BIG FOOTBALL DELEGATION AND OUR TAXES
A huge debate is taking place mostly on social media about the number of officials in the SLFA and NSA delegation to three friendly matches in the Kingdom of Morocco at the invitation of that country. We are preparing our boys for the coming AfCON in Cameroon. We are told that there are TWENTY-FOUR officials from SLFA, NSA and the Ministry of Sport in Morocco as we write this.
We have read a letter from the TEAM MANAGER of the national team taking issue with this huge number of officials on this trip, essentially saying our tax money was being wasted. We don’t like having big arguments about the state paying for services, whether it’s for officials serving with Leone Stars or for people picking up trash from public buildings but to deliberately line the pockets of friends with state money using the excuse that they are crucial to the national football team at all times is wrong and MUST be challenged with all our might.
We don’t want to highlight specific names for now but having looked at the list of delegates, it’s a shame that greed has taken hold in some institutions like the NSA and the Ministry of Sport when it comes to matters like this. So now the Ministry of Finance has allocated billions and the greedy ones are busy having meals in hotels and collecting per diem with their friends for a friendly match.
As far as we know such matches are for the players and their small technical team not for politicians, their friends and the failing officials of the National Sport Agency who have no business being in office.
We know the Team Manager will not be the most popular guy in that group right now for calling them out. What he said has however assured us that we still have people with a solid backbone in this our sport area. Time will tell.
PARTY CONFERENCES IN THE UK vs. PARTY CONFERENCES IN SALONE
It’s the party conference season in the UK and one after the other the parties are meeting in different parts of the country to discuss party matters and serious issues having to do with governance. We know that the UK has been in this for more than a century so they have perfected the system, coming through a lot of challenges. This doesn’t mean they have no problems even now but they have good structures to deal with those challenges when they suddenly appear.
In their party conferences they deal with the real issues and set out policy guidelines to convince the voters about their suitability for governance. The people deliver their immediate verdict after the conference season in opinion polls. When things are bad for some parties their leaders would predictably disregard the polls as not being in line with what the people were saying. We hear almost nothing about fake delegates and ruthless political manipulation and violence to disenfranchise their own party members. Now let’s turn to our own parties here.
1. With the PPRC standing by with ZERO POWERS to act, our party big men fight to the death to keep their positions. They run fake so-called lower level elections that produce fake delegates with the instruction to vote for the big man at the main party conference.
2. There is NO policy discussion at these party conferences and they don’t allow dissenting opinions even from among their members. All they want is for party members to sing the praises of the big man. That’s all.
3. And this thing about inviting other parties to speak at their conferences is the most stupid thing we have seen. That does nothing to bring about cohesion. It’s just an exercise in hypocrisy to present a picture of political tolerance. Where is the tolerance after all these years? Even now accepting the outcome of the 2018 election is a big problem. Our parties should simply stop this window-dressing.
4. Over there the politicians know that their voters won’t tolerate politically divisive rhetoric and offensive language that endanger national cohesion and assaults national decency. The voters hate lies and criminals are easily found out and thrown out of office. Here we invite those politicians to our churches in particular as this and that because they can pay big money as offering.
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE BEST TEACHERS OF SIERRA LEONE
We join other Sierra Leoneans and friends of Sierra Leone all over the world to congratulate those teachers who have been publicly recognized and rewarded by Principal for their work among the young people of Sierra Leone who will run this country someday. The BEST TEACHER AWARDS is a good addition to all the effort now geared towards developing the Human Capital that Principal has been talking about since coming to power three years ago.
So far, we haven’t read or heard those strident partisan views we are so used to these days when people are nominated for national positions or awards. It suggests to us that people are reasonably satisfied with those selected.
We appreciate all that has been done to improve the lives of our teachers. There’s a lot more to do. Our teachers need more money, those living outside Freetown need decent housing, and they deserve a lot of respect from society.
We have to throw this in for good measure: there are many who have entered the classrooms and they are definitely NOT FIT to be there. They are criminals – they don’t teach, they manufacture and sell grades and do unthinkable things to our children. Let’s weed them out right now so they don’t stain other teachers. God bless the GOOD TEACHERS OF SIERRA LEONE.
Copyright © Politico Online (06/10/21)
