OLUNIYI SACKED, DISCIPLINARY ACTION PENDING AT NPA, LONDON CALLING?
The biggest story so far this week has to be the sacking of the minister of energy and his deputy and the suspension of the top echelons at NPA. Here is a State House press release announcing the decision:
STATE HOUSE - "IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS, SEVERAL MEETINGS WERE HELD AT STATE HOUSE TO REVIEW OUR ENERGY PROJECTS.
THE OUTCOME OF THESE MEETINGS HAS LEFT HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT WITH THE CONCLUSION THAT THE MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND THE NATIONAL POWER AUTHORITY HAVE NOT PROVED THEMSELVES EQUAL TO THE TASK OF MANAGING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF OUR ENERGY PROJECTS".
POLITICO - Well we've been here before, haven't we? Just before last Christmas, Works Minister Petito was sacked. He took the professional head of the Sierra Leone Roads Authority down with him. State House told us Petito was unable to do his job. They have just repeated the same line to announce the sacking of Oluniyi. Sorry, was it a case of cut and paste?
De Pa says his policy unit will now oversee the work of the troubled ministry - the fourth minister to run the place in six years is now being considered. Frankly, everything in this country is run by State House so may be this is just to create the impression that somebody else has been doing something at NPA. When it is good, De Pa takes the praise. When it goes awry, someone else gets the flack. Well done, Messiah Pa!
By the way, we know Oluniyi was a member of the Strategy Unit at State House so is he simply now going back to that unit to join others in overseeing the ministry from which he has just been sacked? Interesting eh? Let's wait and see. Or will he inevitably return to London?
State House also cleared the top management of the National Power Authority, promising disciplinary action. What are the details then? We have a document that should have given us a lot of food for thought about appointing one of the people now awaiting disciplinary action. But in the euphoria of an election victory in 2007, those who called attention to a credible international document were dismissed as BAD HEART people. What goes around... Duya una end am for we. It is apparent De Pa's judgement is beclouded by some other considerations - not national interest. Una wait, una go know jis nor!
How many more ministers will be sacked for incompetence before De Pa realises that time is running out as he tries to consolidate his legacy? Sheee yor!!!!
WHAT IF BERNADETTE LAHAI WERE PRESIDENT OF SALONE?
Journalists like us like to dream about things. In this particular situation, we were wide awake looking at the consequences for national development of a main opposition party that was as hopeless as a customer in a barber's chair. There may be opportunistic external influences but the Green Movement is in a mess of its own making.
In parliament, the movement has been thrown into further mess by a woman who even after being sacked by her own party continues to exercise authority, hanging on by her fingernails using a court injunction. The idea that a court injunction is sufficient to keep her in a political office against the wishes of a majority of her parliament party is ludicrous and, perhaps, foolish.
Let's go into actual dream mode now and attempt to answer the question above. What if Bernadette Lahai were president of Sierra Leone?
1. She would deal firmly with anybody making critical comments about her actions in office, from politicians to journalists and civil society groups.
2. She would sack her ministers with a kind of amazing rapidity that would make Samuel Doe look like a saint.
3. She would appoint absolute square pegs into the roundest of holes as long as they sing her praises. She would care less if the nation suffered. How can we explain her recent actions against the Green 26. Aren't Parliamentary Committees normally constituted based on the competences of MPs as a way of getting the best out of them in the interest of the nation? We have analysed her appointments and they have left us very disappointed.
4. She probably would actively work towards a third-term in office using the courts which even the people of Panguma would reject.
5. She would refuse to meet her party leaders, an action that would eventually bring her political career to a crashing halt.
Oh, we've just come through a real nightmare eh? Thank God it was all a dream.
PWD KISSY POLICE POST and the RIGHTS of DETAINEES
Here is a case for the numerous human rights groups in the country who must act fast and not until something more terrible would have happened. The blue container-cum-Police Post at PWD Kissy is quite a busy place with dozens of cases being treated there on a daily basis. The surrounding settlements are densely populated with mostly working class people and those struggling to have even a plate of ‘’culture’’ (cheap bowl of rice mixed with palm oil and beans). And in this harsh economic climate, domestic quarrels and other petty crimes are common and many are brought to the attention of the officers at the Post.
Now do not get us wrong, a good number of the cops there are doing a great job with hardly the required logistics, but some others are just not cut out for anything having to do with law and order because they personify lawlessness and disorder themselves.
Some cops there find pleasure in frightening suspects and their relatives. The other day a cab driver in handcuffs was denied the right to have a lady call up his boss to know he was being detained. The cop even threatened the timid lady with arrest if she dared. But what really bothered us most was the narrow and poorly ventilated part of the container that’s used as a cell.
It's always crammed with detainees in sweltering heat and unhygienic conditions. At the time we sauntered around the place, the men in the cell were banging on the metal frame in desperation at the unbearable heat. We were told Harbour Station down the Queen Elizabeth II quay was the place suspects were transferred to for detention.
March is approaching and we do not want to hear of people dying of asphyxiation in Police cell. I.G. Munu, how about erecting a real structure somewhere within that neighbourhood? The Police Post at Allen Town looks great...well at least on the outside, and let’s move away from the idea of Police Posts being run down like the one at PWD Kissy and that God forsaken, stinking, abandoned gas station that your cops refer to as a Police Post at the Wellington Industrial Estate!
THE NEGLECTED OF THE CITY - OLD ROAD PEOPLE IN PERIL
Back in 2007, just a couple of days after the election that brought him to power, De Pa made what we would call here a triumphant ride across town. In the east end, he used the bumpy old Kissy/Wellington route attracting the then fresh and unwavering support of his Red Movement fans who believed he wanted to feel what the ordinary folks there were going through riding on Okadas, etc.
Many swore at the time that in a couple of months, from Old Road Kissy Police Barracks where the Green Movement stopped asphalt-laying work, De Pa would ensure that from that point and through the stretch of road covering Allen Town and Grafton would be fixed. Six years on, work under the Red Movement has only covered a distance of just about two miles!
The suffering of commuters living in Wellington, Calaba Town, Allen Town, Grafton, Jui etc has worsened. During rush hour, there is gridlock from the whole of Bai Bureh Road on to Allen Town and people spend hours on the road.
School children, office workers and business people are up at dawn and return home very, very late indeed, tired, hungry and frustrated. They get very little sleep just at the very thought of the hassle awaiting them the next day. Did anybody ask why we die young in this country? Anyway...
That Old Road must be repaired and very fast indeed, especially after Congo Town as the people there are going through hell on a daily basis. How could De Pa have spent six years to pave a two-mile stretch from barracks Old Road where he inherited it? Don’t say the soon-to-be opened Grafton – IMATT Road will help the situation. It will ease the problem of those with private vehicles who work in the west end but not the majority of the common people who rely on buses, poda-podas and taxis to commute for their daily survival in town from the east.
Please De Pa your support base here was strong but the people are just becoming disillusioned that you will leave no legacy in the East of the city. Most of the people there seldom traverse if at all Spur or Wilkinson roads and they want their share of the “massive infrastructural development taking place in the country’’ to be seen and felt in their own very locality!
(C) Politico 20/02/14
