WITH CATHEDRAL NOW GONE, MIGHT DE PA RE-VISIT THE ANNIE WALSH?
With the Annie Walsh Memorial School, the Anglican Church in Sierra Leone stood firm against a government proposal to turn the place into another Bombay Street market. We applauded that because even if the school was moved, we didn't believe it should be replaced by a market - the type proposed by the government. So well-done The Annie Walsh.
Now De Pa's government has won approval from the Anglican Church in Sierra Leone to take over Cathedral School and turn it into God knows what. We are hearing about a shopping mall to be done by NASSIT, the organisation that is so rich but has no idea how to invest our money in our interest. We have also been told that Cathedral School will surely now become an extension of Abacha Street. Gosh!
If the Anglican Church fought so hard to save The Annie Walsh, why not Cathedral School? We understand the new Bishop was called to a meeting with Chief Sidikie who used more stick than carrot to get the school facilities from the Bishop. What is the issue between Anglican Church Schools and this government?
Other established churches should be ready to face what has befallen their Anglican cousins. We are not clairvoyants but here's what we can see in the crystal ball:
a. Saint Edwards Secondary School will soon be taken over to extend Kingtom Police barracks to accommodate the many politically-motivated police recruits.
b. Pastoral Center in Kenema will be demolished to construct the JB Dauda stadium.
c. The playing field at Methodist Girls High School will be handed over to the politically-loyal people of Tengbeh town.
d. The Catholic community in Makeni, which continues to rebel against Rome, will see more of their landed property taken over for the construction of more shopping centres.
e. Our Lady Star of the Sea church in Juba is on borrowed time. Juba barracks must be expanded to cover all those areas. Looking into our crystal ball, we reckon these properties will be acquired soon using the confused and badly-led so-called National Assets Commission. Watch this space.
We shall help De Pa identify many of such church properties that should be taken over.
WAEC POSTPONES BECE TO AUGUST AT THE 11TH HOUR
The postponement of the Basic Education Certificate Exams or BECE was definitely an after-thought in the grand scheme of a raft of measures recently announced by the government as it struggles to fight off the continuous spread of the deadly Ebola disease. We were taught that before any government issues a press release, they think very seriously about the consequences of every word particularly because the people could understand it in different ways.
How come then did the government issue a statement, essentially locking down all activities in Kailahun, only to realise a few days later that it would be politically inexpedient to create the impression that Kailahun was on its own with Ebola while the rest of the country continues as normal? Anyway, nothing is in fact normal in this place.
Again, how did the government know that we would have sufficiently marginalised Ebola in August to clear the way for the exams to go ahead? In the light of all that is happening around Ebola, is this not just a pointer to the fact that we need to be told the truth about this Ebola?
Even at the best of times, the school calendar is terribly violated; how much more with all this uncertainty about BECE and all that? There's nothing wrong with the government taking measures to fight Ebola but when it begins to affect our civil liberties, our representatives in parliament must be consulted and the government must be very careful.
By geo-politics and development, Kailahun is marginalised and the people have hence become an unbelievable political football for the two main political movements. We must never allow them to be used all over again for political ends.
BAR ASSOCIATION GETS NEW BOSS BUT WILL ANYTHING CHANGE?
For us in the media, Elvis Kargbo's presidency of the Sierra Leone Bar Association will be remembered for two things:
a. His administration made only a weak effort to engage the issue of 71 lawyers whose wigs were withdrawn amidst allegations of serious exams fraud that badly tainted the reputation of the Law School.
b. His administration launched a brutal and unprecedented attack on the media, complaining about standards and bla, bla, bla. We will not dwell too much on this for now because our association, SLAJ had pleaded with us to call our troops back to barracks from the unnecessary war sparked by Elvis between our two associations - the only two groups that have the best chance of watching over the nation's resources and goodwill that we periodically entrust into the care of politicians.
So will anything change under Ibrahim Sorie? We have no reason to believe the answer to this question is a YES. But we are prepared to give the new team at least three months to settle in. And please, let them start at home. There's a lot going on there. The people are crying but they are being ignored.
We urge Sorie and his team to take a look at their colleagues in the Malawi and Kenya Law Societies and see what they can learn from them. Our lawyers concentrate too much on their clients, leaving the rest of society to perish.
We didn't mention Nigeria because the Gani Fawehimis, Femi Falanas and others were the people who rescued Nigeria from the grips of Sani Abacha and the military people. Why can't our own lawyers speak out when public interest is at stake - a bad bill, a violation of the constitution and all that? What is the difference between Nigerian and Sierra Leonean lawyers?
When the media speak out and the politicians feel hurt, they hire the same lawyers to plot our being thrown into jail. We welcome Mr. Sorie and we stand ready to help but we are not very enthusiastic.
WELCOME TO TEACHERS' VARIETY SHOW AT PRINCE OF WALES
All is now set for the TEACHERS' VARIETY SHOW at Prince of Wales School, Kingtom. O what a great event that will be. The teachers finally have their burning desire. They disrupted the school exams because the principal was not so keen on having a VARIETY SHOW.
Teachers disrupted a whole exam that was underway because of variety show and there is no punitive measure. Instead they have been rewarded with a corrupt money-making business on school premises. When people complain about falling standards in our education system, this is where it stems from. We expect teachers to cancel VARIETY SHOWS for exams, not the other way round. But this is Sierra Leone education system. Seven years under a ghost hunter.
The money from the TEACHERS’ VARIETY SHOW will never be declared to the school. It will fatten the pockets of our dear teachers of Prince of Wales. In other countries, an emergency would have been declared at Prince of Wales with parents up in arms - maybe literally. But anything goes in this land that we love.
As for their Adelaide Street lesson, that's another point at which parents are milked by POW teachers. We understand why the ghost hunter is refusing to move against the VARIETY SHOW teachers at POW. He may end up going after all schools because this problem of teachers using all tactics to squeeze parents dry is spreading throughout the school system.
The Prince of Wales VARIETY SHOW is on Saturday 28th June. All is now set for that. We project that by the number of tickets already sold, and everybody knows those who are buying the tickets, each of the teachers will go home with at least ONE MILLION LEONES. Hahahahahahahaha, good kill eh? When will De Pa wake up to the rot in the education system?
(C) Politico 26/02/14
