By Foday Moriba Conteh
As the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Sports, headed by Hon. Alusine Alu Conteh, has on the 5th February 2021 put a halt on the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA) electioneering nomination process which will culminate into the February 26th and 27th Elective Congress in Makeni until further notice, a situation which has the tendency to divide the football family in the country, the Chief Executive Officer of No Child Left Behind Initiative, Jennifer Adeshola Thompson, has added her voice to the impasse by cautioning the Committee and calling for unity among the football family.
Commenting on the impasse relating to the SLFA Electioneering process, the humanitarian cum philanthropist, who has been changing lives through her Foundation, especially those of underprivileged kids, has cautioned the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Sports of the Sierra Leone Parliament not to politically interfere in sporting activities stating that by doing so will be contrary to the SLFA Electoral Code of 2012.
She emphasized that political interference also runs contrary to a FIFA policy which if imposed could negatively impinge on football in the country and somehow dampen the spirit of young people who may want to take football as their career.
She disclosed that Article 2 Sub-Section 2 of the SLFA Electoral Code of 2012 states that nobody including Government has the right to interfere in the work of the Electoral Committees within the Sierra Leone Football Association.
According to her, such is normally described as a third party or political interference which normally will lead to a ban or suspension by FIFA as it previously happened to Sierra Leone when the Anti-Corruption Commission set aside the SLFA President and Secretary on corruption allegations.
Against such a backdrop Jennifer said she is making a passionate appeal to the Parliamentary Oversight Committee on Sports to ensure that they refrain from interfering in the activities of the football family, but rather ensure that they create a platform for a united football family in the country.
She further called on the football stakeholders & football clubs in the country to see themselves as a big family, adding that nominations and elections should not be a do or die thing adding how they should not dodge the rules and electoral processes to suit individual interests.
Jennifer also underscored that when such happens it has the tendency to create negative impacts within the football family in the country which she said should not be our goal.
Jennifer Adeshola Thompson, who is a true philanthropist whose compassionate gestures have left indelible footprints in the realm of development, especially positively impacting the lives of young people in the country, believes that “unity in the football family in the country will enhance growth within the sporting discipline.
She revealed that she will continue to support football in the country especially in creating female football teams asserting that when one invests in the youth, one is investing in their future.
“It’s about time that we keep them engaged and out of the streets,” she averred reiterating that as a nation we should always empower the youth and watch them grow.
“We will catch them young and allow them to have fun!” she said with optimism.
It could be recalled that out of her passion for football, Jennifer Adeshola Thompson adopted a female Football Team in a village within Bo District which she intends to develop.
