WILL CHRISTIANA NOW ADMIT SHE'S THE ODD ONE AMONG THEM?
In November we suggested to Christiana that it was very difficult to understand how a country like Senegal, a huge country compared to Sierra Leone with a voting population bigger than the entire population of Sierra Leone could announce election results in 48hours while she needed two weeks to announce her result for less than three million voters. And in the last election, re-counts had to be halted for Christiana to smile her way to the table as she announced the results. She told one of our colleagues in reply that: "Senegal is Senegal and this is Sierra Leone". That was typical Christiana arrogance.
When she gets an award from some nondescript organisation abroad for whatever she's doing at NEC, she displays it proudly and encourages us to celebrate with her. But when we ask her to aspire to the standards of those same countries, she gets angry.
The Ghanaians put her to shame recently, now the Kenyans have done it again. Even the sick man of Africa - D R Congo, announced results in less than a week. Why Sierra Leone?
I hope she understands why some people believe her figures are always massaged. What does she really need two weeks for? She’s on her way out now but we don't want that attitude to remain in that commission because her children like Miatta English and Mattia Sumana might still be there trying to keep the former Sister of Cluny's legacy alive. There are tough days ahead of you people. This two-week arrogance of Christiana must end with her term.
HOLIDAY, HOLIDAY, HOLIDAY AND MORE HOLIDAYS. LONG LIVE DE PA!
When the mercurial and temperamental Yayah Jammeh recently announced a four-day working week in little The Gambia, a lot of us were amused at his style of doing things. We even suggested he would destroy his country's economy with too many holidays.
Now Professor AJJ Jammeh can easily accuse us of hypocrisy for while we haven't actually decreed a four-day working week, we are already pushing ahead with our government announcing one holiday after another almost back to back.
We have just come from Inauguration holiday, Armed Forces holiday but the bulk of the soldiers spent the day in their squalid quarters all over the country, and now we have International Women's Day holiday.
As far as we know March 8 was always a WORKING HOLIDAY but may be De Pa is trying to make it up with women who failed to get 30% of seats in parliament and in cabinet. It is called APPEASEMENT and POPULISM. In the same spirit we now suggest a few more holidays that De Pa should declare:
Media Holiday - May 3, World Press Freedom Day
War Wounded Day - We should remember the day our brothers had that friendly hug with the defence minister near his office. We should, because on that day when the handshake reached the elbow, it turned into wrestling and the minister fled in utter panic. Soja see Soja!
University Lecturers’ Day - It will be difficult to pinpoint a particular day because the lecturers are always on holiday in the name of strikes for salary, salary and more salary. So why not just choose any day… may be December 13, the date on which in 2007 De Pa was given an honorary PhD degree by the University of Sierra Leone. hahahah.
Road Transport Bus Drivers’ Day - The day they start cleaning the buses and keeping to the required number of passengers and indeed behaving well to them. That can be fixed for the second Friday of April.
Force For Good Day - The day police refuse bribes on the roads and stop demanding huge cash to grant bail at all police stations and clean up some of the worst cells in the whole world especially the cells at Central Police Station. The police are not even ashamed of those conditions. That could be fixed for the fifth Friday in July whenever that month has five Fridays.
OPERATION WID WEEDING ITSELF OUT SLOWLY AND BODE IS MISSING
Once again we stand on the brink of losing another opportunity to end street trading in the heart of Freetown and so clear the city of mountains of garbage and lawless miscreants stealing from and harassing people. Look around and tell me with your hand on your heart whether Operation WID has kept pace with the reality on the ground.
De Pa and Bababode launched Operation WID at a very loud ceremony at State House and soon council workers and police went into action clearing traders and Okada riders from the main streets. Once the operation reached the politically-sensitive corner of Sani Abacha street, it slowed down and in the other areas, the traders are re-claiming the streets and the Okadas are also moving in. Absolutely no Sierra Leonean gave Bababode a chance against Abacha women in this political game. We shall wake up one morning to find all prohibited streets fully re-occupied.
In all of this, we haven't heard a word from Bababode in the last several weeks. He will tell us he isn't responsible but rubbish is piling up again. We plead with him to go to Model Junction with the road leading to Parliament or Lewis Street junction with Dundas Street and see why we firmly believe that nothing has changed. The whole operation is Operation Clamp Vehicles.
Parking a car in Freetown is a mighty problem. A group of young people block parking spaces with rotten tires and pallets, huge stones and anything they can lay hands on. Freetown people are made to pay to park their cars safely in their own city. The money goes not to the council but to vagrants who end up stealing car batteries and driving mirrors.
This happens under the noses of the police and wardens. Bababode is missing in action. Winning an election is good but working in the interest of the people is the most difficult.
If Operation WID fails to clear traders and Okadas from our main roads even after De Pa's big and wide-ranging speech on lawlessness, we can as well surrender the whole city to them and move the capital close to the proposed new airport site at Mamamah. May be now we know who is really lawless.
"BUMBUNA BOSS SACKED!" BUMBUNA WORKERS ON STRIKE! WHO CARES?
When some newspapers reported the "sacking" of the boss of Bumbuna power station or that workers of the facility were on "strike" we dismissed the whole nonsense. Well, we feel a bit sorry for the ordinary workers who spend all their time in that God forsaken part of the country manning a dead power plant, but we aren't sorry that the boss that is busy trying to sustain the lies about the relevance of Bumbuna to power supply in Makeni and Freetown. We don't really care.
Freetown is in darkness and Bumbuna means nothing to us. We have our small Bumbunas in our backyards, generating our own electricity. What's the big deal?
The "sacked" Bumbuna boss is the scapegoat for the failure of the government to meet its most important campaign promise going back to 2007. He agreed to be used as such because even now he is refusing to tell people what the real issues are.
Moses Showers, the former director of the prison service was made another scapegoat to mask years of neglect of the service when prisoners virtually walked out of the "maximum" prison unchallenged. Today conditions are worse in there and there have been other escapes since Showers was sacked. Why is Bilo still on seat? Tonkolili Connection eh? ORSAI, ORWAI! O NAFFUL!
MUSA APC – THE GOVERNOR OF MILE 91
How come a man called MUSA APC has been allowed to terrorise Mile 91 for so long without the authorities doing anything about it. We have heard awful stories about his activities in the town and that he has heavy political backing.
When the police in MILE 91 arrested him recently, ministers travelled to the place to intimidate the police into releasing him. The case against Musa APC is now supposed to be going through the court system in Magburaka. We are on this case to make sure justice is done. As we say in the newspaper business, watch this space.
HUGO CHAVEZ IS DEAD BUT DID HE TRY TO GAIN THE WHOLE WORLD?
El Commandante, the Supreme leader of Venezuela, the man who described his political ideology as 21st century Socialism, is dead. The official cause of death is cancer.
He is credited with using his country's considerable oil wealth to virtually drag hundreds of thousands of his people from poverty and criminal neglect. The former Paratroops commander tried to export his brand of socialism to other parts of Latin America and Africa but met with very little success on the black continent.
In many ways, he behaved much like the Killer of Tripoli - Muhammar Gadaffi, who incidentally was an honorary member of our parliament. The only difference is that unlike Gadaffi, Chavez was always prepared to face his opponents at the ballot box. Gadaffi killed them. Chavez however went too far too fast.
His obsession with George W. Bush's foreign policy always put him at odds with the United States.
He has some notable loyalists in Sierra Leone. Our condolences to them and to the people of Venezuela.
