A QUESTION OF LOYALTY AT SLFA BUT IS THE GAME OVER?
Now, we are getting details about what may have prompted a strong social media lecture on the need for people to be loyal to their bosses at all times in the interest of the organizations they work for and their own professional development. The lecture came from the powerful scribe in the home of Isha Johansen at Kingtom. Frankly, given all that happened in that place under Queen Johansen with the scribe as the moving spirit behind it all, we certainly don’t think he should attempt to convince anybody that he was the High Priest of loyalty. Anyway, the lecture was powerful and looking at things from the outside, we totally agree with him on the question of loyalty.
We have been told that Queen Johansen’s hostage at the SLFA in the shape of TDB intends to take certain actions against our powerful scribe but in a cowardly way he decided to use other people to clear the way for him. He called a meeting of all the staff in that place and asked people to BLOW THEIR MINDS. We are told that obviously disgruntled staff of the secretariat took the opportunity to embarrass their boss. Queen Johansen’s hostage is now completing his plan to tie a heavy stone around the neck of our scribe and dump him into the sea just next door.
If that’s what this hostage wants to do why can’t he just do it? Why create such drama and set the staff against each other? The struggle between the Stakeholder group and the leadership of the SLFA is over, at least for now. The new struggle has now moved into the house of Queen Johansen. The consequences of the coming division will determine if or when the hostage gets his freedom or not and at what cost. We will pick up the pieces as always.
AND ON THE RETURN OF THE PREMIER LEAGUE
Hundreds of thousands of fans across Sierra Lone welcome the resumption of the Sierra Leone Premier League. There is no doubt that apart from the northern half of our continent, the Sierra Leone Premier draws the most crowds to matches no matter the days on which matches are scheduled. We must congratulate ourselves for that and pray that things continue that way. Despite all the grumblings from the various clubs, we know the ones that are making money by manipulating the price of match tickets to further line their pockets.
We want to bring the following issues to the attention of the Premier League Board and to some extent the clubs.
1. Why do you people insist on playing matches beyond 6pm in Freetown when you know very well that the lights are very poor in that stadium? For whatever reason the light are only partially switched on leaving portions of the playing area dark. If it’s about bringing crowds to the stadium then we should simply ask you to check the majority of your fans and see if they are people who work from 9am to 5pm.
2. We also ask you to check what happens outside the stadium in Freetown and in the provinces where people don’t depend on flood flights. Matches are played at 4:30 but big crowds turn up. If you can’t fix and unleash the full power of the flood lights at the stadium then play all matches at 5pm.
3. Please if you can’t maintain the integrity of the so-called PRESIDENTIAL PAVILLION, just change that name. The truth is there is more decorum in STAND 19 that at the so-called presidential pavilion. The PLB knows what we are talking about. Why can’t we organize things properly for once?
THE STEALING OF CARS IN FREETOWN: OUR CASE AGAINST SOVULA
There is now an ongoing but undeclared war against all Toyota vehicles in Sierra Leone, particularly RAV 4 Vehicles. Criminals are waging that war by stealing RAV 4 vehicles all over the place totally unchecked. As far as we know the record of Sovula’s people in recovering stolen vehicles and successfully prosecuting the criminals is patchy, nothing to write home about.
In one case, a guy now before the courts allegedly stole a vehicle from a senior citizen in the west of Freetown and drove through police checkpoints in the midst of a raging social media campaign to find the car. The guy crossed the border and drove deep into neighboring Guinea before he was arrested by police who merely took their chance by asking the extra question.
Frankly, it’s almost as if the boys in blue have given up trying to stop cars being stolen in broad daylight in Freetown in particular. They will never say this but this is where we are now as a nation. We know of cars being stolen while the owners were in church or decided to stop by a fast food joint to get something about the family. We cannot continue like this at all.
We believe that if Sovula and his people put bait cars in ten locations in Freetown, making use of technology, they will round up the few people stealing cars in Freetown and put them away for a long time with ease but waiting for distressed people to run into your stations to complain and then giving assurances will not work.
When we recently called attention to the role the many scrapyards in Freetown are playing in this criminal project, we were ignored. We call on Sovula to read those comments again.
MAYOR KEMOKAI WHERE ARE THE PUBLIC TOILETS
A frequent Western visitor to Sierra Leone has always stated that the country has all it takes to become a tourist paradise but highlighted a number of areas we need to address properly to make it happen. And one particular fault line he mentioned was the lack of public toilets in the city. We cannot agree more with his viewpoint. Let’s forget about tourists in the first place; public toilets are a must in cities and towns in even developed countries these days. One can count the public toilets within the business district area of this our capital and they are not hygienic at all.
Also in visiting any of them you are in the first place put off by the often thuggish and intimidating looking men in care of those places. Which woman would dare go to such toilets with all the ever growing reported incidences of gender based sexual violence. The conditions at those public toilets are a smack on the face of basic hygiene. Imagine the much vaunted desire for a tourist influx and the embarrassing state of no good public toilet in downtown Freetown. Even citizens coming to town often face very uncomfortable experiences to attend to nature’s call. Some are even turned away when in desperation they go to private residences to ease themselves.
Clean and safe public toilets must be seen all over Freetown. We hope public toilets are an integral component of the much publicized Council plan to transform Freetown.
Council is collecting taxes from the people and must be seen to be equally concerned about the needs of the taxpayers. Yes we have pristine beaches, breathtaking mountains and promising wildlife that many people would want to see. But as we pride ourselves in all of these, we have to keep those simple things as public toilets well and truly erected all around Freetown which is the first port of call for all tourists coming to Sierra Leone. We need public toilets please FCC!
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (15/09/21)
