WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE REMAINS OF THE COTTON TREE?
If we can recall well what happened a day or after the famous Cotton Tree in the heart of Freetown collapsed in a heavy rainstorm, we were promised a national conversation to determine what to do next about the section of the tree still standing or any other thing great for that area of our city. In fact even before that official promise was made, Sierra Leoneans were already on social media with ideas of what should be done.
The elections are now over and all that nice talk about consulting the people about this and that appears to have been pushed back into the long grass. Meanwhile the wreck of a Cotton Tree is still there and even with Mayor Kemokai back in the chair, she hasn’t said a word about the tree she professed so much love for as the elections approached several months back.
What we are doing here today is to remind all sides in this discussion – the government of Principal, the FCC and the good people of Sierra Leone in general that we will not allow this idea to remain in that long grass until May 2028 for people to start going to social media to sign the praise of the 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 of our slave relatives and 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 home bats and shade for beggars and lunatics.
IS THE CLEANING EXERCISE LOSING STEAM IN BO ALREADY?
The new Mayor in Bo wanted to hit the ground running as they say. He wanted to show the people of Bo that he knew the problems of our second city and he was ready to tackle them from day one. First he moved against street trading in the business district of that city. From what we’ve seen so far, the result is mixed. Initially when we visited Bojon Street in particular, we realized a change.
The Mayor pushed the traders away from the main road ending the competition among drivers, pedestrians and traders for the road. A few weeks later, the traders are almost creeping back to their original location.
The Mayor also brought back the NPRC era National Cleaning Day program, on the last Saturday of every month a curfew is declared for a few hours in the morning for the cleaning to take place. Again, we have realized that the initial enthusiasm is dying out and we are so scared that the area around the main market center in the Fenton road area could soon be back to the days before the election when rubbish was left uncollected for weeks.
These are early days for the Mayor and we know old habits take time to change but he has to be very careful not to start racking up policy reversals all over the place. Now his critics are asking why he didn’t think through the issues well enough before making the pronouncement. We will be back before the festive season gets underway to see things on the ground again. After 100 days in office, the Mayor should expect people like us to start asking hard questions. The political honeymoon is over sir.
WE KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH DATA SIR, UNCLE RASTA SENGS
Rasta Sengs says all the good people of Sierra Leone should be “DATA-WISE”. He stopped short of telling us how we should be using our data but things that whatever we decide to with our data should not include going to social media to complain or to even throw in a bit of salty language in frustration at the rising cost of data. Rasta Sengs also believes we should not gossip around on social media and then complain about the high cost of data.
Thank you very much Rasta Sengs but we absolutely don’t believe we want to hear from you on this matter for many reasons. We don’t have time to run through all of those reasons for now but let’s see how many we can handle in the little space we have here:
1. Since you came to this country to work with the New Direction, we have been taking care of many things for you using our taxes – your official vehicles, drivers and other staff, your travels and per diem and of course your data bills. So for you there’s nothing to worry about. Our taxes are rising daily amid inflation and part of the reason is to take care of some of your bills and that of your colleagues around that cabinet table. So please bear with us while we complain.
2. The truth is you probably don’t like to listen to our cries over the high cost of living with New Leone being battered by inflation. Does that make you uncomfortable sir? When people decide to go into politics, they sign up to listen to their people no matter what.
3. Please don’t get us to believe that despite the brilliant explanations given by your colleague in the information ministry; this country has actually bought into the idea of levying a so-called GOSSIP TAX on the people just like what old man Yoweri Museveni did in Uganda. Anyway, if you can’t appreciate what we are going through now in terms of economic hardship, don’t push us down the drain.
Rasta Sengs we don’t need lectures from you on how we use our data. We can handle that.
NEW GOVERNOR PLEASE NOTE THAT OUR BANKS ARE BEHAVING BADLY
The last time we commented on this issue we refused to name and shame the bank that has been behaving badly with our money, in other words when we sign cheques to withdraw a certain amount of money, they give us wads of cash nicely wrapped in plastic but mostly short of what we asked for from our own account. We will still hold back on naming some banks because we believe this is a problem in all commercial banks not just the ones we do business with and we can authoritatively join those complaining about this unacceptable behavior and call on the Central Bank to ACT DECISIVELY to stop banks from stealing our savings. We are now working with our colleagues in other papers to shine a very bright light on this bad behavior.
It is one thing to dismiss persistent complaints from customers and a completely different thing to actually investigate and publicly punish staff found wanting, those giving the commercial banks a bad name. When the banks are obsessed with spinning and keeping their brand intact and satisfy their managers and shareholders at the expense of customers they should be prepared to receive the weak blows that people like us in the media are ready and willing to throw at them for this open cheating.
The commercial banks know that when they send monies that are short to the central banks they are fined like crazy so they are very careful but they are taking advantage of ordinary people that are paying for their services.
We serve notice that we are at the very end of this cheating game now.
This idea that customers should count every note, including those bound and sealed in plastic by the banks before leaving their premises is something we will not even countenance because it is not practically possible. When people trust them with their savings and pay them for that, our commercial banks should play the game of honesty.
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