THE WAR BETWEEN THE MAYORS IN BO TURNING UGLY
It would appear as if all gloves are off now between former Mayor Tucker and the new Mayor Kobba Musa. We have seen pictures of riot police deployed to prevent damage to property or hand to hand combat on the streets of Bo.
An ailing former mayor Harold Tucker took the extraordinary step of going on social media to complain of being harassed by his successor who, according to him, has confiscated his shops and other facilities illegally. Tucker blamed his party, the Green Movement, for standing by and watching all of this without saying a word to resolve the issues. We understand statements have been made to the police. So far there is no formal response from Mayor Kobba but some of his people have taken to social media to blast Harold Tucker and accuse him of all sorts of things.
The other day criminal elements smashed the window of Mayor Kobba’s office and in this toxic atmosphere, Kobba supporters were quick to pin that on people working on the orders of Tucker.
We are observing the situation even as we remain surprised that the Green Movement has allowed two of their most powerful people in the region to go at each other in this way.
We are hearing about a Bo City Council truck that was in dispute - no details for now, the fact that Harold supported a rival candidate for Kobba’s job and so on is also an issue. Now two guys who worked well in an NGO years back are slugging it out in public. Bo is a lovely place. We should not let these guys take the sweetness out of our second city.
At this stage we are left with no alternative now but to join those calling for the laws of Sierra Leone to now take its course. Both guys should be held personally responsible for any violence on the streets of Bo. It is one thing to be a political leader and quite another to behave like one. People have other concerns to address and are sick to the back teeth with political leaders behaving badly by mobilizing youthful energy to achieve their political objective.
IS THE SLG LIST ALSO IN CONTENTION LIKE THE USL WAHALA?
Our minister of Higher Education appears to have won the first round of her battle with the Court of the University of Sierra Leone. We say this because we are hearing from some quarters that some people are planning to fight on another day in front of our judges. Anyway, we don’t have anything concrete to go on for now so as we say in journalism, WATCH THIS SPACE.
Today, we want to ask our dear minister about the status of nationwide interviews conducted for Grants-in-aid since last year. What is so difficult about processing recommendations made by all the panels and taking a final decision? One of the reasons our minister gave for moving against the USL Court is that they unnecessarily DELAYED the congregation program for last year. What is she going to herself now for this unprecedented delay in the release of the SLG? Or is she going to blame herself and resign?
Universities are now at the end of the first semester with exams pending and there is still zero information about the SLG. Could it be that our minister was so consumed with her fight with the USL Court that she couldn’t attend to things like the SLG?
GREEN MAN CREATES A SCENE NEAR WAKA FINE BUS
We’ve been trying to find some explanation for the behaviour of a guy we saw in a video on social media. As always with these videos we never get the full picture but we saw and heard enough to be able to say something about that situation. The guy, apparently a Green Movement fanatic dressed in full party colours with logo to match, was seen having an argument with traffic wardens and bus conductors on the new WAKA FINE buses.
We gathered that the wardens stopped him from jumping the queue and he became angry because he would have none of that. As a Green Movement guy, he should NOT be in a queue for WAKA FINE. Anyway the wardens, conductors and other people in the queue resisted the man and things were threatening to turn ugly. What was our Green Movement really thinking? We can only guess.
1. The guy wanted to start something that would now become the standard by which WAKA FINE would operate going forward. Conductors would have no choice but to pick out all commuters in Green Movement clothing for priority treatment. In other words, they would henceforth not be allowed to stand in a queue.
2. He was trying to test the resolve of those in charge of WAKA FINE. In Sierra Leone, as soon as people talk about Orders From Above or claim some political authority, law enforcement takes the back seat. So the Green man left feeling happy that the conductors stood their ground. Well done sir!
3. Actually, this guy only wanted to call attention to himself and to get some public insults. There are many people like that. He would now go on Green Movement social media forums to complain about movement people being disrespected. He is sure of getting many supporters. This is the new reality.
AND HOW ARE THINGS GOING WITH WAKA FINE?
These are early days yet but we were hoping to get some statistical information from the operators of WAKA FINE after the three days of FREE RIDE. The question is: how many people used the buses during those three days? Yes, we saw highly sanitized social media videos of people praising the service but is that the whole truth? Propaganda has to be done in a way that makes sense. We will not push beyond this point on this issue for now. Anyway it’s still not too late for this information to be provided.
By the way we saw Sengs doing a trip on WAKA FINE. This guy wouldn’t miss any opportunity to get some publicity. He really didn’t need to use the bus to know how things were going, if that was his motive. All he is really trying to do is keep himself in the headlamps of national publicity with an eye on PROJECT 2028. Nice try.
During and after the free ride period, every WAKA FINE bus we saw was packed. We are putting this on record because we don’t want to be told a few months into the WAKA FINE thing that there was no cash for fuel and spares. We will stoutly resist any call for money from consolidated revenue to service the buses.
Just a quick warning – if you don’t already know. Okada and Kekeh boys don't like WAKA FINE. They believe they are being squeezed out of business and they are complaining loudly. These greedy guys want the state to leave the people of this country at their mercy. Here is an opportunity now for them to change the way they feed themselves. There are huge opportunities under the FEED SALONE project. Those who decide to continue with Kekeh and Okada should be prepared to compete with WAKA FINE. They have no choice.
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