RASTA SENGS GETS A LOW CUT: TIMES ARE CHANGING
Rasta Sengs left Freetown for the UN with his dreadlocks in place and returned with a Maada Bio – like LOW CUT. What’s going on? Sengs easily cut off his dreadlocks by which many Sierra Leoneans have come to identify our great Chief of all Ministers and we are told by people close to him that he didn’t mention that decision to anyone.
The nation was surprised to see his new looks on social media. Some called our office to say Artificial Intelligence was at work – a bit like the Taylor Swift issue but it soon became clear that we were in the natural world and we had to get used to a CM with low cut going forward.
We have read a lot on social media and in messages sent to us by our readers about why Sengs decided to go this way. We have nothing concrete to go on but speculative journalism allows us to roam a little:
1. Sengs wants to change his identity from this intelligent RASTA guy in high political office, possibly because he has been told that in 2028 there will be issues around that. So it’s very likely that project 2028 could be derailed. His friends on social media have said a lot about that project. He hasn’t addressed it.
2. Maybe he wants to level up with Principal who spots a fantastic low all the time. At MBSSE, he was miles away but in his new role he interacts a lot with Principal so it makes a lot of sense to also get a low cut.
3. Sengs realized that in the big house workers there desperately try to look like Principal – they dress and talk like the big man. There’s nothing wrong if Sengs decides to join up.
4. It could be that Sengs was simply fed up carrying that load in this unforgivingly hot climate. Welcome to the new reality sir.
5. We have told some cynical friends that our CM is not the biblical SAMSON. He is still a POWERFUL GUY. Well done sir!
LIBERIA’S NEW PRESIDENT FACING A WAR AGAINST DRUG ABUSE
Now we know that the KUSH problem in Sierra Leone is slowly taking a sub-regional dimension. At the State Opening of the new parliament in Liberia, Joseph N. Boakai, the president has signaled his intention to rally his nation to defeat illegal drug use before it consumes Liberia. For such an issue to make it to a speech as important as that tells us that we are either in a child’s play here or we are burying our heads in the sand on this issue.
We don’t yet know what our national strategy is to fight the illegal drug menace in this country – yes, we have seen a few pictures on social media of meetings here and there but we surely need more than that. The scale of the problem has just been brought home to us by Boakai’s address to his people in a neighboring country.
From our little corner we are thinking about many things including the following:
1. This issue is now way beyond the sporadic things we are doing here. We must now take a sub-regional approach to make any headway. We have not heard from Guinea but we have reason to believe the situation is the same.
2. Maybe the MRU should declare an emergency and ask for international help to deal with drugs in this region. That way America will arrest and jail the DRUG LORDS. They are too powerful to deal with in this region.
3. MRU governments will put more money backed by big support from the UN to undertake a number of programs to tackle this menace. Things are really bad right now.
MALI, BURKINA FASO AND NIGER SAY THEY ARE OUT OF ECOWAS
Things are really happening in those THREE countries. Soldiers are running them, they are landlocked, they are facing a brutal rebellion and they are busy fighting their colonial master and inviting Vladimir Putin over for coffee. Now they have told the regional organization – ECOWAS that they no longer want to be part of that organization.
ECOWAS should simply put all the protocols that those countries should follow to get out to the corner for now and just deal with the fact that our friends are gone. They have accused ECOWAS of threatening their sovereignty and trying to implement the agenda of colonial powers. They are basically talking about FRANCE.
Anyway, our people in those countries have really tough days ahead.
1. The leaders are keen to play up their anti-colonialist agenda in order to keep hold of their people but for how much longer before reality sets in? Insecurity is rising and living standards are falling. The people’s complaints can only get louder and louder.
2. Mali, for example, has torn up the agreement with the rebels, carefully negotiated by Algeria. Their North African neighbor is angry. Can Russia guarantee security in that area? They are simply replacing one colonial master with another.
3. All three countries don’t like to have ECOWAS breathing down their necks about democratic elections so it makes sense for them to bolt out of ECOWAS and stay in power forever. How is that possible?
4. We will get to a situation where their people would get tired with military rule and take to the streets calling for change. Civilian politicians are out of office and they can’t wait to return. Let’s see how this goes.
NEW GOVERNMENT BUSES GO INTO OPERATION IN FREETOWN
Finally our new mass transport system has finally gone into operation – 50 new buses bought with World Bank grant money are available to deal with the massive challenge of moving from one place to the other in Freetown.
This is a city in which we have to deal with the most unusual public transport operators – kekeh, motorbikes, taxis and poda podas. All they care about is making money. They have no interest in the comfort and safety of their passengers. Some operators are also working in line with criminals. Therefore our new buses are here to ease our pains. That’s what we have been told.
We are not saying much for now because unlike some people we are willing to give this new arrangement to settle in. We don’t expect revolutionary things to be smooth sailing from the outset so we are giving the system about a month. By that time, the managers should have dealt with some of the challenges we are hearing about from the first day of the pilot operation.
Copyright © 2024 (Politico 31/01/24)
