By Alternative View

Mr Haiya presented his manifesto on Saturday in a ceremony full of glitz and glamour. It almost reminded me of the campaign for second term by Bingu, all those buses and big screens.

Congratulations Mr. Fleetwood. It’s obvious that in the few years since you became Bullets chief, you have accumulated enormous wealth, enough to throw around OR you have powerful sponsors behind you. I will come back to this later.

It will be interesting to see what kind of launch Mr. Tiya Somba will execute and what kind of manifesto he will produce. Eagerly waiting.

For now though, allow me to dwell on the manifesto Mr .Haiya a presented.

Item 1 – SETTING UP A PROFESSIONAL & EFFECTIVE SULOM SECRETARIAT

These are powerful words and it is obvious every SULOM Exco has wished to do the same but has been hamstrung by lack of finances.

Mr. Haiya proposes the recruitment of a CEO, Marketing Manager and having offices in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu.

Obviously we can’t have the CEO and Marketing Manager without having junior staff like messenger, administrative officer and/or accountant in Blantyre.

We will obviously also have administrative officers in Lilongwe and Mzuzu. Salaries for all these members of staff cannot be less than 3 to 4 million a month.

That translates to 36 to 48 million a year. Then factor in rentals for the head office plus the regional offices. Without factoring in other expenses, wages and rentals alone will account for between 30 and 50 million a year.

I am sure Mr Haiya has already worked this out. And I commend him for being ambitious.

My only worry is that he has not said where this money will come from. Because do not forget that in the same manifesto, he has made numerous other promises like for example, giving each team 7 million per season which amounts to 112 million per year for all 16 teams(I will talk about this 112m in my subsequent article).

For now, let us dwell on the secretariat expenses. Where will this money come from?

I have noted that Mr. Haiya is over-promising in his manifesto but he is saying very little about HOW funds will be sourced or created to implement his grandiose plans. I hope clubs will scrutinize all manifestos and pick the one that is most practical.

If any candidate promises them personal gain, clubs should definitely accept that but in the interest of football they should pick the most practical and honest candidate/manifesto as a way forward when voting.

This brings me to a point I raised earlier.

If a candidate foots the travel costs and/or accommodation costs and/or allowances of voting delegates to a trend his manifesto launch and gives out footballs, etc to these voters, is that not corrupting the minds of the voters? Is that not compromising the integrity of the SULOM body? Please school me.

My second question is what is the relationship between a glamorous launch and the success of the candidate when in power? Does an expensive launch mean the candidate will be successful when elected?

In my first post I mentioned that Mr Haiya has only thrived in football in an environment where there is lots of cash – Bullets.

Is he bringing personal cash or cash of some silent sponsors to SULOM? Is there a hidden hand behind Mr. Haiya’s bid for football leadership and if so what is their motive? Are we perhaps bringing politics into football?

Finally, for today, it seems to be common knowledge that Mr Haiya is only using the SULOM presidency as a platform to contest for the FAM presidency in December. And that that is also the sole reason behind the financial support that he is receiving.

Is this true?

If this is indeed true then my questions are:

– Why is he making all these promises in his manifesto when he knows he will only be at SULOM for 7 months? Why is he fooling the clubs just to satisfy his agenda (or the agenda of his financiers?)?
– Then does that mean by electing him the clubs will actually effectively be electing his deputy to lead them till the next SULOM election while Mr Haiya goes for his FAM dream?
– To give him the benefit of doubt, can Mr Haiya make a written undertaking that he will be or he will not be contesting for the FAM presidency in December so that clubs can make their decisions from an informed position when casting their votes? I believe this would be fair to the clubs

A warning to clubs, especially the smaller clubs, when a candidate promises you that he will loan you 5 good players please know that you are not the only club he has made such a promise to. He has made similar promises to other clubs as well.

Where will all these players come from? My advice – asks for the players now and get them loan-transferred and signed before the date of the elections. But still do not let that influence your votes because that is corruption and good leaders’ don’t corrupt voters.

To be continued…..

The post <strong>PART 2:</strong> ON SULOM ELECTIONS, ACHIEVEMENTS, MANIFESTOS & CAPABILITIES appeared first on Malawi Voice.