"MORE APPOINTMENTS TO BE ANNOUNCED SHORTLY" OH DEAR!
And the waiting goes on and on and on. How short is this State House “shortly” please? In the last few weeks, we've turned from trying to find out what "shortly" actually meant in the context of that press release announcing the sacking of Frank Kargbo, to trying to make sense of the political tactic of promising to announce something "shortly" and then keeping the nation guessing for so long and asking FOR HOW LONG?
In the last 48 hours we've received a number of telephone calls alerting US to the possible end of "SHORTLY". We dismissed that as something impossible. We believe we are completely vindicated right now. In fact, the new pattern is for sackings and appointments to take place on a Monday - from the old Friday. That gives the sacked official the whole week to pack out of his office in time for the new guy to walk in. Great move!
There are people waiting for jobs who really appreciate us asking all these questions. We don't mind that but we are not raising the issue because of this selfish people who think IT IS OUR TURN TO EAT. Here's why we are concerned:
1. To be honest we expect SHORTLY to be SHORTLY. Many Sierra Leoneans are concerned about this delay but they don't have a newspaper like POLITICO to express those concerns.
2. We obviously feel sorry for some people we know who have been warming up for years, waiting for a chance to play without success.
3. Those people are becoming very desperate as the days roll by. It's worse now that they know that MORE TIME is NO MORE. We don't want too many desperate people on our streets.
4. Are we being told that as from now on any time we hear SHORTLY we should interpret it as two months and beyond?
5. We also want to tell these people to forget about political appointments and go get a life.
"INVESTIGATING" FIRE OUTBREAKS, WHERE’S THE REPORT?
We've not heard about fire outbreaks in the last two weeks particularly in Freetown. Is it the hand of God or actions taken here on earth by men and women? Well God, they say, moves in a mysterious way, so he may have quietly acted to save the ordinary people of this country from fire outbreaks.
When fire destroys homes, businesses and government buildings, the authorities tell us "INVESTIGATIONS" were being carried out to find reasons for those outbreaks. We have not seen a single report from all the recent incidents in Freetown in particular. Don't we have answers for the two or three fires at Electricity House? A government building like that is gutted by fire twice in as many weeks and we still don't know what happened after a month or so? Don't we also know what happened at that SAFECON station at Kissy on Christmas Day?
We probably need private fire investigators to help us when government organisations have either failed or are too timid to tell the people what their findings were in specific situations. It cannot be right that fire causes so much destruction with nobody talking to us about the causes.
Where are the fire REPORTS please? As for other reports set up, hahahaha. We shall return to them. Interesting times indeed, in an interesting country.
LESSONS FROM AMERICA'S PRIMARIES - OR FLAG-BEARER CONTEST, AS WE CALL IT HERE
So SUPER TUESDAY has come and gone, Clinton and Trump are celebrating. The caucuses and primary elections are not perfect - we don't know of any perfect ones (Please don't mention Uganda or Zimbabwe), but the ordinary American people are really having their say in the whole process. That's a wonderful thing.
Since we are absolutely sure that there will be elections in our own country in early 2018 and there are already skirmishes over flag-bearer positions, we thought we could try to see how much the people of this country can benefit from the US experience by copying the good examples from America. Here we go:
1. Let's never try to do caucuses in Sierra Leone. From what we know they are not as tightly organised as primaries. We are not sure the majority of those who would turn up at those Sierra Leone caucuses would be tolerant enough to allow people to move from side to side in a community hall in making such serious decisions. Landlords will evil their tenants, and employers will sack their employees, etc.
2. The primaries should be fantastic. And this thing about having SELECTION or ELECTION in the same process should be outlawed right now. Can you imagine TRUMP going all the way to the nomination only to be told by his party that they were SELECTING someone else? Even the notion of the SUPER DELEGATES is becoming increasingly useless.
3. Let's also track the amount of money spent in our political campaigns. The PPRC has a system in place but frankly, nobody trusts it. It's very clear that many of our elections have been decided by the amount of money spent bribing voters, not paying for political advertising like in America. Go check the UE election observer reports.
4. Let no voters be made to eat kola-nut and raw meat to concretise an oath to tie their support to a particular candidate.
5. And perhaps the most important thing to note is that people who know they don't stand a dog's chance to be leader should quit like their counterparts in America. Stop wasting our time guys.
ROTTEN VEHICLES ABANDONED ON OUR ROAD: WHO CARES?
We have been observing a rotten vehicle for a long time. Apparently, this vehicle was gutted by fire out of some electrical problem - well so we think. But the fact is, it was destroyed by fire. Since that time, this space on Kinsella Street has been occupied in this way.
To make matters worse, nearby street traders have turned this wreck into a garbage container. When we return to this place in a few days, we are sure rubbish would have taken over what is left of this now garbage container.
Kinsella Street looks like the new graveyard for rotten cars. There's a big bus near the cemetery wall which is now serving the same purpose. When the SLRSA talks about clearing the streets of such vehicles, we don't take them seriously. The number on this vehicle is clearly visible. We have decided to hold it back for now. It should help SLRSA track the owner and do something about it. This is Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.
(C) Politico 03/0316
