"60% of OKADA RIDERS ARE FOREIGNERS": WE IDENTIFY THEM
A government minister said last week that 60% of the boys riding motorcycle taxis in Freetown are foreigners. Predictably, he has received serious lashing in the media to explain how he arrived at that figure. Well we are not his best friends but on this issue we agree with him. To back up our position, we now give details of those who constitute the 60% troublesome riders.
10% are those who travel to the north of the country with a huge amount of tax payers' money in the boot of their car. Close to their destination they report an accident and the loss of the people's cash. A very serious accident indeed! A few hours later, they turn up at a popular night club ostensibly to thank God for little mercies. God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform.
10% are those who visit their home district to promote a negative political cause that is bound to fail anyway, and then they meet resistance from their own people who prefer their absentee chief. In a desperate mood, they turn around and declare their home as a place on "a time bomb".
10% are those who go to bed in one party, for example the Tangerine party, and wake up in the Sun - flip flopping per excellence.
10% are those ministers whose ministerial responsibilities are not clearly defined. They are told to draw the upper and lower limits of their mandate as they go along. When a haughty football administrator slaps a colleague, instead of police doing their job, this 10% go in there like firefighters to bully one of the parties into dropping their case.
10% include those who came from the diaspora after many years trying to capture the American Dream, initially impressed with their US East Coast accent. They get a job from a government looking to always win votes. But a few months after, it becomes clear that they made really strenuous efforts to get their tongue rolling like Americans. The real self is then exposed. For how can anyone pretend to be what they are not?
10% are those who can be sacked from government without any political consequence. It might happen before the end of October 2014. Hahahhahahahahahahahahah!
Having accounted for the 60%, we now conclude by saying that the 40% are the true dreg man dem nar Fritong, most of whom voted for this government in which that minister serves.
21st CENTURY POLICE OFFICERS WHIPPING PEOPLE IN FREETOWN
So, yesterday we saw four policemen walking along one of the main streets in Freetown, all of them carrying heavy whips with which to cane people, particularly Okada Riders and their passengers into obeying the rules about prohibited areas. We took a photo of the officers with their whips to compare with how police in other countries deal with traffic offences. Please it's not just any country. We are talking about serious countries.
We would like IG Munu to really go on radio and explain how they arrived at that decision to give themselves such power to whip people on the streets. Is that not what we call inhuman treatment? This practice disappeared towards the beginning of 2014 but it's here again and this time with frightening intensity.
Last time out we witnessed an incident in which a female passenger received serious whacking along Waterloo Street. She almost fainted. It turned out that she had pleaded with the Okada Man to take her home after treatment at Connaught hospital. All the police officer did was to grudgingly apologise saying he didn't know the lady was sick after openly blaming her for inviting the whacking. This is madness!
Let Munu also explain why it appears to be a difficult thing for his men to simply take down the registration number of the motorcycle and then use the records at the Sierra Leone Road Transport Authority to reach the owners to turn themselves in with their riders at a police station to either pay a fine or be charged to court.
The officers can even enter the registration number of the motorcycle in a system that is available to all traffic officers with instruction to arrest the rider and confiscate the motorcycle at any time. This whipping method is wrong and it makes this country look crude.
Again, IG Munu, why do Okada Boys have their own police officers on the streets, operating alongside your men? What if all organisations set up their own police units, can you imagine the chaos we will have at hand? No matter which explanation you give about those motorcycle wardens, we can safely call it two-tier policing. It's wrong.
If we were lawyers, we would be on our way to the Supreme Court right now. But, we are journalists and one of our duties is to call attention to such inhuman way of treating the ordinary people of this country who depend on such okadas to move around to fend for their families.
SWASSAL QUARANTINED IN FREETOWN, QUARANTINED IN YAOUNDE
The president of the Sports Writers' Association of Sierra Leone (SWASAL) who was thrown out of Cameroon is on home soil once again. Two of his colleagues on the media team were also kicked out. You will notice that we have not mentioned the case of the two officers of the Ministry of Sports who were also deported. We don't feel sorry for those two officials one bit. They are fine gentlemen but we cannot understand how government officials are thrown out of Cameroon, of all countries, with the government of Sierra Leone saying nothing.
In fact, while the Cameroonians thought they were punishing the SWASAL president, Farjah Barrie and colleagues by confining them to a hotel, they were making a big mistake. The guys had just come out of a quarantine in their own country how can anybody scare them with being quarantined in a hotel in Paul Biya's country?
The new match commentator is an intelligent young man - perhaps one of the best in the business these days, but the fact that we had access to the same pictures he had in his hotel, made the commentary even more interesting. Well, yes, interesting.
Come on guys, prepare to be quarantined again when we play our next matches in DR Congo and somewhere else in Africa. The fact that we continued in a very expensive tournament at a time when Ebola is bleeding our nation and killing our people is what we have a real problem with. We had no reason signing up for this CAF tournament, now there's no way out.
Deportation or no deportation we should have pulled out of this campaign long ago. Farjah and others are back home with their egos badly bruised. The nation too is seriously shamed by these deportations and we are waiting for our foreign ministry to formally protest to Cameroon over this. The man who built the APC mansion office in Kamalo is not likely to say a word. He is praying daily to replace Kaberuka. Good Luck to you sir.
ON BABABODE'S WATCH, FREETOWN BECOMES A CITY OF PIGS
Don't be surprised to wake up one morning to discover that dirty, smelly pigs have taken over the Central Business District of Freetown, replacing Okada Boys. This is the only modern city in the world where pigs roam freely in such central areas and the Mayor pretends it's not happening or there is nothing he can do.
The last time we visited King Jimmy market we found all the traders carrying sticks to beat off rampaging pigs. We have also seen at least four pigs in the Connaught hospital compound. Aaaaay Salone!
The people who own those pigs are just close by and are ready to fight and abuse people to protect their pigs. What is this?
We have seen dirty pigs near schools too. What kind of disease are they carrying after feeding on hospital waste? And those are the pigs that end up on some dinner tables.
In a decent country, animal husbandry takes place outside urban centres in approved areas and veterinary officers work with farmers closely to keep the animals healthy. But in true Sierra Leone pattern, anything goes.
Please, let no city council officials tell us about Ebola disrupting their activities. The pigs have been wild on the streets long before the epidemic. So please.
We have taken pictures of these pigs in different parts of the city. We shall pass them on to people who will be campaigning against Bababode in the next election. Please apply to us for the pictures, FREE OF COST. They were professionally done. This is what we call direct action to save Freetown.
(C) Politico 16/10/14
