INQUIRY INTO THE STEWARDSHIP OF DENNIS SANDY SOON
On a normal day this picture of a smiling former government minister handing over to his successor would be a great show of a culture of democracy, an example of how to accept that nothing was permanent and that people must move on gracefully when their side of the game was done. There is however nothing for Dennis Sandy to smile about right now because a few hours after this meeting, the new minister announced an inquiry into the stewardship of the smiling Dennis Sandy, stretching back more than a two-year period.
It would appear as if the press statement announcing the inquiry was done more than a week ago waiting to be put into the public domain after the new minister was sworn in. Anyway, we are now waiting for the names of the people who will be listening to the complaints, their terms of reference and for how long they will do this job for.
We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but these are very uncomfortable times for Dennis Sandy and it’s not because he did anything wrong but the very fact that his own government finds it necessary to investigate mounting complaints about the way he carried out his mandate in that office he was occupying for the second time. We’ve not heard any such inquiry in the Ministry of Technical and Higher Education. The minister there was sacked alongside Dennis Sandy.
So now files are being dusted all over the place, receipts photocopied, affidavits prepared as people get set to meet the committee. We urge the minister to make certain sessions of the committee open to a limited number of observers, COVID or no COVID. We expect some surprises to emerge from all of this. Democracy at work!
PRINCIPAL MOVES TO KILL THE DEATH PENALTY IN SIERRA LEONE
Like the Criminal and Seditious Libel Law, the Death Penalty will soon be killed in Sierra Leone. We are told that Principal has directed that the necessary actions be taken to strike out the law which gives the state the power to take a life for certain crimes. Crimes like murder, robbery with aggravation and treason. International and local Human Rights groups have long campaigned for the abolition of the death penalty and it would appear as if the end of that campaign is here. Added to the decriminalization of journalism, this will represent a major boost for the democratic credentials of this country.
Not everybody is applauding this push to kill the Death Penalty in Sierra Leone. Many are saying it should remain in place for murder and robbery with aggravation. However, the possibility of innocent people being put through a trial process that ends with their conviction and death is what is driving the victorious side in this debate. The justice system is not perfect and can be manipulated by powerful people and governments to eliminate so-called opponents. We have seen that in treason trials in many parts of Africa. We MUST never allow any government to use the laws of this 21st century to commit murder just to remain in power. Principal thinks that is wrong and is therefore taking steps now to remove that possibility. Well done!
We believe this is the right thing to do. America maintains the death penalty but even there we have seen serious miscarriages of justice landing innocent people in jail for decades. It would take years of campaigning and high quality dedicated legal work to take those innocent people from death row. We can’t afford that here. Kill the Death Penalty NOW.
FUEL PRICE GOES UP AND THERE ARE NO QUEUES
The good people of Sierra Leone are now getting adjusted to the new price of petrol – household budgets need urgent adjustment to meet a slight rise in the price of goods and services. We always complain when this happens but the truth is we have no choice but to keep going. We accept that the price of petroleum products is determined from thousands of miles away. What we can say to the government is that they should not quit applying subsidies all together. We get all the argument about IMF and all of that but countries like Sierra Leone face enormous challenges and it is only the government that should absorb some of the shocks that come with the rise in oil prices.
Even with such difficulty we congratulate the Petroleum Regulatory Agency PRA for the way they handled this increase. They have completely eliminated that pattern that we are all familiar with now. This is how it normally plays out:
1. People in Freetown will wake up to rumors that the price of fuel is about to go up. The media will speculate and ministers will say there is no chance of that happening. But the rumor will persist.
2. On the second day key petrol stations will close. Staff will be deployed outside to wave approaching motorists off with the words: FUEL NOR DAY(there is no fuel). They will answer no questions.
3. Third day Petrol queues will be seen all over Freetown and the little fuel available will the ruthlessly rationed. Commercial drivers will spend hours in the queue and the media will be all over the story.
4. Then fuel will appear in containers in the vicinity of petrol stations at a prohibitive price. The powerful people in society will continue to get their supplies. Now the minister of trade will discuss the possibility of the price going up and the people will be so fed up with queues that they will urge the government to increase the commodity and bring it back to the market.
5. An official announcement of the increase will be made and fuel will be available again waiting for another round. We didn’t go through all of that this time round because PRA handled the situation well. We are waiting for another cut in price.
DISGRACE IN SENEGAL: SALONE THE WHIPPING BOY
Our national U17 male football team has just crashed out of a continental tournament in Senegal after suffering defeat to Guinea Bissau and Mali. The latter put FIVE goals into our net without reply. It was very easy victory for the Malians which may have surprised them. Naturally, the nation is now looking for answers. It’s not whether we lost both matches, it’s the scale of the defeat Mali inflicted on us and of course the quality of our performance. There was nothing extraordinary about the way the Malians approached the match.
As far as we are concerned, there’s just ONE reason for our dismal performance: our players were physically and mentally NOT PREPARED for the tournament. We don’t know of any active U17 league in this country. We know that as soon as we agreed to participate some boys were hurriedly brought together and told they will be representing the country in Senegal. We have talented young footballers in Sierra Leone but to make a mark in such a competition it takes more than just demonstrating some talent.
As a people we did our best by providing the money required to get them to Senegal and make them comfortable. In fact our embassy in Dakar hosted them to some nice dinner. So the team failed us and we absolutely believe that poor preparation and organization back home was responsible. No doubt about that.
We have said it more than once that we should NEVER enter a competition for which we are not reasonably prepared. Those who want to collect per diems or satisfy potential voters in SLFA elections should look for other avenues to achieve that objective. We’re tired of being dumped out of such tournaments by countries that should really not stand up to us in continental football.
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