ALL QUIET AROUND WAKA FINE: THE WAKA CONTINUES.
The dust appears to have settled around the WAKA FINE transportation system. Like many rational Sierra Leoneans, we always knew that there will be challenges around the operations of WAKA FINE buses and we also expected these issues to come up in the early stages.
As usual some partisan politics and scaremongering entered the debate and made things even more toxic. The operators of WAKA FINE have come face to face with the realities, including the fact that those who handled the communication aspect in the period just before the buses went into operation should refund to the state whatever amount was paid to them. They failed woefully. We have the figures and they should not allow us to turn our attention to that Public Relations fiasco.
Our observation is that WAKA FINE buses – those operating in the east of Freetown, go off the streets about ONE HOUR or so earlier than the stipulated time. Is there a reason for that? We have observed this over several days and at this stage we want those in charge of the WAKA FINE fleet to tell us what’s going on.
We are determined not to allow a two-tier system in the running of these buses. Whether they are operating in the Peninsula or Brookfields, they should maintain the same standards.
HAVE WE FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE COTTON TREE?
A day or after the famous Cotton Tree in the heart of Freetown collapsed in a heavy rainstorm, Sierra Leoneans were promised something like a national conversation to determine what to do with the section of the tree still standing. In fact even before that official promise was made, people were already on social media with ideas of what should be done. Elections were fast approaching and it was cool to go with the emotional flow and say something about the GREAT COTTON TREE. All sides of the political divide came forward with proposals – some quite interesting, some totally unrealistic.
The elections are now over and all that nice talk about consulting the people about this and that appears to have been pushed deep into the long grass and in the meantime the wreck of the Cotton Tree is still there and even with Mayor Kemokai back in the chair after the enforced Tolongbo holiday, she hasn’t said a word about the tree she professed so much love for as the elections approached.
Now, we want to send out another reminder to all sides in this discussion – the government of Principal, the FCC and the good people of Sierra Leone that we will not allow this idea to remain in that long grass until May 2028 for people to start going to social media singing thy praise O Cotton Tree.
Therefore, here are few ideas we want to put forward:
1. Let’s uproot what is left of that Cotton Tree and build a nice fountain on the site and install a memorial there to our slave relatives to highlight their attachment to the tree.
2. We can simply clear the place and widen the roads in that area of Freetown and move on.
3. We can consider asking for help to get the tree to grow again and provide a home for bats and shade for beggars and lunatics. We will continue dealing with bat droppings.
EPA MUST CLEAR THEIR ROTTEN VEHICLES FROM YOUYI BUILDING NOW.
We are publishing these pictures for the second time in as many weeks to tell the Environmental Protection Agency that they have no choice but to stop creating that environmental hazard with their scrap vehicles parked in one small corner of Youyi building. This situation cannot continue.
Since our last publication we have visited the place twice and all we can report is that EPA is making desperate efforts to ignore the issue. We will not allow that. Expensive government vehicles, some with minor damage, have been left exposed to the elements and criminals inside Youyi building to the left of the entrance to Miatta Conference Center. This is a waste of our money.
If these vehicles are beyond repair, which we doubt very much, why can't the EPA dispose of them in the normal way? We can’t even begin to imagine what criminals have done to what was left in those vehicles at the time they were pushed to that corner. As we say in journalism – WATCH THIS SPACE!
COCO SAMBA IS STILL IN THE MARKET
We announced the ban on Coco Samba on our front page the other day and since then we've been trying to find out how the people, especially the dealers have reacted.
So far, we can confidently say that a large number of those that have contacted us are totally against the ban. They want Coco Samba to be legalized because it’s now part of their staple. COCO SAMBA is still in the market. The dealers have no regard for the Pharmacy Board. Those who deal in or consume the drink say:
1. Coco Samba has been around for about THREE years, how come the Pharmacy Board was acting only now?
2. They’ve consumed the herbal drink all this while with no adverse health consequences so what is all this noise and eventual banning of the drink?
3. Why didn’t the Pharmacy Board or Standards Bureau stop Coco Samba from being brought into this country in the first place?
4. In fact, the Pharmacy Board has been bribed by business people jealous of the popularity of Coco Samba.
We have just summarized the main comments sent to us by our readers. Here’s our reply: We trust the Pharmacy Board and we urge ALL SIERRA LEONEANS to respect their conclusions on this Coco Samba drink. There are safe alternatives. We don’t want to have to pick up the bills when people start turning up at public hospitals with complications bordering on the side effects of Coco Samba.
LET US FOCUS ON SOME “CLEAN SALONE” BOYS NOW!
What we are about to say here is not true of all the young guys who have decided to make a living by picking up trash from homes across this city to deposit at designated landfill locations. As far we are concerned the majority of them are doing a good job and at the same time earning an honest living. We urge them to continue doing that job in a city where the local authority has almost completely abandoned that responsibility. The FCC’s favorite tactic is to constantly fight with the central government over social media while ignoring their job of keeping Freetown clean.
We recently published two articles calling the attention of FCC to an utterly embarrassing situation on the road to Fourah Bay College campus. From nowhere a new BORMEH appeared with the consequences for the health and safety of thousands of students who use that road to and from college daily. The FCC refused to talk to us about that. Fourah Bay College was forced to clear the rubbish but as things stand there is no guarantee that rubbish wouldn’t suddenly reappear in that space. No action has been taken to prevent that.
Let’s bring this other scenario to the attention of the FCC. Some of these so-called CLEAN SALONE boys – the criminal elements among them are the ones collecting bags of rubbish from homes and depositing them on our street corners. We have observed this situation for a reasonable period of time and we are confident that we’ve made the correct call at this time.
1. The FCC should properly organize the CLEAN SALONE initiative so the good guys can stand out from the criminal elements collecting rubbish from homes and depositing it on our streets.
2. The push carts they use should be registered and be made to operate in identified zones. They should pay their taxes.
3. Whatever happened to that zonal sanitation thing that the FCC organized in the early days of 2018? Maybe it became a casualty of the big woman’s cable car and overriding love of social media, including Facebook live.
4. By the way, what’s the point of employing media people at FCC if they feel so intimidated by MAYOR KEMOKAI to the extent that they cannot respond to a simple media query about a mound of garbage near a University campus? We know madam ADORES her highly sanitized appearances on selected TV stations but we represent the people who pay the taxes with which she runs the FCC. Why not scrap the FCC media department and use that money to pay your beloved so-called DELIVERY TEAM?
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