LET'S CLEAR THE WAY THE GREAT LORD PALLO CONTEH OF SALONE
In the name of political accountability to the ultimate authority in this land that we love - THE GOOD PEOPLE OF SIERRA LEONE, can Lord Pallo Conteh please explain why armed soldiers who are part of his convoy of vehicles behaved the way they did close to the old presidential lodge, the China House general area on Tuesday morning? For them, it would appear as if they were doing something normal but we have still not recovered from the shock of that incident more than 24 hours after.
Our vehicle approached that strategic junction, which in the best of times in a crazy place, from the lower part of King Herman road with the intention to turn into Old Railway Line, heading for work in central Freetown. Lord Pallo Conteh's armed soldiers quickly alighted from their vehicles, and blocked the whole area to make way for Lord Pallo Conteh to quickly move towards New England. What was all that about anyway? Why couldn't the minister wait in the traffic like everybody else? There were traffic police officers who normally control the place but they were simply brushed aside by the Khaki Boys from what actually looked like a PRESIDENTIAL CONVOY.
We have asked many times why Lord Pallo Conteh continuously surrounds himself with soldiers when all other ministers have police officers as bodyguards. Is it because he is the minister of defence? Well, building on that logic, let's have teachers defending the minister of education and traders serving as security people to the minister of trade. Let's hope land grabbers don't turn up to defend the minister of lands. We could have another Kenneth Moore case in our hands.
The chaos that followed the departure of Lord Pallo Conteh's convoy was simply overwhelming. In a country where things are so hard and people are stressed out even as early as 9 o'clock in the morning, such display of power is unnecessary.
DESPERATE MOVE? JOURNALIST WANTS TO JOIN DE PA TRAVEL ABROAD
Our attention was drawn to something unbelievable on breakfast radio on Tuesday morning. A radio presenter doing a low end comedy section of a popular programme appeared to be asking to be included in presidential delegations traveling abroad. The argument was, if our Journalist was part of travels to different parts of the country for social mobilisation purposes in the Ebola war, it follows clearly that our Journalist could or should also be part of international travels. Interesting stuff! So why are we at this point?
1. The simple reason is that De Pa appears not to have taken notice of how much work our journalist has done recently to attract his attention. So our journalists needed to hammer the message home. Here I am Lord, come and get me.
2. Our Journalist has this feeling that somehow, De Pa had asked for him to be included in recent travels but that there was somebody somewhere playing games with his name and because De Pa is a very busy man, he doesn't quite get round to recalling those small issues. Telling De Pa on worldwide radio, was the only option left.
3. Once in a while, after such loyal and diligent service, it is great to be rewarded with overseas travel and all that comes with it - a handsome per diem, lots of shopping and good food and the pride of being part of a presidential delegation. The Journalist might even tell unsuspecting people he had closed door conversation with De Pa, you know.
4. We may argue about the wisdom of such a declaration on radio but what if all other measures fail? We are talking about measures like sending text messages to people, actually visiting and asking to be considered and so on?
5. JOURNALIST SEF FOR BETTEH, UNU LEF ME YAH. Anyway, Long Live Independent Journalism!
TRAFFIC POLICE IN FLAK JACKET? YES. BUT WHERE'S THE NAME TAG?
Almost all our traffic police officers have flak jackets these days. They now use them as reflectors at night and just for the sake of it in broad daylight. We certainly have no problem with that. What we have problem with is the fact that the flak jacket covers their name tag attached to their uniform. We believe something should be done quickly for the following reasons:
1. With their names and numbers prominently displayed on their shirts, police officers are a bit careful how they behave in public because they could be easily identified and reported to their authorities.
2. We once arrived at a junction in Freetown to find a police officer in some arm-wrestling with a motorist as he struggled to get the car keys from the driver. He was arresting the guy for "defective lights" but crucially, he kept telling us who intervened, he wouldn't proceed to the station but he needed the driver to be a bit more respectful. RESPECTFUL? We quickly left the place clearly understanding what next would happen. He had a flak jacket on so we couldn't get his name. We wanted to report what happened there because the incident was never recorded in a police diary. RULE NUMBER ONE - Always be RESPECTFUL to a police officer.
3. When all is said and done, we need to be able to know which police officer we are dealing with every time we come across them.
ANOTHER HALF SOLUTION FOR PADEMBA ROAD RAW SEWAGE FLOW
Just a day or so after we called public attention to the fact that raw sewage was flowing continuously from the drainage system along a section of Padema road of all places, we witnessed a very feeble attempt to clear up the mess. The slabs were lifted and some very shoddy cleaning job done. Come on people you have not answered the real question. You are only trying to paper over some very big cracks and we can see through all that facade.
How did we get to that stage on that section of Pademba road so that for the very first time, raw sewage is seen flowing like that from the area near the main prison to the junction of Campbell Street linking Pademba road. It's very bad. Somebody told us the mess was coming from inside Pademba road jail but we doubt that very much.
That prison has been standing there since God Knows When without that mess flowing so freely. In fact, the mess starts right on the edge of that squatter camp created by that Washington Night Club Karaoke minister with his unexplained political mago mago. The inmates of that camp told us they have no toilets. Why didn't that mago mago minister attend to all that before embarking on that populist nonsense. Now look at what is happening on one of our main streets.
This is the worst thing to happen to Freetown in many years and despite all the questions people keep asking, the minister is nowhere to be found. He simply created the mess and fled the scene. The only solution now is to close that squatter camp immediately. It's certainly not a vote winner. The consequences of that camp staying there and raw sewage continuously flowing on Pademba road can only make a bad situation worse for the Red Movement in 2017.
Close the camp now and let the people there return to where they came from. This cheap politics must stop.
© Politico 22/04/15
