SIAKA STEVENS' GHOST VISITS SALONE AGAIN
It's almost six years ago now when De Pa, with a democratic mandate to govern Sierra Leone under his belt, was widely reported as having said that he intended to take the country back to the days of Siaka Stevens. We didn't get the details of what he meant by that because as they say, the DEVIL is always in the detail. We concluded that he was actually talking about the late president's leadership style. We may not be far from correct because De Pa has referenced Siaka Stevens a lot in many decisions he's taken, the most recent being his personal intervention to halt a powerful statement of discontent within his party during a bye-election in Mile 91.
We have transcribed the speech he made at a public function in the town because we believe that speech gave us the true picture of De Pa when he feels challenged and what to expect under those circumstances. De Pa spoke in Themne so even though we speak Themne we've still asked experts to get a more prefect translation for us so in the event of a court case, we should be able to adequately defend ourselves. Keep posted.
In typical Siaka Stevens style, we are all now witnesses to a wave of arrests taking place, first of military officers and now civilians. Neither the government nor the military which alleged that some soldiers were holding "illegal meetings" at Teko Barracks have told the people just what is going on.
We recall that in Siaka Stevens' days people were locked up for "Careless Talk". This happened each time somebody grumbled in public about harsh economic conditions and Stevens' ceaseless push to monopolise power. Even radio presenters who played songs critical of oppression and poverty in other countries were harassed. So now De Pa's government is talking about "illegal meetings". We believe that as his mandate draws to an end and he begins to think about what the whole nation thinks he wants to do, "Careless Talk" will return as another powerful tool of oppression in the form of “illegal gathering”. Our civil liberties are under heavy attack and we must never allow ourselves to suffer in silence. Sierra Leone is a DEMOCRATIC country existing in the 21st century and we fought for it and De Pa and his henchmen are beneficiaries of that. After all when some of us were fighting for Democracy here, they were either in their corners here undermining our efforts, or keeping quiet of basking in Europe and America. This is a call to duty to resist the return of dictatorship!
A FEW ILLEGAL GATHERING POINTS THE POLICE MUST "INVESTIGATE"
a. SAJORSKI PUB – The place has grown in importance since 2007. It has won more converts for obvious reasons. Many Cash Madams and pot-bellied young men looking for government contracts and huge loan facilities in our banks have joined up. Isn't it just possible that something illegal is going on there?
b. MEMS NIGHT CLUB, MAKENI - It's normally a place for cheap booze for men with lots of disposable income and scantily clad 14-18-year-old girls looking for a quick kill. We just feel that in such situations "careless talk" cannot be ruled out. The police or undercover military intelligence people should always be there to monitor.
c. CHINA HOUSE - There's a section of that place where Petito (the man who tells his friends he is the next president of Sierra Leone) often goes for a beer or two. That's where "Careless Talk" like Petito wanting to be president of this country takes place. We don't understand why the police have still not questioned him about his presidential ambition that is going through the roof while still serving in the worst-performing ministry in this country.
The other day somebody handed us a big dossier of Petito's time at CCSL - it's interesting. The battle for the soul of the Red Movement is on and those documents have landed in the right time. We knew this day would come.
Meanwhile watch out more illegal meeting points in subsequent editions.
WEAC BOAT SINKING IN "BROAD DAYLIGHT"
How come all the heads of those sections dealing with exams at WAEC are still in office after Monday's monumental disaster? Imagine this nonsense: WEAC takes hundreds of candidates to examination centres throughout the country for meaningless ORAL ENGLISH exams only to announce after hours of frustration that the exam was being put back to October. The information we got later from this most reclusive of organisations is that they didn't have enough examiners to conduct the process. When did they know this? Candidates were taken to far-flung centres only to be told to go home and try again in six weeks.
You see WAEC has many serious problems that people have basically tended to ignore. The organisation is so important to the personal development of many Sierra Leoneans that we should never, even in a dream see WAEC fail. Here are some of them:
a. WAEC has encouraged cheating in exams by paying its Examiners chicken feed at outrageously irregular intervals and somehow the identity of those examiners is an open book. So we stand on no solid ground not to believe they are not corrupted by parents and the candidates themselves.
b. WEAC has done absolutely nothing to end this stupid practice of hundreds of parents and outright criminals standing outside examination halls during NPSE exams ostensibly to wish their children well. The reality is that they interfere with the exams by corrupting the invigilators. This is the only country where things like that happen and the examining body is not bothered.
c. The government has simply failed to pay WAEC monies it owes the organisation and the big men at WAEC are too scared to shout especially when some of them are nursing ministerial ambitions. May be we need another examining body that will be strong and clean to bail us out of the mess WAEC has created around us.
NO FIRST YEAR STUDENTS IN LIBERIAN UNIVERSITIES IN 2013
Our brothers and sister across our south-eastern borders were thrust onto world headlines on Monday for a very bizarre reason. Universities in Liberia conducted entrance exams for 25,000 candidates waiting to gain entrance into universities there but none of them passed. In the next few months and after verification, this incident will enter the Guinness Book of Records.
So what could have happened? We find it difficult to believe this could happen anywhere on our planet but here we are with another Liberian example after that country's sitting president was arrested and tried before an international tribunal for war crimes committed in another man's country and is facing decades in a South London jail.
Here are some reasons why we think those young people failed:
a. They were badly prepared for the exam
b. The questions were too heavy for an entrance exam and it was done so deliberately so that the young people will approach the examiners for them to do what Liberians call "MAKE UP".
c. Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's anti-corruption drive has made it impossible for any "MAKE UP" so the examiners are very angry.
d. The candidates didn't take their studies seriously. They spent all their time at Red Light, Happy Corner, Caldwell Junction and Carey Street. Those who know Monrovia should know the angle we are coming from.
e. Unless our abrasive education minister massages the figures, we are facing a WASSCE exam in which the Liberian example is transplanted lock, stock and barrel to good old Sierra Leone. In fact we came close with the NPSE grades for Koinadugu District where seven schools failed flat! How would anyone take our education seriously with a man in charge who is not in charge. And we know why he cannot be sacked. Remember President JS Momoh? We hope you get the drift.
ISHA JOHANSEN: WHY NEGOTIATE IF YOUR MANDATE IS CLEAN?
The SLFA "president" with the most controversial mandate ever in the history of the sport, Isha Johansen is off to meet the leader of the most corrupt institution in modern civilisation, FIFA. Those who organised that crooked SLFA congress, from the so-called Normalisation Nonsense to the Secretariat should be asking themselves right now just where they have put Sierra Leone football with their politically-correct and utterly nonsensical decisions, including banning the candidacy of a man who goes to work abroad. They claimed that a work permit is also a residential permit – so what's the point of separating them even by name? As far as we know work permits and residential permits are granted under clear circumstances particularly in the case of China. The so-called Normalisation Committee never bothered to study China's immigration policies. There's a Chinese embassy that is very active in Freetown for goodness sakes.
We are living in a country where everything is possible – a diplomat who stays abroad for five years returns home only to register, is allowed to vote to elect the PRESIDENT of the country but a footballer who spends six months playing abroad, is barred from running for office in the SLFA because a half baked old man who has spent all his life politically manipulating the SLFA, continues to play his hatchet man's role in destroying a paranoid government's "enemies" in the SLFA
Having carefully CEMENTED her position in office, she is now facing the reality of becoming a chief without subjects. Every day she is negotiating with the same group just to get the league re-started. This administration is doomed – Good bless Pope John Paul.
(C) Politico 29/08/13
