You either love him or hate him, the chief minister delivers positive and critical issues for President Julius Maada Bio and for Sierra Leone. You must be a rabid hater of the Chief Minister and unpatriotic not to respect and admire his strong, competent and action-oriented leadership. He spears no time in robustly defending President Bio and Sierra Leone at any time and any place.
Since in Government, he never gives media interviews, he never goes to television and Radio stations, but when he talks, everyone listens and he seem to have the ability, competence and knowledge to command the attention of the Nation.
When he presented the Government Transition Team (GTT) Report to President Bio, the whole nation listened and was spellbound. When he defended Sierra Leone and stood up to FIFA, everyone listened and praised him, even those who are critical of his no-nonsense leadership approach.
FIFA had earlier said they will not see or speak to any Sierra Leone Government official and imposed a ban in breach of their own dispute resolution guidelines.
The Chief Minister confidently, competently and robustly defended Sierra Leone and stood up to FIFA, this action forced FIFA to meet Sierra Leone Government and to back down.
The positive mediation led by the Vice President, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh and Attorney General Pricilla Schwartz also contributed to this success. They both made sure that Isha Johansen was excluded from the meeting where the government explained its own part of this inherited SLFA problem.
This complemented the defensive effort of Chief Ministers’ on behalf of the Sierra Leone Government. For me, the Chief Minister is a real hero and if only President Bio can have two or three Ministers that are of Chief Minister’s strong, competent and no-nonsense leadership, then this country will change for the better and gain international respect.
Sierra Leone will now be the second country to challenge FIFA on issues that has the tendency to undermine her laws and the First in Africa to have achieved this. This success made by the Government will build confidence in the Anti-corruption commission and send a signal that Sierra Leone under the New Direction is ready to defend the citizens.
