WAITING FOR MCC MONEY COULD LAST ANOTHER TEN YEARS
Sierra Leone has been looking forward to Uncle Sam’s money from the Millennium Challenge Corporation for a good few years. The promise is that when the cash is freed up to come down this way, it will change the energy sector for good – complaints about inadequate water and electricity supply in Sierra Leone would be reduced to the barest minimum if not eradicated. However, Uncle Sam has set criteria that many African countries have struggled to meet.
Every year, Uncle Sam reads out the report card of student Sierra Leone and it goes like this: the US ambassador goes to our State House and reads out the card to Principal, there’s a pass here and a fail there, there’s commendable effort here, there is zero done there. There are no external examiners and we cannot appeal for one to take a look at Uncle Sam’s conclusions. Why would they agree to that in the first place? Those who want their cash should play by their rules.
We also spend time taking in the drama that follows the yearly report card presentation.
1. The government’s spin factory will go into operation and celebrate areas of the report card in which Uncle Sam gave them a pass. Even some institutions, including the ACC for example will celebrate a pass in the section on CONTROL OF CORRUPTION. Why not? We all need victories from time to time to keep us going.
2. The opposition will then fall on the government over failed situations on the report card even if modest gains were made on the last report card. Enjoying the luxury, they will spend weeks banging on about the impossibility of MCC money coming here. They are always looking for something to tell the people about the government’s inability to win things.
3. Then we have those in numerous civil society groups who will issue press releases and turn up at broadcasting stations to pontificate about this and that. That’s the nature of the game.
4. While all of this is happening Uncle Sam will be sitting back, watching and enjoying the drama. Just when another critical decision is due on the MCC, Uncle Sam will drop hints about things that look like new conditions or they may well just stretch the old conditions beyond recognition to cover some new ideas and situations.
5. MCC money is good but the lesson to learn from all these report card prescriptions is that we should manage our own resources well. And there’s a lot we can say about this. We may not get a satisfactory pass from Uncle Sam any time soon. The wait goes on.
HOSTILE TAKEOVER ON THE HORIZON AT SIERRA RUTILE
There’s uncertainty at Sierra Rutile as a HOSTILE TAKEOVER bid is put in place by a familiar face in Sierra Leone’s mining industry. Our information is that some vital shareholders, including our own brothers and sisters are resisting that bid and they are ready to do all it takes to keep their shares in place. From our side, we are reading certain papers and trying to make inquiries about the situation at Sierra Rutile, this bid that many have described as controversial.
The lives of many Sierra Leoneans depend on how this situation is concluded and as such we call on the government to stand on the side of the people of Sierra Leone. When they do that they will have our unqualified support. If they decide to go the other way, they will meet us at a junction prepared to defend our people.
STOP DEPOSITING BUILDING MATERIALS ON OUR STREETS
This is now a common practice that must stop. Not too long ago we read a press release from the Sierra Leone Roads Authority warning against the habit of people building houses using our roads as stores from sand and stones. It’s not as if they would pour the items on the roads for a few hours and then clear the road again. Sometimes it lasts for weeks, even months and during that period vehicular and pedestrian movement is badly disrupted.
Those who are in this habit know very well that they are infringing on the rights of other Sierra Leoneans but they just don’t care. This is something that must stop immediately. It’s happening in many places so both the smiling Tik Tok Mayor and the SLRA cannot tell us this is news to them. In fact why would SLRA issue a press statement about something they know nothing about?
We are living in a city where some people think they can do anything. This is a country where politicians like the Tik Tok Mayor believe they should first consider politics before the welfare of the good people of Sierra Leone. To issue a press release and not back it up with action is to tell the subjects of your statement to always ignore you because you are not serious about anything.
ALL QUIET AROUND WAKA FINE: THE WAKA CONTINUES.
The dust appears to have settled around the WAKA FINE transportation system. Like many rational Sierra Leoneans, we always knew that there will be challenges around the operations of WAKA FINE buses and we also expected these issues to come up in the early stages.
As usual some partisan politics and scaremongering entered the debate and made things even more toxic. The operators of WAKA FINE have come face to face with the realities, including the fact that those who handled the communication aspect in the period just before the buses went into operation should refund to the state whatever amount was paid to them. They failed woefully. We have the figures and they should not allow us to turn our attention to that Public Relations fiasco.
Our observation is that WAKA FINE buses – those operating in the east of Freetown, go off the streets about ONE HOUR or so earlier than the stipulated time. Is there a reason for that? We have observed this over several days and at this stage we want those in charge of the WAKA FINE fleet to tell us what’s going on.
We are determined not to allow a two-tier system in the running of these buses. Whether they are operating in the Peninsula or Brookfields, they should maintain the same standards.
Copyright © 2024 Politico (25/03/24)
