LARGE SCALE POLITICAL GRANDSTANDING INSPIRED BY TOLONGBO
Yansaneh thought he had found a clever way to divert attention front the raging fire of discontent in his Tolongbo group when he managed to bring together a so-called “consortium” of political organizations to say this and that about ongoing national programs. Yansaneh has always boasted about the strength of his Tolongbo group across the country so why did they need a “consortium” to say the kind of things we heard after that meeting at Tolongbo headquarters?
A “consortium” simply means a group of organizations coming together to pursue an objective that is unattainable with their individual resources. So there is now absolutely no doubt that without some of these fringe parties including those that couldn’t get even ONE percent of the national vote in 2018 Tolongbo is NOT able to take on national issues. Maybe Yansaneh wanted to play the BIG brother role in the opposition so he decided to bypass the All Political Parties Association, APPA – the established voice of the collective opposition which Yansaneh used to get into State House in 2007 and instead organized this so-called consortium which began its inevitable collapse a few minutes after the document became public property.
We have read through the press statement over and over again. We also know that some of the consortium members are not so sure about the Tolongbo objective, knowing fully well that the whole thing could be just ONE of those infamous 99 tactics that Siaka Stevens deployed against the good people of Sierra Leone for 17 years.
Here’s what we think about some about the main issues that the so-called consortium headed by Tolongbo is grumbling about.
MID-TERM CENSUS: The legal basis for this is very well established. We have really gone very close to implementation after a postponement of several months. There is no way to stop this process at this point and this threat of asking Tolongbo supporters to boycott is a big joke. Even a delusional Yansaneh know that.
We don’t want to go back to the flawed census conducted by Yansaneh’s Tolongbo and what they did with that result. That’s good material when we come to write the history of King Messi’s reign in Sierra Leone.
One of the good things King Messi did for this country is appointing Mallam O to the position of Statistician General after the inept leadership that brought us the SEVEN Million population nonsense. He appointed the man less than SIX MONTHS before he was due to leave with the intention of tying the hands of even his handpicked successor. As it turned out Mallam O is a fantastic professional, dedicated to the service of his country. We wish him well with this program.
CYBERCRIME BILL – Taken as a whole, the cybercrime bill is a good thing. Yes it is. We are not the only ones taking steps now to protect our people and country from cybercrimes like terrorism, money laundering, other financial crimes like the one that brought down a Brazilian bank with the criminals sitting in front of a small computer in a room in West Africa, all sorts of pornography and bullying. We must act against the irresponsible use of cyber space as a podium for insults aimed primarily at firming up a dwindling political based or inciting insurrection.
Our association, SLAJ has adequately presented our concerns for civil liberties to the authorities. Now Tolongbo and some of their “consortium” members have seats in parliament and the bill is before them. Let them go to parliament and debate the issues in the interest of this country.
We are fed up with all this grandstanding.
NON-PARTISAN LOCAL COUNCILS – We think the main argument for non-partisan local councils is something we should look at critically. Partisan politics is a very divisive thing that we should find ways of avoiding at the local level in particular. This idea that even former principals who did extremely well for their communities in their active days, teachers, farmers, community organizers and popular sports people serving as role models in their community MUST have the blessing of a political party to serve in local councils is WRONG. More often than not the parties will SELECT people against the wish of their members who will then be blackmailed to vote for misfits because the big guys in Freetown should be satisfied at all times.
The few independents sitting in our parliament right now, would have been left frustrated after the 2018 elections if their only route to parliament was by the ticket of one of the parties represented in this parliament. So let’s allow credible people in those small communities who can win on their own steam to run. Let’s not spread the tentacles of these dominant political parties into our small communities. Those of us living in Freetown and other big cities are stuck with them.
By the way, was Dr. Bright of NGC not in Kabbah’s cabinet in 2004 when the idea of non-partisan local election was approved? They say it’s a funny old world.
LESSONS FROM A BO MP: HOW TO GET RID OF AN UNWANTED WIFE
Dramatic pictures emerged on social media from the city of Bo in the last TEN days showing the world how men should settle a domestic problem with their wives. We saw some fierce young men removing the roof of a house with such speed and ruthlessness that we thought the alternative to doing that was death by firing squad. As always in these days of smart phones, there was running commentary accompanying the pictures. That’s how we came to know that a GREEN Movement MP had grown so fed up with his wife that he concluded that the only way to get rid of her was to order those fierce young men to tear the roof of their home down and force the lady out by exposing her and her children to the elements.
We also saw a demonstration by a few dozens of women in support of the wife. It was spontaneous so the police quickly dispersed them. One of the ladies in the demonstration told us “WE WILL BE BACK”. Well we don’t know when and how but we can make some points about this affair:
1. We don’t want to judge Mr. MP husband because he hasn’t made any media statement on the issue but the question is, is that the only way to end a relationship? The guy’s own two children from that relationship were the collateral damage because the wife made a lot of play of that in her social media posts.
2. What sense does it make to destroy your own roof to get your wife out of the house? OK let’s say the lady leaves after that and you are now faced with the challenge of spending money NEEDLESSLY to restore the roof. Why didn’t our LAW MAKER patiently use the LAW to get the lady out?
3. Why do we think the MP husband has brought his political career to an end long before 2023? Anyway, we are waiting for PART TWO of this drama.
FOOTBALL AUTHORITIES IN BENIN SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES
Before their disgraceful performance at the stadium in Freetown the other day, all most Sierra Leoneans knew about Benin was that they really liked voodoo business and that one of the greatest female musicians in Africa by the name of Angelique Kidjo came from that country. Now they know a bit more. They know that the football authorities in Benin are lawlessness and shameless. And for them there is no boundary to their manifestation of these character flaws.
How can any sane individual go into another man’s country and dispute a COVID test result to the extent of causing so much confusion? Our key team members and officials have been excluded from games at least three times recently. We honored the fixtures and our players and officials were quarantined for days. We NEVER went all over the place crying. How dare they accuse our decent and hardworking NaCOVERC staff of cheating? Our captain was eliminated from that match after a COVID test done in OUR OWN COUNTRY. Was that not enough to convince them we are no cheats?
We don’t agree with Queen Johansen on almost everything but we applaud her for telling the world she would appeal that stupid decision by CAF to reschedule a match unnecessarily abandoned by the voodoo boys. We shall win!
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (07/04/21)
