SO WHAT HAPPENS NOW TO THOSE STILL SERVING IN PUBLIC OFFICES?
The government White Paper on the Commission of Inquiry is out and the whole nation is talking about the findings and recommendations by Biobele and friends and the response of Principal and his ministers to those recommendations. We have read the whole report over and over again and we are amazed at the scale of the corruption that Biobele and friends were able to unearth.
We will deal with the whole paper over the coming weeks and we urge you, as usual to keep in touch with this paper. For today, we want to focus on what Principal said at State House as he received the report from Brewah - the political Lazarus. We think he made very interesting points about his attitude to corruption that we should highlight and then monitor how he goes about putting those thoughts into action in the interest of the nation.
PRINCIPAL - In my inaugural address to this nation, I declared three peaceful democratic wars against indiscipline, poverty, and corruption. The nexus among the three is obvious: indiscipline begets injustice and bad governance; corruption is a product of the former, and it accelerates poverty, and constrains national development.
TWITTER – We take your point here. Having lived in Sierra Leone all our lives and particularly in those years when King Messi reigned over this land in his l’etat ce moi style, we know what you are talking about.
Actually, we don’t believe you have done too well in the area of discipline because that early momentum that got people hurrying to work and staying there till regulation time is dead in water. If you want to prove us wrong please visit Youyi Building tomorrow. So we have a problem with your handling of discipline in that regard. In fact how come despite a State House press release which we still have, some ministers still cover up the license plates on their official vehicles with a black piece of cloth. What is that about? Is that not open defiance?
On corruption, we give you top marks and we urge you to press on. We will not accept anything less. The peaceful democratic war you declared must go on.
PRINCIPAL - As I have reiterated, corruption is a threat to our moral timbre as a nation of upstanding citizens, to our national development, and to our national security. Our only option is to confront corruption head on and fight it boldly and resolutely. It is a fight that we must fight; it is a fight that we must win if we must survive as a nation.
TWITTER – Actually, by voting for you, despite all the cash and threats from Tolongbo, the good people of Sierra Leone completed 50% of that struggle. You have done 25% since marching into State House for the second time so there’s no question about the commitment of the people to fight and win this war against corruption.
You tie it to our survival as a nation, that’s a good rallying cry and not wanting to go into exile and a miserable existence, we have to stay here and fight against corruption. So it up to you to command the anti-corruption crusade until we reach the PROMISED LAND of zero corruption, a land where people acquired properties commensurate with their income. We don’t want to hear fantasy stories about relatives who earn just over EIGHT DOLLARS an hour in the United States remitting billions back home to build mansions.
PRINCIPAL - Citizens are reminded also that they must actively but fairly question errant leaders. It is your civic duty to question unexplained wealth. But citizens are also reminded that when Ministers or parastatal heads steal or fraudulently convert state resources, they do so to make themselves and their immediate family members comfortable. When corrupt leaders build mansions and accumulate huge bank accounts, it is not for their ethnic groups, regions, or political party to live in. It is for themselves and for their immediate families.
TWITTER – Again, there’s nothing wrong to keep saying this but we know it so well and we can feel it. The politicians who stole big monies from this country in the past and perhaps even now simply sent their children, relatives and girlfriends abroad to study in prestigious universities and in fact live there happily, enjoying the good things of life while our children who campaign, fight, face prison, stand in the queue and vote them into office live in squalor at Kroo Bay and Moa Wharf.
The big men visit once a year when flooding occurs with few bags of rice and a pliant media in tow. Even, when scholarship opportunities appear that brilliant children from deprived backgrounds can compete for and win, they convert it to their half-baked children who would return years later and succeed their parents in public offices. They then turn around and call our children names. We know all that. Please don’t ask us why people still wake up from their slums to vote for them. We are also searching for answers.
PRINCIPAL - Persons and entities affected by the recommendation are guaranteed a peaceful and transparent judicial appeals process through which they can seek relief. So let me therefore caution every Sierra Leonean that the rule of law is supreme. Those who may wish to incite or engage in unrest and violence in order to obstruct the process of implementing the full enforcement of the recommendations will be subject to the full force of the law.
TWITTER – The first point we want to make is that the Chief Justice should move all trials coming out of the White Paper to the SPECIAL COURT FACILITIES at New England. This time we will not allow our activities to be grounded like it was during the recent trial of Paolo Conteh. We have suffered too long and our future destroyed by those who have been named by Biobele and his friends. Let’s take all of this to that part of the city and not further congest this small place we call Freetown.
As for those thinking about engaging in acts of violence, we are here as usual waiting for them. We were totally not involved in all the chopping of big money, saving in foreign and local banks and building mansions. We want to go about our normal business in peace. Those who have a case to answer should go to the courts and clear their names. We will continue searching for food.
PRINCIPAL -So these Commissions of Inquiry should also serve as a strong warning to serving officials that you have a duty of care to make the best decisions and act always in the best interests of citizens of this nation. When one is appointed to serve one’s country, one must do so with honesty, fairness, justice, diligence, and compassion. Do not make Sierra Leoneans, especially the children, victims of your own greed
TWEETER - This is well said. You say you want to make this the last of the Commissions of Inquiry in this country. Honestly, we believe there will be a few more but the work you are doing now and this particular statement should make any inquiry after your administration a waste of public funds or a kind charade to legitimize political vendetta.
We are slightly afraid that some members of your team may have gone a bit too far down the corruption road to avoid being called up if you don’t act against them now.
They are likely to derail your New Direction train that, in general, continues to head in the right direction. In the middle of the first term, Principal MUST NEVER allow the impression to be created that he was the GRAND OLD DUKE OF YORK who would march his TEN THOUSAND men up the hill and march them down again just for fun.
Why spend good money mobilizing TEN THOUSAND men, in this case paying for the Commission of Inquiry and then do nothing about the outcome which is like allowing people in the civil and public service right now to continue in office after being shamed so badly for corruption in your own white paper?
Here’s what Principal said as he received the report of the COI:
UNLIKE OTHER COMMISSIONS OF INQUIRY, CITIZENS ARE ASSURED THAT THIS GOVERNMENT WILL FULLY IMPLEMENT ALL RECOMMENDATION. I REPEAT, GOVERNMENT WILL IMPLEMENT ALL RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE LETTER.
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