ARE WE BEING OVERRUN BY FIRE, FIRE FIRE, EVERYWHERE?
Since fire hit that petrol station at Kissy - and even before then - Freetown has experienced more fires in different places. The northern town of Lunsar has also been hit. Is the capital facing the possibility of being wiped out by fire? Even as a mere journalistic question that looks too extreme but many residents of Freetown in particular would understand why we are so concerned. Electricity House in the heart of the city has been hit twice in less than a month.
The trouble is that even people like us in the media have not seen a single report from the Freetown Fire Force about the causes of any of these fire outbreaks. All we've heard from Kamanda Bongay and his people is the all-too-familiar line of "we are investigating the cause of the fire." The investigations are endless. So all they do is go back to their fire station and wait for the next call. How can a serious country conduct business in this way?
Someone, or some institution, must explain to the rest of us why the few dwellings and government property are being gutted by fire with such shocking rapidity. If we don't properly investigate and work on our findings honestly, we will simply be jumping from one fire disaster to the other in a vicious cycle. By the way, please allow us to ask a few questions about the Freetown Fire Force?
1. Why can't the Freetown Fire Force commission a capacity audit so we know if they are capable of fighting any fire even in their own backyard. We are talking about equipment, personnel, moral and all that. Looks like we know the answer but let's have it on official paper.
2. What's really happening at those out stations established by the Freetown Fire Force in the days of TejanKabbah. We believe they are totally useless. Right?
3. Are the young people who work under such conditions well motivated to deliver? Please tell us.
4. Why has parliament not raised a finger of concern over these rampant fires or are they waiting for De Pa to take the lead?
5. And why is De Pa - or his innumerable spokespeople - not laid out any plans to address fire safety - or are we waiting until we have all been consumed like they delayed with Ebola response?
6. When will firefighters be provided with their most basic needs, never mind their welfare? How can anyone be working as a firefighter without protective gear or even a health insurance? That is scandalous!
SCHOOL YEAR BEGINS IN CHAOS OVER VERY LATE WAEC RESULTS
We make no apologies for describing the beginning of the school year 2016 as chaotic. In fact, we are not the only people saying that. We have met many parents who can't really understand why the system is failing so badly. Even as we write, there are many schools, particularly those outside Freetown, that have still not received their NPSE results. WAEC is selling scratch cards but the results are not online. We know a woman who checked the WAEC website over three days, lost her money only to be told her child's result was not available. Isn't that official cheating by WAEC? Now WAEC has forced people to use the old format of going to primary schools to get NPSE results.
There are schools that conduct their own exams for intake. They don't even care about the NPSE. It's up to them but the children of the poor who are found mostly in municipal schools are not able to attend such private schools. At this moment, they are about three weeks behind their reasonably prosperous counterparts. It's a very wicked two-tier system. Inequality is everywhere but let the basics apply to everyone at the same time.
There are a few things we've been turning over in our minds about WAEC and the kingdom of Kotor Minks, otherwise known as the Ministry of Education:
1. Can we suspend WAEC for three years and outsource all public exams to EDEXCEL for example? Because we believe WAEC needs some good scrubbing - the location of their buildings, personnel, image, procedures, everything. There are many guys at WAEC who should be sacked for any progress to be made.
2. Sierra Leone's King of Education should stop making political statements and deliver real results. Education owes WAEC huge amounts of money but WAEC guys are so scared that they can't even speak out to the media about those debts. They can't pay their examiners. When they manage to pay, it's pittance. Is anybody surprised that WAEC exams are so corrupt and hundreds of exams are cancelled every year?
3. If we don't act fast, we are reaching a point where what is left of the integrity of WAEC would be lost, and it would take more than MORE TIME or even a generation for any paper from this country to be trusted anywhere else in the world but here.
4. These days, Sierra Leoneans think making money at all cost to build castles and buy Hummer Jeeps is the only way to go. Vital institutions that represent the integrity of the nation are dying of corruption and incompetence.
5. Let's say this, if De Pa doesn't sack Kotor Minks right now, things would only get worse. In fact things can never get worse than they already are - so we rephrase THINGS WILL NEVER RECOVER. He will never be sacked anyway. Sorry guys!
TOO MANY VEHICLE ACCIDENTS AND NEEDLESS DEATHS ON OUR ROADS
We respectfully ask for a PUBLIC INQUIRY on why so many of our people are dying in road accidents in this country. We can't just do the normal Sierra Leone things - blame things on God or some witchcraft nonsense. We need a PUBLIC INQUIRY. In the year when the Road Transport Authority was renamed Road Safety Authority to make a point about its primary mandate, this nation has witnessed a record number of deaths in road accidents. Many of those accidents are easily preventable in a situation where institutions are not only created but are truly independent and empowered to work.
The questions the inquiry would look into are many but we will approach the situation from the ordinary man's point of view.
1. Why struggle so much even against good traditional partners to build Mamamah Airport when you have death traps like Rogbere Bridge and its likes just outside Mile 91 on the road to Magburaka and the one near Gondama, a few miles from Bo? Mabang Bridge which collapsed a long time ago, is still waling for attention.
2. How many genuine police patrols do we have on the roads to check excessive speeding? Even the few we have are busy collecting bribes on the roads instead of doing honest police work. Integrity guys, integrity!
3. Frankly, the quality of many of the vehicles on our roads is nothing to talk about. And when you imagine that those vehicles passed SLRSA's road-worthiness test, you have to really find out who carried out those tests and what they were looking for.
4. Would we get the inquiry we are asking for? We can't bet on that, not a penny. We will be very surprised if the government even commented at all on this call.
5. By the way, is 100 Buses Minister still in charge at the Transport Ministry? He is very quiet these days even by his garrulous standards. Too much uncertainty bro. Keep your cool.
HILLSIDE BY-PASS ROAD INVADED BY PETTY TRADERS
Is there any place in this country where we don't have people selling some of the most ridiculous things around? We call them petty traders but we think they are well below that. What do you make selling five dozen oranges daily? How do you justify that in the context of all the hours you spend in the burning sun? No pun intended! Instead of telling these unfortunate compatriots of ours to go back to the land and be large scale producers of oranges, politicians are busy lying to them about how much they love them and all that nonsense, thus allowing the to wallow on the streets.
Our real concern here today is the damage being done to the beauty of the Hill-side By-pass road which is not even complete, in fact 75% of the work is still in oblivion but shanty settlements are already springing up around the stretch from Dwazark Junction to Model. The biggest casualty of this petty trader invasion is Wallace Johnson Primary School. There is very little learning taking place in that school. Instead of protecting their school, we recently saw a City Council worker collecting dues from the very traders besieging their school. The children of the most poor, can't get education even in their own school. What is this? We are coming back to this in a much more sustained way.
The Dwarzark Junction area is also being slowly occupied. By the time the government decides to throw them out there will be outcry about people being denied their means of livelihood. Those who should act are pretending to be blind to this occupation while corrupt council workers go around collecting dues.
Bababode is the worst Mayor ever elected. We can't see him going up for a second time. He should never attempt that. The council has simply collapsed. But again he may argue that De Pa is undermining him by citing his declaration for market hours to be shortened to curb the spread Ebola which was overruled by De Pa just for him to introduce it later. Anyway… this is Salone for you!
(C) Politico 20/01/16
