THE MOTHER OF ALL PRESS CONFERENCES
We have been to more than one thousand and one press conferences in our many years in journalism but we have never seen a press conference as carefully choreographed as the one CHIEF SIDIKIE and his staff used to “clear” his name.” Even the Americans with their love for slick presentations were put to shame on Tower Hill by CHIEF SIDIKIE.
Was that really a press conference? We know press conferences to mean events called by people and organisations to pass on information to the masses through the media. This one had the same “intention” as the CHIEF wanted to tell the whole country that Mark Helligman, the American who accused him of stealing his money to fund his and De Pa’s campaign 2007 was an unreliable bloke that we shouldn’t treat with any seriousness. But strangely, enough, there were many partisans and other people who would not be found at normal press conferences. OK, this was not an ordinary press conference. One colleague told us “the atmosphere was intimidating.”
This was the CHIEF’S first outing in this way since he was crowned and perhaps he needed some of his loyalists to be around to guarantee his “safety.” We will give that too.
CHIEF, we think the Public Relations push was a little predictable and blank and even bland. You need a bit more craft and guile bro. We left the place the same way we came in.
The CHIEF remains a severely wounded man who still has to answer Helligman’s direct and pointed accusations.
CHIEF, you kept too close to the script and that lack of flexibility marred the whole presentation and in PR terms it definitely affected the believability of the message. There is no point holding a press conference only for the journalists around to go home firmly reckoning they have more questions to ask than before the conference. CHIEF, you can congratulate yourself that you convened the press conference at all. We’ve been asking for this since the Taakor project and the Cocaine allegations. In reality though, the nation is still in the same place on all the issue. Start again please. Sorry!
UNRULY SALONE FOOTBALLERS + AN UNGUARDED MINISTER
Sierra Leone stands on the brink of one of the most important football engagements ever. We are due to play a succession of matches with very little time space, in the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers soon. So the last thing we want is for some football authority to sack and suspend the team Captain and one of the top strikers.
However, we unreservedly support the minister and the FA’s joint decision to sack Obreh as Captain and then suspend both he and Kai-Kamara from the team. The action taken by the administrators of the game is not new. The French have done it twice. Nasri is on suspension for insulting a journalist. Anelka, Evra and others were also dealt with for disgracing France in the last World Cup. Teams have sent players home from major tournaments for far less offences than humiliating a minister of government in the presence of total strangers and making unnecessary and scandalous financial demands that make absolute rubbish of their so-called patriotism. These third-rate professionals are beginning to infect young and promising players with their perennially misguided and rebellious agitation over the simplest of issues.
If the minister fails in this action, then we should all say good bye to discipline in Sierra Leonean football. He needs to be assured that we are with him on this and he should press on. No media blackmail should hold him back.
The only other point we want to make is that the minister should be very careful when responding to interviews. His words are sometimes unbecoming of a minister and as a journalist himself, he shouldn’t get easily irritated just because people criticize him. He’s done that throughout his life – asking tough questions. We don’t however want to mix that up with his fight to bring discipline to the national team for now.
$ 12,000 A WEEK? OLOF MATESSON THE GREAT!
On the face of it this looks like a great bargain. In football terms, it could be Wayne Rooney’s weekly shopping money at a Sainsbury’s supermarket. In Sierra Leone terms only ACC’s Joseph Kamara and possibly Christiana Thorpe can afford to use that for things other than feeding their children and helping the extensive African family through life’s highs and lows.
You must therefore understand if we take issues with Olof Martesson being paid $ 12,000 a week each time we have an international match. The man arrives in Freetown three days before a match, cobbles together a few so-called professionals playing in nondescript leagues in Europe and the Indi-China region and stands on the line pretending to be doing something. We welcome the few victories we have achieved as a nation under him but he has made serious tactical blunders that have caused embarrassment to the nation.
Imagine this: a footballer who is not even a regular player for one of the teams at the bottom of the local league, turns up at Martesson’s camp and tells him he plays his football in Lebanon (of all places) and has come to Freetown to join up with team for the match against Cape Verde. Next step, Martesson includes him in the squad. Despite loud cries, the man collects thousands of dollars and Martesson is unrepentant. The bogus international player didn’t even need to produce his letter of invitation from the local FA. That’s flawed judgement. Does Matesson deserve $ 12,000 a week?
What we really want is a resident coach with a clear contract and identified benchmarks in terms of developing local talent to replace these rude, aging and misfiring “professionals” in the national team. That’s what we want.
LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES ALREADY UNDERWAY
The British didn’t try to match money bundle China with their BIRD’S NEST STADIUM or that spectacular fireworks display and other hangings and shakings. They put up a typically conservative British display that was a real sight to behold. We watched it from our little office in downtown Freetown and we loved it, especially that National Health Service and those physically challenged children singing God Save the Queen side of things. Mr. Bean wasn’t VERY funny. Well done anyway.
Just a little word about our representatives who marched with the GREEN WHITE AND BLUE. We appreciate them and we wish them all the best. We however think that they weren’t very Sierra Leonean on the night. We expected them to wear either the RONKO from the NORTH or COUNTRY CLOTH weaved in the south. But they put on these shiny Bamako materials that showed them off like Nigerians, Gambians or Malians – like West Africans in general MINUS Sierra Leoneans. We were disappointed.
If we are not mistaken, we were the only country to be given a two word introduction. Sierra Leone, shouted the commentators, followed by the name of the flag-bearer. They were unfair with us. May be a RONKO or a COUNTRY CLOTH would have triggered more words.
But we could have a bit more. What we don’t have in terms of medals, we could have achieved by the way we presented ourselves to the rest of the world. Botswana was easy to find, Kiribati, Tahiti and Haiti and even war-ravaged Somalia, got a good outing.
This is what we think: Political Correctness is killing Sierra Leone and we are joking about it. Our delegation didn’t put on RONKO because they were afraid of being lumped into the northernization talk, the COUNTRY CLOTH would have been worse under these circumstances. The gara industry which would have helped in cutting across the artificial divide created for political reasons has been destroyed by cheap Chinese imports.
Not too long ago, De Pa called for all to wear Sierra Leonean attire on Fridays, but where are they? And how much do they cost? How much income do we have to spend on clothing? With all these second-hand shoes, shirts, trousers and even under wear who’s going to bother? Whatever happened to that huge Sierra Leone Diaspora in London! We didn’t see them. The High Commissioner was nowhere to be seen like his colleagues. The information attaché was perhaps launching the latest salvo on the opposition. When will they work for Sierra Leone and avoid this partisan business in a public office?
DSTV, SO MUCH MORE – THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE, NOTHING MORE!
We are writing this out of absolute frustration with the so-called customer care people at DSTV’s partners in Sierra Leone, TRANSNATIONAL. And many have complained to us about them. This is the worst customer care service in the whole world even those grumpy cashiers at our banks are doing well compared to DSTV workers in Sierra Leone. They advertise numbers for customers to reach them but they NEVER, NEVER pick up their phones, and, of course, THEY DO NOT call you back. Asthakhfirulahi! When you finally get through to them on their private lines, they are sluggish and slightly rude. Shwen Shwen in the workplace is with how effectively you work not how you think you look. We have had cause to call South Africa to get reconnected out of frustration at times because our people tell us to wait for 24 hours sometimes but that lasts for 48 or even more. There, basic things are anything but basic.
DSTV is a good service but their staff at that customer care place are not up to the job and disgruntlement with their work could boil over soon as the peak season (premier league) approaches. DSTV is DSTV; you cannot be good in South Africa and very poor in Sierra Leone. No way! We are all customers.
