HOW AUGUST 8 RIOTERS CAN SAFELY REGISTER FOR 2023
Tolongbo people have told the world by means of a press statement that they are worried that their supporters who would turn up to register for the coming elections are likely to be arrested because according to Tolongbo, they appeared among the rioters filmed on the streets of Freetown on August 10 behaving in a lawless manner. We are only two days away from the start of that process that might run for a month initially.
All political parties are out urging their members to register in big numbers. They are fighting against apathy and for the rest of us, that’s a good thing. We want all those who can vote, those who meet the legal requirement to register and vote in 2023. The Tolongbo statement didn’t say how many of their supporters are on the radar of the SLP, nor have they stated why they believe it was only their supporters that rioted on that day. Or is it the usual line that the government is singling them out for punishment?
Anyway, we know political parties like to shout about things especially when they are in opposition but in this case, how can Tolongbo square this latest complaint with the fact that their interim leader went on BBC and told the world that ELEMENTS of his party played some kind of role in August 10? How about the fact that some of their councilors were seen actively organizing things in the same way they fought against the midterm census?
We will hold that there for now and suggest a few ways by which the Tolongbo people referred to in that press statement can register without being arrested by the SLP.
1. We can allow them to register online. Why not? Please if this humble suggestion is approved by ECSL, we don’t want to see another press statement asking the nation to pay for data. Tolongbo should not push us beyond that point.
2. Tolongbo should give us a list of their supporters that they believe are wanted by the police. We will then direct them to a special registration center where no police officers will be deployed. But they return to their hiding places immediately after registering. Meanwhile we will be thinking of how to get them to vote next year.
3. They can actually go to registration centers heavy disguised. ECSL workers don’t know those wanted by the police. They must however remember to be in the same condition on voting day.
4. Apart from those arrested on the day of the riot, the police have only published the names of a few people they are looking for and they are not up to TEN so what’s all this noise about? Are they all Tolongbo people?
5. Why has Tolongbo not condemned those ELEMENTS referred to by their interim leader as being part of the rioters? By the way, where is that Tolongbo councilor who fled about being accused of stealing solar panels in Lungi? Has he returned quietly or what?
SACKED MUSA TOMBO SHOULD BLAME HIMSELF
Bo Rangers finally lost patience with MUSA TOMBO and terminated his contract. A lot has been said already on Social media about the sacking, its implication for his future career and all that. We have read a good bit of it all. Let’s get this out of the way quickly: Musa is a good striker. He has proved it in many ways. He played a key role to get Bo Rangers to the top of Sierra Leone Football. Officials and fans of Bo Rangers are talking about that even after separation. We should also say that his greatest problem is that he hates subjecting himself to the rules of the modern game and many people are going to find it impossible to deal with a man like that, no matter how talented he is. There is NO DOUBT ABOUT THAT.
In our last edition we called on the SLFA to do something about his performance on the team bus on their way back from our defeat against Mali in neighboring Liberia. We are still waiting to hear from the SLFA on that. People in our GREEN, WHITE and BLUE should be at their best at all times. That behavior is totally unacceptable to the good people of Sierra Leone.
Let’s now make some preliminary comments about other related issues.
1. Why are people trying to embarrass other players by accusing them of recording and leaking that material? Why aren’t they telling Musa he was out of order and he should face the music? These are the same people who would gladly crucify a politician caught in a similar situation. Musa was on national assignment so the people who released that video are patriots. The question of privacy doesn’t come into play at all.
2. We don’t yet want to go too deep into what his Tik Tok wife did to the Executive Chairman of Bo Rangers. That’s a matter for another day. Scott Parker of Bournemouth was sacked recently for appearing to criticize his board for not signing high quality players after their 9 -0 crushing by Liverpool. This Tik Tok lady described Babadi Kamara as an EVIL MAN. No club allows their boss to be humiliated in that way. By the way she also acknowledged that the EVIL MAN paid for her wedding. What’s going on here?
3. We don’t want to go over all the disciplinary issues facing Musa Tombo. It is well documented. He is now free to join any other club. By the way, we are reading certain comments about his contract being breached. We don’t have a copy for now but why can’t the guy approach the High Court. This is a country of laws. We notice that Coach Zappa Koroma has dropped him from our CHAN squad that is now in Mali.
UPKEEP TRANSFORMED KISSY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL
Commonly called the Kissy Mental home, the psychiatric hospital in the hilly settlement east of Freetown was established to treat persons with mental health problems. Being a health condition that our society frowns at or hardly discusses, relapsing sufferers and those completely overwhelmed by the illness, face stigmatization.
For many years it carried a horrible reputation and families kept sick relatives away. There were those perennial allegations of ill-treatment of patients including beatings and starvation and coupled with the appalling conditions of the place. Only fearsome mentally ill people that roamed the streets were dumped at the hospital. The place has over the years symbolically come to represent abandonment, neglect and decadence, until this latest impressive transformation.
It came as a great relief to see the hospital rehabilitated, refurbished and modernized. It has also got Teaching Hospital status. Hats off to the American Not- For- Profit organization named Partners in Health for putting their resources into the place. Principal drove from State House up to Kissy to get the new look Psychiatric hospital formally opened. Medical students would now be encouraged to take up psychiatry study, an area they were reluctant to venture into due to the unappealing nature of the very facility that’s supposed to admit patients, and the stigmatization of the patients and to some extent the workers.
Staff at the hospital should be able to properly look after patients and the structures there too. We will closely monitor happenings at the hospital.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online
