ARISE IIP INDUSTRIAL ZONE AT SONGO LOOKS PROMISING
A project that will completely change the game in a quiet corner of Sierra Leone and indeed the whole country is just getting underway. When Principal recently launched the ARISE IIP Industrial Zone project, he told the people in that part of sleepy Songo that the zone would create NINE THOUSAND direct jobs and FIVE THOUSAND other kinds of jobs that would spring up around the facility. Impressive!
We have to note that outside the mining sector, this would simply be ranked as the biggest provider of jobs in the private sector. And we are also extremely impressed with the timeline for the implementation of the first phase of the project. Principal told people of that area a lot about this opportunity brought to their doorsteps with a big package of Corporate Social Responsibility to transform their communities. He also mentioned a few things that we want to now put on record in this edition.
1. It’s not just about benefiting from the company, it’s also about protecting the company against harassment by local politicians and from ordinary criminals who would see the company as a free for all enterprise. Their assets are not there to be stolen by local armed robbers. They will enjoy the full protection of the government.
2. The local people would receive preferential consideration for jobs but they must train themselves for those jobs. Otherwise, people with the requisite qualifications from other parts of the country or even abroad would be free to come in and work.
3. Foreigners are coming to live and work there with our own people. The work culture is not the same. We have to say the truth that we do not respect work in this country. The investors are not going to have people around just because of politics. They are investing a lot of money and they want returns – significant revenues. So it's either our people work hard or they get sacked.
THE BATTLE FOR FREETOWN OPENS: OUR CONCERNS
We now know that our old friend Mayor Kemokai is back in the race to return to City Hall in Freetown. Tolongbo refused to put her on the presidential ticket. That tells us she definitely has unfinished business in this city. She is facing a really strong challenge this time from a businessman called Gento. Unlike Papa Ray, a quiet theatre artist and University Lecturer, Gento is a Freetown guy who grew up in the deprived communities of Eastern Freetown. That means a lot in terms of what happens on June 24 in the Mayoral race. The east of Freetown is packed with people who would normally vote Tolongbo and Gento was closely associated with the RED MOVEMENT until recently. He probably doesn’t want people to talk about that but our job is to put things in their proper context.
Again, Tolongbo people won’t like to hear this but this 2023 race for Freetown City Hall will go a long way, a very long way indeed. Anyway, our concern here is what those of us who live and pay our taxes in Freetown are looking forward to in this city after June.
1. We want some order in this city. It begins with something as basic as how we park cars in this place. The new Mayor should find a place to park cars in the Central Business District. The council is losing a lot of money to street boys who collect money from people entering the CBD for business. Besides, those boys live on the streets. They do everything on the streets and we take the consequences of that recklessness. We cannot continue like that.
2. Street trading cannot be allowed to take place on every street corner. We have to set apart designated areas for such an activity. This should be an issue that all parties must approach with a clear conscience. This idea of using those ordinary street traders as political football is old fashioned and retrogressive.
3. No matter what Mayor Kemokai says, she left this city filthier than she met it. She did make some effort here and there in those early days of National Cleaning Days but her attempt to milk that for her own political purposes caused a big row with the government. It may not be the only reason but the program was discontinued shortly after. We need a CLEAN FREETOWN. We have no choice. We will keep dropping ideas here until we enter the polling booth on June 24.
TWO ARMY GENERALS DESTROYING SUDAN AND AFRICA
The UN is now sounding the alarm that EIGHT HUNDRED PEOPLE could flee Sudan before a ceasefire takes hold properly. What the world is witnessing in Sudan is a disgrace that all Africans must condemn.
For the past three weeks the two so-called army generals have been killing their own people and destroying their country’s infrastructure. Reports in the media say they disagree over the timing for the re-integration of the different army factions they command. We believe it’s not as simple as that. There are several factors influencing what’s going on in Sudan that are too complex to explain here. In fact that’s not our interest at the moment. We join the rest of Africa to condemn what is happening in Sudan and to ask the ICC to immediately charge the two so-called generals and their frontline commanders with crimes against humanity.
Sudan has been staggering towards the restoration of some kind of civilian rule and appeared so close to that objective after years of popular uprising against civilian rule before this. Africa woke up one morning to news of this bloody war in the heart of that great country. This is a real shame.
1. The big countries that are definitely pulling the strings behind the scenes have quickly removed their people from Sudan so they are not hurt. As far as they are concerned, the Africans can now go ahead and kill themselves. By the way they are supplying the weapons being used in the war. Their arms industry will boom and jobs would be created, meanwhile the cemeteries in Sudan are overflowing.
2. Our brothers and sisters in Sudan are fleeing into uncertain existence into countries around Sudan. The countries receiving them are poor and cannot cope with their own citizens, now thousands of Sudanese are going there. The UN will provide bulgur, blankets and tents but what else?
3. No Western country will open their doors to the Sudanese in the way they received Ukrainians. We know that. In fact, even to exit Ukraine in the early days of the Russian invasion, BLACK AFRICANS were discriminated against in countries neighboring Ukraine. Life can only get more difficult for them in those host countries around Sudan.
4. Africa should learn some vital lessons from this round of fighting in Sudan. The generals who charged and detained their former boss for crimes against humanity are in the same soup now. Shame!
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