THE PLASTIC BAG EMERGENCY IN SALONE
This country is literally swimming in plastic. Discarded plastic bags are all over the place. Discarded plastic soft drink containers can be found everywhere. We are talking about environmental protection; we even have an Environmental Protection Agency with enough clout and money but look at what is happening to Freetown in particular.
We invite our EPA madam to drive with us along Savage Street. Let's say we start from St. John, driving towards Brookfields.
Madam EPA should simply cast her eyes to the left over the bridge and tell us what her real job is. The place is a real mess of plastic carrier bags and soft drink containers. There are many other places in Freetown facing such decadence. We reference the Savage Street situation because the Madam's office is only a stone's throw from probably the biggest environmental danger in Freetown.
This is the only country in which:
1. Companies using plastic bags and other types of plastic products to make money bear no responsibility for the impact of their money-making on our environment. Don't tell us about the Impact Assessment nonsense. Where is the effect of that?
2. The EPA spends all its time fighting politically motivated environmental battles while totally neglecting what we call Sierra Leone's Plastic Emergency.
3. While other countries are banning plastic bags, Sierra Leone is ignorantly continuing as if life was normal.
4. People here throw plastic bags and water sachets all over the place and nobody is bothered by that at all. That includes those in the well-funded EPA.
5. When people like us raise those concerns, they dismiss us. They will dismiss this too.
THE GRAVEYARDS ARE FULL...WHERE IS THE FCC?
The graveyards in Freetown are full. Very full. This tells us two things: too many people are dying in this part of the country or this pattern of removing the bones of people to bury others has run its course. We have to find a new and dignified way of disposing of the dead bodies of our people.
We have heard stories of bodies that are not properly decomposed being removed to bury others. That speaks of a very desperate situation in the cemeteries. The Freetown City Council has to speak out right now.
We have also complained about the presence of criminals living among the dead in our cemeteries. They call themselves ‘friends of the dead’ but they are the ones stealing from our dead relatives. Why has the FCC not tried to find out why a group of people would leave their homes to set themselves up in a cemetery? How do they survive?
Can we just add this? We have been told, we can't yet confirm this, that some Sierra Leonean movie producers are using human skulls illegally obtained from graveyards in certain scenes. When we can conclusively prove this we will make it public but we now serve that we are investigating a particular movie group that recently did some work in the Newton area just outside Freetown.
As long as people have vowed not to allow the dead to rest, we will also not allow them to rest one bit.
FRONTRICIA DEMONSTRATION AND MUNU SCARE TACTICS
Apart from RULING PARTY DEMONSTRATIONS, can MUNU please step forward please and tell us how many planned demonstrations by ordinary Sierra Leoneans he has approved as IG. We ask because sometimes we wonder if Sierra Leone is a REAL democracy. Munu has a particular line to destroy the expressions of ordinary people. He always tells people that he has INTELLIGENCE that criminals are planning to infiltrate peaceful demonstrations. Come on IG.
We still don't understand what the FONTRICIA demonstration is really about but any form of democratic expression should be encouraged and not subjected to MUNU's threadbare scare tactics.
If it is about WAEC holding back certain results alleging fraud, then all we believe FONTRICIA needs is a clear and concise statement about what has happened to those results. WAEC should explain. And it shouldn't take a demonstration for WAEC to do its job. Parents want to know what's happening to their children’s results.
We call on FONTRICIA to be clear about what they want. We call on MUNU to allow democracy to flow. Those who want to engage in criminal behavior don't need to hide under an organised cover like the one being planned by a perfectly legal group. For example:
1. Those boys who periodically attack Model Junction
2. Those who engage in street criminality after matches at Parade Grounds
3. How about those Red Flag and Black Flag rag tag groups that are known to you?
4. And criminal Okada Boys who continuously distress people
5. Munu, do you remember all those groups De Pa described as lawless in that great State House speech? Have you banned their activities?
BEHIND THE STADIUM WALL IS A SEA OF MESS BUT WHO CARES?
Pope John Paul is quick to ban people from the stadium. All he requires is for anybody to tell him to be fair with those who disagree with some of his warped policies and pronouncements. Many have been banned on paper but the Pope knows he has no capacity to enforce a ban but he announces them anyway.
While he is doing all that, can we call his attention to the disgrace behind the walls of the stadium near the gate leading to the Ascension Town cemetery? The huge gutter near the stadium wall is full and is overflowing across the street, into the cemetery. And close by, somebody has abandoned a bus since God knows when. All vital parts of the bus have been canibalised. So who does the owner expect to clear his mess?
This is a growing trend in Freetown - people dump their rotten cars on the streets with no consequences. And even in the Pope's backyard, a rotten bus and overflowing dirty water tell a story of an abandoned public facility. What's all this noise about the national stadium when we can't even keep it up to standard? Even the mess left behind by flood victims and their criminal invaders are still around in different parts of the place.
Come on Pope, take control of this place.
NGOR MAMBU AGAIN…We unveil our #BringBackOurMoney campaign
We will keep reminding Ngor Mambu, who has used his Health for All Coalition mistake of a civil society platform to fleece this country and its people of money meant to help with the fight against the dreaded Ebola.
We witnessed the Public Accounts Committee’s hearings in parliament and we were also there when the committee ordered that Ngor Mambu must pay back some Le160 million, part of a huge donor funding he received and could not account for.
It has been five months down the line and he has still not refunded the money, according to the recent Audit Service Report. We call on the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, on whose table is the PAC report, to talk Ngor Mambu into paying back that money.
By the way how does the chairman of the PAC committee feel that five months after his recommendations Ngor Mambu has not bothered at all to pay back a dime? We shall come back to this matter until Ngor Mambu #Brings Back Our Money.
(C) Politico 02/03/16
