By S. Siapha Mulbah
The Deputy Minister-designate of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, G. Andy Quamie, has appealed to the newly inducted leadership of the Sports Writers’ Association of Liberia to settle the division that has been created in the association since their December 2023 elective congress.
According to the Quamie, the sports writers’ divisive politics played last year during the Wukie Farm Congress, has shared its entire membership into two factions, tampered with the objectivity of reporting the news, and is breaking the credibility of accurate storytelling to the public.
He said, as the sports writers hold administrators to the task of playing their required roles at different institutions and clubs in society, the onus is on them as a journalistic entity to provide the best of reportage without siding with a party to the news because of political and other alignments.
Speaking during the induction ceremony of the leadership of the association on Friday, March 1, 2024 at the Monrovia City Hall, Quamie said the absence of the defeated faction from the December SWAL election at the occasion, headed by presidential candidate, Trogen Molley Kiazolu, and former association president, Roland Mulbah, revealed that there is a deep division that will lead to the undermining of activities and programs if those in leadership do not take consideration of bridging the gaps.
He suggested the holding of a major retreat in the soonest possible time for all SWAL members to have a basic discussion of issues that resulted from the election and other activities of the past, so that there can be remedies proffered to have the situation under control for the sake of the institution.
Quamie, as a sports administrator, also called journalists covering sports in Liberia to desist from siding with newsmakers and report the real time news, so that trust and accountability can be placed in the work they do on a daily basis.
He said it has been observed that certain journalists in sports have chosen their side of the stories they report because the association is divided, and reporting for particular actors strengthens their tide with them, while others will want to stand in the defense of the other side because of their own attachment to the person involved.
“There is a split in SWAL that has placed two groups against each other in this one institution. One group will see things against those that stand on one side, while the other group will see against those that appear to be opposition or against them. This division will have to be settled in order to make the group one for a common goal,” Quamie said.
In response to the appeal for settlement of the disenchantment among SWAL members, president Varmah Kamara explained that his leadership is committed to reconciling the association and working with all members for the sake of the body.
“Our reputation as an organization lies in ruins and our members are hugely divided,” he lamented.
Kamara asserted that uniting all sports journalists across the country is a key priority for the team of leaders and cannot be overemphasized as it has always been.
He furthered that no individual leader can take all the enormous tasks on his own, and it is his hope and prayer that there is a more inclusive leadership that will allow the will of the majority to prevail in the decision-making processes of the association.
