By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
On Friday delegates and executive members of the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) will converge in Kenema for the second congress in less than two months.
The congress itself will hold on Saturday. It is the second of three congresses that is scheduled by the FA to put the country’s football governance back on track.
Football in Sierra Leone has had its fair share of controversy in the last decade.
Kenema, where the next congress will be held on Saturday, is a proud city. They are so partly because their football team, Kamboi Eagles, are the leaders in the Sierra Leone Premier League. The Eagles have 16 points after six games. They are three points clear of the second-place team East End Lions and have played one game less than the Lions.
Kamboi Eagles will play East End Lions on Saturday in Kenema. Hundreds of fans are expected to travel to Kenema to watch the match. Back this up with the thousands at home, this is a spectacular football match, probably curated to close the curtain on a remarkable football event in the district.
This congress is purposely meant for the setting up of the electoral body and the Appeals committee of the FA. These bodies will lead the SLFA into elections on April 18th. Anything more on the plate cannot be more significant than this.
As usual there are two blocks going in this congress: “Team Johansen” and “Stakeholders”. The ultimate aim of each block is to make sure the other is not in charge of running football in the country. Ironically, this is one of the few things they can agree on.
As much as this congress is about building the structures for elections, there are things that have been left unfinished since the Port Loko congress.
For example, even though the congress agreed on extending the league to 18 teams, the playoffs haven’t started yet. Once again divisions within the membership of the FA have stalled the execution of their own very agreement.
The Kenema congress gives a chance for all parties involved to discuss on the sidelines and agree on the fine details of how to get the playoff started and how to properly roll the 18-team league next season.
A conundrum the congress will have to address is the inclusion of new delegates from Falaba, Karene and the North-West region of the country. But maybe it’s not a big problem. The FA confirmed to Politico that only two delegates will be added to the original 47 man delegate list. This means there will be 49 delegates in Kenema.
In December, all three bodies were formally accepted in to the association at the Port Loko congress.
Now that there will be 49 delegates, it means a vote on any resolution can only be won with 26 votes or more.
These are the details that could tilt the balance of the scale in favor or against either Team Johansen or Stakeholders.
A lesson in history?
But back to the purpose of this congress proper. You might wonder what each side has learnt over the last one month or six years that they could come into this congress with.
This congress is perhaps the most important of the three. It is an exercise that could write the rules of the game, in this case the rules of the election.
The integrity of the electoral body and the appeals committee will help in deciding who occupies the seat at Kingtom for the next four years.
Idrissa Mago Tarawally is the face and voice of Stakeholders.
He told Politico that previous experience has thought them to pay keen attention to this process (election of the electoral body).
“We will pay keen attention to the election of the electoral body. The last time around it was through the electoral body that the normalization committee did all what it did. Which is how we got here today. We don’t want a repeat of that,” Tarawally said.
The last time the FA had an election was in 2013. Back then, the Normalization Committee oversaw the elections. The committee controversially disqualified all three candidates who vied against Isha Johansen. Rodney Michael and Ibrahim Foday Turay were disqualified on grounds that they were associated to a gambling company - Mercury International.
And Mohamed Kallon was disqualified because he had not resided in the country for up to five consecutive years prior to his application to run for the presidency of the FA.
All three people vehemently protested the committee’s decision back then.
In the build up to this congress, Tarawally said they have heard of rumors that the FA has already compiled a list of names that will be approved to form the electoral body and the appeals committee.
“We have heard that one of the things SLFA has already done is that they have prepared names which they are planning to push to delegates so they will approve them in Kenema,” he said.
Tarawally added: “This is a message for the SLFA now, if this is what they are trying to do, let them not do it. Because it’s a constitutional provision. If you go into the constitution, you will clearly see it that it’s the right of members to nominate people for the electoral body and the members will vote for them.”
Ibrahim Kamara, Head of Media and Marketing at the FA, confirmed that indeed the FA has put together names of those that will form the committee. He said this is line with the mandate of the executive committee of the FA.
“Constitutionally, it is the responsibility of the FA. You put together the names of the members of the electoral body and take them to congress for approval,” Kamara said.
He added: “It is not congress that go and say this or that. This is just like it’s done in national politics; the president appoints and parliament approves.”
Clearly, this will be a thorny issue as the delegates head to Kenema.
What to look out for?
After the Port Loko congress, the momentum is in Johansen’s sail. If the vote counts are anything to go by, then you will say they are edging Stakeholders at least by three more votes.
During the Port Loko congress, they won two votes – 25 to 22 and 26 to 21.
But two more votes have been added. If they all go to Team Johansen, the difference could be five. This means any vote that is called could be won by Johansen’s side at least 27 to 22.
But these are all scenarios and experiences that have shown that things don’t always go to plan in politics.
Either way, the pressure is on the Stakeholders to regather their momentum by getting more delegates on their sides.
Tarawally is confident that they will increase their number and win votes if they are called.
“Going to Kenema we wouldn’t have the situation we had in Port Loko. We will increase our number and the situation will be orderly, so the true picture of whatever we decide will be depicted,” he said.
Beyond the Kenema congress
Tarawally heads a fragile coalition and it could disintegrate quickly if it’s not managed well. With 76 days to the elective congress, they are yet to decide on a candidate that they will rally around and put forward against Johansen.
Perhaps a clever strategy, but maybe a risky one as well.
This is a coalition that knows what it wants; which is the removal of Isha Johansen as president of the SLFA. But it doesn’t seem to know who it wants, at least not yet.
Tarawally said this is a decision that they are leaving till after the Kenema congress.
“We will talk on the candidature of people who are interested but that will be after the Kenema congress. Everyone will not go for the position. The membership is not about power struggle. If it was for that by this time you would have seen people drawing daggers to fight for leadership against each other. But it’s not about that,” he said.
How all the sides come out of this will decide if the elections will be held in April. For now, there is no indication that it wouldn’t. Despite the differences, all the parties are committed to attending and doing the “right” thing.
Make no mistake, there will be sparks and heated moments in the hall.
But you will hope a good football match in the evening, and some cold drinks after, would be enough to beat any animosity.
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