BREWERY HIKES PRICES SO HOW DO WE COPE?
It was reported recently that the Sierra Leone Brewery has hiked the price of its beverages to the annoyance of people who cannot do without a pint or two on a daily basis. Obviously, the brewery is going in line with other businesses that have had to respond to the economic situation in the world and indeed the depreciation of the Leone against major world currencies to hike prices.
Many fans of brewery products now have to find ways of coping with this situation. There’s no easy answer to this because they are great fans of Sierra Leone Brewery products. They will consume those products even in disregard of their doctor’s advice. We urge our people now to have a look at the following suggestions and see how useful they are.
1. Naturally, even without us putting it on paper people should simply cut back on the volume they consume on a daily basis. There’s no point stretching the household budget to breaking point just to be able to consume large volumes of Beer, Guinness or Maltina.
2. Those who want to do business as usual should look for a second job or do extra hours, where available to make provision for that kind of lifestyle. Please stay clear of public funds as you go about things. The taxpayer should not be made to fund such habits.
3. We also recommend that people look for cheaper alternatives. There are many of them around. Those alternatives are probably not as well produced as the brewery products but because people can’t cope with the new price adjustment, there’s nothing wrong with cheaper alternatives that can also take them to Mount Kilimanjaro.
4. Finally, why not just quit this business of drinking alcohol? Don’t tell us it’s impossible. People have done it before so it can be done again and again. There will be a significant increase in the household budget from savings both from bars and medical bills.
SENIOR CIVIL SERVANTS COULD STILL BE THROWN OUT
If the Ministry of Public Assets gets its way half a dozen Senior Civil Servants and their families would be thrown out of the government quarters they’ve occupied several years now ostensibly to make way for Turkey and Saudi Arabia to build embassies in Freetown. By the plan, which we believe is not sufficiently consultative; those families would be kicked out before the end of February 2023.
We understand cash payments have already been made to some of the affected people while others have rejected the money because they believe the process of knocking down their quarters is flawed and rushed and in any case the compensation and relocation money is ridiculous. There is really no indication as we write that the Public Assets ministry is even thinking about pulling back from their plans. Against that background, we want to say the following on the issue:
1. We have no problem with Turkey and Saudi Arabia building embassies here. We welcome them. Many of the affected people we spoke to, told us the same thing. We are also sure that those two countries do not want to build embassies on disputed land. They would hate to have their diplomatic presence shrouded in controversy. So the ministry should drop this eviction thing and look for another space.
2. The Public Assets ministry approached this whole thing like a Landlord executing a court order to clear squatters from his land. The people facing this threat legally acquired those housing units for their services to their country. Civil servants are badly paid in this country so to hurriedly send them back into the hands of wicked estate agents is wrong and insensitive. There are alternative locations for those embassies that would hurt nobody.
3. We don’t even want to talk about the relocation money they offered the people because the package simply speaks clearly of what the ministry thinks about civil servants. The ministry didn’t even think about the dislocation the families would suffer, the disruption of normal family life and all that.
3. Like the affected people, we are increasingly coming round to the idea that some of those implementing this relocation plan have their eyes on parcels of that land for private development. As they say in the UN, we remain seized of this matter.
LOCAL GOVERNMENT TERMS END 1ST MARCH 2023
By this time next month Mayors and Chairpersons of local councils would have left office. Their terms of office would end on the first of March, according to the Ministry of Local Government. We are based in Freetown and we pay our taxes here so our attention is on our dear Mayor Kemokai of the Freetown City Council.
Our Mayor spent many years in her other country and was sent here by the great ruler of that country ostensibly to help us fight Ebola. Once the battle was over, the woman who would become our Mayor entered the State House to work on some project and make the necessary contacts to represent Tolongbo at the FCC. Now after FIVE years we are scratching our heads trying to find what the people of this great city would point to in celebration of FIVE years of Mayor Kemokai.
First of all we want to advise Mayor Kemokai to make sure she clears all her belongings from City Hall as she leaves office on the last day of February. The people of Freetown have a verdict to deliver and it could go for or against our Mayor. It’s not the easiest thing to be told to return to your old office to collect your stuff on the morning after an election defeat.
Between now and the end of February, we will be publishing some articles trying to make sense of Mayor Kemokai’s FIVE years in office. For now let’s see how some of her people would react on her last day in office.
1. THE CHIEF ADMINISTRATOR – Mayor Kemokai once asked for this guy to be moved from FCC. She just couldn't see eye to eye with him as he tried to assert his authority as a big man in FCC with some powers over budget and program implementation. The Chief Administrator would hope that Mayor Kemokai is defeated in June. Well, he wouldn’t know who the next mayor would be but just seeing the back of Mayor Kemokai would de-traumatize him.
2. CORE AND GENERAL STAFF OF FCC – After FIVE years of marginalization, these people would emerge from the cold thanking God that the era of a mayor pretending they didn’t matter was over.
3. MAYOR’S DELIVERY UNIT – Our Mayor was warned in official documents to disband this so-called delivery unit and to refund monies spent on the people she put in that group. We understand she has paid every cent to the ACC to avoid a very messy litigation. What we don’t know is whether members of that unit simply melted away or were given another name. They will miss overseas travels and fat per diem payments. Our advice is that team members should simply return to their second home in Europe and leave Sierra Leone in peace.
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