Vice President was a white man as in Kenneth Kaunda's country - Zambia?
b. The so-called NORMALISATION COMMITTEE, the undemocratic body set-up by FIFA to run Sierra Leone football should not be allowed to renew its mandate which runs out at the end of July. A newly-elected SLFA should be in office on the 1st August.
c. There should be no "Drawing Board" conference of football stakeholders as suggested by those who like organising conferences for even the most basic of issues. The new SLFA will provide the necessary leadership in football development for Sierra Leone working with a new minister of sport that is not as meddlesome as the Pope.
