EMERGENCY RESTRICTIONS RELAXED BUT WE WANT MORE THAN THAT
We can breathe a little now following the relaxing of the State of Emergency. We say a little because our association, SLAJ, has repeatedly called for the whole emergency package to be lifted so we can enjoy our full range of civil liberties.
We support SLAJ as always. In a democracy, emergency rule is anathema. We understand why the measures came into effect in the first place but by now we should have removed it from the rest of the country apart from the two districts still recording Ebola cases – Port Loko and Kambia. We would then concentrate all our resources there so that we end Ebola's deadly visit to Sierra Leone.
We've been moving around Freetown to see the people in action again during the few hours added by De Pa. Here's what we found out:
1. We are waiting for the Sierra Leone Brewery to announce record profits at the end of the next quarter because we saw many empty bottles in a lot of bars we visited.
2. Beach bars are suddenly alive again and with that comes the normal anti-social activities in what is now our only entertainment spot. Please, let's put more police on that beach.
3. There's also the possibility that some bars would soon overrun like those in Kenema. In fact, even before the restrictions were relaxed, Kenema was in completely normal mode. Well, even without their budget.
4. We've also heard people expressing joy that congregational prayers during Ramadan would be possible. Long live THE NIGHT OKADA.
5. We also met many people who said that all restrictions were already gone by the time Liberia reached the stage we are now and that they didn't panic when spikes occurred in the western district of Sinje during the last days of their Ebola outbreak.
ANOTHER POLICE KILLING IN FREETOWN: HOW MANY MORE?
Familiar scenes on the streets of Freetown again - a police officer allegedly shot and killed a civilian and the young people in volatile Kroo Town road take to the streets with the corpse, denouncing police brutality. Predictably they are sprayed with teargas and chased away. Déjà vu?
The head of the police internal complaints body said on breakfast radio on Monday that they would first investigate the incident to see if there was criminal intent before calling in the CID. Is that how it's done now? Is it true the alleged killer is in hiding?
Anyway, we have a lot of respect for our police. They are doing a good job compared to what we know about the police in our neighbouring countries. We sometimes criticise them when they fail to deliver. That's democratic accountability.
But, we are very afraid that they have very little time now to convince the public that they are capable of removing bad eggs from their midst. Those bad eggs are busy embarrassing an otherwise reasonably good force and we are not sure whether our professional officers are moving fast enough to take rotten eggs out of the force.
We are fed up with this business of rogue police officers killing the very people they are supposed to be protecting. The details of what happened at Victoria Street are still being put together but what is not in doubt is that we have a youth sent to his early grave by a police bullet bought with our taxes. That's unacceptable.
Munu has to stand up and fight this bad image that some of those officers, who had no business joining the police in the first place, are creating for our FORCE FOR GOOD. We want DECISIVE ACTION NOW otherwise Munu risks having his legacy being soiled by these killings. We can count quite a few now on his watch. SWIFT ACTION NOW!
KING JIMMY BRIDGE IS BACK WITHOUT FANFARE. WELL DONE!
We drove across King Jimmy Bridge the other day, after a very long time. Our first assessment is that, it's not what we expected but honestly, it's not a bad job. That vital link is open again and commuters have one more road to escape the gridlock in Central Freetown.
We can't really be sure about this, but we didn't get any information about lavish celebrations to mark the re-opening of the bridge. We are talking about the kind which took place after bathroom tiles were plastered on the Clock Tower at East End Police in Freetown. Those who remember that incident under Brother Morgan Heritage, also remember how those wild and provocative celebrations led to a big fight with opposition Green Movement people.
OK, this is not Morgan Heritage time. It's Mayor Bababode at work. Thank you dear Mayor but can we take you back to a few things you said in the aftermath of that bridge collapsing? As you know, you gave an interview to Culture Radio, in which you spoke with passion, you were really sad that such a thing could happen to your people. That was good.
You know sir, in that same interview, you promised to move very fast against people living under bridges in Freetown. We will spare the details for now because we want to give you the next couple of weeks to clear all those people squatting dangerously under bridges in Freetown. That's from the very King Jimmy to Congo Town, Tengbeh Town, Hill Cot Road and others including Juba.
We are approaching the peak of the rainy season when disasters are likely to occur. Kroo Bay and the other slums are Albatrosses around your neck already so don't allow another bridge disaster to strike. We have lost too many people to Ebola; we cannot afford anymore preventable deaths.
We have transcribed your full interview with Culture Radio when King Jimmy Bridge went down just in case we need to use it as all good media organisations would do under their Social Responsibility idea.
EVEN INTERPOL CAN'T HANG OUT WITH FIFA ANYMORE
The corruption scandal rocking FIFA is taking frightening proportions. FIFA is being abandoned by all its trusted friends including Interpol, the international police body that helped corrupt FIFA deal with match-fixing and those kinds of things. So FIFA, the rich kid in the playground with the best toys is now having to look for friends. FIFA's best friends are the national associations in Africa. They couldn’t care less about corruption in FIFA as long as cash was coming through for this and that project. Governments aren't allowed to investigate corruption in national football associations. So why are the Swiss now investigating FIFA?
In Sierra Leone, we've been told that Interpol was coming to investigate a so-called match-fixing scandal which even those making the allegations have said they used it as a political weapon. That statement was made in parliament, in front of the people's representatives. Should we be asking very serious questions about that? The people's representative weren't told the truth. That's serious.
The nation was told that a team had been appointed to investigate those same match-fixing allegations that we were told were used for political reasons. Isn't that a complete waste of everybody's time?
The Sierra Leone Football Association is the only national association that constantly relies on FIFA to run their affairs, even to appoint junior officers, they refer to FIFA. With that body in so much mess now, why should anybody listen to those who rely on them for credible decision-making?
(C) Politico 16/06/15
