ARMED ROBBERY IN BO: THE SITUATION IS NOW VERY SERIOUS
The police in Bo city and perhaps at headquarters in Freetown should now explain to the people of the second capital and indeed the rest of the country just why armed robbers continue to attack homes and properties almost at will and with ease. We say they probably do because we are getting a lot of reports of armed robbery from Bo – something like, at least a major one every week. Forget about those petty criminals who stand by the way side and rob unsuspecting people. When IG Sovula took over the “Force for Good” recently he made some changes in the command structure and landed a new Assistant Inspector General in Bo. This was weeks after armed robbery cases had begun to be reported.
The idea that even with a NINE PM curfew criminals can roam free and wreak havoc on businesses and ordinary citizens absolutely beats our imagination. This has gone on for several weeks now and as the rains intensify, the criminals are going to be increasingly bold and our police have not said anything substantial about those armed raids and what they will do to stop them. Let’s do the following:
1. The new AIG should immediately remove some members from the Police Partnership Boards in that district. We have no confidence in some because we believe they know the criminals and may even be providing shelter for them from the law.
2. We want neighborhood watch groups to return to action alongside the police. The young people in those groups know their communities and could help with intelligence gathering and actual operations.
3. We want joint police and military patrols at night and this should be preceded by a heavy media campaign announcing those robust patrols and the consequences for criminals and their backers who try to beat the system.
4. The AIG there should be set a target to finish off armed robbery in Bo within a month or be withdrawn. We can’t afford to put our people in a situation where they go to bed with one eye open.
5. The new IG is credited with clearing armed robbers from Makeni when he served there as AIG. Why has he so far failed to defeat the ones in Bo as the overall boss of the police? He needs to explain.
PAYROLL VERIFICATION COULD EXPOSE TEACHERS
It’s fair to say that the late Bra Minks (RIP) who ran our education system for more than TEN YEARS, spent a lot of that time looking for so-called ghost teachers. He re-buried a lot but two years after his party was thrown out of office, many of those ghosts are either back in the system or are pushing their way in. The Teaching Service Commission believes it can stop them. We definitely want the commission to succeed so that we kill this idea that people can continuously receive money from the state for doing sweet nothing. But this is a very difficult battle. The TSC must win it on behalf of the good people of Sierra Leone. We warn them however to be ready because of the following reason:
1. Inevitably there is going to a bruising media campaign aimed at making the TSC look bad and the idea that they (TSC) will withdraw to their offices believing that the public understands the issues, is wrong. The TSC must release the facts in time and sufficiently enough to disinfect the obvious lies that people will push against them.
2. We urge the TSC to make their processes very transparent. In other words we just don’t want to see the answers to the questions; we want them to SHOW ALL WORKING.
3. At some point the whole thing will be thrown into the fetid world of Sierra Leone politics. The TSC will be accused of either “sabotaging the New Direction” or kicking out only APC teachers. This is the country we have created and the TSC should live with it. They should concentrate on their job and bring us a clean payroll. That’s all.
4. Some of the staff of the TSC should be put under the radar. We have no evidence against anybody for now but we can’t rule anything out. Some TSC people in headquarters and around the country could well be doing things in the corner. Call it journalistic cynicism. That’s the nature of this business.
5. The teaching profession is the very last that should be corrupted. Here is an opportunity to match what we pay for and that which our children receive in the classroom.
LANGUISHING IN THE DESERT AND CRYING FOR SALONE
So more than one hundred of our brothers and sisters are out in the desert in Niger crying to be repatriated after failing to cross the Mediterranean to enter Europe? They are among the many, mostly young Sierra Leoneans, who believe the streets of Europe are paved with gold and that the only obstacles to wealth and the best life in the world are the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. Of course they really don’t care about what criminal groups do to them on their way. This is an extremely foolish position to be in at this time.
Before COVID 19 the most powerful television networks dedicated hours of coverage to the thousands and thousands of young Africans who perished in the sea trying to reach Europe every year. Even that has not prevented others back home from attempting the suicidal so-called Temple Run.
It would appear as if governments in West Africa have run out of ideas trying to deal with this matter. The criminals who organize these journeys simply deposit the people in the desert and flee and the next minute the same people who would normally sneak out of the country begin to cry, calling on the same government to bring them back home. For how much longer are we going to be doing this?
And when you advise them against the risky enterprise, they call you names and damn you and go. Even as we write this another group may be preparing to leave on this Temple Run – waiting for corona to get out of their way. It is difficult to have sympathy for people who knowingly inflict such pain on themselves and then turn round to ask government to divert money and attention from other services to repatriate them.
This Temple Run thing must stop NOW.
DON’T EASE CORONAVIRUS RESTRICTIONS IN A HURRY
Suddenly countries are EASING RESTRICTIONS on movement and assembly, all of which were put in place mainly to slow down the spread of the coronavirus and other public health measure to eradicate the pandemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives around the world. A section of the Sierra Leone population is leading the charge to get the restrictions lifted. We make bold to say religious leaders want the right to assemble in churches and mosques restored NOW. They have met Principal a few times on that and other issues. In the end, it is down to the president and government to decide one way or the other.
We have looked at the issues on the round and argued in this paper that Principal should not bow to pressure and lift the restrictions at a time when we are not even clear whether we have reached the peak of this outbreak. As far as we know, the number of cases continues to grow and if anything, we should be tightening some measures and not bowing to pressure from one side of the society. So we state the following:
1. We believe that science, rather than moral or political arguments, should dictate how we proceed with lifting or maintaining the restrictions. We have examples from sophisticated societies like Germany and South Korea of what can happen when hasty decisions are made in this war against coronavirus. There have been spikes in cases. That’s a fact.
2. The argument that because traders are congregating to sell in open spaces, therefore churches and mosques should be opened up does not hold at all. When it comes down to the basics, people must eat daily. And that includes those who are very religious and those that cannot be bothered. So all we can do with markets is to continue to urge that the traders follow the public health instructions strictly.
3. Trying to transfer what is being done in other countries to Sierra Leone will not work. No two countries are the same. There’s no harm looking at their approach but we should be able to fight our own war and win it our own way.
Copyright © 2020 Politico Online
