Presidential Monthly News Conferences…Will De Pa Keep Advisory Note No. 8?
We want to, most respectfully remind De Pa that the next session of his monthly news conferences is now due. We've been waiting for our mobile phones to ring throughout last weekend or a text message inviting us to ROUND TWO. But it would appear as if De Pa needs a gentle reminder. Well this is it sir.
We recall that De Pa himself promised to respect Advisory Note No. 8 passed on to him by his advisers. We could see the finger prints of senior presidential adviser, Kothor IB all over Advisory Note No. 8 and we applaud him for that.
But, how come Kothor IB prepared this advisory note only after he had been sacked from the Ministry of Information? Many people are asking the same question. You see, Kothor wanted to keep the spotlight on himself by fully exploiting the headlamps of national publicity as government spokesman. Now at State House, Kothor has decided to shift the focus back to himself and keep his successor at the ministry, Kan Kan Kan away from sunlight.
This is all about who gets more time on SLBC/TV. A Minister actually launched a toll-free telephone line to a corrupt Parastatal just because their idle poodle called SLBC is always ready to roll the camera. The other day the same toll-free line minister went into the engine room of a ferry to "make sure it's in working order" only to emerge and do a piece-to-camera in which he told his viewers that the engineers had assured him the machine was perfect. So we ask: did he really need to have gone there in the first place? If he were the British Minister in charge of aviation, he would spend all his time checking aircraft engines. Heathrow airport alone handles 1,000 flights a day.
Anyway, this month's news conference will be very interesting. We have lined up a number of questions for De Pa to answer. No detail here but have a look:
a. We shall be asking pointed questions about the goings-on in the RSLAF particularly with soldiers in De Pa's home city of Makeni. The army chief has said very little about the reported disquiet in the military battalion in Makeni but the people are hungry for information.
b. There are a few more issues requiring detailed answers based on all pillars of the Agenda for Prosperity.
c. Also, does De Pa feel defeated for once in his own country regarding his failure to settle the CEMENT war tearing the SLFA apart.
De Pa “Does not Need a Third term”: But Has Anybody Offered It?
Journalist-turned-politician, Theo Nicol was quoted in a few local newspaper commenting on widespread speculation about De Pa's secret plans to ask for a third term in office. Nicol said, “There is no secret about it: he has said it to his ministers and in public as well that he has no third term agenda”. Well we hope Nicol is singing from the same hymn sheet as other ministers in government including garrulous Logus, and indeed De Pa himself.
There are millions of Sierra Leoneans who believe that some dramatic announcement regarding presidential tenure in Sierra Leone will be made in less than two years. For now it looks like some street joke but we have come a long way with serious policy matters being discussed in jest even by state functionaries. Failed Logus Koroma gave a series of interviews recently talking about the possibility of De Pa staying in office for a third term. He spoke at lot about De Pa's leadership qualities and how he alone can rescue this country.
State House issued a terse statement denying De Pa had any such third term agenda. But strangely, the man who embarrassed De Pa so much was subsequently appointed minister of transport after having been sacked from his previous position of minister of state in the office of the vice president. We've since been asking De Pa to tell us what really changed to cause him to bring a failed man back into his cabinet. May be it's his position on the third-term talk.
So minister Nicol must know that we welcome his statement but we refer him to a recent edition of the influential Africa Confidential magazine which carried a story on the third term KORNY KNORY game De Pa's spin doctors are playing with the people's lives. The people have not and will never offer De Pa a third term, it will be unconstitutional and this is a democracy.
Urgent Letter to Our Lady Chief Justice
Dear Chief Justice
We write on behalf of the ordinary people of Sierra Leone to express very serious concerns about the justice system in Sierra Leone. We interact a lot with the Sierra Leonean equivalent of the WRETCHED OF THE EARTH and we know what they think about the dispensation of justice in this country and it is our business to pass their concerns to you. We hope you will take it in good faith but we stand by and take full responsibility for whatever may result from us doing our job.
a. We have heard complaints about the very serious delays in assigning cases to magistrates and judges. We have experienced this, ourselves. When some of our colleagues are charged to court, they are asked to turn up in court at 9:30 am. More often than not they have had to wait for three hours to be told which magistrate will hear their case.
b. At the recent Bar Association conference, a lawyer asked a question about how cases and motions filed in ongoing cases are assigned. We were dying to hear the reply but it was glossed over. Here's another opportunity for you Our Lady to explain to the people of Sierra Leone on whose behalf she holds office.
b. Some courts are overloaded with cases while others are virtually empty. In some courts magistrates turn up late, they quickly adjourn their cases and leave. There's a lot of grumbling about people spending years on remand without seeing a judge. We know the judiciary is not the only body responsible but they have not played their part well. There are just too many adjournments and many ordinary folks, on whose behalf we write, are suffering within the walls of the Pademba Road prison. The Attorney General made some promises recently but we are still waiting. Bail has become something else under your watch on Our Lady. Even lawyers are complaining loudly.
c. We don't know how many times you visit your courtrooms, Our Lady visits but we would like to call your attention to the physical conditions of those courtrooms. We have seen courtrooms in other countries in West Africa and compared to what we have here, we have very good reasons to hang our heads in shame.
Thank you very much Our Lady
You hope you do not just dismiss us as troublesome journalists.
Over 5,000 Potholes in Freetown, King Jimmy Bridge Down, Where is Petito?
Munda Rogers, Petito's scapegoat at the SLRA, was brought before the parliamentary committee on Works on Monday to answer to questions about the collapse of a section of Wallace Johnson Street and the fact that there are now over five thousand potholes all over Freetown. The guy was honest and he sounded absolutely fed up with being blamed for everything that has to do with roads and bridges in Sierra Leone. We wouldn't totally absolve him because he wouldn't come clean for the whole nation to know how incompetent and domineering minister Petito is.
You see when it's about Wilkinson Road that looks reasonably good, Petito invites the obedient SLBC to show him "dutifully" implementing the dictates of the “Agenda for Prosperity”. But when bridges at Mabang and King Jimmy collapsed, Munda Rogers was thrown to the dogs. Does Petito really think we are fooled by this old trick in the Red Movement handbook on spin?
On the sidelines of all this we have the Road Fund Board which collects our taxes on a daily basis without passing the money on to SLRA in a timely manner to repair our roads. They have a very queer way of doing things. They were only recently shaken out of their complacency when the parliamentary finance committee raised questions about their handling of tax payers' cash.
Look at Sarah Bendu's kingdom, the SLRTA, they are mandated by law to send a certain amount of money to the Road Fund Board from the zillions they collect every year, but we can't remember the last time any such payment was made. We challenge Sarah Bendu to produce documents to show she's been doing that.
De Pa told the whole nation that Sierra Leone would be turned into a works yard when his construction projects got into full gear. Now this is the most difficult question to answer in this country: Name one pothole-less road in Freetown. Well Done Works Yard Minister.
