Le 100 MILLION LEONES – TO TRY YOUR LUCK, SAYS CHRISTIANA
We are still trying to calculate how Christiana arrived at her GENTRY MAN NOMINATION FEES figures of Le 100 Million as nomination fee for presidential candidates and Le 25 Million for parliamentary candidates. You see our lady is thinking in terms of big money, now that her new salary has defied all mathematical logic and the economic rationale for wage differentials. If these charges stood, only Christiana and Fitzgerald of ACC kingdom would enter the race with clean money.
We stand on the brink of a strange brand of politics in Sierra Leone. We are consolidating the position of God Fathers and dirty money in politics.
Asking people to pay such huge sums of money to be able to represent their people cannot be justified. We take the greatest exception to an elections official who told the BBC that “politicians are the biggest beneficiaries” in an election. That sounds like sanctioning corruption when someone gets elected. People are elected to SERVE THE PEOPLE not to become “BENEFICIARIES”. We agree that we should start paying for our elections now and not depend on foreign governments and agencies every five years. Even Chiefs are not spared. We are concerned that the Chiefs will raise the money from the blood, sweat and tears of our people. So how does NEC explain that they are taking the burden off the ordinary people with this GENTRY MAN NOMINATION FEES?
We think Sierra Leone could easily pay for its elections if we made savings in some areas. For example:
- Slash the salaries of Christiana and Fitzgerald
- Drastically reduce the number of ministers and deputy ministers
- Drastically reduce the number of people that go around the world with the president
- No more governmental retreats to remote places where nothing gets done anyway
- Sack all those Special Assistants and Diaspora consultants with fake British and American accents that are busy cutting and pasting stuff off the internet.
- Contract TWITTER to help you with more ideas on how to stop wasteful spending in Govt and save more money for the conduct of our elections. You can save the Salone govt and Western taxpayers.
POPE JOHN PAUL AGAIN
May be for the last time we want to call on De Pa to call the Pope to State House and warn him to stop interfering with the running of football. There are 23 sporting disciplines in Sierra Leone but the Pope is concerned only with football. Even in his first press conference he promised to deal with the SLFA and we witnessed a period of mutually damaging media interviews that did the government no favours. The minister is always on the attack.
Now he has written a letter to one of the candidates in the upcoming SLFA presidential elections Rodney Michael suspending him from “all football activities.” Even a two-year-old knows the minister has no such powers. Only a few days after openly declaring support for Michael’s opponent in the elections, the minister has “suspended” him from the race. Does the Pope think we are fools? He is busy drumming up support for Michael because he is now playing himself up as the persecuted one who’s badly in need of help.
Let’s make this point: All of these shenanigans have hurt the beautiful game in an extraordinary way. Should Isha win, she will have to contend with a powerful coalition of football people and journalists who will be determined to make her tenure uneventful. Should Rodney win, compromise will be almost impossible and his group will try to settle score and with a minister so badly doggedly against him, football is bound to suffer.
This civil war in the SLFA can only continue and we know it’s been actively fuelled from inside the FA for God knows what.
We urge all to ignore this latest distraction by the Pope. If FIFA suspends Sierra Leone as a result of the minister’s continued interference, we will hold De Pa personally responsible for not acting fast yet again.
NO RUN-OFF IN 2012 PRESIDENTIAL RACE
Operation No-Run-Off initiated by De Pa is well and truly underway. And it appears Kailahun district, the APC’s former Ground Zero is the main target for this unrelenting push. We warn De Pa however that in football while it is a good idea to be on the offensive – keeping the play within the opponent’s half – one should never forget to keep things tight at the back. A swift counterattack by a determined opponent could result in a goal. Again it is never a good idea to allow your team to concede a goal against the same kind of opponent. Equalising things is sometimes impossible.
We want De Pa to also know that putting Kothor Alpha in forward position will be suicidal and could cause many own-goals. His face represents political mischief-making. He has too many gaffes to his (dis)credit. We still remember how he killed the solemnity at the late Mama Alice’s funeral by rambling on and on about uniting the country by means of a new political party. Ok let’s say that was a joke; was he in the right place? Wasn’t he the one who told Kadie Sesay on air to “commot to den wan yar en join we, you nar we sister”? Translated within the context of that morning’s debate he was asking Kadie Sesay to leave the SLPP of the South and join the APC of the north. If De Pa were to ask Kothor Alpha to lead his campaign, this nation would end up with another William Ruto.
De Pa must also remember not to take COACHIE MANSARAY with him to the southern and eastern areas because of that small matter of “MENDES ARE STUPID.” And if De Pa is wondering why we didn’t mention his Campaign Coordinator, Logus Koroma, then the reason is, he is a real liability. Don’t allow him to appear on TV anymore. He is causing you pain. See you in Buedu sir. We are waiting for the controversial Borbor-Sawyer to justify his inclusion in your cabinet.
ONE YEAR AFTER OSUOFIA BECAME FLAGBEARER
This is a great time for OSUOFIA to sit back and reflect on his first full year as leader of the Torkpoi party. He has presided over many defections from the party – both the eventful and the uneventful. The most high profile one was the very confused Usu Boie. Otherwise he seems to have largely managed to hold things together. But can he keep holding on? He is telling the nation he will win in the first round. We don’t expect anything less from him. But the point is when we apply a bit of realism to that statement we realise the enormity of the task ahead of Osuofia. Let nobody fool him, he has a real fight on his hands.
He starts out with the process of selecting his candidates which could cause him all sorts of troubles if he decides to have his own Sacred Cows. This is a long and hard fight!
WHEN WILL PETITO TAKE JOURNALISTS AROUND FREETOWN?
The great Petito of Wilkinson Road fame is lying low these days. His aides are doing all the talking for him. The other day one of them told his friend that Petito would replace Chief Sidikie. FUNNY TIMES IN FUNNY LAND! We were standing close by and we recorded that as a potential 8th Wonder of the World.
Petito’s ministry is in a real mess. Just look at what the roads are like in Freetown. Look at that junction between Mends Street and Pademba road; Look at that gutter near Samaria Church; Look at that junction turning into YOUYI BUILDING from Main Motor Road in fact look at that disgraceful scrap yard near the main government building and all the filth packed in the place; Can’t you see the rivers on Wilkinson Road, or did some guys in government collect kickbacks which is holding their mouths from speaking out on this shoddy work on the MOST WONDERFUL ROAD EVER BUILT IN SALONE? Look at the old road leading out of Freetown in the east; look at all the scraps that have taken over all the roads and tell me why Petito is still in office. We don’t make the decisions but once again, De Pa is in the frame. How can Petito justify his job?
The Minister is constructing roads that make no sense in the overall plan for road building. Look at all the abandoned road projects in Moyamba and other places. We don’t have to be engineers to see that Petito is going from one blunder to the other. We have a very big problem with people collecting and not doing the job. We are all Sierra Leoneans. We know what is happening. Petito can take us on if he pleases.
