WIMSAL: WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE
The organization, Women in the Media-Sierra Leone (WIMSAL) has just come through one of the most difficult elections in its short history. The campaigning was bitter – people who were normally good friends found themselves on different sides of the political fence, some of the campaign rhetoric was not so friendly, and there were allegations of outside interference and all of that.
In the end WIMSAL now has a president, an old hand, Femi Coker. Naturally those who lost are disappointed – after weeks of traveling across the country and spending money. And we hear they are complaining loudly. Disappointed also at not getting the opportunity to implement the program they thought was good enough to make WIMSAL a more powerful organization.
Our concern is that this organization must survive into the future as a united force dedicated to addressing the many issues confronting women in our profession. We have however observed that after every leadership election in WIMSAL the losers take a back seat and cool their interest in the day to day affairs of the organization. That’s not good enough. Democracy does not stop at asking for and getting the right to run for office. It dictates also that those who lose should accept the result and congratulate the winners. The winners should embrace the losers and implement the political programs on which they were elected.
WIMSAL has important issues to confront and should not waste time and resources on factional bickering.
1. In line with their colleagues in the Reporters’ Union, WIMSAL must work hard to ensure that reporters are paid by their employers. They must receive nothing less than the minimum wage prescribed by the government. Media people can’t go about fighting for other workers when their backyard is packed with the filth of journalists with no salary or NASSIT provision in place.
2. WIMSAL must ensure that their employers create conditions around their members that make it possible for them to be journalists and at the same time run their families. We were talking about issues like maternity leave, etc.
3. WIMSAL has to help train their members and prepare them for upward mobility in the newsroom. It’s a disgrace that for many years our newsrooms have been packed with men. Only a few women have broken through the proverbial glass ceiling. There is none on the horizon as we write this.
THE ACC AND THE WFP SPECIAL VICTIMS’ PAYMENT ARRESTS
Frankly, it’s beginning to look like the more ACC arrests and punishes people for stealing from the national purse or directly from other individuals using their positions of authority the more the menace continues to grow. We have seen teachers arrested and shamed for rigging public exams, court workers converting fines to their own use, immigration personnel keeping visa fees out of the national coffers and so on. And these are all recent happenings.
Now the ACC has just announced the arrest of some people on allegations that they are busy keeping for themselves about 80% of monies paid by the WFP to some of the most vulnerable people in our country. What’s really going on in this land that we love?
We live in a democracy so we know we should always wait for the courts to convict people before we call them criminals. However the people now in the hands of the Scorpions squad of ACC are very strange animals indeed. Considering the physical and social conditions of those who were due to receive the cash, how can any normal human being like any of us steal money from them?
Anyway, we’ve been finding answers to our own question particularly from the point of view of those now detained and here’s what we found even if for satirical reasons – and here they are:
1. The implementing NGO partners were only collecting processing fees. There is a lot of paperwork involved so it is just normal practice for those who do the job to get their pay. How about that?
2. Keeping 80% of the money makes a lot of sense. Old and poor people don’t need a lot of money. 20% of whatever amount of money due them is just enough to keep them going for 30 days.
3. Actually, those now under arrest have a legally enforceable contract with the WFP beneficiaries to keep 80% of their payment. Why is the ACC getting involved?
4. If these people end up in court the ACC will be surprised to see the very people they want to protect appearing as defense witnesses.
5. We really admire the work Afro Boy is doing at the ACC but we are living in a country where some people think corruption is like going to their farms and harvesting wild fruits. Fighting corruption with any degree of success is looking very impossible daily. We are not asking Afro Boy to cut and run. Let’s just pack criminals inside Pademba Road jail.
THE RETURN OF THE SIERRA LEONE PREMIER LEAGUE
All appears set for the start of the new football league season. The Lazarus Project that was the Sierra Leone Premier League came back to life in 2019 with large crowds pouring into the stadium in their thousands to watch the local game for the first time in many years. The government splashed the cash in a really big way. This happened at a time when FIFA had put an unjust ban on Sierra Leone alleging political interference in the local game. We thought their real concern was to protect an FA president who was facing trial for corruption and abuse of office in the High Court of Sierra Leone. In the end she was acquitted and discharged but the challenges facing football administration in Sierra Leone continues.
A new Premier League Board is in place under the leadership of Lawyer Allieu Vandy Koroma. Lawyer Koroma is a highly respected man with a wealth of knowledge in football. Many fans of the game believe he will do a good job. While we join the tens of thousands of fans in wishing him good luck, we make bold to outline some of the threats facing the successful conclusion of the league.
1. This is not going to be easy for Lawyer Koroma but he should keep Isha Johansen away from the day-to-day administration of the game. For example, people don’t want to see her trying to direct the show on any match day at the stadium. She should have left office long ago and her continued hold on power is turning many people off the game. That’s a fact.
2. Her speech at Radisson Blue on Saturday would have passed off without much debate had she not missed the opportunity to calm the turbulent waters of SLFA politics by accusing the stakeholders from the podium of being responsible for all the troubles in the game. This is the reason why we say she must allow Lawyer Vandy Koroma to do his job. Some people at that event told us they almost walked out.
3. The government has promised to support the league like they did early this year. We don’t know when the money will be made available. Some in government believe they should wait until a democratically-elected SLFA administration is in place by the second quarter of 2020. We’ll see how the government proceeds.
4. Lawyer Vandy Koroma should insulate the PLB from whatever will happen at any of the proposed congresses of the SLFA. Some surprises are very much on the cards at those meetings. We don’t want the PLB to be drawn into that.
5. Finally, as long as somebody who should be playing an oversight role from parliament continues to operate on the PLB many people are going to find it difficult to accept this despite the unimpeachable credibility of the chairman. That MP must resign NOW – or be told to leave.
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