Twitter on Wednesday 24th Jan. 2024
PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUYI BUILDING QUICKLY?
We know we are not the only people complaining about the situation at Youyi Building. This is one of the most powerful buildings in the country, housing several government ministries, departments and agencies but the way things are going in that place right now, leaves much to be desired.
The last time we visited, the lifts were down. We struggled our way to the ninth floor for a meeting that lasted less than half an hour. We asked a few questions about the lifts but the grudging answers we got convinced us that fixing the lifts remains a pipe dream for now.
How can we allow a building of that importance to go without lifts for months? And it’s not as if those who should fix it up don’t know that workers struggle to access their offices and work is severely disrupted. The last we heard was their ministers were still arguing about the budget to deliver that job. For how much longer are we going to endure this?
Maybe the only reason we have not had to station an ambulance out there is that we have young ministers this time but if we check the rate of absenteeism among civil servants, the result will be shocking. When Rasta Sengs went on one of his political masquerades looking for workers in their offices and issuing queries, we knew he was out of touch with reality and he wanted to get media attention. He enjoys that a lot.
In the far corner of that compound, a glorified car wash enterprise is in operation. The young guys doing the business aggressively chase every vehicle going by. Not far from their base is a cookery shop. Now church services are becoming a bit of a normal feature inside Youyi Building compound. What’s really going on? We are calling on Rasta Sengs to resume his media-driven cleaning exercises at Youyi Building.
We will wake up one morning to find out that petty traders are moving in.
THEY ARE DOING IT IN LAGOS, WHY NOT FREETOWN?
We have been calling on the authorities to do two things about single use plastic in this city for some time now:
1. Ban that material from entering this country and phase compliance over a SIX MONTH period.
2. Compel companies producing and selling them on our streets to clean up the mess they are creating across Sierra Leone and in Freetown in particular. We simply cannot continue with the way things are going now.
Among the greatest polluters are those in the water business and the local company selling soft drinks in plastic containers. Their waste is blocking the drainage system and making landfill sites a home for used plastic containers. We are regularly told that companies are made to prepare Environmental Impact Assessment papers before they are allowed to start business, so can somebody please show us the EIA document produced by those now damaging the face of Freetown with used plastic?
The authorities in Lagos state, Nigeria have finally decided to ban the kind of plastics we are talking about. Are we going to do nothing until we find ourselves in a sea of plastic waste?
Those who have the power to act against plastic pollution in this country should do so now. They should NEVER be afraid to take on such companies because while they constantly smile all the way to their banks, the taxpayer picks up the bills to clean after them. This MUST STOP NOW.
HERE’S WHY WE DON’T TRUST ALL CLEAN SALONE BOYS
What we are about to say here is not true of all the young guys who have decided to make a living by picking up trash from homes across this city to deposit at designated landfill locations. As far we are concerned, the majority of them are doing a good job and at the same time earning an honest living. We urge them to continue doing that job in a city where the local authority has almost completely abandoned that responsibility. The FCC’s favorite tactic is to constantly fight with the central government over social media while ignoring their job of keeping Freetown clean.
Last week we published two articles calling the attention of FCC to an utterly embarrassing situation on the road to Fourah Bay College campus. From nowhere a new BORMEH appeared with the consequences for the health and safety of thousands of students who use that road to and from college daily. The FCC refused to talk to us about that. Fourah Bay College was forced to clear the rubbish but as things stand there is no guarantee that rubbish wouldn’t suddenly reappear in that space. No action has been taken to prevent that.
Let’s bring this other scenario to the attention of the FCC. Some of these so-called CLEAN SALONE boys – the criminal elements among them, are the ones collecting bags of rubbish from homes and depositing them on our street corners. We have observed this situation for a reasonable period of time and we are confident that we’ve made the correct call at this time.
1. The FCC should properly organize the CLEAN SALONE initiative so the good guys can stand out from the criminal elements collecting rubbish from homes and depositing it on our streets.
2. The push carts they use should be registered and should be made to operate in identified zones.
3. Whatever happened to that zonal sanitation thing that the FCC organized in the early days of 2018? Maybe it became a casualty of the big woman’s cable car and overriding love of social media, including Facebook live.
4. By the way, what’s the point of employing media people at FCC if they feel so intimidated by the big woman that they cannot respond to a simple media query about a mound of garbage near a University campus? We know madam ADORES her highly sanitized appearances on selected TV stations but we represent the people who pay the taxes with which she runs the FCC. Why not scrap the FCC media department and use that money to pay your beloved so-called DELIVERY TEAM?
IVORY COAST SLAUGHTERED IN THEIR OWN ABATTOIR
Even when they thrashed poor Sierra Leone in that friendly match just before AfCON started, Ivory Coast looked vulnerable. Keen observers knew that they were heading for their worst tournament ever but the fans were encouraged to believe otherwise. Now they have been thrown out of the tournament that has been organized with hundreds of millions of US dollars at the group stage. The ELEPHANT is not so strong after all.
We totally condemn all forms of violence but we understand why football fans in Ivory Coast went to all that length to tell their players that they FAILED their nation. We’ve seen pictures of missiles being thrown at players as they left the field and team buses being attacked. Ivory Coast has no option now but to DISBAND what they call a national team immediately, and rebuild. Time is not on their side.
So far this AfCON has told the story of so-called football power houses being told to get real before being put to the sword. Sierra Leone is not part of it so we are in our little corners enjoying the drama.
Already we are hearing lots of complaints from players disappointed at their country’s performance. Some have resigned from international football, like Clinton Njie of Cameroon. His country could be heading home soon unless they are able to conjure the spirit of Roger Milla and his colleagues from that golden generation. Let’s play the game.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (24/01/24)
