WHEN IS THE NEXT LAND RAFFLE MINISTER TURAD SENESSI?
Good Morning Dr. Turad Senessie of the Ministry of Lands. We are looking for an answer to the question above. We asked this question immediately after the last raffle that gave hundreds of ordinary people two plots of land, each in one of the new settlements in the Freetown Peninsula. Some of them told us they couldn’t believe this was happening in the real world, at least the world of the people in this Land that we Love.
Mr. Minister, you don’t need anybody to tell you about the shameful fact of housing being a major problem for millions of Sierra Leoneans. The few Sierra Leoneans who have managed to build something are busy killing others with exorbitant rents, crazy tenancy conditions and the ever present possibility of being thrown out of the property. Again, you know how that affects families. That’s why people now want to have land so they can construct whatever type of dwelling they can as long as they would escape the greed and blackmail of LANDLORDS and bring their children up in peace.
Mr. Minister this is the reason we keep pressing you about the next land raffle. We want to take our chances because we know that’s the only option open to ordinary people like us to own land in this country. Please don’t fall for the political blackmail of those of your PARTY PIKIN who accuse you of not giving them priority in distributing land. You have done the best. Nobody has complained about the way you went about the last raffle. Do it again.
AN MP’s DRIVER NAMED IN THE ATTACK ON PARLIAMENT
A report prepared by the Clerk of Parliament on the shameful attack on parliamentary proceedings on November 23 has confirmed that a driver of an MP was among those who disrupted the work of parliament. According to the report he was clearly visible on CCTV recording. How a driver who should normally be in his vehicle or a holding area made his way into the well of parliament is something we find hard to understand. We don’t even want to mention what is now being reported that he played a part in disrupting proceedings.
We believe that he should be taken into custody immediately and charged while we discuss whether the ELECTED members who disgraced us that day have some kind of immunity for their action. The driver’s action tells us something about what happened in parliament.
1. That the whole affair was NEVER a spontaneous outburst. It was carefully planned and executed and that driver may well have driven his boss to some of the planning meetings.
2. The driver may have heard his boss discussing the plan on their way to and from parliament. There’s a lot the police can get from him. We don’t want the impression to be created that this was not premeditated.
3. In fact, his boss may have encouraged him to join up once the action was underway.
4. We are talking about parliamentary security, how come a driver was able to access that area of parliament. Let’s just hope an MP is not shot on the floor of the House by a janitor during another debate.
WHY ARE SO MANY PEOPLE BEGGING ALL OVER THE PLACE?
In answer to this question please don’t talk about hard times. We know times are hard all over the world such that those countries and institutions that supported initiatives aimed at helping the poor in our countries have pulled back to concentrate on their own at home. We understand that. But is that the reason why so many of our people are now on the streets daily looking for hand-outs?
The point is that we are not talking about some of the disabled who hang around the Cotton Tree and near traffic intersections. We are talking about children in school uniforms complaining of hunger on their way to and from school, teenage boys and girls always asking for transport money and totally drunk adolescents, in fact high on KUSH begging for food along the main streets. What’s going on?
1. This idea that just because people are living with a disability they should be begging for their survival on the streets is WRONG. There are many people in such conditions in this country who are bread winners running respectable homes. We call on charities working with these people to help them understand that they are downgrading their humanity by begging on the streets.
2. It is always easy to throw all of this back at the government and we understand that but there are many Sierra Leoneans living with disability who have pulled themselves away from such degrading existence by their will power and belief in themselves with very little government help. Why are the others different?
3. Let us properly coordinate charitable giving to these people so that like SICK PIKIN is doing, the benefits would flow seamlessly to the needy. We don’t know if this would end the street activity any time soon because some have turned street begging into a survival game but at least we may be sure our monies are going into the right places. Those who take their chances should get no joy. Let’s begin from Christmas 2022.
MONTHS AFTER PRINCIPAL’S PENINSULA VISIT: NO CHANGE
We’ve been counting the weeks and months since Principal paid that unprecedented visit to the Peninsula to see what relentless deforestation has done to our water resources in particular and the whole environment. He spoke passionately about the need to conserve the forest and not do things to dry up the main dam that supplies water to Freetown. Principal promised that those who sold land and authorized buildings within the so-called GREEN BELT would be brought to justice and the ordinary people who were around applauded.
We now want to know what Principal or the people around him have done since those pronouncements were made. From our little corner, we are beginning to think that it’s business as usual once more. We say so because we are living in a country where each time such pronouncements are made people pretend to be falling in line in the first few days after but they soon return to the old ways with even more vigor. Is that what is happening right now in the peninsula?
Why can’t those charged with the responsibility of giving effect to what Principal said take us to the same place once more and prove to us that they have done what they were asked to do? In fact Principal was urged to send some people in big offices packing because they are the ones behind the whole environmental mess in the Peninsula. Are they still in post? The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online
