WAS IT A SHORTAGE IN SUPPLY OR ARTIFICIAL SCARCITY OF FUEL?
If every sector in this country starts behaving like these greedy Oil Marketers we will wake up one morning to find the country at a standstill. Their threadbare pattern to force or even blackmail successive governments to agree to raise prices is now totally unacceptable. The whole country knows that it is very difficult for fuel supplies to run dry so that as soon as queues begin to appear at petrol stations word goes round about an impending increase in the price of fuel. We have just come through that in the last few days.
Oil Marketers are among the greediest people in this country. There is no doubt that they should sell their products, make a little profit and stay in business. But they always want big profit and their Corporate Social Responsibility portfolio is negligible. They keep everything for their shareholders.
We see this latest scare as a wakeup call to the government because we have it on good authority that this is just a dress rehearsal for the actual bout in the New Year. The greedy Oil Marketers will be back. We should be ready.
SANITATION WAHALA IN FREETOWN WHERE IS THE MAYOR OF THE SUN?
Please if you are visiting Freetown for holidays avoid the area around BIG MARGET and the NASSIT BUILDING close by. In fact avoid the general area going towards the office of the Mayor of the Sun. It doesn’t matter whether you are a Sierra Leonean or not because there is raw sewerage flowing all over the place and exposure to that could hurt anybody. This thing is so bad now that ordinary traders who go there to find something to eat have blocked the road to vehicular traffic in an attempt to force the Mayor of the Sun to do the job she campaigned for. Even closer to our own office at the intersection between Siaka Stevens Street and Charlotte Street, the whole area has been stinking for days with human excrement oozing out of the sewerage.
This is an issue we have been calling our Mayor’s attention to for more than SIX MONTHS but she has been trying to ignore us. How is that possible? As long as the job is not done she MUST always expect us to do our own side of things. We will keep reporting. Our Mayor of the Sun has adopted a communication strategy that is bound to fail. We told Bababode the same thing. Here’s why:
1. Speaking to the media ONLY when you believe you have a good news story is a very bad strategy. There is always the other side of life that must be equally covered.
2. Getting through to her interviews not set up by her office is more difficult than getting a North Korean visa.
3. We need those slick social media photos from our Mayor’s many overseas travels but we also need photos of our Mayor’s work on the ground in Freetown dealing with that mess so close to her office.
4. Yes we need Cable Cars to move quickly across the city but we have to be healthy to use it. FCC should deal with that flowing raw sewerage NOW before cholera takes hold in this place.
5. Have a look at the picture accompanying this little comment. We shot it from about 200 yards from our Mayor’s office. Watch out for our FREETOWN SANITATION CAMPAIGN on social media starting just before Christmas.
DO WE NOW HAVE JUJU IN OUR NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM?
Just when we thought we should now move on from the comedy show that is Musa Tombo for a day or two and concentrate on real football issues came news that juju wahala had entered the national team. A Sierra Leonean international who just won the golden boot in Sweden was said to have been struck by the juju charm leaving him with a swollen right foot and was therefore dropped from the national team going into the match against Benin.
Frankly we’ve been hearing a lot about the extent to which some players are going to maintain their positions in the national team including the use of black magic. If we should believe this swollen foot problem with the golden boot man then all we can say is that we are not amused by it at all. What the good people of Sierra Leone want is a team that scores goals to win matches. That’s all.
Meanwhile let’s just make some comments on this juju thing itself.
1. If our juju was so powerful why didn’t we use it against Benin when we needed to – or even Lesotho? We badly needed somebody to neutralize one voodoo priest that was sitting in the stands in Cotonou. Maybe that priest caused our defeat.
2. Why apply juju against a man who despite winning the golden boot in Sweden put up a very poor performance during his brief appearance against Lesotho in Freetown? Judging by that performance, there are many home-based players who are capable of keeping him on the bench.
3. How come we saw this same man who was supposed to have suffered this massive juju attack celebrating his goal for his community team at Waterloo just a few days after the so-called juju incident? Please bear with us, it is our job to ask questions.
4. We are willing to start a campaign for the government to recruit all the best juju people in Sierra Leone to help our national team. We are tired of losing matches. In fact all we want is for that council of juju people to produce the necessary charms so that we stop conceding goals as we approach stoppage time.
5. Will the man who suffered the juju attack return to this country again to play for us? Maybe he should avoid the national team and continue playing for his community side at Waterloo. We hear that juju is common in Waterloo. True or false?
ANYWAY LET THE NEW FOOTBALL SEASON BEGIN
Juju or no juju we are now looking forward to the start of the new football season. Now we have a new Premier League Board in place and the teams are getting ready. We have also seen social media posts announcing pre-season games involving the so-called big teams and those seeking to beat them.
We don’t know why the previous board that was widely praised for organizing a fantastic league was sacked but they are gone now. We want to give the new people a chance to prove themselves. We however renew our call for that MP who, despite serving on the parliamentary oversight committee, agreed to join the PLB to withdraw immediately. He knows what conflict of interest means.
We urge the rest of the members to think about the following very serious concerns as expressed by all of us who love the beautiful game.
1. We are completely fed up with all the violence that took place towards the end of the last season and in our recent match against Liberia. Some clubs were totally unable to control their fans as they engaged in tit-for-tat violence. We cannot allow that to continue.
2. This time the PLB should not be afraid to do the ultimate by throwing some teams out of the league for unruly behavior. Attacking players and referees is an old and shameful practice. Playing in an empty stadium is not enough punishment. Throw them out of the league or deduct some points at the very least.
3. Please make the presidential stand TRULY PRESIDENTIAL. There were times during the last league season when STAND 18 was far more presidential that the so-called Presidential stand. Accrediting a few club officials is ok. Send the rest away!
4. Let the PLB take a position on the cost of match tickets before the start of the league. Leaving the ordinary people in the hands of big club shylocks is wrong. They are hosting matches at a facility that is owned by the good people of Sierra Leone. Stop the rip-off now.
5. Ban the large-scale selling of plastic water inside the stadium. One or two sachets per person should be enough. Unscrupulous fans have weaponized the thing, besides the environmental impact of all that plastic rubbish on the facility is too huge to even consider.
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