WHEN THE AMERICAN AMBASSADORTO SALONE TWEETS
David Dale Reimer, US ambassador to Sierra Leone sent out a tweet something interesting on the evening of the re-opening of parliament following the general and presidential elections on June 24, 2023. The main opposition Tolongbo, which controls about 40% of the parliament, announced few weeks ago that they would stay out of parliament and even the local councils they won until they got what they were asking for. They basically believe they won the election and should be in State House. In the days following, they tried very hard to maintain that strong position by getting some of their elected MPs to sign a resolution to further support that boycott call. There came Ambassador Reimer’s tweet:
“I urge APC not to boycott government. A vibrant democracy needs a strong opposition; those who voted for the opposition need to have their voices heard”.
This tweet opened up a huge debate on social media only because this was coming from the man representing the most powerful country in the world otherwise many people have said the same thing since they day the boycott call was made in one of those lengthy statements they issues these days. And those who asked Tolongbo to get on with the business of governance included some of their own people but they dug in for a showdown on the day parliament resumes. In the end only ONE out of 54 APC MPs turned up to be sworn in.
We heard one of those defiant MPs on VOA saying “we have not been engaged since we took that position”. Is that what they were looking for? They could have asked for talks directly instead of threatening the nation’s democracy.
Throughout the electioneering period Tolongbo kept faith with the so-called International Community and some of their people have been openly canvassing the US in particular to slam sanctions on Sierra Leone believing they were cheated. So where are they now after Reimer’s tweet? The departing ambassador may well have saved their face with this tweet. They can now pick themselves up from the trenches and tell their people that the United States URGED them to take up our positions in the governance institutions of Sierra Leone. God bless America.
ABASS BUNDU RETURNS AS SPEAKER AND……..
As expected, Abass Bundu is speaker but for the next two years. Apparently a deal was struck to stop a possible challenge from within the ruling party for that very powerful position. Social media was already awash with flyers promoting the candidacy of the Deputy Speaker Sengepor Thomas. Supporters of the current ECOWAS speaker Hon. Sidi Mohamed Tunis were also beginning to shape up for a go at that top job but at the very last minute it became clear that Bundu was staying put.
Bundu is an experienced and highly respected man who presided over one of the most difficult parliaments since the return of democracy in 1996. He was very patient and would at times go out of his way to deal with MPs from his own side of the house.
For now Tolongbo MPs are out of the house crying foul over the outcome of the last elections. It’s a no brainer that they are trying to use that boycott call to negotiate their way out of certain difficult challenges and would eventually return. We don’t know when. We wish Speaker Bundu and the 6th parliament the very best.
Hon. MOHAMED BANGURA DEFIES APC
Hon Mohamed Bangura of Bombali District is the only Tolongbo MP who defied his party’s boycott call to take the oath and take part in the process of electing the speaker. In doing so he abandoned Tolongbo’s boycott posture saying he was serving those who elected him. It’s a difficult thing to do from Tolongbo benches but he has done it.
Already there is speculation on social media that he has already been expelled by his party. We are waiting to see an official reaction. We suspect that Hon. Mohamed Bangura really calculated his move and that he is not the only one ready to defy Tolongbo should they decide to run down their time in parliament by being defiant. We’ll see how this goes.
SMOKING IS BANNED BUT ONLY ON PAPER
When parliament banned smoking in public places not too long ago we celebrated that achievement saying it was long overdue. At the time we also expressed concern that it might be an action by the government to tick boxes and satisfy some international requirement. Several weeks later, we appeared to have settled in our old habits again – the government runs back to international community to say we have delivered and the people who initially thought their habit was under serious attack have simply re-surfaced to continue smoking in public and shame anti-smoking campaigners.
There has been no massive campaign all over the place to tell people about the new law and to ask ordinary citizens to help the government save the lives of innocent smokers and their friends who also indulge in the habit passively.
1. Why not erect huge billboards all over the place telling people that smoking in public is an unlawful act?
2. Why not require all public transport operators to constantly tell their passengers not to smoke onboard their vehicles? There should be on the spot fines for defaulters in the same way people are fined for failing to put their seat belts on.
3. Why not declare Youyi Building and all other government facilities across the country NON-SMOKING areas?
PLEASE TAKE PLASTIC BOTTLES OFF OUR STREETS
We have called attention to this issue in this column many times. It’s one of those issues about which the authorities decided they will completely ignore us. We have to return to it now to remind them that we will not allow them to ignore us and also because by doing nothing about it, things have gone from bad to worst.
Let’s make it clear that we are not against any local company selling soft drinks to our people. We want Sierra Leoneans and their locally produced goods to dominate the market but what we have noticed from the local soft drinks companies is that their plastic containers are polluting our environment and the authorities who cleared them to operate in this country have not told them to stop making huge profits while polluting our environment and in a way contributing to the factors that cause flooding particularly in Freetown.
It’s clear from this photo that the plastic bottles we are talking about are all over the place. We want action now.
1. Cancel the license granted to these soft drink producers until we are convinced that they have put in a place a robust system of cleaning after themselves. We should also put in place a system by which we monitor that to make sure they don’t quickly return to their old ways after one week.
2. Let’s take them to court and get some big money from them for the damage they’ve caused so far or to simply recover the money we’ve spent clearing our drainage system blocked by their plastic bottles since they came into operation.
3. As consumers we should consider an initial ONE month boycott of such drinks to force the producers to clean up now and commit to cleaning regularly. This is not an attempt to squeeze local producers out of business it is a sensible move to end pollution.
4. This government NEEDS to now go to parliament with legislation to ban single use plastic from Sierra Leone. Other countries in our neighborhood have done it. We can also do it.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (14/07/23)
