WHAT DID THE RMFA DO WITH THOSE BILLIONS OF LEONES
We want to thank the Road Maintenance Fund Administration for paying up on their debts owed to some banks. But to be honets we cannot understand what those tens of billions of leones were used for in 2016 and 2017 when road user fees were being paid for the fixing of roads. We were left quite bewildered to hear about this. We can’t wait for the Commission of Inquiry reports to see whether these details are contained therein. We were really shocked that RMFA turned itself into a lender of such huge amounts leaving us wondering what happened to tax money. The fact that the new RMFA authorities have paid back these debts and yet fixing up the road leaves us even more confused as what could have been done to those huge sums. Bea dog eat fat bone. We will wait.
What was the money used for by the way? Billions and billions of Leones borrowed. The institution gets cash from every litre of petroleum product bought in Sierra Leone. We only hope the debt repayment will not affect the present condition of our roads, especially after the next rainy season which is almost here.
A GOOD START, KUNGFU PANDA, BUT COPS MUST PATROL
We saw Kungfu Panda flexing his muscles as the new kid on the Internal Affairs block accompanied by Sovuzela of the men and women in blue. They were going down the rural mountain village of Bathurst the other day in the wake of the recent spate of night robbery incidents in the historic settlement. Armed robbers have upped their night forays into mostly quiet isolated communities and people have complained in places like Gloucester, Leicester, Regent, Wellington, and Waterloo. This is no joke.
Homes and stores have been broken into and people assaulted. Like closing the staple after the horse has bolted, the police always show up only after the thieves have made good their escape. Often, the thieves never to be seen, again! It’s been a very traumatic experience for many people who are rudely awakened from their sleep to behold these guys wielding apparently dangerous weapons. People are stunned that these robbery incidents happen in this time of COVID-19 and the attendant curfew. Let’s be frank here; the cops are just nowhere to be seen at night. The once frequent night patrols are now a distant memory and robbers roam freely at night, terrorizing peaceful residents.
The last time some of us saw a night patrol team was some two years ago; their truck was pathetically rickety and one could hardly tell they were cops as they had turban-like cloth wrapped around their heads against the wind and cold. Except for the SLP number plate and their rifles, you could bet they were Bedouin mercenaries shipped in to help fight crime.
Our Police must be given the necessary equipment to protect life and property. Armed Operational Support Division officers must go into these communities at night and face these robbers. Too many cops with guns are seen mostly daytime at shop fronts. People pay their taxes to be safe and Sovuzela must be seen flexing his huge biceps at his unit commanders to take on these robbers.
SCORPION SQUAD CAN SWOOP ON THE INTER-DISTRICT LOCKDOWN BREAKERS
The inter-district travel restriction is still in force but we are very worried. This partial lockdown is being breached big time. It is being done with unbelievable boldness by some men at specific points along the main highway linking Freetown to the countryside. For those people wishing to ignore the inter-district lockdown and travel to the provinces, it is as easy as eating ripe banana. Such is their effrontery that cars park at SHELL to load passengers to Makeni and Bo for around Le 100,000. The ACC’s crack Scorpion Squad won’t find difficulty at all nabbing people involved in aiding and abetting the process. One has to just carry a backpack and stroll along Shell New Road, Texaco or more notoriously Jui and you would find yourself courted by hustlers who would loudly enquire if you were going to Bo, Makeni, Kenema or any of the big cities and towns.
The guys are just not worried that they could be arrested and we begin to wonder if this is not a wider, well-organized ring trying to beat the system. Vehicles with certified passes on the basis of carrying essential services are neck-deep in this racket of smuggling people through the numerous checkpoints on our roads. They charge hefty sums of money, more than double the pre-COVID-19 transport fare. Freetown as epicentre ended up transmitting the virus this way to all our other districts as a result of these stubborn and corrupt people. Drivers and so-called passengers must be jailed for such lawlessness. We want our normal lives back but we might be daydreaming if the authorities did not exert the necessary punitive measures against such criminals.
GEORGE FLOYD’S CASE AND THE LIFE OF OUR PEOPLE IN AMERICA
The world is still reeling from the shock of George Floyd’s brutal murder by a white policeman in the city of Minneapolis in the USA. Never through a single incident has the world become so united in standing up against racism and police brutality. An alleged attempt to use a counterfeit 20-dollar bill and life is snuffed out of a 46-year-old father of five in such brutish fashion. Our compatriots sweating out there for the mighty dollar might have a lot to contend with, moving about for daily survival in the USA. Come to think of it, even Flyod’s American accent couldn’t save him and imagine if he was a Sierra Leonean, and how the African accent would have got the racist cop Derrick even more livid to smother them in a minute or two. Frisk-and-search is common in the States but many say blacks and other people of colour are often the target. Sierra Leoneans, like other minorities, face racial profiling every day in America and one unsuspecting encounter with a cop may turn deadly. Now some of us could understand why years ago, visiting US-based Salone lawyer Iscandri on local radio narrated how he berated a puffed-up Salone JC along Lumley beach who had behaved rudely to a local police officer, rhetorically asking him if he would have dared put up a similar behaviour to a cop in America. The American dream is there but as Floyd’s death has proven it could be a costly gamble living the dream.
ABU ABU CLEARED TO RETURN TO BASE
Principal is a man of few words especially when it comes to making his charges conform to the rules of his institutions. Abu Abu was seen as a trusted ally and long-time confidante of Principal until his emotions took the better part of his civility in that outburst that was caught on camera. Many begged for the Prefect of the North but Principal would have none of it and duly told him to step aside. Abu Abu profusely apologized in video clips for his actions and went around looking remorseful and hobnobbing with the party’s grassroots with whom he has a healthy relationship.
Well Abu Abu has gained a reprieve and is back in Makeni his habitat. We are here to say things in plain black and white as is expected of us.
ABU ABU should be advised thus:
- Touting violence in the name of politics can never be condoned in anyway, as in the art itself craving for multiplication of followers makes more sense than any recourse to actions that can be best described as subtraction.
- In this day and age, cajoling supersedes intimidation in politics. Now that you are back, Abu Abu, we can only advise that you take the agenda of Principal to the people in the north and work for the common good of people and country.
- Remember one cannot be lucky all of the time. The good people of Sierra Leone will not accept any such behaviour, going forward.
- Respect those you serve. The public reaction to your suspension should teach you a lesson. Lonta!
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