SLRA MOVES TO CLEAR PADEMBA ROAD DRAINAGE SYSTEM
Just when we thought the drainage system from the Pademba Road Prison yard to Campbell Street had been abandoned for good, came a rescue mission by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority, SLRA. We say RESCUE MISSION because our holidaying Mayor and her expensive diaspora-sounding so-called DELIVERY TEAM had probably decided that the drainage system we are writing about now and the one from Saint John roundabout to Dundas Street junction were NOT part of their Transform Freetown illusion.
We’ve been calling attention to the collapse of that Pademba Road drainage for more than a year as our way of reminding Mayor Kemokai that Pademba Road was not only part of Freetown but perhaps one of the most important arterial roads linking central Freetown with the comparatively affluent west end of the city. We can’t be sure about this but important people like our Mayor are always on that road to and from work. Can she seriously tell us she has NEVER seen that body of dirty water mixed with raw sewerage that empties in front of PWD at the junction of Campbell Street? The mess has been piling up for more than a year. So what is this TRANSFORM FREETOWN message that our Mayor has been spreading around on social media? We know that there are other aspects of this city that she is trying to address but surely that disgrace on Pademba Road and Saint John should be part of the areas of concern for the FCC. The SLRA is doing a good job now even though we believe they should have stepped in months ago.
By the way, are both jobs being supervised by soldiers? We have seen soldiers supervising the young men clearing the rubbish to free up the drainage as we move into the dangerous months of August and September. The Met office in Freetown is predicting heavy rains and flooding this year. We want the rains but if we don’t prepare for the expected flood things could be very bad indeed.
PLEASE DO SOMETHING ABOUT ELIZABETH STREET NOW
What’s the matter between the people of Elizabeth Street in the west of Freetown and the SLRA? We ask because for more than twenty years that short but vital street linking central Freetown to Kingtom Bridge has been abandoned while all other roads around have been paved, notably their neighbor, Berwick Street. As far as we know the people of that place, including a tribal head, have complained to all the relevant channels for consideration and those promises have never come to fruition.
While we join the people of Elizabeth Street to urge SLRA to pave that street immediately, we also want to call attention to the shoddy work King Messi’s government did with the lower parts of Edwards and the whole of Steward Streets in the same area. They paved the upper side of Edwards Street and pretended the lower part did not exist. We are quite sure both contracts covered the whole streets but some contractors decided to do things their own way, creating an apartheid system on both streets. Now rotten vehicles have been abandoned there.
Engineer Kanneh of SLRA has a very easy job: fix Elizabeth Street and complete Edwards and Andrew Streets and bring the people living on these streets in line with their neighbors at Guy, Victoria and Berwick Streets. They are all Sierra Leoneans who pay their taxes.
FREE OUR BROTHERS JAILED IN GUINEA NOW!
TWENTY TWO young Sierra Leoneans are banged up in a Guinean jail in Conakry. They’ve been there since December after their arrest in different parts of that country and accused of working with the battered and bruised opposition to destabilize Guinea. We stand with those Sierra Leoneans. An audio done by one of our brothers, smuggled out of that prison and put on social media is very clear about the circumstances under which they were arrested, put through a Kangaroo trial and jailed.
Our people were arrested in the heat of an electoral process that was marred by violence and killings sparked off by the controversial THIRD TERM bid by Professor Alpha Conde. He openly but falsely accused our own KOTOR JULDEH of colluding with his opponent to get him out of power and as far as he was concerned those young Sierra Leoneans were mercenaries carrying out that mission. So TWENTY TWO boys picked up with only their cheap mobile phones, passports and a few Leones were mercenaries going to a foreign land to fight that government. Nobody will be that stupid to be sent on such a suicide mission. We call on our government to get them out of prison immediately.
It is not a good idea for the OLD Chief Minister to run to Russia and America proclaiming a repositioning of our foreign policy (by the way we are still waiting for the government document on that) while our brothers are illegally jailed in our backyard by a supposedly friendly nation. Old Chief Minister should be on the road to Guinea immediately to work with the authorities there to free our brothers. In fact, why was this issue not put on the table when Principal went there for that summit with Professor Conde?
We call on our government to strengthen our embassies in CONAKRY, BANJUL and MONROVIA with more personnel and money. We need Human Rights officers and Lawyers in those places because of the huge number of Sierra Leoneans in those countries. Things are not good for many because they face a lot of harassment and intimidation while we treat people from those same countries back home as brothers and sisters.
KINGTOM ARTIFICIAL TURF IS EXHAUSTED, IN FACT FINISHED
We have not heard anything comprehensive from Big Daddy about his program for the SLFA over the next FOUR years. Yes, we have heard bits and pieces from interviews on DSTV and some local stations. In fact just the other day we were transcribing the full interview with Soccer Africa because there are some juicy bits there that we may need at some point in his presidency. We are looking forward to a statement clearly setting out the benchmarks that would define his presidency. He should never allow the media to start setting the agenda for him and because so early in his leadership journey things are looking fragile, we want to allow him to get to grips with the job on his table. As far as we are concerned, the honeymoon will soon be over and as journalists we know how to conduct ourselves after that.
For now however we want to urge our new president to pay attention to the physical condition of the SLFA secretariat facilities at Kingtom. The oceans near the playing area are totally unacceptable. Big Daddy has just arrived at the place but how did we get to that level? The whole place around the wretched artificial turf gives a bad impression of those who’ve been running the secretariat.
Big Daddy has a lot of work to do with the overall image of the organization, his secretariat and many others but surely we don’t want to go into a modern football secretariat and see pools of water – mosquito breeding areas. Please, no excuse about this being the rainy season.
Anyway, congratulations on the comic match the other day. We pray the objectives of that match are realized soon.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (30/07/21)
