GOOD MORNING PROFESSOR CONDE: VP JULDEH HAS NO CASE TO ANSWER
So after manipulating his way to the edge of a possible THIRD TERM of office in Guinea at the ripe old age of 80 something, Professor Alpha Conde is now running scared over the outcome of the presidential election in December. Professor believes he should die in office. So here’s this guy who suffered so much under the leadership of General Lansana Conte to restore democracy now destroying the shaky democratic structure that brought him to office following the death of the General.
Professor Conde woke up one morning from a sound sleep and thought he saw Kotor Juldeh in his dream influencing the election in Guinea against him. Next minute he called in the media and told them Kotor Juldeh has been sending MERCENARIES across the border from this LAND THAT WE LOVE to destabilize his country. Come on our dear Professor, where did you get that from? You know, we have a lot of respect for your intellect but somehow we absolutely believe you have fired your bullets at the wrong man and the wrong country. With the greatest respect what you told your people about Kotor Juldeh, our second in command is FALSE, FALSE, FALSE. Totally FALSE! And here’s why:
1. There is no appetite for that kind of rogue behavior in Sierra Leone. Kotor Juldeh is helping his boss deliver the projects approved by the good people of Sierra Leone at the last elections. What is happening in your country is purely your internal matter. Deal with it sir.
2. The good people of Sierra Leone have NEVER done anything to hurt their neighbors. In fact we are the ones who have suffered for many years from all kinds of things that spill over our borders from our neighbors. Go back to the civil war, Ebola and coronavirus. We NEVER push trouble across our borders to other countries. When the prisoner called Charles Taylor came here many years ago to start that war in his country, he was locked up and then thrown out of the country.
3. Sierra Leone is the country where the migrant community from MRU and ECOWAS experience zero intimidation as they go about their normal business. Our immigration officers are NEVER found on the streets harassing, detaining or stealing money from foreigners in our country even when they are not properly documented.
4. All we are interested in is peaceful co-existence with our neighbors and trade. We gain nothing from Guinea descending into conflict. The social-economic and political consequence of that will be too heavy a load to carry.
5. Just because Kotor Juldeh is Fullah does not mean he is helping his tribesman who is trying to unseat you. Stop your baseless accusations. We don’t to see more bloodshed in our neighborhood. WE SHALL MEET IN CONAKRY.
CHIEF SIDIKIE ON TV: BUT WHAT DID HE REALLY SAY?
Chief Sidikie has returned to the political stage again with a TV interview in which he made very incoherent statements about the reports of the Commissions of Inquiry and the accompanying government white paper. First of all we want to congratulate chief Sidikie for achieving the following:
1. Returning to the Tolongbo fold after being “pardoned.” In the coming weeks and days we will be analyzing the letter that cleared the way for his return and a few other papers that we found at our doorstep the other day. Sierra Leone is an interesting place.
2. Destabilizing the Coalition for Change party to the point that, like PDP Sorbeh, UNPP or the LAMP and PMDC, C4C is dead as a political force. We are talking about the party that his people rallied around to rescue him from the choking grip of the guy he now calls his brother.
3. Standing up and speaking out again on a national question. So welcome back to the arena. Newspapers like people who make the kind of news around you these days sir.
Just a brief comment about your interview for now: please try and keep away from tribe, political party and small time interests when you are called upon to deal with national issues. This thing you kept telling your rookie interviewer about one tribe being targeted is something you should withdraw – the idea that a particular tribe or region was targeted.
Were you telling us in other words that your government was mono-ethnic? Did all your ministers come from one region? Anyway, we will be back with more analysis. Keep reading.
HOW MANY TIMES SOULD PRINCIPAL SACK DENNIS VANDY?
In the end it is possible Dennis Vandy will walk out of the Court of Appeal a clean man. It’s very possible. It’s also possible he will go down as one of those compelled by the courts to return monies they illegally took out of our treasury. Now, the latter is not a good chapter in anybody’s life history.
Anyway, we probably should give this man a rest from public life after this court battle. We can’t go on appointing, sacking and re-appointing and sacking the same person all the time. Dennis was elevated to the office of Secretary to the President and within a few months he was sacked and encouraged to return to Kenema and live in peace. He re-emerged from the home of the Chief Minister as Minister of Agriculture following the sacking of Joe Ndanema. We are not even sure he had time to read all the files in that minister before facing another sack, this time as a consequence of being named for alleged impropriety in the recent government White Paper.
The key point now is that this guy should be told he should never return to public life even if he is cleared by the Court of Appeal. We understand he is doing well as a private man. To return to public life only to be sacked again and again doesn’t really look good.
We also understand, he is complaining about not being invited to appear at the COI. We can’t conclude one way or the other but we know that many of those invited chose the path of Tolongbo not to appear before the judges. Here is another opportunity to prove Biobele and friends wrong.
AND THE KENEMA CLOCK TOWN IS COOL AGAIN
We congratulate the good people of Kenema for that beautiful landmark of a Clock Tower recently commissioned by Principal. It looks really great. In fact it has changed the place dramatically. The old ugly structure built by Mungo Park was a complete eyesore and a big shame to the good people of Kenema.
We call on other districts constructing such landmarks to see what the people in the home of Chief Minister have done. We say this specifically in reference to the situation in Moyamba town.
The only little wahala we have with the Kemena Clock Tower project is that bust does not resemble Principal. Let’s not hide that. Please ask another sculptor to do a better one. Make sure you change it by Christmas. Ask the old sculptor to return some of the money you paid for that very poor job.
ARMED ROBBERS DISTRESSING ORDINARY PEOPLE
We have reported on the increasingly brazen nature of armed robberies and the fact that this is happening in a country that is under curfew from ELEVEN in the evening to SIX in the morning. During this time only the police and sometimes military officers are supposed to be on the roads. So why are we experiencing so much armed robbery in Freetown in particular?
In an extremely audacious attack in the last two weeks, a criminal walked into the compound of a senior citizen and stole her car between SEVEN AND EIGHT in the morning. Following a big social media outcry, the car was stopped deep inside neighboring Guinea with an obviously fake diplomatic license plate. We like IG Sovula and we think he is not doing badly so far but he has to answer the following questions:
1. How was it possible for the stolen SUV to be driven across this country with all those police checkpoints, and across our supposedly coronavirus-inspired closed border with Guinea without the police arresting the thief?
2. OK IG Sovula can say the vehicle had a diplomatic license plate but we know that when diplomats accredited to this country travel across borders, they inform the foreign ministry. Was that vehicle booked with the police ahead of its arrival in Kambia?
3. How many other vehicles have been stolen recently within this country that the police have been totally unable to locate and arrest the thieves? Surely reports are made to the police so they should have these figures.
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