SIRLEAF GUARD ARRESTED WITH SALONE DIAMBA: A WAKE UP CALL?
An intriguing case is on its way to the Temple of Justice in the sister republic of Liberia. A senior guard to president Johnson-Sirleaf who was arrested at the Liberian border town on Tienne, near Sierra Leone is to have his day in court on allegations of smuggling marijuana this country. We use the opportunity now presented by this event raise a number is issues
1. Would the Sierra Leone Police actually stop, arrest and prosecute a senior presidential guard driving a presidential security vehicle for whatever crime? We believe that will never happen. Even bodyguards to junior ministers operate above the law. We can point at several incidents now and in the past.
2. A Liberian official is the person on trial but the marijuana is reported to have been smuggled from Sierra Leone. The Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, the equivalent of Sierra Leone's Drug Abuse Prevention agency arrested the presidential guard. People are constantly being arrested at our borders with Guinea trying to smuggle marijuana. This marijuana thing is giving us a bad name. We will soon find ourselves in the same league with Guinea Bissau especially with that cocaine incident still on record.
Instead of combating the marijuana menace, SIM Turay is busy fight the budget committee for money, even where the little he is getting now is not being properly utilised. We were amazed at his bills for mobile phone communication when some documents landed on our desk the other day. Eve John Kerry who is almost always talking to world leaders on phone about US foreign policy will be shocked at seeing our man's communication bill. We are even more amazed that his disrespect of the budget committee went with reprimand at the least.
The uncomfortable truth is that marijuana is being smoked freely on our streets and the farms are found all over the Freetown peninsular but SIM Turay couldn't care less. When De Pa convinced himself that he must compensate everybody who writes a few long essays in newspapers insulting the opposition while describing him as the Colossus of Rome, this is the result we get.
Bravo to the Liberians but our people traveling to that country for legitimate business are now in for a very hard time at immigration checkpoints.
REMEMBRANCE DAY OBSERVANCE MANY WISH NOT TO REMEMBER
Ask any Freetown resident why they don't want another World War II Remembrance Day commemoration soon; even after one year, they will point to the travel chaos that took over Freetown about four days to the event. For some strange reason, the RSLAF decided to leave Hockey Pitch where they normally do their rehearsals and head for State Avenue.
For four days Freetown was just impossible and despite the public outcry, the RSLAF were allowed to block vital parts of the heart of Freetown.
Freetown is a city that grinds to a halt for the simplest of reasons. If two cars break down in the middle of Siaka Steven Street and Pademba road for ten minutes, the pressure will be felt at Lumley in the far West and Kissy road to the east. We can put that to test very easily.
We have a lot of respect for our armed forces and we congratulate them for their role in bringing about world peace but they should never take us for granted and treat us with such contempt. They should never concentrate on satisfying political dictates at the expense of us, the people, who pay their salaries and much more.
CHAOS ON HILLSIDE BY-PASS ROAD: IS THE RAPTURE HERE ALREADY?
The authorities are losing control of the whole area from Model Junction with Circular road up to the new Hillside by-pass road, Berry Street intersection. It's no exaggeration. Unless something is done very quickly, what little control they still have in the shape of a few corruption-prone traffic wardens and police will be lost completely.
The trouble is the construction of the Hillside by-pass road has been stuck in the mud since the bulldozers arrived at Berry Street junction. That was more than a year ago. In the meantime hundreds of petty traders from God knows where, have taken up position all along the road, concentrating on the junction with Berry street. When you tie that in with the other traders at Model Junction, lawless taxi drivers with their un-roadworthy cars, touts, criminals and thousands of University students and secondary school children, the result is chaos, prostitution, criminality and gridlock.
In Sierra Leone everything is seen through political lenses and with cynical politicians looking to get votes from even very dark corners, neither the government nor the weak opposition is prepared to stand up to the menace of petty trading. You people spending the whole day trying to sell razor blades and rat poison is absolute rubbish, a total waste of energy. Let's say it, votes or no votes.
The authorities must think quickly about ways in which to deal with the problem at Model Junction. They shouldn't call for a day of mourning when a very costly accident takes place there (we pray that God averts that), but accidents are what they are - accidents.
They can decide to close down the Hillside by-pass road to commercial vehicles for example, for the time being.
By the way if the job done at Model is what De Pa promised in terms of road construction after the rains and for which Road Fund Kaloko is spending fifty-six billion leones, we are not impressed. Munda and Petito must be made to return to office immediately.
Was Kaloko waiting for Munda and Petito to be sacked before releasing that money? Just curious!
WELCOMING JAYCEES TO GOOD OLD SIERRA LEONE: WE DAE YAR STILL!
We have seen a few of our people from the diaspora in town, obviously on their usual end of year holidays. These days it's a little difficult spotting them out from the rest of us because their distinctive features, which many young people came to admire, have disappeared.
They normally swing a sparkling white towel over their neck to constantly wipe their faces - telling us along the way that they are from the cold climate of Europe and America. They would also go around with bottled water to continue the theme of "your country is too hot" or to make a point about Guma Valley water being bad for their system. Well many home-based young people are like that all the time these days. And even with their accents, our children are doing very well with that too.
The only thing left now is the few dollars our Jaycees throw into the equation. Because things are so tough here, competing with them is difficult on that front. But we warn them that some our home-based people have been preparing for a whole year and they could spring surprises. Don't under-estimate them.
The other point is, our girls no longer accept promises of traveling overseas as baits for getting into any relationships - don't even try that friends. They have gone past that.
We also warn them not to be surprised by the fact that this year, we shall ask to be invited to the usual party De Pa throws for Jaycees. Our problem with this exclusive Jaycee party is that these people spend all the time abroad while with stay here with De Pa taking in the troubles living in Freetown brings along and he doesn't think we deserve a party. We will be part of it this year whether we are invited or not.
Welcome to Sierra Leone anyway. Many of our roads are bad; electricity supply is erratic; there are too many beggars on our streets; criminals are extending their spheres of influence to area that were very safe and so on. And after reading some facebook pages, you arrive here with the impression that we are fighting over trivialities. No way! This is still a great country still in many ways.
© Politico 14/11/13
