PLEASE DON’T VOTE FOR MUMU MPs IN JUNE 2023 ELECTIONS
When Nigerians describe somebody as MUMU they actually believe that person is generally not smart, even very stupid. In Sierra Leone it means somebody that is dumb. At the SLPP conference yesterday Principal used the word MUMU to describe Members of Parliament that have spent the last five years giving undertones and not even once trying to catch the eye of the Speaker to be recognized to contribute to the debate. He knew what he was talking about and we got his point.
We can confirm that there are many MUMU MPs in this parliament from all parties. We congratulate Principal for standing up and telling them about the bad job they’ve done in the House. Yes, they may have given him the votes he needed on many issues but he really wanted to hear high quality debates in which GREEN Movement MPs took an active part.
Principal has called on his people not to send MUMU MPs to parliament in June. We have only a few weeks now before all parties are due to file a list of their candidates for all the 16 districts of this country. So here’s our little help to GREEN Movement people as they prepare to put names on their party lists
1. We will work with a civil society organization that has been tracking the attendance records of all MPs. We will publish their findings so people know how many times their MPs actually sat in that House even to listen or indeed take part in proceedings. We are trying to lay bare all the lies about spending hours in parliament when in reality some of our MPs were moonlighting in other places.
2. We will also pay attention to the Hansard, that’s the official record of the debates in the House. In that way we will not only read the contributions but we will be able to evaluate the quality of those contributions.
3. Apart from these two areas we will also look for their contributions to social media debates on political issues within their districts. This is an important area to watch because audio clips in local languages are acceptable in social media communication, in case language proficiency is the issue in parliament. The work begins now.
SLPP KILLS FAKE CANDIDATE LISTS TO CONDUCT ELECTIONS
Another thing Principal did at the conference yesterday was to kill this idea that district executives of the party would be allowed to go into their small rooms and prepare the list of candidates for seats in parliament. Principal said there would be ELECTIONS in all districts to be able to ascertain who the party members want to send to parliament. From this day on, those fake lists prepared under the influence of mainly CASH should be torn to shreds or thrown into a fire.
We actually found it strange that the GREEN Movement was going to resort to SELECTING candidates instead of putting them up to the people for scrutiny and election. In 2018, candidates were elected – well in some areas the process was so flawed that the whole thing became a farce and left people in the affected communities complaining about being slaughtered in their own abattoir. Those flawed decisions were taken by ONE guy at Wallace Johnson Street. He overturned the sovereign will of the party members in those constituencies and the party paid for that at the polls. It’s up to them to allow him to do a repeat in June.
We are using the PR System in June. There are no constituencies as we knew them so we need to know from the GREEN Movement what form this election of candidates would take. We will definitely deploy observers in certain parts of the country to be sure the rules were followed.
All those guys who paid a few cents to be on lists should now be ashamed of themselves. We pray that they fail in their districts.
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 police 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. And that’s a really good thing.
The next step is for the police to get public transport drivers to help stop this disgusting practice of people throwing trash on the streets from inside public transport vehicles mainly. It is possible. A good amount of the trash picked up from streets is dumped there because some commuters believe throwing rubbish on the road is part of life 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 the police but we urge them to take the lead once again. Good luck guys.
GARBAGE EVERYWHERE BUT THE MAYOR SMILES ON
We have for over a dozen times in this column talked about indiscriminate waste disposal in the city of Mayor Kemokai but it seems the situation is not limited to this city or even Bo where we recently reported a similar situation. Our Mayor says the recent fuel shortage caused garbage not to be collected. We don’t want to have any big argument with the Mayor but she knows that is far from the truth. We live in Freetown and we know what we are talking about.
Jui-Oroju Bridge in the Western Rural Area is gradually becoming a mini Bormeh in sight. Some traders have managed to get the corridors of that road which connects the city to the rest of the other parts of the country into a hub for street trading.
Coming towards the bridge, on the left hand side, you will see a mini butcher’s market. As if that is not enough, the area has been transformed into a dump site where all manner of garbage is emptied.
We don’t know why this should be the case when we very well know that the Western Area Rural Chairman drives through that route regularly and there is a big signpost with a photo of him welcoming people in and out of his ward which is an indication that he is aware that he is in charge. Or could it be that he does not see through his car window?
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