Sierra Leone Sports Minister and Racism

If reports in the Sierra Leone Media are anything to go by as alleged, the Sierra Leone Sports Minister Mr Paul Kamara will not be an omission to be probed for his comment against one of Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) presidential hopefuls, Mr Rodney Michael.  (Photo: Alie Bittar, author)

Sierra Express Media Sport UK soccer pundit Alie Bittar will stay neutral on whatever is going on in Sierra Leone football, however racism in any civilised world is prescribed, so I hope Mr Kamara is being misunderstood and misquoted as he proclaims.

As an APC son and a special aficionado of His Excellency President Ernest Koroma, I will not want racism near our flag; and there is always a consequence for such act, this is the 20th century.

It is well known that Mr Kamara, who before being appointed as a Minister was admired with high esteem by the general public in Sierra Leone in the portraying of human rights, however with this new development it is without a doubt sad to say that our sports minister will be crossing the line if probed and found guilty of such a comment, but that is up to Mr Rodney Michael.

According to recent developments, Mr Kamara’s outburst against Mr Michael did not go down well with the press which escorted the way for Mr Kamara to threaten a physical confrontation with journalists.  If all this is true that minister Kamara made a racist comment on radio 91.3 FM while acting as a campaigner for Isha Johansen, and also being quoted as saying in the Eagle Africa Rodney Michael is a foreigner because his mother is not a Sierra Leonean, then there is a problem coming.

As a minister everyone expects him to stay neutral, the danger of racism is that Mr Kamara is separating himself from the human community and in general denying himself the benefit of feeling connected to that community.  From a historic perspective, take a walk through history and look at all the pain, suffering and loss that has come from racism and bigotry.

An obvious example would be the Nazis. Not only did they kill millions of innocent people because of race (robbing the world of all they could have contributed) but they also caused the downfall of Germany which caused suffering for millions of Germans.

The Nazi racism set events in motion that caused human and financial loss worldwide.  That is only one example of the dangers of racism.  And we Sierra Leoneans, as a small nation, will not accept any form of racial abuse.

The big question here many Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad are asking, is where is our football is going?  Is the SLFA election a conspiracy, or are the delegates going to do the right thing?  Rodney or Isha are both fine aspirants, however, honesty is the key to success; so if the election is not free and fair without any interference like racism to just neutralize one man that is a shame.

I have been following posts on Mr Kamara on social media networks in the past few weeks, with most of them criticising the minister, some even describing him as an apology of a minister, others posting he is well known for his rants and hot-temper, which is not good for the APC party, especially on a topic like racism, which the world and civilisation frowns against.

Sierra Leone will be taking on Tunisia in a very important encounter, two legs away from making it to Africa’s biggest stage South Africa 2013 after 17 years, yet minister Kamara and the players are already in a war of words; this is not good for our football.  How can all this be going on and we expect players to give their 100% commitment?  As a nation we need to put a stop to all these football politics.

It will not be a surprise to many if Sierra Leone falls short against a well organised Tunisian side in the African qualifiers first week September 2012, with all this war of words with players and the Sports Minster, the SLFA’s presidential conspiracy, and alleged racism.

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