NEEDED: A NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF THE A.C.C.
It may seem a little extreme but we are now left with no option but to call for a NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CORRUPTION and of course the ACC will be top of the agenda. The ACC makes it a point to tell people the fight against corruption should be everybody’s concern. We accept that to some extent but they have the power to investigate and arrest and eventually charge people for corruption. Yes we can help but it’s the ACC’s job for which particularly their boss is paid an unbelievably high salary by any standards.
The ACC has suffered so many defeats in recent times that we now have to call for a national conference to take a second look at our strategy to fight corruption and with particular reference to the ACC as the key institution leading that fight. Certainly the ACC cannot blame all their defeats on the judiciary whatever problems may be besetting the country’s justice sector.
Look at what has happened to the so-called Gavi Alliance case. Almost all those the ACC hurriedly charged, have successfully defended themselves in court. This is a real problem – we all know that huge monies were stole from a fund meant to immunise our children against diseases, but the ACC is unable to successfully prosecute those it says are responsible for the missing funds. To make matters worse, the High Court has asked the government to spend some of our money to pay for costs because of the ACC's inability to prosecute people accused of stealing from their grandchildren.
For our proposed conference, all issues will be on the table. The people may even ask that the ACC be scrapped and replaced with something more workable. Or maybe the appointments of its leadership be made more competitive and not at the say-so of De Pa.
We don’t know how the ACC prosecutors feel after every defeat in court. We have no questions about their competency as lawyers but in their quiet moments they must be asking questions about their inability to score the really big goals. The ACC boss will not say this in public but a crisis is looming at the heart of that very important institution.
The rate at which the ACC is losing these very big cases is becoming unacceptable. They prepare their cases, arrest people unhindered and charge them, so they have no excuse. This fishing expedition must stop now.
Will Dr Dao and others be given their jobs back? Tricky question eh? We wonder why De Pa so hurriedly appointed a substantive Director of Medical Services even before Dao had been convicted.
A National Conference Now!!
ANY BRITISH HIGH COMMISSIONER IN TOWN?
It seems the Schulenburg Bug is bugging diplomats in Sierra Leone. If that was the intention of the government then it seems to be perfectly working in their interest even if at the massive expense of poor Sierra Leoneans who are faced with a huge section of a compromised media, civil society looking for jobs and cash, politicians ready to kick the people to cross the political carpet and now foreign diplomats afraid to represent their own people and speak for the masses here.
The new ERSG is nowhere to be seen; a complete shadow of his predecessor. And rather surprisingly, the new British High Commissioner who took up post in March, is never seen or heard from. He has never met the local media, and, perhaps, even civil society. Just so he knows that the new US ambassador is on his way and may just do these basic barometer checks before he does. Or maybe he is waiting for his American counterpart to do a joint presser like their two predecessors did ahead of our last election. Sorry High Commission we value UK too much to afford a high commissioner that does not seem interested in the local media and civil society. That is not right for even the British taxpayer. Ignore the Schulenburg Bug, it can’t bike you.
GOVT ON SIERRA LEONEAN KIDNAPPED IN YEMEN
De Pa’ government does not seem to care about us. Or has it run out of steam and is consequently out of depth? With the roads all caving in and electricity blighting instead of lighting up, media being clamped down upon and education dying fast, it seems the lack of concern is not just for us inside the country. Even for those living abroad! Have you ever wondered why Americans are proud of their country and their government? When you touch one American anywhere under the sun, you have touched the nerve centre of a country that loves its citizens. It is several weeks now since the kidnap in Yemen of a Sierra Leonean working for UNICEF. We now know his identity but cannot disclose it because it is being kept from his daughter. And the government here has not batted an eyelid. Not even a hypocritical statement of concern. What is wrong with our government in relation to caring, genuinely, for its people! How can anyone be proud anyway! We taya sef! Or is the ever-flying foreign minister waiting for the hostage to be killed? God nor go gree! Where are those who were criticising Zainab Bangura for globe-trotting? The more things change….
MPS GLAD TO LOCK UP THEIR PEOPLE, NOT SO FOR DEFAULTING MULTINATIONALS
We still cannot fathom how come a parliamentary committee chose to lock up the chief administrator of Bo City Council controlled by the opposition, and yet for the same “crime” chose to only warn the administrator of the Makeni city council controlled by the governing party. Hahaha. As if that was not enough, we are still counting the number of companies – mining and agribusiness – that have FORM FOOL the wonder House of Honourable Men and Women. Bring your NASSIT and tax documents, they demanded. We don’t have them now and will bring them at our own time, the companies shrugged them off. Another deadline issued. Another deadline killed. Hahahaha. MPs don Baranta, Tis Tas!
I wish we all had influence in the executive arm to mock even our MPs and go unscathed, and laughing too. Hmmm. Salone na wah oh.
GRASS CREEPING ON ROGBERE POLICE STATION: MUNU CARES NOT?
Next time you drive to Makeni, when you get to Rogbere Police Station, please turn your eyes to the right and see how abandoned the station looks. It’s no joke. We could soon have a forest in front of the police station because nobody is doing something about the grass growing wild there.
Munu may be far away in Freetown, but we hold him personally responsible for failing to instil in his people, a culture that completely discourages that kind of careless attitude to public property. Don’t the police officers at Rogbere see what is happening around them?
In fact it looks as if the people of Rogbere just can’t be bothered about grass taking over such important place in their community like the police station and that huge roundabout at the intersection of the road to Guinea and Makeni.
We would be very surprised if anybody told us there’s no money in the police budget to clean up police stations. How about even those monies slashed from the salaries of police officers serving in international peacekeeping. Unless action is taken soon at Rogbere, we will publish some pictures for the nation to see. Police stations are instruments of state authority and should be treated as such.
“RELEGATED” OR “RENEGADE” JOURNALISTS: SLFA IS VERY CONFUSED
After coming to office with the most questionable mandate since Saramadi Kabbah, Isha Johansen is now attacking the media – well, that section of the media that firmly believes that in this 21st century world the kind of election that brought Isha Johansen to power in the SLFA can ever be legitimised in any civilised country.
Two weeks ago we heard on radio that she referred to two of our colleagues as "RELEGATED" journalists. She quickly "corrected" that by saying that she actually meant "RENEGADE" journalists. The next thing that happened was that her officials gave orders for two of their most vocal critics to be stopped from entering the SLFA Secretariat to attend a news conference until acting SWASAL President Abubakarr Kanu intervened.
Johansen started out by sending workers home without due process until the media raised the issue, she then carried out the most flawed recruitment process ever that left us thinking only about a winner-takes-all political compensation project, underpinned by her abiding belief in her infallibility.
We are keeping a close eye on Isha's FA and she must be in no doubt that in the interest of democratic accountability, we shall let the people know what is happening inside that secretariat at the right time. Already, we have good co-operation from a few patriots in that building.
For now she can go on calling journalists all sorts of names. If she thinks describing journalists as "renegades" is a normal thing, we will prove that the real renegades, we mean those who cannot win a fair and democratic contest or hold their offices through an open and competitive process, are inside the SLFA. For Isha to also believe that the presidential authority used to force those football teams to return to the field will be used to close us down, will be a monumental mistake. Up with free media!
(C) Politico 30/10/13
