LATENESS AND ABSENTEEISM DERAILING THE WORK OF PARLIAMENT
We are struggling to understand why our MPs are going late to parliament or not turning up at all for work. We have heard repeated complaints from the leadership of the house on the vexed question of lateness and absenteeism. We have to say from the outset that there is no excuse for those MPS who are in this habit of treating the job we gave them in this way. We also want to put on record that we are getting fed up with the Speaker or his deputy complaining all the time and not taking any action to deal with the situation.
The Speaker and his deputy are beginning to appear weak as the continuous disregard for the timeliness of the business of the House is slowly but surely undermining the authority of the leadership of that place. And that includes the parliamentary leaders of the other parties and independent MPs.
Pictures of empty chairs at a time when parliament should be at work look really bad for representative democracy and we think it’s time for those in authority in parliament to act. Here’s what we think can be done from outside:
1. We are calling on our friends in civil society to go and ask for the attendance register and carefully analyze the information we need regarding how many times our MPs have signed up for work and at what time of the parliamentary day. It will be easy to track how well our MPs are doing along those lines.
2. We also want our civil society friends to check out the parliamentary Hansard so we know which MP is saying what in that parliament -firstly, those who actually say anything – in other words contributing to the debate and secondly the quality of their contributions. The good people of Sierra Leone are the bosses so they want to assess the work of their employees.
3. From the side of the media, we would then take this information to all corners of the country so the people who sent them to parliament would know everything. With that information they would be wise enough going to the ballot box when another opportunity comes up.
4. The media might even consider mounting a campaign for our constitution to have a clause making a recall vote possible under certain conditions. Those conditions MUST include unexplained lateness and absenteeism.
ELECTRICITY SUBSTATION PROJECT IN TOMBO TO GO AHEAD
The signal we are getting now is that the Tombo electricity sub-station project is finally going ahead. The first time the minister and his technical people went to Tombo in the Freetown Peninsula to inspect the place, they found themselves pinned down by a plucky bunch including the councilor of the area. They told the minister in no uncertain terms that building the sub-station on that piece of land was impossible because that was their football field.
The normally easy going Agba Kanja went out of his way to tell the people he couldn’t understand why they would give priority to football over electricity. The latest pictures we saw the other day suggest that tempers are down and the project, which is funded by the Japanese people, will now go ahead. We applaud that but we have something to say on that whole affair:
1. The people of Tombo believe the next Lionel Messi or C R 7 would come from that corner of the world so the football field must be left for that purpose. In Sierra Leone we are talking about the super star, Musa Tombo. So why deprive them of that opportunity?
2. Tombo people don’t remember that the Kingtom power station that supplies Freetown is located on land that was a training ground for certain premier league clubs in Freetown.
3. We warn Agba Kanja to be very careful with that project. We don’t want to hear anything about sabotage and in saying this we have Lungi in mind. We don’t want Japanese money to go down the drain or to wake up one morning to news that some councilor has fled to Cyprus for reasons we know very well.
PROSECUTE THOSE MAKING FAKE KIDNAP ALLEGATIONS
It turned out that the alleged kidnapping at Adonkia in the outskirts of Freetown was a big lie. We are told that properties were damaged and people assaulted. Today every case of somebody not turning up at a place he was expected is classified as a kidnap case. The worrying trend is that within a few minutes people resort to mindless violence and from the look of things the police are always reacting after the fact. There appears to be no clear strategy on how to deal with such matters.
In fact, the police have told us they have followed up many leads to some reported kidnap cases and found nothing of interest.
Many years ago, Freetown in particular was in this same mood talking about kidnapping and the fear of kidnapping. And so it was that a politician known as Pa Morlai Sidom was attacked at Wellington Street in broad daylight. Apparently somebody who knew him as a politician, saw him talking to a primary school kid. We can’t recollect the details right now but Pa Morlai Sidom was given a sound beating and was rescued by the police. So far a big politician like Pa Morlai has not fallen into the hands of the mob but it may not be long from now with the way things are going.
We know that Radio stations have MISSING PERSONS files sent over by the police regularly. Even those disappearances are not called KIDNAPS for ritual purposes. And there are people who actually go on social media to make those claims which then get picked up by some journalists for publication. We are not able to say that kidnaps cannot take place here but let’s wait till they happen.
Police should start prosecuting people who make bogus kidnap claims on social media like the man in Bo who caused so much sensation with a lie. Why are people so wicked – diverting the attention and small resources of the police from other duties to this wild goose chase called kidnapping in Sierra Leone.
BETWEEN SEAT BELTS AND THROWING RUBBISH ON THE STREETS
Many Sierra Leoneans generally don’t like to be told what to do. They obey public order regulations only for a short while, especially in the early days of a certain regulation being put in place but they soon return to the old ways and settle down with ease. It is also the case that even law enforcement agencies behave that way.
So people in Freetown in particular would openly make the point that they obey regulations only in the first week or so of it coming into force.
We know however that using seat belts has been very well respected since the Sovula boys asked everybody to do it or be fined some good money. Frankly, nobody should be reminded about the safety questions around using seat belts on the road but the practice was almost a taboo on our roads. The few people who insisted on putting it on were seen as fussy or too much into Western orientation. Now, even the taxi drivers enforce the wearing of seat belts.
The next step is for Sovula boys to get public transport drivers to help stop this disgusting practice of people throwing trash on the streets from inside public transport vehicles. It is possible. A good amount of the trash on our streets is there because some commuters believe throwing rubbish on the roads is part of living in a city. This small group sadly includes our brothers and sisters from abroad. They will not dare do that in London, Washington or Paris but for them anything goes in Sierra Leone.
This job is not just for Sovula boys alone but we urge them to take the lead once again. Good luck guys.
Copyright © Politico Online (05/11/21)
