TWITTER the Sierra Leone Gossip (13/02/23)

VP JULDEH JALLOH ON THE GREEN TICKET AGAIN - 2023

Kotor Juldeh and his supporters within and outside the GREEN Movement should now breathe a sigh of relief because barring any 11^th hour U-turn from on high; the VP is on the ticket again to fight for re-election with his boss, Principal. One of his friends told us after the announcement was made at their party conference in Freetown that Juldeh got his reward for loyalty and hard work. Now the party can move on because all speculations have come to an end.

The reaction inside the international conference center tells the story of a VP that has grassroots support in the party. Over and above that we also believe that GREEN Party people were desperate to stay away from the division and rancor that culminated in King Messi kicking Chief Sidikie out of his government less than two years into his second term. It was clear things had gone wrong between the two even as they went into the 2012 elections. Kotor Juldeh appears to be doing well with his boss for now. The body language is good and their supporters love it.

Ordinary GREEN Movement people have now been sent out to start talking to potential voters and in their words, prepare for June 24, 2023 victory.

Kotor Juldeh is expected to play a key role in the campaign and he may be assigned to opposition areas to try and steal a large chunk of votes from Tolongbo. We’ll see. Tolongbo needs to make a stand in their traditional heartlands to stop a Tsunami. Kotor Juldeh has no choice now but to hit Tolongbo so hard that the country would stop and notice something. Otherwise he should be ready for the political consequences further down the line.

BUT WHY DID SOME MINISTERS LEAVE BINTUMANI SO EARLY?

While many people were jubilating over the decision by Principal to take Kotor Juldeh along with him on the re-election ride, we went round the hall trying to assess the reaction of some ministers and parastatal bosses. On our radar were SEVEN cabinet ministers and at least FOUR heads of parastatals. Those are people who wanted somebody else in the race with Principal. They haven’t said that in public but in this business much of what we publish, aside from those big government decisions, begin the journey to our front page as rumors and things we hear in public transport, football fields or beer joints. So we know for more than a year ago that the seven were the ones spreading lies that Principal was looking for another person to be on the GREEN ticket with him.

Let’s call them the BIG SEVEN – all of them left the hall just as the place erupted with joy on Kotor Juldeh being declared the running mate. Of the FOUR parastatal bosses, only one remained in the hall looking like a fish out of water. We are prepared to share some of what we know and possibly drop some names if we are challenged on this.

Like him or not Kotor Juldeh is on the ticket. People should be under no illusion that if he returns, Kotor Juldeh will be a very changed man. 

LOCAL GOVERNMENT TERMS END 1^ST MARCH 2023

By this time next month Mayors and Chairpersons of local councils would have left office. Their terms of office would end on the first of March, according to the Ministry of Local Government. We are based in Freetown and we pay our taxes here so our attention is on our dear Mayor Kemokai of the Freetown City Council.

Our Mayor spent many years in her other country and was sent here by the great ruler of that country ostensibly to help us fight Ebola. Once the battle was over, the woman who would become our Mayor entered the State House to work on some project and make the necessary contacts to represent Tolongbo at the FCC. Now after FIVE years we are scratching our heads trying to find what the people of this great city would point to in celebration of FIVE years of Mayor Kemokai.

First of all we want to advise Mayor Kemokai to make sure she clears all her belongings from City Hall as she leaves office on the last day of February. The people of Freetown have a verdict to deliver and it could go for or against our Mayor. It’s not the easiest thing to be told to return to your old office to collect your stuff on the morning after an election defeat.

Between now and the end of February, we will be publishing some articles trying to make sense of Mayor Kemokai’s FIVE years in office. For now let’s see how some of her people would react on her last day in office.

1. THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR – Mayor Kemokai once asked for this guy to be moved from FCC. She just couldn't see eye to eye with him as he tried to assert his authority as a big man in FCC with some powers over budget and program implementation. The Chief Administrator would hope that Mayor Kemokai is defeated in June. Well, he wouldn’t know who the next mayor would be but just seeing the back of Mayor Kemokai would de-traumatize him.

2. CORE AND GENERAL STAFF OF FCC – After FIVE years of marginalization, these people would emerge from the cold thanking God that the era of a mayor pretending they didn’t matter was over.

3. MAYOR’S DELIVERY UNIT – Our Mayor was warned in official documents to disband this so-called delivery unit and to refund monies spent on the people she put in that group. We understand she has paid every cent to the ACC to avoid a very messy litigation. What we don’t know is whether members of that unit simply melted away or were given another name. They will miss overseas travels and fat per diem payments. Our advice is that team members should simply return to their second home in Europe and leave Sierra Leone in peace.

GOODNIGHT NIGHT KEMA KANNEH

The body of the late RSLAF soldier Kema Kanneh was laid to rest last weekend. The young soldier was attached to the office of the First Lady and we are told that she was very professional and personable. The office of the First Lady has put out a statement telling the world that Fatima Maada Bio is ‘heartbroken’. We can understand why the First Lady has been devastated by the death of Kema. Kema was always close to Fatima Bio. She was like a little sister to the First Lady.

We are waiting for further updates on a number of issues relating to that road crash between Makeni and Freetown with specific reference to the other security personnel who were also taken to hospital when a truck allegedly ran into their vehicle escorting the First Lady.

The word on social media is that the truck narrowly missed the First Lady’s own vehicle. Some have gone well ahead now to suggest that this was an assassination effort that failed to get its target. We will put that to one side and talk about the next update we are waiting for. That concerns the police side of things. It’s reported that the driver and his mate walked away with light injuries. We thank God for their lives but the police ought to have completed their investigation after more than a week now. We want to know what really happened on that day.

We join the First Lady and the family of Kema Kanneh to mourn the passing of our young gallant soldier. She fought like a soldier till the end. We pray that God will rest his healing hand on the other security personnel now receiving treatment. Good Night Kema.