300 MILLION LEONES TO REPAIR ROADS FOR INAUGURATION: HOW MUCH FOR MABANG BRIDGE?
A team of Fire Brigade officers arrived at scene of the collapsed Mabang Bridge in Moyamba district just hours after the worst fears of the people of the area was confirmed. The bridge was a disaster waiting to happen. It has.
Chief Sidikie, the TIMBER MERCHANT led the team also comprising Kan Kan Kan, Petito, the pretender to the throne and the man sitting in the director's chair at SLRA with no real powers and of course the usual dozens of Special Assistants hanging around ministers.
The only reason they went to the place was to investigate reports on OUR GRACIOUS SLBC that about 38 people were killed in the accident. It turned out that nobody was killed but several were wounded and goods worth millions of leones were lost. We wonder why Gbanabom is still sitting there. The government has not said a word about that spectacular journalistic somersault. They would be shouting sabotage if that report came from the independent press.
If this were some countries, Petito the pretender to the throne and IG Munu would have resigned. Petito criminally neglected his responsibility to either get the bridge done or closed to save lives. As for IG Munu he must take full responsibility for the failure of his men to enforce the law that restricts access to that bridge to only light vehicles. Corruption is the only thing that explains why heavy vehicles were still on that road. In Sierra Leone, people don't take responsibility for anything. The most shameful act now is that they are blaming the people who are the victims of such neglect for what happened to them.
The fire fighters must know that they have had their photo-opportunity and even danced at the scene with those few people who were basically singing for a few pennies from Kan Kan Kan. He told 98.1 the people were singing because of the presence of the government. Crass insensitivity!
Petito the pretender to the throne asked for three hundred million leones to fill potholes in Freetown ahead of the not so successful second inauguration of De Pa. How much does he want to build Mabang bridge?
KAN KAN KAN SAYS INAUGURATION WILL RE-BRAND SALONE
Oooohhhh Kan Kan Kan! Already we are beginning to miss Kothor IB. He was marginally better in rationalizing issues as serious as whether a nation facing such vicious and grinding poverty can afford the luxury of a second inauguration costing the nation more than one billion leones.
Kan Kan Kan told Star Radio that the inauguration will "re-brand Sierra Leone". Apart from the fact that the word -"RE-BRAND" is now totally threadbare, widely misused and means absolutely nothing to us, Kan Kan Kan must know that that "re-branding of Sierra Leone" can only be achieved by well-thought out, calculated and delibrately implemented plan targeting all the people and their institutions. It should start with Kan Kan Kan and his friends taking an oath to stop deceiving their own people. Look at the row that accompanied the inauguration. How can you use such an occasion to "re-brand Sierra Leone"?
In the same interview Kan Kan Kan told the nation that in SLPP days the Auditor General's report concluded that 10% of the national budget was lost to corruption but that on his government's watch only 1% of the budget is unaccounted for. He implied that things are better now. This was a real low even by Kan Kan Kan's standard.
Look at this: After 6 years in office he still compares his government to those they defeated. Why does he think the Green Boys were thrown out of power? Kan Kan Kan ought to have told Star Radio what the budget at the time was and what 10% represented in real money. We know what the budget is today and going by his own figure, we know what 1% represents in real terms.
We should let him know that even a penny stolen from the people is unacceptable. We are waiting for action.
OUT OF THE SHADOWS: KING SOLOMON LAUNCHES BOOK
Oh it will be joyful when we meet King Solomon again at the British Council today. The King has been in some kind of splendid isolation and oblivion since his defeat in 2007 in the race to State House making very few public appearances. Oh sorry he also attended the Inauguration on Friday.
If King Solomon had asked us we could have suggested some interesting titles for his book which by the way is poorly edited and layout clumsy. We could have suggested wither SONGS OF SOLOMON, LAMENTATIONS OF SOLOMON of KING SOLOMON’S MINES with permission from Sir H. Rider Haggard of course. We know King Solomon as a shrewd lawyer but an inept political operator who popularized the project of ONE T-SHIRT and TEN THOUSAND LEONES which has now been made into an art and mastered by De Pa.
Last week a good friend handed us the manuscript and from what we've read and barring major alterations, this book should be very interesting. At some point, you get the feeling that the tone of the book is very angry and...imagine what he says about Christiana the Sister of Cluny, Old Pa Kabbah and the De Pa’s darling of a leader, Siaka Stevens. We are not surprised, you know.
We shall say no more. Grab a copy today at British Council. No refreshments will be served, please.
NIGHTMARE AT ALBERT ACADEMY: DEPUTY EDUCATION MINISTER TARAWALLI TAKES OVER
Perhaps feeling very bored in office, Deputy Education Minister Mamoud Tarawalli has hit the road visiting schools in Freetown doing the job of the inspectorate division of his ministry. In fact we've not heard about School Inspectors for a long time. May be it's just right that the minister should step in. But who destroyed the inspectorate division by concentrating on a ceaseless search for ghosts?
At Albert Academy the minister was all over the place. He really hated the hair-style of some of the boys so he decided to take a pair scissors and give the Mario Balotelli hair-cut to some of the pupils. He threatened to "forget about this human rights nonsense" and deal with recalcitrant pupils.
Like the minister, we hate some of the hair-cuts we see in schools these days but we would never go as far as to shave people or slap them. The principal was scandalized by the minister's action. He almost fainted as the Orsai Orwai minister took charge of his school.
Please Mr minister, take a few steps back and allow your inspectorate staff who are trained for this sort of thing to take the lead.
This kind of gung-ho approach to your job at the ministry of education will fail and lead to funny consequences. You could have picked out the Gavi Alliance theft at your former ministry with this same attitude but, but, but...
Our dear minister has also been to Vine Memorial school. Did he see the roof that was destroyed by fire? It's been there like that for years. We hope he didn't cut any hairs there.
The minister's next stop is the Sierra Leone Grammar School. Well that's private school and the principal is very tough. We shall be there.
LIBERIA BIDS TO HOST AFRICAN CUP OF NATIONS
This is great news. Liberia, a country laid low by war and poverty, with no electricity, no running water even in the capital will bid to host the African equivalent of the World Cup. You see sometimes it not about winning, it's about being among the bidders and suddenly people will begin to take you seriously.
Liberia has discovered oil off-shore and soon they hope to start collecting huge money to undertake development projects. We think the Liberian bid will be interesting. The country will propose to build four stadiums in the following areas to host the competition. The SK Doe Stadium in Monrovia will be knocked down and in its place will be built the same kind of structure Arsenal Football Club calls Emirates. In Tubmanburg to the west, the Liberian version of Old Trafford will be constructed. In Voinjama in the south-east, a stadium like the Nou Camp will emerge and finally in Gbatala, where Charles Taylor's son tortured and slaughtered people, the Liberians will build their own Stadium of Light like the one in Sunderland, UK.
As part of a four year re-construction plan, transport infrastructure will be revolutionised and the Red Light district, WestPoint, Douala and Happy Corner will all be gone. Well done Liberia.
In the next edition we shall help Sierra Leone prepare its own bid but already we know that the Bo stadium will be expanded to a 60, 000 seating capacity. All those people building guest houses around the long-running project will lose out. Wusum stadium will face a similar fate. Hamza Hotel (Hotel?) and all the houses around will be gone. Sylvanus street will not be spared and Wusum hill will go down. Details next week.
