Coming events they say cast their shadows. In the recently concluded by-elections in Fourah Bay SLPP (Manchester United) beat Arsenal (APC) on home turf (Freetown) on the same day the two teams clashed at the Emirates which ended the way it did in Freetown. By coincidence or design the November 17 elections will be on a Saturday, which may be casting shadows of things to come (den say Saturday badluck kin fordom two tem). As we await the big game pundits have started analysing the political skills of the two key players who will be slugging it out on November 17.
From the look of things Ernest Arsenal will be thumped in the fashion Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United whips Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal these days with Maada Manchester as the orchestrator of the defeat. Ernest Arsenal has shown poor political trapping skills, lack of judgment and outrageous finishing that he has wasted the chances he had initially of winning the trophy in 2012. Margai handed him the spot kick in 2007 which he converted and won the match even though question marks surrounded the referee’s decision. Yet the result stood and he won the cup. Right from the victory celebration he started going wrong and has not taken a wise decision then, which has now put him in a position where the next match is up for the opponent to win.
He dragged his political shot wide when he embarked on recruiting players from just one region to play for his team, ignoring the vital contribution others played in him winning the trophy in 2007. Since then every other judgment he has made on the pitch has gone awry and he keeps tripping over whilst losing vital support such as the one at Fourah Bay which before now he could have boasted of. He has incessantly given possession of the political ball to the opposition by with his reckless economic policies that have heaped more misery on the people than ever before. His poor trapping skills have been exposed in the area of agriculture and brought more hunger and deprivation on them to the extent that the fans who were hitherto supportive of him have become chronically hungry and have turned their backs on him.
Maada Manchester being an experienced man who is coming out of retirement to steer the team to victory, is taking advantage of every weakness on the pitch. He has shown deft touches of the political game before by playing central midfield in 1996 after taking over power in January of that year and handed peacefully to his successor Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. He was a key player between 1992 to 1996, on a pitch that was very rough, rugged and bumpy, when the country was engulfed in a bloody civil war but with the skills innate in him, waltzed his way through that period and came out smelling of roses. Even in those difficult times when they were in a quagmire, caught between prosecuting a war that the reckless APC has bequeathed the people and providing services for the people, Maada and his colleagues dispatched both with aplomb and to the admiration of many Sierra Leoneans. It was during those times that the national broadcasting station was breathed with a new lease of life after being in the doldrums for years.
When he stepped aside from the field in 1996, he went abroad to sharpen his skills picking up two university degrees in the United States of America and collecting several diplomas in various fields of study. A fleet footed player who is adept with both feet, Maada Manchester is predatory in front of the political goal and can reck any opponent he is playing against. These qualities are weaned of his major opponent Ernest Arsenal who has shown that he is a one footed player who can easily be checked on the field of play.
A deadball specialist who knows how to take his chances, Maada had shown the people of this country what he can do when in such situations. Lithe and quick, balanced and so articulate Maada has an untiring endurance that wears his opponents down while conserving energy to use to hit the final goal that clinches victory for him.
As Saturday November 17 approaches Maada’s build up for the great match for State House is gradual but very well planned and carefully planned. Ernest Arsenal has already been shown the red card but is walking tardily towards the exit tunnel and the fans are exercising patience. It is rare these days to hear of an Arsenal victory over Manchester United just as it is seldom to hear of an APC victory over SLPP these days. The game is on.
