GOOD MORNING REELECTED MAYOR KEMOKAI OF FCC
Let’s start by congratulating you on your reelection as Mayor of Freetown. We don’t want to go into some of the things that happened during the campaign, especially those connected to you or things you did just to get you a second mandate. Those are issues we will surely drill into in due course. For now we want to welcome you once again to New City Hall and wish you the very best.
Now we want to call your attention to a few burning issues that you must address as soon as you are sworn in – that is after you finally end this grandstanding about not taking up office because in your case the ECSL didn’t announce the result you projected from your battle room. We are going to keep to our promise not to deal with those issues for now, including your Machiavellian use of social media to advance your political objectives.
By the way, we don’t need to remind you that you are returning to a much changed City Hall and you really will not have enough time to learn how to live and work in the new environment. The opposition in that council has a significant number of councilors that are going to really hold you accountable. Your one party state has been defeated. This is something you are not familiar with. Anyway, think about these issues:
1. During the campaign you tried to shift the blame for the poor sanitary condition in the city to other people. At least one of the contestants for the seat you now occupy gave you a good lesson in how to take responsibility. You have no choice but to clean this city. Remember, opposition councilors and a few of your own people that you are bound to ignore can remove you from office. It's possible.
2. We want to physically visit all the areas where you planted those ONE MILLION trees. Take journalists around and prove your critics wrong.
3. Our Mayor, please remember NEVER to say a word about cable cars in this city anymore. You knew you couldn't deliver that in a million years but you kept on telling the people Alice in Wonderland tales about this and that. Tell us something practical about getting the people of this city from place to place.
4. We wonder whatever happened to the One Million dollars you won for our city. We need information on that on day ONE.
5. Our Freetown football team is about to be relegated from the Sierra Leone Premier League. The team has been poor and weak. After managing to beat on the top sides you seized upon that and flooded Facebook with pictures of you congratulating the boys. Please sell the team because you have not given them the money needed to effectively compete.
6. We don’t want to hear anything about any DELIVERY TEAM in disguise. The normal FCC workers are intelligent and committed enough to do the job.
7. The Chief Administrator told the media how much money he collected recently in your absence. He collected billions of Leones. We will be coming to your doorstep to ask questions about FCC finances using powers in the Local Government Act. We know you prefer those highly sanitized appearances on your favorite TV stations instead of meeting the press. See you soon.
THE SWORD FALLS AT STATE HOUSE AS BIG HEADS ROLL
Nine Presidential Advisers were sacked on Wednesday in a dramatic move by Principal. Apparently there was no warning and the sacked officials were midway through normal duties when the letter sent to the Financial Secretary to stop the salaries of the sacked Advisers was leaked on social media. The embarrassment of those sacked was complete.
So we have two things to consider:
1. Many people are describing this move by Principal as a signal to his other appointees that in this second term there are NO Sacred Cows. The people sacked on Wednesday are very close to Principal and have sometimes played a role in influencing his actions on behalf of people and institutions. Now some ministers and parastatal bosses waiting to hear from Principal about their own situation have been left exposed.
We hear that Principal has taken personal charge of appointments this time because he believes some members of the 2018 committee did an absolutely corrupt job. We’ll see how he gets along with that because the last thing we want to see is an appointment once made, being rescinded. It makes the presidency look really bad. There are examples of that to fall on.
2. Who actually leaked a letter that was clearly sent to the office of the Financial Secretary for administrative reasons? We know the letter was done at State House by a human being and dispatched to the Ministry of Finance by a human being and received by a human being. Is that difficult to investigate?
This leak embarrassed senior members of society and government. It should be investigated and those found guilty severely punished.
Anyway, we are waiting to report the next steps because a list of all the remaining jobs is now with Principal for action. They say journalism is the first draft of history.
LET’S GROW WHAT WE EAT IN SIERRA LEONE
No matter how much we grumble about the cost of a bag of rice, it will keep going up. The people of this country have to make a decision to grow what they eat or continue to depend on other countries where people spend their time working to feed themselves and to make money from agriculture. They don’t spend all their time talking about politics on the streets, in offices, football stadiums or even cemeteries.
Why should we complain about the cost of rice produced in Cambodia and shipped halfway around the world to Sierra Leone? The farmers out there work really hard so they should enjoy the benefit of their labor.
We have recently seen social media photos of individual farmers or groups of farmers, including military personnel showing off their harvest. That’s the way to go. Cambodia is not a rich country. Most of the farmers in India, China and Pakistan are ordinary folks just like our own farmers. Why should they feed us?
Our politicians would gladly buy bags and bags of imported rice to distribute to supporters who spend several hours a day at so-called ATAYA BASES instead of asking them to go to the bush and grow food.
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