THE BRITISH PM SHOULD SIMPLY CALL A GENERAL ELECTION
The Tory government in the UK is rocking badly. The new Prime minister has sacked her Finance Minister – one of those Africans we were all so proud of when Liz Truss put them in the big political offices of that country. We didn’t see this coming until market forces started reacting to certain decisions taken by the government in a mini-budget statement that was meant to give effect to the tax cuts campaign promises of Truss.
Kwasi Kwerteng has returned to the back bench. He was summoned to the UK for a meeting with his boss from the on-going IMF meeting in Washington. On his way back he told the media he was sure his job was safe but he ended up being sacked within hours.
There’s no doubt that Truss sacked this guy as a first step to stabilize her government and keep the men in grey away from 10 Downing Street. She has been in the job for less than two months but she is already in so much trouble with the British public and inside her own party. Many are now saying that the Tories should be preparing for life in the opposition. They may yet prove that wrong but it’s not looking good.
1. Kwarteng is gone. On this side of the world we believe he was sacrificed to keep Truss in office. It happens in politics and it was clear even during their party conference that it was only a matter of time before the Finance Minister was taken out of the battle field.
2. We don’t believe that Truss is safe because the mini-budget was the Prime Minister’s idea. Tory MPs are thinking about getting her out now to limit the damage in the next general election or rally around her government of U-turns to avoid a civil war in the ruling party. So those men in grey are still considering the options. The new Finance Minister is talking about “tough decisions”. Now the chips are down.
3. The Labor party guys are warming up, calling for elections believing that the momentum is on their side. They may have to convince the British people of their own competence not just that the Tories have blundered.
4. In this Land that we Love, there are ministers that Principal ought to have thrown overboard to steady the ship of state but he is holding on to them after FOUR YEARS. The political consequences of that unexplained loyalty will come through in June next year.
AFTER STABBING HIMSELF MUSA TOMBO OPENS ANOTHER FRONT
So where are we now with the Musa Tombo story? Tombo’s story is moving really fast, so fast that newspapers like this have to keep watching social media to make sense of the situation and update our stories. We began last week with Tombo going on social media to call on ALL SIERRA LEONEANS to help him repair his relationship with Madam Tik Tok. How is that our business? Next time the guy needs such help he should go see their god parents or a marriage counselor.
The next thing we saw was Tombo being taken to hospital after stabbing himself. Many say it was an attempted suicide. Musa was treated in hospital and released on the same day. So this was really not life threatening but nevertheless serious enough for the police in Bo to speak to the man. Our sources say the police will indeed pay him a visit. They have to do that and then make a determination whether to refer him for psychiatric care or put him before a judge.
The next chapter was Tombo going for a stroll on the streets of Sweet Bo in just his boxer’s underpants. Now that was a spectacle to behold. We don’t want to push into that for now. Let’s put some points down for the records:
1. His immediate problem is that all the things he likes doing have collapsed around him. His wife has distanced him, he’s been sacked by Bo Rangers, despite being unveiled by a club in Libya he managed to sneak out of whatever arrangement took him there, he is back home but suspended from football by the SLFA. He cannot even play in mini-leagues. So this is a frustrated guy.
2. Tombo is a notoriously unstable guy and we have to make a decision on how to handle him so that we can have time and resources for many other Sierra Leoneans. We can’t keep doing the same thing for the same guy as if he was the only person to have played football in this country.
3. This is a man who believes that to get out of any challenging situation he should resort to extreme measures like misbehaving badly on the national team bus just to retrieve his passport from team officials, threatening to kill himself with a bread knife in Libya, stabbing himself in Bo after being snubbed by his wife and so on. We feel sorry for him but we now require him to do something for himself. We have a lot of things to attend to in this country.
We have dozens of football heroes in this country who are struggling to survive. They served this country without all the drama Tombo is acting out now. THEY TOO ARE SIERRA LEONEANS.
POURING WATER IN A GENERATOR AT SLBC
When the SLAJ executive recently met the DG at SLBC to talk about staff matters - matters relating to the welfare of SLAJ members there and a few other issues the DG told them something unbelievable. Well, the boss man said a lot about the state of affairs in the state broadcaster but a few weeks later there was one thing he said that we have to bring up again because we have not heard the conclusion of that matter.
The DG told our SLAJ executive that some of his staff at their transmission site at Leicester almost regularly steal diesel meant for the running of their generators to keep transmitters on when electricity supply from the national grid stops. On one occasion, to cover up the theft the staff put water in the generator apparently to convince an inspector that things were in place.
Now, it’s bad enough to steal diesel but we don’t know how to describe the second action of pouring water into the generator. Isn’t that sabotage? These are people who are paid to keep the state broadcaster on air and just to cover up their theft of a few liters of diesel they damage a generator costing the state millions of Leones.
The DG told SLAJ that they admitted stealing the fuel and pouring water into the generator. So Mr. DG, what’s the latest on that front? We believe there are quick remedies for the other issues you discussed with SLAJ but for this one we want to know if those people have been sacked and handed over to the CID. It will amount to suicide to enter a compromise and keep those same people in post working on the same generators.
We are waiting for a reply. Meanwhile there are ways to stop people stealing fuel at Leicester Peak. Think about that.
IDENTIFY AND DESTROY FAKE DRUGS IN SIERRA LEONE
WHO has just blown the cover of an Indian Pharmaceutical company that is suspected of having killed more than SIXTY CHILDREN in The Gambia with different brands of cough syrup that they produce. All we can say while that investigation is on-going is that we believe our people in the country should look beyond those SIXTY SIX cases. It’s possible that hundreds have been killed or maimed.
In this Land that we Love, our authorities are telling us all is well because those products have not entered our market. We hope so. The point is they may well have entered through unofficial channels.
On the streets of Freetown today all sorts of insecticides are being sold and many are using them in their homes. We have reason to believe that the Pharmacy Board DID NOT APPROVE all of them.
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