The Battle of Supremacy Between The NSA & Ministry of Sport

By Lansana Fofanah

After his Excellency President Julius Maada Bio won the 2018 presidential election, he was determined to bring a series of institutional reforms.

Among the many reforms he envisaged was to give life to the moribund 1964 National Sport Council (NSC) Act with the establishment of the National Sport Authority in 2018.

Implicitly, the establishment of the NSA, was not to make it more powerful than the Ministry of Sports or the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), but to directly provide oversight responsibilities on all sporting disciplines in harmony with the Ministry of Sports.

With such a daunting responsibility, President Bio appointed Dr. Kenneth Brima in 2018 as the Executive Director of NSA with the hope that he could work amicably with the sporting family.

Disappointingly, Dr. Brima on several occasions was in confrontation with the then Minister of Sports Nyelenkeh, over match bonuses, football administration and other sporting disciplines such as cricket.

President Bio in April 2024, appointed Dr. Emmanuel Saffa Abdulai based on his sporting background to head the NSA. This appointment was viewed by many as the best choice and an opportunity to correct the ills.

Truth be told, President Bio has invested lots of time and resources to boost the spirit of the football game. But individual interests continue to overshadow the growth of the game.

But like Nyelenkeh and Dr. Brima, it seems the working relationship between the now Minister of Sports, Augusta James Teima and the NSA  Executive Director Saffa Abdulai is far from being a perfect one.

Many Sierra Leoneans were of the belief that, appointing a home-grown professional footballer to coach the Leone Star would have been the beginning of glory for the national team.

In line with such a belief, Mohamed Kallon was appointed as Head Coach of the Sierra Leone National team Leone Star in February 2025 till 2027.

After just a year in charge of the Leone Star, SLFA has decisively moved to terminate Mohamed Kallon’s contract to the surprise of many people.

The sacking of former Leone Star player, Mohamed Kallon, has revealed a series of professional anomalies which should prompt an immediate investigation.

According to the Minister of Sports, Augusta James Teima, when the allegations of Mohamed Kallon and his backroom staff went without salaries for months went viral, she requested for their contract agreement and terms. But sadly to her surprise, there was no contract agreement signed by Mohamed Kallon or any of his technical staff.

Interestingly, they later realized that the Ministry of Finance had moved to pay Mohamed Kallon all arrears with the instruction from the NSA boss.

One will be tempted to ask why we are only knowing the deep-seated malice within those institutions.

Conflict of Interest

Dr Saffa Abdulai is not just a sporting personality, but a seasoned lawyer with years of legal experience.

For someone like Saffa Abdulai who had written one of the best books published by a Sierra Leonean titled: Freedom of Information Law and Good Governance: The Curse of Corruption, much was expected from him when it comes to professional standards.

According to him on Truth FM, he once served as Mohamed Kallon’s lawyer by representing him on all matters. There is nothing absolutely wrong with that. But when he decides to ‘lobby’ for Kallon to be appointed without due course to due procedures, there is everything wrong with that especially when there was no advert for the job.

In any fair competitive advertisement for such position, Kallon had a chance to get that job. But one wonders why he had to hand-pick him without due procedures.

We recently saw Mohamed Kallon on social media posting his coaching qualifications online rather than calling a press conference where questions would have been asked by the press, was another display of lack of accountability.

What point was he trying to prove after he had served in that capacity for a year, without considering the SLFA or the Ministry as his main employer?

Political Supremacy

For Mohamed Kallon and his technical staff to be contracted under the influence of the NSA boss, leaves so much to ponder about. And for them to be paid their backlogs salaries without any existing contracts and reference to the Ministry of Sports, indicates the political supremacy of Saffa Abdulai and the NSA over the ministry.

According to the SLFA media team, Kallon’s refusal to grant pre and post-match interviews, go against the rules of football. He had never granted interviews to the press even at a time when it was necessary.

From all indications, Kallon was only answerable to Saffa Abdulai, and not the Ministry nor the SLFA.

For the NSA’s Executive Director to be accused of taking such decisive steps without the involvement of the Ministry or the SLFA, he has totally defeated the establishment of such an institution and the confidence reposed on him by President Bio.

President Bio should institute a panel of experts to investigate the activities of the NSA and the sports Ministry.

This is a national crisis that the Anti-Corruption Commission should not wait to be invited to investigate.

Sierra Leoneans deserve a better sporting administration than the current animosity that we are seeing.