By Foday Moriba Conteh
Thomas Daddy Brima, who is the newly elected President of the Sierra Leone Football Association FA (SLFA) has revealed that his primary task is to endeavor to reunite the football family in the country.
He defeated Sadick Deen-Nyarkoh by 31 votes to 26 in the first SLFA elections in eight years, to replace Isha Johansen who withdrew from the Presidential race four days before the polls.
“My immediate plan is reconciliation,” Brima intimated.
“It’s an open secret that there have always been problems in Sierra Leone football but at this point we are going to call a retreat where we’ll get everybody that has been frustrated one way or the other to come and vent out their grievances and we will then try to pilot the right way forward,” he said with foresight
Brima is a new face at the top-level of football administration in Sierra Leone and before elected his only experience has been as Chairman of a second tier club, Wilberforce Strikers.
He also served as Vice-Chairman of Kissy All Stars when they were in the country’s premier league and before that he also had a brief stint as a player with top-flight side Kakua Rangers, who have since become Bo Rangers.
After his short playing career he moved to the United States to study and earned degrees in business and politics.
He was one of five candidates who initially announced they would be standing in the elections earlier this year but was not considered among the favourites to lead the SLFA.
His chances were boosted by the withdrawal of three other candidates including Johansen, who then gave her backing to Brima.
“Well I wasn’t thinking about Isha Johansen backing me in the election. I talked to her if the situation is stressing her that much why can’t you for the love of Sierra Leone step down?” he claimed.
“She’s a strong woman and so I discussed that with her, that was bravery on my part because it’s difficult to tell somebody to step away from such a top position and she listened to me.
“Not only that but she gave me her blessings and she told her supporters to support me and I’m grateful to her,” he intimated.
The businessman, former teacher and son of a former Government Minister says he has been planning his strategy for more than a year.
“It’s been a long time coming. My strategy was in place with and I knew that I was going to be a force to reckon with,” he explained.
“I knew I was going to win as early as 14 months back because I told a lot of people that I was going to be the next SLFA President.
“Then six days ago when Johansen actually said okay she was stepping down for Thomas Daddy Brima that was a confirmation of what I have been thinking about.”
Two other presidential candidates Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai and Rodney Michael, both former Premier League Board Chairmen withdrew from the race and gave their backing to the defeated candidate Sadick Deen-Nyarkoh
Michael’s withdrawal came just a day before the polls and in spite of a ruling 24 hours earlier from the Court of Arbitration for Sport which overturned the SLFA Ethics Committee’s decision to disqualify him from the contest.
Despite Deen-Nyarkoh’s defeat he will remain on the SLFA Executive Committee to represent Southern Region of the country.
Other elected officials in the polls were Harold Nat Johnson for the position of Vice President 1 while Ali Badara Tarawalie won the Vice President II post unchallenged.
Kwaku Lisk, Mohamed Sorie Jalloh and Ramatulai Kamara were elected ex-officio members with Kamara winning the reserved female uncontested position.
The elections were witnessed by Zimbabwean Fifa official, Solomon Mudege, who gave the process a high pass mark.
