ADVISORY NOTE NO. 8, DE PA TO FACE THE PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK
One year ago, the people re-elected De Pa to "run this country like a business" for another five years. De Pa came through the most exhaustive and expensive election campaign in the recent political history of Sierra Leone. Since the election however things have been very difficult for ordinary people. In the meantime ministers, government contractors and people close to the corridors of power, including some media hacks, have fearlessly demonstrated wealth and influence with incredible arrogance. De Pa has stoically refused to face the media and as far as we know he has only met the media twice over the last six years of his presidency.
Not long ago, he came from China with smiles and called the media to State House to announce multi-billion dollar investments from the enterprising Chinese. He then announced that he would henceforth meet the media once a month because he had been told so by his advisers - ADVISORY NOTE NUMBER 8. It's now three months since that meeting and journalists are tired of calling for another conference. Don’t tell us that signing ceremony of the FOI was a press conference. Anyway…as a way of getting some dialogue up and running, we humbly propose that De Pa should take to Facebook to respond to the many questions we want to put to him.
We believe there are risks because people will use false identities, like they always do, to do their Yeliba stuff for De Pa or attack him. But that's Facebook. On the plus side, De Pa will have a big opportunity to directly address the world community of Sierra Leoneans. His Vuvuzelas are all over the place and they will be on some of the best ISP facilities on that day. From our small corner, we shall ask questions about free-for-all corruption, the yawning gap between the nouveau rich few and the poor majority, political intolerance leading to a shameful media clamp down and so on.
We welcome De Pa to Facebook. In the first one hour, he should expect ONE THOUSAND QUESTIONS from New Zealand to Dubai, from USA to Somalia and from Yemen to Nigeria. The Sierra Leone audience will be small because De Pa's so-called fibre optic project is totally useless and internet access is awful and extremely expensive.
DELTA POLICE WITHDRAWN, TEXT MESSAGES FLYING, ORBANGU IS RATTLED
Orbangu of the most confused political entity in this world is running scared and essentially telling the nation his personal safety is not guaranteed. Apparently after heavily criticising the police for the killing at Ansarul School and calling for the biggest heads in the so-called Force For Good to roll, Orbangu says his state-endorsed security detail has been withdrawn and he has received text messages threatening his life.
Things are taking an interesting turn in Sierra Leone and this definitely promises to be an interesting period particularly for neutrals like us who have been observing Orbangu's political career ebb and flow.
Let's make a few things clear, every Sierra Leonean must be assured of full security by those responsible, the police in particular, to the extent possible. No Sierra Leonean should be threatened with death for speaking their minds on serious national issues like trigger-happy police officers running around and killing people for even the weakest civil disturbance involving school children. We are waiting to get a full reply from the police but we thought we should make this point now.
However, we wish to remind Orbangu that he made a lot of unfortunate statements when another political leader was attacked and wounded at an election rally. He even went so far as saying the man feigned injury. He said the police were very professional even when to this day, police officers named in an official inquiry as having played prominent roles in the trouble are walking about as free men.
Orbangu is fighting hard to redeem himself. He has a lot of work to do. Our archives are full of recordings of Orbangu's political life. We are busy transcribing and translating into good English. He will be amazed at some of the things he said when he had the world at his feet. Some of us sleep for only two hours. This country MUST change.
POPE JOHN PAUL RUNS TO MERCURY CRYING FOR MONEY; ARE WE DREAMING?
The country woke up to news the other day that Almighty Pope John Paul had returned to Mercury International to beg for money to send our football team to Ghana for some low level tournament. Before the last SLFA election this wouldn't have hit the headlines in the way it did last week. But before and after the election, any animal, place or thing associated with the sport-betting company was anathema to the Pope and the beneficiary of that FLAWED election.
Some of the best candidates who would surely have won were disqualified just because they knew somebody who worked at Mercury and had mentioned the company's name in a conversation to the hearing of the Pope and the beneficiary of the FLAWED election.
Less than a year after that disgracefully flawed election, the Pope has returned to Mercury to collect Le 50 MILLION for a trip to Ghana – a trip for which there is an almost equal number of players and officials. 18 players and 14 officials. This per diem thing is what the whole fighting at SLFA was about. We are coming to that next week.
Anyway, we can't understand why MERCURY has no corporate backbone to stand up to blackmail and political intimidation. They are very scared.
An avid football fan described the Pope's action as a V-turn – hope you understand what that means. Yesterday Mercury was the demon that wrecked Sierra Leone Football, today Mercury is the messiah. All this in one breath.
And why did the SLFA try to divorce itself from the loan? They only shamed themselves. Jobs are hard to find but working for this kind of flip-flopping body is like being enslaved and made to dance before you are fed with rotten porridge.
HAVE WE DONATED ANYTHING TO THE VICTIMS OF TYPHOON HAIYAN?
As it was in the case with Haiti, so should it be with The Philippines. Lowly Sierra Leone gave Haiti ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND United States dollars for relief activities in aid of earthquake victims in that country. Sierra Leone also gave ONE MILLION United States dollars to the troubled country of Mali which is fighting to rid itself of Islamists and separatists. The Berater has always told the people of Sierra Leone that we are a generous nation who took care of other citizens of this world when they were in difficulty no matter our own wretched circumstances. That's fantastic political speak.
In the same vain and in the joyous spirit of Christmas we ask De Pa to give TEN MILLION US dollars in relief aid to the people of The Philippines who have just faced the worst storm in living memory. Thousands have been killed, homes flattened and whole communities wiped out. We are prepared to join the Berater defend this donation from the good people of Sierra Leone against any charge of selective humanitarianism. We ask our brothers in The Philippines to stand together and wait. Hope is on the way from De Pa's Sierra Leone where the leader doles out money only he and God know where he gets from.
BAYUKU, THE HIGH PRIEST OF KOINADUGU LAND BLUNDERS AGAIN
Next time Bayuku The High Priest tells you he will do this and that, take it with a pinch of salt. He has this habit of taking on projects he knows he will be unable to take to their logical conclusion. The High Priest fought a long battle against the management and board of Radio Bintumani in his days as chairman of the Koinadugu district council. He wanted to appoint his own manager and board so that his habit of playing the national anthem before addressing the people would go unchallenged. He failed. He tried again as minister and ran into a brick wall.
Now minister of a ministry his predecessor described as "USELESS", Bayuku has pulled back from his pledge to demolish beach bars at Lumley starting 18th November. He said he would wait for the festive season to end. Well we didn't set the date for him. Didn't he have Christmas in mind!?
You see, we are very displeased with what is happening along the beach, particularly the complete lack of sanitation and unbridled criminality. We want Buyuku to press ahead with this project but he appears to have lost his nerves again. Ministers must be decisive. The High Priest has blundered again.
(C) Politico 19/11/13
