ARMED FORCES DAY IS HERE AGAIN BUT PROBLEMS REMAIN
Another Armed Forces holiday is around. On this day every year, our soldiers are made to feel loved and cared for. Pallo puts on a big show, costing a lot of money and he talks all over the place about what he has done for our soldiers. To be honest there's nothing wrong with people creating the impression the world rests on their shoulders. What would be wrong is when in probably "acknowledging" that, we do not point out that not all that glitters is gold.
The minister has agreed that accommodation facilities for the soldiers are sub-standard, crazy, even non-existent. Nothing can be more important than that. On nationwide radio, Pallo also admitted that conditions at 34 military hospital are far from normal. We suggest to him that the hospital itself is on life support.
While Pallo spends millions of leones organising this year's events, it is our duty to call his attention to conditions at Services primary, junior and senior secondary schools. The children of soldiers attend these schools but their physical state and the quality of teaching leave much to be desired.
At the back of the NPA facilities at Kingtom lies the Commonwealth War Graves. A graveyard is a graveyard but the place is well kept. It gives the satisfaction that even in death people are cared for. But our own war graves in the same country are badly kept. So even in death, the soldier has accommodation difficulty. These things are very important, to us.
And by the way, this is Armed Forces Day, let's hear more from the soldiers themselves in media interviews. The minister politicises army matters every time he is interviewed.
Paradise is not possible on earth but the few things we've pointed out are vital welfare matters that could change the lives of our soldiers. What do you think sir?
FREETOWN'S PAN BODY FENCES MEAN TOTAL NEGLECT
We plead with the government not to build anymore Pan Body fences in Freetown just to hide neglect. There's one on Pademba road near the prison yard and another at King Jimmy.
The one at Pademba road has been there for weeks because after promising and failing to move physically challenged squatters from the former ministry of works compound, De Pa's government appears to have come up with a great idea, build a Pan Body fence around the place and create the impression that something is happening within so that ordinary citizens like us who think that squatter camp in that part of our city is an absolute disgrace, will be blindfolded and shut up.
Around the scene of the collapsed King Jimmy Bridge is another Pan Body fence. And again, we believe they are covering up something. Months have gone by since the bridge collapsed killing about six people and possibly burying others under the debris. All promises of instant reconstruction are all now dead in water. In the meantime, congested Freetown grinds to a halt daily. We are simply fed up with Pan Body fences in Freetown.
When De Pa sacked his Works minister for incompetence, State House sources told us De Pa's flagship infrastructure projects were in jeopardy in the hands of Petito, so we expected a swift and credible replacement. Several months on, the guy who helped Petito fail, is running the ministry and we will surely enter another rainy season of potholes soon. So what's the point then? De Pa can as well bring back Petito. Failing to replace quickly, is quickly replacing to fail. hahah. That is our philosophy, De Pa.
When De Pa recently announced ambassadorial appointments, the press release told the nation that more announcements would be made "shortly". How short is "shortly" sir?
Meanwhile we notice that the perimeter wall of Pademba road jail is being painted. That's another facade. It's like a grave that is painted white for people to admire from the outside. Inside the grave is the rotten flesh of the dead. Pademba road jail is painted in something like grey - that's nice but inside the jail we have human misery. By the way how much does that cost? And will the prison warders doing the job get some cash for that? Or is that part of their job? Welcome to Salone.
LOGUS NO LONGER ORGANISING TRANSPORT QUEUES, TIRED ALREADY?
We were the only newspaper that refused to be taken in by the publicity stunts of Transport Minister Logus Koroma. This guy loves being positively reported in the media. He is looking for every opportunity. In his early days in that ministry, he was seen with a crash helmet or was it just a hard hat - haha - inspecting the engine of a ferry. That was too much. Logus is not an engineer but to demonstrate to a compromised SLBC camera that the new minister was up to his task, our man went into the engine room and was seen on TV inspecting things and asking questions hahahahaha.
The minister also launched a toll-free line for the SLRTA with some fanfare. That was unbelievable. Honestly, that's a job for the Operations and PR departments of the Road Transport Authority. But, the cameras were there too. Logus pounced.
Next step, the minister was at Lumley organising queues of commuters. Again the cameras were there. The last time we passed by Lumley, we were appalled by what we saw. Will the minister please come back? Can he please return to his favourite THIRD TERM PROJECT FOR DE PA? We still have his interview with 98.1 on that subject. Very interesting indeed! This fella is VERY INTERESTING.
FREETOWN CITY COUNCIL MUST BE A DEVASTATED ORGANISATION
Fresh from being shamed by De Pa in broad daylight over their fine mess at Sewa Grounds, Freetown City Council must be reeling. Bababode came to office with a lot of talk but he has now discovered, in less than two years, that he is about to go down in history as another Freetown Mayor who promised a lot but delivered nothing.
Bababode is an old hand at the FCC so many expected him to hit the ground running. The man is clearly sitting there waiting for De Pa to run his city for him.
We expect De Pa to take Bababode to the bottom of the Cotton Tree next. The Mayor has put up a huge board on which he printed something called a Service Charter. Nobody is reading the football pitch size billboard because it is very badly done and located. Our money has been wasted yet again.
We urge De Pa to tell Bababode to pull it down now. Let him prepare pocket-sized service charters and distribute them to the people of Freetown. We don't have time and energy to stand out there reading a billboard being pelted with bat droppings throughout the day. Hahahahaha!
SALONE FOOTBALL SHAMED AGAIN: FANS VOTING WITH THEIR FEET
It was almost as if Diamond Stars were required to play behind closed doors when they hosted their more illustrious counterparts, Raja Casablanca in Freetown. The stadium was disgracefully empty; traffic flowed normally around the stadium; hardly anybody took notice. The few neutrals who went to the stadium - people who were neither Diamond Stars supporters nor SLFA officials or Sport Journalists, went there to see the great Raja.
In the end, Diamond Stars did not disappoint. The men from the Kingdom of Morocco knew they had done the damage at home so they decided to stroll through the useless second leg. They did. Diamond Stars fought hard and showed a few sparks of fire but they fell to their defeat when they conceded a goal in the 90th minute. So yet again a Sierra Leonean team has lost a game through a dying minute goal on home soil.
In neighbouring The Gambia, the RSLAF team were dumped out of another CAF tournament. Sierra Leone Football is back home in shame.
The tragedy of Salone Football is that those in charge of the game are still in denial. They are in fact very disorganised and they keep sending third rate squad from this country into harm's way. The whole country is shamed by such mediocre performances.
Sierra Leone must withdraw from all competitions and rebuild a credible football administration and the actual game before going into any other battle. We are wasting cash that could be spent on rebuilding.
We are now waiting for Diamond Stars to publish their financial statement, clearly showing how they spent FIFTY THOUSAND US DOLLARS given to them by Mercury International. We are very interested in that.
(C) Politico 17/02/14
