WELL DONE CHIEF JUSTICE BABATUNDE EDWARDS
Looking at the main Law Courts building these days from the outside we feel very proud that at last we have a Chief Justice who is able to understand that a building like that, in the middle of our capital, must always be in good shape. Thanks very much. We were on the verge of opening a Trust Fund for the rehabilitation of that building like we did for Commercial Bank the other day, when we saw men working on the pavement on Siaka Stevens Street. So the building looks decent and decongested with Magistrates now operating from the courtrooms near the prison yard.
Mr. Hon. Chief Justice, we also note the way you have organized your judges to get the best from them both in terms of the quality of their output and the speed with which they deliver. As they say, the jury is still out on whether anything is achieved worthy of note.
There is also your bid to fast-track trials of people who’ve been on remand for years. Again, we don’t know what legal dangers lie ahead of such trials but we welcome your efforts to at least get some trial going for people like that man in Kenema who was on remand for TWELVE years before his case came to the attention of those who helped him get out.
Hon. Chief Justice sir, you are just taking office so this is not time to grade your performance. For now what we can say is this: having a nicely painted building and more judges would mean little if people still believe that getting justice from inside those buildings is still difficult if not impossible. We will surely be back sir.
CONGRATULATIONS EAST END LIONS BUT SUNDAY WAS NOT SO GOOD.
The Sierra Leone Premier League 2019 has ended with East End Lions crowned Champions. We congratulate them as we did last week because the crown was secured with two matches to spare. The team was also unbeaten in 24 four matches (all-season long). We credit all this to good organization, huge money injected by a handful of people, supported by a re-awakened fan base that supported the team in their usual way.
While we wait for the next season – and we are not even sure there will be a next season because of the noises we are hearing from the SLFA back under the leadership of the Queen – we have to raise some issues with the newly-crowned Champions.
1. John Leister has done extremely well in Sierra Leone Football since he was brought home to work with FC Johansen Football Club. But in winning this league he drew and won equal number of matches. In effect there were too many draws. If FC Kallon had stayed on course, this would have been difficult.
2. Anybody who knows something about football can easily tell that like Jose Mourinho, Keister likes holding a deep defensive line at the slightest wobble. That’s not bad but doing too much of it brings many draws and occasional 1 – 0 victories.
3. Keister is likely to struggle without those twin wonder kids who should be travelling to Europe to continue their career. There was very little happening down the flanks in the two games they played without Alhassan. The other man was a pale shadow of himself in the match against Mighty Blackpool – a team that was poor throughout the league by their own standards.
4. In his final report to the board of East End Lions for this league season, Keister should identify the gaps in his squad and get the board to act fast to bring in new players. Other teams like Bo Rangers and Kamboi Eagles are planning to strengthen significantly. It’s even being rumored that Keister himself might be tempted to join Babadi Kamara’s boys in the south.
5. By the way, it was totally wrong for EE Lions to do a lap of honor around the field after Sunday’s match, then go to their dressing room to put on white t-shirts, while the Vice President waited to hand the trophy to them. When they were eventually forced out they immediately occupied the dais built for celebration after receiving the cup and despite many calls for them to receive the trophy from the VP at the presidential stand, they stayed put until the humble Dr. Juldeh Jalloh pushed his way through the crowd to handover the trophy and leave. That attitude was poor.
THE LEAGUE IS OVER WHAT HAPPENS NOW TO THE FOLLOWING GROUPS?
FOOTBALLERS: There are clubs that have struggled through this league, sometimes not paying their players for a few months because as small clubs not many people attended their games except when they came up against the big boys. So would they still remain engaged with pay? Some would obviously leave the original clubs for wealthy neighbors but what happens now to the rest? We know this is really difficult but until the SLFA is able to work with the clubs to organize themselves properly, we are going to continue with this ad-hoc operation that treats people who are essentially professional footballers as casual workers at a construction site.
PETTY TRADERS: These people, selling mostly food and drinks, have made good money since the start of the league. They will now experience a catastrophic fall in profits with all that comes with that. They should be able to move to other areas but the stadium was a real gold mine for them.
BEGGARS: An empty so-called Presidential pavilion is very bad news for this group of people. They constantly harassed fans for money, sometimes they looked very threatening to the extent people had to pay for their security and that of their vehicles. Many people complained but the Stadium Manager Paul Damulay, despite making noticeable efforts to improve the atmosphere, failed very badly in dealing with the beggars.
Many people just won’t understand how somebody who begs for and collects something as little as two thousand leones was able to enter the so-called Presidential pavilion where entry ticket costs ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND LEONES. Many came through the main gates with ease while Damulay’s security men looked the other way. This cannot be allowed to continue. In fact almost always there were more people in that so-called Presidential stand even at that price, than in the open stand which was TWENTY times cheaper.
© 2019 Politico Online
