WOULD PUTIN BECOME THE GRAND OLD DUKE OF YORK?
Joe Biden and the embattled Boris Johnson believe that Vladimir Putin is not likely to become another Grand old Duke of York. This was the guy who marched his TEN THOUSAND men up a hill possibly for combat but marched them down again with no action. Putin has marched more than ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND men to his country’s border with Ukraine with superpower equipment and Joe Biden in particular is telling the world that a Russian attack on Ukraine can come any day now. He has in fact asked all Americans to leave Ukraine. More than a dozen other countries have also asked their nationals to leave that country before the Russians descend on their neighbor. Biden is threatening to institute crippling sanctions against Russia if they attack Ukraine.
Somehow, we believe that given what it takes to mobilize and deploy more than one hundred thousand men and equipment, the Russians actually want to take some military action against Ukraine or win a big prize from NATO. We are not sure about the timing of any potential attack but it’s now looking like we should expect anything. Those of us in this little corner of the world should be very worried about the consequences of war breaking out in Ukraine and the western allies lining up against Russia. It is not as if we expect bombs to land on our shores – Sierra Leone is too far away from the place but this is a war that the world cannot afford. This is where we come in:
1. We know that there are quite a few Sierra Leoneans studying in Ukraine but we have not heard a word from the Egregious Professor about them. Have we asked our to move to safety? Are we able to repatriate them or ask a third country to take them in until Russia pulls back from the border? What’s happening to them?
2. The world economy is going to be severely disrupted. Already we are hearing that the price of oil has risen on the world market and we know what that means on this side. Pump price of petroleum products cannot remain the same.
3. We hope diplomacy succeeds but with intelligence agencies in the west counting down the minutes to some sort of attack we can only pray for the will of God to be done.
SLFA ETHICS BOARD STRIKES CHRIS KAMARA HARD
By the time Chris Kamara reads this he would be left with less than 24 hours to respond to a query issued to him by an Ethics Board that he helped put in place. We don’t want to go into the details of the statement announcing his suspension from office and a query regarding administrative duties he is accused of ignoring to the detriment of the work of the Ethics Board.
We have a lot of issues with this Ethics Board itself because of a number of decisions they made in the days leading to the last elective congress of the SLFA. At the time we accused the board of working closely with Kamara and his boss Isha Johansen to exclude certain candidates and so clear the way for their favorite candidates to emerge. Whichever way we look at it, they got what they wanted but now the chickens have come home to roost.
We’ve been reading many social media platforms since news about the suspension of Kamara broke to see how many people are shedding tears for him. We are sorry to say we can count those who support him on our fingers. Those against him have overwhelmed social media tonight calling on the Ethics Board to finish the demolition job by sacking the man immediately. The hard feelings against the man is not for any other thing but his style in office and his likeness for the politics of SLFA management instead of concentrating on his administrative responsibilities. We have it on good authority that Kamara is now a dead man walking – he will eventually be investigated, set aside and sacked.
We know that the cowardly Executive Committee of the SLFA didn’t have the guts to issue Kamara a letter they wrote nearly a week ago, asking him to proceed on leave. They have nothing to do with this action by the Ethics Board.
We are being told by some legal minds that the board has acted outside their powers. We’ll see whether, in the event of a court case, all the lawyers in that board would be shamed in their own courts.
We urge Chris to also publish his reply to the query on social media.
So what would Chris Kamara be doing outside the SLFA?
1. Kamara teaches at the Institute of Public Administration and Management so he could now just ask for a full time job with the University of Sierra Leone.
2. He can return to his work as a pundit on those same radio stations from which he established himself as a football man and offer some more perspectives on issues. For example, a lot of people would now want to know if he still thinks FIFA is irredeemably corrupt or the SLFA is up to no good. Those were his famous lines.
3. Kamara could simply jump on a plane and join Queen Johansen somewhere in the world to become an employee of FIFA.
4. He may also want to consider launching his own presidential bid for the SLFA. Chris knows where the political bodies are buried inside the SLFA so winning the presidency is an easy job for him. And of course he has the unflinching support of the Queen.
5. Or he may simply join us at the presidential pavilion to watch all league matches and grumble about the general organization of the game, especially poor officiating and shambolic preparation for medical emergencies.
SPORT ENVOY AND HIS “HASTING DRINK WATERLOO DRUNK” APOLOGY
When the controversial General Secretary of the SLFA went on his suicide mission on radio the other day, his eyes were wide open. In other words, he knew what he was going into when he blasted members of our national football team because they didn’t return suitcases full of football kits at the end of AfCON.
We supported Chris Kamara on the principle that if there was an agreement that the suitcases would be returned at the end of AfCON, then the players should absolutely honor that agreement and return the suitcases. It turned out that there was no such agreement. We reference the statement of the Team Manager Babadi Kamara and half a dozen players including Steven Caulker who is a new broom in this dirty football politics in Sierra Leone.
The SLFA has effectively dropped the idea of reclaiming the suitcases but the General Secretary didn’t find it honorable to apologize to our players who felt scandalized by Kamara’s attack on them. In fact, after the outcry that accompanied his radio appearance, Kamara then issued a press release to back up whatever was said on radio.
So we ask, what is the business of Mr. Sport Ambassador’s office to apologize on behalf of the General Secretary? Is our man looking for some job to do between now and the next international tournament? Anyway, many people are trying to make their offices relevant. Carry on sir.
WHAT IS SLRA DOING ABOUT THIS NEGLECT?
We took this picture last weekend in the middle of the road at East End Police station. By the look of things we can easily conclude that this has happened for a long time and SLRA has only found it convenient to ignore. The other point is that the fact that there is always water in this hole in the middle of the road even in the dry season suggests that a Guma Valley hydrant is located there. No matter what is happening there, this is a mess we shouldn’t allow to continue in the middle of our city.
We know that it is our responsibility as a newspaper to call attention to some of these lapses in society but can both SLRA and Guma Valley really tell us they know nothing about this mess? Is it also the case that police officers who operate in this area have never told somebody from the two agencies of government mentioned above about this hole filled with dirty water in the middle of Freetown? Anyway, this is not exactly an ultimatum but we don’t want to return to this place to find the same or worse in another SEVEN DAYS. You guys can continue to ignore us as usual. On our side, we have no choice but to keep pressing the issue because we are speaking the minds of our people.
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