PETROL QUEUES ALL OVER FREETOWN AGAIN, LIFE GROUNDED
We are still waiting to hear the normal excuses about what may have caused fuel pumps to run dry in Mama Salone again. Kothor IB is not around the government spokesman's role anymore because he would have simply told the nation that unscrupulous saboteurs were at work. Kothor, any ideas this time?
The last time we experienced such queues, the lady acting minister - one of the longest serving acting ministers, told us there was enough fuel in the country, but panic buying was leading to long queues at the pumps. Honestly we don't like picking up quarrels with politicians but the whole nation knows that it is only when pumps begin to dry up that people panic. In normal times, we drive into petrol stations without thinking about any issues. So this attitude of the government blaming the people for their own inefficiency all the time is unacceptable. In fact, the lady acting minister is staying away from the people by not talking to the press. The so-called Petroleum Unit with their fat-cat salaries are also not taking interview requests. Why is that?
Ok, let's tell her what has been happening to us since the latest crisis began - and it is a crisis:
1. Our lives have been very badly disrupted by this unexplained fuel shortage. People have just not been able to run their normal lives. The AKU buses are not enough and private operators have gone mad with prices and routes.
2. There's a thriving black market, selling fuel at unbelievable prices. A few people have made big money at our expense in just a few days.
3. Queuing up at petrol stations endlessly, has taken a big toll on our pride and sense of being citizens of Sierra Leone, a country that has no reason putting its citizens through such hassle.
4. We are hearing bits and pieces of information about fuel on the high seas and even already in the country, but why can't the government through the lady acting minister address us directly on this issue?
5. Our blood pressure has just risen to scary levels. Maybe we shouldn't worry too much anymore. This is MAMA SALONE.
RIGHT HAND DRIVE VEHICLES WAHALA FEW WEEKS TO GO
We are slowly getting to the point of no return on the implementation of this ban on the use of right hand drive vehicles in Sierra Leone. We've witnessed at least three or four postponements. The people will not accept any further postponements - well that doesn't mean the government cannot go ahead and extend the ban, or remove it completely. But there would be political consequences because the people would then ask an indecisive government why they initiated the ban in the first place.
We recall that our High Commissioner in London had his hands badly burnt in this right hand drive vehicle debate when he publicly disagreed with the government line. He issued a press release later pulling back from his earlier position and praising De Pa for his wisdom - hahahahahahaha! Welcome to good old Sierra Leone. In some countries, ministers have resigned to press home their points in such situations. But we are a different country.
Anyway, the date is September 2015 and already, the Road Safety Authority is running jingles on radio calling attention to the ban. If this ban is not implemented this time, apart from the ultimate political consequence that the people would require of the government in two years, this would happen:
1. People would try and defeat any policy the government adopts from now on. They can always reference the right hand drive vehicle project.
2. What is left of the credibility of the transport ministry and the SLRSA would be wiped out completely
3. Road accidents involving right hand drive commercial mini vans would continue to rise
4. More of such cars would come flooding into our country particularly from the United Kingdom
5. Prayers for 2018 to come early would gain momentum. The search for more decisive leadership would be intensified.
FOUR MORE MONTHS FOR SOMANO KAPEN IN GREEN MOVEMENT
What is Chief Somano Kapen up to now with his extended mandate to lead an almost broken so-called main opposition party? We hear some of them making statements about the imminent return of peace to the Green Movement. Well, we've always wished our parties well but we believe the path to peace is not as straight and peaceful as Somanoh Kapen makes it out to be. When KKY Movement people recently gained access to the party headquarters in Freetown, they celebrated as if they had won the national elections. Why should they be so proud about entering their own office? Isn't that where they are supposed to always be?
When IGR released a report the other day about poor quality opposition, Somanoh Kapen didn't like it. He rejected it and accused IGR of doing shoddy research. Millions of Sierra Leoneans completely disagreed with him because of what obtains inside the Green Movement. The country has been without a truly effective opposition party for a very long time. And the people aren't enjoying it at all. In fact, we suspect the Red Movement can't believe their luck with an opposition party like this.
Apart from the infighting over who eventually leads the party to the election in early 2018, there are other small matters of getting things organised and running a proper party, not some group of people hoping to capitalise on the bad fortune or outright incompetence of the Red Movement.
Many Sierra Leoneans really can't wait for a new group of people to emerge in our composition parties because by the way things are going, we're not sure there will be anybody left in these composition parties by 2018.
SHERRINGTON RETURNS TO WORK? WE CAN'T BELIEVE THIS?
How did the SLFA arrive at the conclusion to restore Sherrington to his former job at the secretariat? This favourite tactic of moving people out of some office under public outcry against them and then quietly slip them in again when nobody is watching is becoming a real problem in Sierra Leone. It didn't start with Sherrington and it may not end with him.
We are talking here about the Technical Director of the national football association who was caught red handed in the use of very dirty language against a minister of state for implementing a government policy. We call it a government policy because even where we disagree with the policy of banning citizens from the national stadium because they held opinions different from that of the minister, the government never dissociated itself from what Kamara was doing at that ministry. So it's government policy. And it was for the reason that Sherrington went to town with Kamara.
Now, we understand Sherrington has been called back to office with an apology in hand written on a piece of paper to be sent to the minister. The SLFA is dead wrong. This was never just a matter between Sherrington and the minister. It was Sherrington's vile and unprovoked attack on our collective sense of decency and appropriate moral conduct, particularly in public office. How did he get away with this?
The queen of the SLFA thinks an apology to the minister was all that was required to clean up the filth poured on our reputation as a nation by a man who ought to know better. So why did she send the guy out of office in the first place? This apology could have come through the day Sherrington was exposed.
The truth is that the SLFA has badly missed the point on Sherrington. From the outset of this issue, everybody knew that Sherrington was tricked into creating havoc and is now also being use to shield the real people in the SLFA who set him up against the minister in the first place.
In the name of our children, please send Sherrington home again and let him retire. What more can this guy really offer in modern football?
(C) Politico 14/08/15
