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TWITTER the Sierra Leone Gossip (12/06/20)

ACC PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT IN SIXES AND SEVENS

The ACC is now in a huge mess, entirely of its own making. Any organization that does what the ACC did on Wednesday night should feel very bad about itself and there should be very tough questions within, even if heads don’t roll automatically in the defaulting department.

You know, let’s get a few things out of the way quickly: we love the ACC; we believe they are doing a fantastic job under the leadership of Afro Boy; they have a well-trained and professional staff and they’ve done well with the little resources they have and we should add for good measure that they still do not have an ADVISORY BOARD more than two years after the coming of the new direction because somebody somewhere has refused to sort that out. How is it that an organization that is so pivotal to the NEW DIRECTION agenda is not properly constituted for all we care, while all other boards appear to be in place? Anyway, that’s for another day. And the next time we deal with that matter here it will be the FIFTH time in less than THREE months. Several other boards have been constituted since our third publication but not the ACC board. Why?

Our concern today is how they, the ACC managed to put themselves in a position where they had to retract all the essential parts of a press release they issued hours earlier, announcing a successful sting operation against corrupt health workers in the city of Bo. Now, we are compelled to ask several questions about how the ACC came to issue and retract a press statement that had gone viral only to withdraw its vital part in a hurry.

1. Who actually made those arrests? Was it the ACC Scorpions themselves or some other people who then gave the information to the ACC?

2. How come the ACC didn’t know those they arrested – their names and ranks in the health service.

3. How come the ACC didn’t know where these arrests were made? In fact how does the ACC expect us to believe that the amount of money they declared was even correct? Do you now understand why we are asking these questions?

4. Do the ACC really believe that by retracting key portions of that statement several hours later, they have repaired they damage done to the reputations of those positions were mentioned in the earlier release? If this winds up in court, the retraction will only mitigate but they will a heavy price.

5. Can we now ask yet again, what has since happened to those two people arrested on our border with Liberia for alleged corruption in a blaze of publicity. How about those arrested in like manner at Lungi Airport? Speak up ACC! 

WHEN WILL THE IMC DEAL WITH THAT EROTIC CONDOM ADVERT

We don’t know if this is the fault of the monitoring department of the IMC for not calling the commission’s attention to that EROTIC condom advertising running on our radio stations. Maybe the unit has done that already. We believe that the commission should have done something about it long ago. They should either ask the radio stations to drop it or move it to the post watershed period as prescribed by the commission’s own CODE of CONDUCT.

If nobody in the commission has listened to this advert or have simply decided to ignore it, we have to let them know that many people feel very bad. We feel extremely bad too, even scandalized that radio stations are so concerned about making money that they have not REJECTED such obviously bad piece of advertising placed at inappropriate points of the broadcast schedule.

Let’s not hide this: the language and style of the advert is unnecessarily suggestive. There is no need doing all of that just to advertise condoms. If the argument is that the agency placing the advert wants to target teenagers who are now sexually active, then all we can say is that while we understand the need to reach them, the IMC code is very clear about such content. Teenagers these days are now normally awake and listening to radio well beyond watershed but that is no excuse for people to break the law.

There are many other pieces of advertising that we hear on radio these days that either that shamelessly make false claims or typically stereotype particular segments of society.

Because we believe that some people do it out of ignorance, we recently published an article calling attention to these issues in a bid to compel the producers and indeed the IMC to act. Obviously, we were ignored and that’s why we are in this situation today.

We are going back to our bunker hoping that the IMC will deal with this particular advert and the advertising industry as a whole. We will be back.

 PLEASE STOP THROWING RUBBISH ON THE ROAD LEADING TO FOURAH BAY COLLEGE

Next time you drive up the road leading to Fourah Bay College keep your eyes to the left after you go pass the new car wash center and as you approach the mobile phone mast to your left, you will notice a growing mound of rubbish deposited in at least three areas by people in the community that lies about one hundred yards below the hill. We are flagging this issue now because we want the authorities at FBC to stop this attitude. We know efforts were made in the past and for a while the dumping stopped. The FBC put signposts warning people to stop but now they are back.

The land belongs to the FBC but because the security structure of the college is not as present there as it is on the campus, people sneak in and dump rubbish. It’s becoming serious.

In fact, we want to call attention yet again to the inadequacy of waste disposal facilities in this city of Freetown. Most of those structures in places like that are illegal and the residents are continuously encroaching on FBC land and we don’t know where this will all end. Signposts will not solve this problem. If FBC can deploy guards there, let them do it.

WEARING FACE MASK IN PUBLIC MAKES SENSE BUT…

We don’t get the sense that many people on our streets care about wearing face masks as a key part of the struggle against coronavirus. People using public transport were expected as from the 1st June this year to constantly wear face masks in public places or face some sanctions? As far as we are concerned that was a great move because we really can’t understand why many people in this country have largely ignored this.

Somebody told us the other day that the government would have to pass the necessary law to make it mandatory for people to wear masks in public. We understand that, but in an emergency like this where lives are being lost in such huge numbers do we really need the government to whip us into respecting a basic public health regulation like wearing face masks in public places? There’s nothing wrong in making such academic arguments and the government should probably do a law and give it a certificate of emergency but as long as people are in public places, we encourage them to wear face masks so that they do not infect others with COVID 19. This war is not yet won.

We will be on the streets of Freetown and other cities around the country on the 1st June to see if this is the latest Sierra Leonean affair to be politicized. We are really good at that and it’s strange that there are always people who are willing to believe what wicked politicians tell them. Yes, they are mostly politicians and their surrogates. We must win against COVID 19.

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