PRINCIPAL IS BACK AT HIS DESK: WELCOME HOME SIR
Welcome home dear Principal. Hope all is well and you have resumed with the strength and power that your Information Minister told us about on BBC. We are not interested in all the speculations that took place around you in your absence - in terms of your health and all of that. We do not think it’s a good thing to speculate about the health of people. The thing is we believe that we were all created by God and that from time to time we fall sick, we get better, we deliberately decide to rest from all work and withdraw to our private spaces. Even people like Principal have a private space to protect. We recognize that. We respect that.
People in Principal’s position should always expect their private spaces to be invaded by their political opponents and that easily draws in the media. Increasingly now, more than ever before ordinary people with smartphones are involved too. The point is even people who would normally not make the news are dragged to the headlamps of national publicity by the actions of curious and hyper-sensitive people with smartphones.
The trick is to try very hard NOT to allow gaps in communication that could be exploited by people looking to make some mischief around the place, mostly for political reasons.
There was a press release announcing Principal’s departure that could have been better written and once the period stated for Principal’s return expired, we expected another statement telling the nation about developments around Principal. That NEVER came. A dangerous information vacuum opened up and the rest they say is history. We will return to this in a detailed way in coming editions.
Anyway, all we want to do today is to welcome the BIG MAN home – LAND THAT WE LOVE.
SIERRA LEONE FACING US VISA BAN OVER DEPORTATION WAHALA
So the US government has slammed a very wide-ranging visa ban on Sierra Leone because they believe that our authorities are not cooperating fully with the US government in the process of deporting Sierra Leoneans who have exhausted all legal chances of staying in America. This is a very sad situation for ordinary Sierra Leoneans at home wanting to travel to the US for visit, education or medicals. We have no idea which categories of travelers are exempt. We know however that people in government will be allowed under some international conventions to still land in that great country to transact government business, visit their families along the way and do their medicals – at our expense even.
We have a few points to make regarding this issue and we want our government to engage us NOW. This is very important.
1. We want to hear from the MOST RECLUSIVE Minister of Foreign Affairs in the history of this country to call the media and explain how this country arrived at this point of national embarrassment. This minister doesn’t talk to the media in Sierra Leone – in fact, she doesn’t talk to the media anywhere. Now she has to speak up.
2. Why should we even try to slow down or frustrate efforts to deport Sierra Leoneans who have no business staying in American after exhausting all legal channels? As long as we can prove they are our brothers and sisters, let’s prepare their documents and receive them at Lungi. They have a place to be in this country. It makes no sense trying to keep one hundred or so Sierra Leoneans in America by illegal means and cause suffering and embarrassment to the whole nation.
3. There are hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans living and working legally in the US, so why should we disgrace ourselves trying to protect a small group – some of them criminals that the Americans are seeking to legally deport from their country? Are we not deporting other nationals who have no right to be here?
4. All we ask for is that both the authorities in America and our embassy in Washington should make absolutely sure that those eventually sent to this country are indeed Sierra Leoneans. We don’t want a situation where people from some Caribbean Island are dumped here because no other country could take them.
We still have two of such people taking money from our coffers to survive. They should either be taken to their country or returned to America on the same plane that will eventually bring our brothers and sisters awaiting deportation.
5. Why are people trying so hard not to return to their country? Welcome guys to Mama Salone. We have lived here all our lives and we will help you settle down. We are very experienced in that. Take the case of the footballer Musa Tombo who tore up his professional contract in Sweden after just a few weeks and returned home. We greeted him at Lungi airport with a nice bowl of rice and crain-crain. Welcome home guys!
SAVAGE STREET BRIDGE GOES DOWN AND WE ARE BADLY SHAKEN AGAIN
There are four other bridges connecting the west of our city to the central area after the collapse of the one on Savage Street – there’s one on Jomo Kenyatta road, another on Pike Street and two others on Old Railway Line and Kingtom, leading to Ascension town. So yes, we can cope without Savage Street Bridge for now. That does not mean the authorities should not move extremely quickly to restore the bridge.
We have to say from the outset that we will not encourage the kind of shoddy work that was done on King Jimmy Bridge when it collapsed in King Messi days. As we speak, there is raw sewage flowing in the middle of King Jimmy Bridge and our smiling Mayor never puts that photo on social media when she makes that ridiculous claim about Freetown being a clean city.
The immediate lesson to take out of the collapse of this bridge, as if we didn’t know already is that we should make sure that all those living under all bridges are cleared from those places RIGHT NOW. There should be no romantic arguments about finding them alternative housing. All we know is that NOBODY SHOULD LIVE UNDER A BRIDGE. We are extremely lucky to escape large scale casualty in the Savage Street incident but we may not be that lucky next time at Pike Street, for example and the political consequences of that will be too much for this government to shoulder.
We congratulate all those who rushed to the scene that evening to help search for casualties and take control of the situation. Let the reconstruction of the bridge begin now.
CLEANING UP THE SIERRA LEONE PARLIAMENT: END CORRUPTION NOW
This country is still trying to come to terms with the result of a recent survey done by the Centre for Accountability and Rule of Law, CARL which ranked parliament as one of the FOUR most corrupt institutions in the country. Just before parliament could begin their normal fight back, one of their own went on the BBC World Service to confirm that corrupt practices are indeed taking place in the corridors of that magnificent building on Tower Hill.
The danger facing this report and the national outrage that followed the bold revelation by Hon. Ngevao of Kailahun is that in typical Sierra Leone style, the news agenda will move on soon and even the much talked about ACC investigation will fade away and we will all return to the NORMAL. In that NORMAL, we pretending there is no corruption so life must go on. The CARL report will soon take its glorified place on the shelves like many others while we wait for another donor to become sufficiently interested to fund another study.
From our little corner, we believe that this report must force this nation to do something about parliament in particular and public offices in general. To ignore this report is to lay the foundations for a continuous degrading of politics and thus opening the way for populist parties and politicians without the necessary training and experience to win political power in Sierra Leone campaigning on a single issue – CLEANING UP THE SYSTEM.
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