MINISTERIAL TRAVEL BAN ENDS PER-DIEM SEEKING
So now we can go to certain ministries and find the ministers sitting behind their desks reading through and signing papers or even receiving people going there to transact normal business. The ban on business class travel to small time meetings in nondescript countries where nobody can find Sierra Leone on the world map is most welcome.
For some ministers the trick has been to ask their friends abroad to invite them to one conference after the other so they keep flying and collecting sweet per-diem. They return home and summon their social media hacks and unleash them on the nation. Within minutes our phones are flooded with badly written reports of the visit followed by dozens of pictures showing the minister having lunch or smiling broadly in some group picture.
We will soon receive a copy of the figures that caused Principal to slam this ban. We will break them down into ministries departments and agencies and then make sense of who has been spending our money with very little concern for the impact of their per-diem project on our vital services and the overall situation of the economy.
1. Travel agencies that make a huge kill inflating airline ticket costs are very unhappy with the action of Principal. But do we really care?
2. Ministers who believe they cannot survive without per-diem from such crazy travels should resign. That includes the one who traveled to Dubai to receive a fake degree. The people couldn’t care less whether that minister paid the travel cost or not. We expected that minister to be in office in Freetown doing our job.
3. They should now disband their media teams and save our data, mobile phone disc space and batteries.
4. We will name and shame the ministers who went on the most non-statutory travels and ask them to refund our money.
5. We now ask Principal to consider shaking up his government by sacking those ministers who may have finished constructing houses right now from large per-diem savings.
FLOODING EVERY WHERE AS CLIMATE CHANGE TAKES HOLD
Social media is flooded with pictures of flooding and misery visited on the poorest people of this country yet again. There are very few people in this country who didn’t expect at least the low-lying areas of the country to be flooded by torrential rains in July and August, the wettest months of the year in this country but this year has been extraordinary. And from what we know things can only get worst.
This country has been named as one among a few in the world to experience extreme weather conditions due to climate change and the events of the last three years or so clearly point in that direction. We can shout, post pictures on social media and abuse the government as much as we want but unless we decide as a nation, completely devoid of political point scoring and corruption to fight the cause of climate change, Sierra Leone will be in a very difficult situation within the next decade.
The actions we must take as a nation include:
1. Take disaster management away from the crowded hands of the Office of National Security. Disaster issues have security implications like everything else but the ONS has had serious difficulties dealing with disasters.
2. Given the clear climate change threat we should now have a powerful agency or a ministry dealing with disaster issues. Working with EPA and such other agencies, that ministry will do real work in the environment.
3. The government should take the lead in disaster response and management. NGOs can play their part but to appear to shift our burden to mainly international organizations represents a betrayal of democracy. We voted for the government of Sierra Leone not NGOs.
4. Clearly, we have to be very decisive now about what to do with slum settlements all over Freetown. This yearly ritual of rain destroying their shacks and politicians going there for photo-opportunities must stop. Let’s clear the slums and move people as far in-land as possible.
5. Maybe the government should introduce a small tax on vehicles to raise money to fight climate change.
IG MOIGBEH IS BIOBELE’S COMPUTER LOST FOR GOOD?
A few weeks have passed now since Justice Biobele Georgewill’s computer was stolen from his home in one of the best places in the country –the NASSIT Estate at Goderich, in the Freetown peninsular. Just when the nation tried to come to terms with what was clearly a case of data theft came news that another senior officer of government who lives about TWENTY yards from Biobele’s place also had his computer stolen in much the same style.
Clearly, we believed that in the days following those two incidents the Inspector General of police would take responsibility and resign. Instead he continued with his armed convoy across Freetown to and from work. So when a small election rally descended into utter chaos recently leading to the destruction of property and some wounding all Moigbeh did was to make some arrests and apparently suspend the senior police officers whose area of responsibility covers Goderich and beyond. Al though we were told last night that they were simply re-deployed. We’ll see.
For us, this is a very serious matter and we cannot allow Moigbeh to get away with this without answering questions in the court of public opinion at least.
1. Where are the computers stolen from Justice Biobele and John Tambi of the presidential infrastructure unit who shot to fame recently with his drive to get investors to work on Lungi Bridge?
2. Why do you think you deserve to be in office after all the scandalous breach of the nation’s security on your watch? What if Justice Biobele was harmed by the criminals? John Tambi is a Sierra Leonean so it would have been a Sierra Leonean affair but with Biobele, we would have opened up a huge diplomatic row with Nigeria. Can we really afford that?
3. The press release from IG Moigbeh’s office referred to the theft at Justice Biobele’s home as ALLEGED. Why did you call it alleged sir? Should we understand that as meaning you know something we all don’t? Until you tell us, we believe that the robbery was REAL.
4. Even at this stage the trial of about FOUR people arrested for the killing of former military commander Samuel Omar Williams is still in the High Court after all this while. This is just to say, the worst could have happened in those flats inside what is supposed to be one of the most secure places in Freetown. Please tell us what really happened.
5. So we now serve notice that having realized that only political action will get you out because no matter what happens you are determined to stay, we will ask the politicians responsible for keeping you in office all these questions. You can continue refusing to speak to journalists and zooming around town in your armed convoy.
RAINS EASILY DESTROYING FREETOWN’S ROADS
Many of the roads have gone really bad with just a few days of rain. Just drive around places like Circular road, Fourah Bay College, Brookfields and so on. We have not mentioned roads that are under construction at IMATT and King Harman road. Some communities will be completely cut off by the end of August. It’s a real pain driving on these main roads at a time like this.
We want the Road Fund Board and the SLRA to give the nation a plan showing the work they intend to do after the rain so people know what is ahead of them. Otherwise, we will all feel abandoned. After King Messi spent so much money on our so called infrastructure projects, look at what is happening now. We now know that very bad construction was done with cheap materials at inflated costs. We are waiting for the report from the Commissions of Inquiry.
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