CAN WE HAVE THE REAL SLFA ELECTIONS NOW, PLEASE?
Well, well, well, what a difference six months can make in the life of an SLFA president! Particularly a president whose mandate was questionable from the outset. The wise man tells us that truth is like oil. No matter how much water is poured on it, it will surely rise to the surface. We heard on a very authoritative sport programme on radio - well as far as SLFA matters are concerned - that the GREAT MADAM has now acknowledged that her pen pusher was only useful when he "manipulated" the election that brought her to power at the SLFA. According to the programme, that pen pusher stood up in the Executive Committee meeting and wondered whether those words were actually coming from the GREAT MADAM herself.
Well, to be honest, we too can't believe our ears. But we always knew that delegates to last year's SLFA were ghosts more ghostly than Dr Minkailu Bah's GHOST TEACHERS. The delegates were manufactured at the 11th hour and Munu's physical presence intimidated the real delegates and provided cover for the phantoms. We knew clearly who was behind all what was happening inside the police canteen. Interesting venue for an SLFA congress eh? Kikikiki!
We've waited for a few days for the GREAT MADAM to resign after admitting so much, but MADAM is clinging on, trying to re-deck the chairs on the Titanic. Well we all know what happened to the ship when it forced a sail.
GREAT MADAM is now implacably opposed to the pen pusher's continued stay in the secretariat and she wants him out. She is prepared to do everything to achieve that. The pen pusher is having none of that. Now the chips are down.
We said a lot during all the flawed processes that brought the GREAT MADAM to power, so we are completely fed up. All we want now as ordinary Sierra Leoneans is for THE REAL ELECTION TO TAKE PLACE WITHOUT ANY FURTHER DELAY. And please, we warn FIFA not to send that cruel fixer called PRIMO to this place anymore. The SLFA constitution has enough structures to run a new congress.
Let's have the real election please.
MOYAMBA MP SOMERSAULTS WITH SIERRA RUTILE DIATRIBE
Let's put a few things on the table first. MPs have a right to speak fearlessly "on behalf" of their constituents. In fact that's the reason they are in parliament. So when an MP from Moyamba took on Sierra Rutile the other day, he was within his mandate to do so.
The other point is, like the MP, we too have concerns about the operation of all companies in the extractive sector in Sierra Leone - well we have concerns about even our government, including the very parliament. And as journalists we are free to express them as we are doing now. Long live democracy!
That said, the Moyamba MP's attack on Sierra Rutile was as extra-ordinary as it was below the belt. We hold no brief for the company but why was it important for our dear MP to make reference to the Rutile CEO's family or whoever he is connected with when that had nothing to do with the death of an employee of one of the company's contractors?
You see, we know a lot about how our MPs relate to multinationals in their constituencies and we are not sure the poor man's death hasn't been used as entry point into something else or a redefinition of an existing relationship.
Is Sierra Rutile as bad as our MP painted them? Does our MP know how many people in our villages see Bumbuna cables that serve Freetown over their roofs without they enjoying light? That includes the villagers in the town from which the dam got its name. Reality man, reality!
The MP made reference to the company's agreement with Sierra Leone, that's fine. But it passed through parliament. So...?
We have been to other parts of our MP's constituency, away from Sierra Rutile operations, and we know what things are like there. Getting favourable newspaper headlines are sometimes good, but serving our people genuinely is far better.
Watch out for our special reports from Constituency 83.
THE NEW-LOOK PARLIAMENT SQUARE: IS IT A FENCE OR A WALL?
We've noticed that a lot of work is taking place in and around parliament. There's a new police checkpoint towards Rokel School to work in tandem with another built more than a year ago near Mammy Dumbuya's church. Now we see a structure going up in the perimeter area of parliament. As ordinary citizens we feel compelled to ask the inevitable quest: is it a FENCE or a WALL?
We hope it's not a wall because we will interpret a wall to mean an attempt by our representatives to keep us (the people) out. And in that case they shouldn't be surprised if people expressed their displeasure on the wall with signs and symbols using graffiti.
And please, this argument about the gallery being open to all is not very correct. There are layers of security and not enough seats for even a small civil society group. So we don't want a wall to shield us from our MPs.
A fence is friendly. We will see it as an innocuous way of demarcating parliament square from the cannabis den and playground for football hooligans called Parade Grounds. But we also plead with the leaders of parliament not to shun the area behind their wall or fence. It could be well terraced for us to hang around in the evenings. Foreigners could also come around to take pictures. Well done parliament.
GO EASY PLEASE, DEAR REVEREND BALOGUN MACAULEY
There is a man who calls himself “Reverend” Balogun Macauley who by his text messages on radio is keen to get the attention of the De Pa and the Red Movement and uses the media to a great effect. He identifies himself with a group of “young clergymen” with objectives that are yet to be fully explained to the public.
Our concern though is the Preacher Man’s ranting the other day on radio which did not go down well with many listeners .
The Police were reacting to a letter purported to have been written by a group of aggrieved secondary school students vowing to violently disrupt the peace of the country. Even the Police, accustomed to reacting to such threats with arrogance and counter threats of the use of much greater force for “any breach of the peace” in the country, were quite unusually very tactful.
While Al-Shek Kamara did not hide the force’s readiness to curb any form of violence, he could not dispute the fact that the students may have issues that could be addressed calmly. He wasn't talking down on people. His statement was still tough as expected of a cop, but quite responsible.
“Reverend” Balogun Macauley called into the programme and while listeners were expecting pacifying messages often associated with the clergy in such situations, the man was instead full of venom and vowed that any student that ventured the streets would be arrested and locked up. Strange world indeed as even men claiming to be religious leaders have lost their sense of reasoning and have turned into brutish beasts! At least by their utterances. Other callers including kids questioned the man’s religious background. Fair questioning.
Men of God represent the vulnerable and socially challenged like the Reverend Al Sharpton in the great United States of America and who does not try to infuriate the less fortunate so as to get the attention of the Oval Office and then line in his pockets with dollars. And a scenario of that nature if it were to ever to be played out in Washington will see Mr. President exiting the next day. Our advice here is go easy please our brother, "Reverend" Balogun Macauley.
AMARA BANGALI BAILS OUT AS COMIUM BOAT FIGHTS WAVES
Looks like the first significant departures from the troubled mobile phone company Comium have begun. A newspaper reported last week that Amara Bangali, a senior manager at the telecoms company had quit, accusing the company bosses of being unable to pay their debts. How ridiculous can this get?
So after all these years during which our man was part of the group that ran Comium until was nearly derailed, he has only discovered now that his company was insolvent. In fact did Bangali jump or was he pushed? Let's wait for him to address a news conference.
Why can't this guy go quietly? We aren't necessarily concerned about fact cats at Comium. The ordinary workers there are our concern. So we hope Bangali doesn't return to the place when the takeover bid we are hearing about goes through.
(C) Politico 11/02/14
