WE LOVE AND RESPECT AMERICA BUT REIMER SHOULD SLOW DOWN
David Reimer, the departing US ambassador to Sierra Leone has been in the news over the last 48 hours. He granted an interview to radio democracy that has suddenly become a mighty political football and we believe the ambassador knew what was coming but he wanted to go out of Salone with a bang. Now we have a really big BANG.
There are a few sub-plots to the interview itself that we will deal with subsequently – one of them being whether the Information Minister or some government official instigated a blackout at the radio station just to prevent the interview from being broadcast. The station itself has denied that on air but as media people we enjoy conspiracy theories. We make a lot of play with theories like that now being pushed on social media and we would like to come back to them and indeed the professional quality of the interview itself.
For now let’s just address one aspect of the whole interview. That doesn’t mean we have nothing to say about the other points the departing ambassador made. We have no problem with most of what he said because as a country we have no control over what the US decides to do with their money whether it’s MCC money or other forms of support to Sierra Leone. We also cannot question the US government for not congratulating an elected president of Sierra Leone.
Here we quote from the US State Department statement on the June 24 elections in this Land that we Love.
The United States continues to be concerned about irregularities in the election results announced by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL). Independent parallel vote tabulations and analyses by accredited national and international observation missions raise questions about the integrity of the official results. We call on the government to institute an independent, outside investigation of the elections process and integrate observer recommendations to improve the electoral modalities for future elections.
Reimer made a big play of the last sentence in this material quoted above. As far as he was concerned no Sierra Leonean should head up the committee that would “investigate the ELECTIONS PROCESS”. Reimer says even our Vice President should have nothing to do with it because he was a candidate. We suppose he has no problem with the biggest candidate in the elections APPOINTING members of the committee and setting out their Terms of Reference. Are we correct Mr. Reimer or do you have other ideas?
A few quick questions:
1. Reimer suggests that the country is too “polarized” to find an independent Sierra Leonean so we should ask a foreigner to carry out an investigation of the elections PROCESS. Really, Mr. Ambassador?
2. Does Ambassador Reimer believe that anybody coming from outside and even ends up taking an oath to certify their impartiality should be considered as such?
3. Does Ambassador Reimer have a candidate in mind to replace our Vice President on that committee?
4. Would that candidate also determine their Terms of Reference?
5. Would it also be a good idea for an outside body to APPOINT the rest of the members of the committee?
6. Where would this Independent Foreigner thing end? Is it along these same lines that Orsamu of Tolongbo asked ECSL people to resign a few days before the elections and hand their jobs over to an Independent body of Foreigners? Striking similarity?
6. Maybe there should be no Sierra Leonean on the committee. We are still thinking about the idea of a country so polarized that there can be nobody to do independent work.
Our dear Ambassador may have returned to the US by the time he gets a copy of this paper but we just want to wish him well and to say we are open to have a conversation on these small questions in the interest of Salone.
PIKE STREET BRIDGE IS A DISGRACE ONCE AGAIN
We have been compelled once again by the facts on the ground to call on the SLRA to do something about that very important bridge at Pike Street. Sometime ago we called attention to the situation on that bridge and the SLRA decided to fill up some of the potholes. It wasn’t a perfect job but we congratulated them in the hope that they would return subsequently to finish the job. Several months on, things have gone really bad on that bridge.
We don’t know whether the integrity of the bridge is being compromised – we certainly can’t make that determination but the reality of the ground is such that we wouldn’t be surprised one morning to wake up to unpleasant news in that place.
We know that budget issues are part of this equation but SLRA has just done Abacha Street. We ask the government to give them more money to deal with the problem on that bridge. It’s very serious. We will be back.
ONE MONTH TO REPLACE KEISTER BUT WHO IS NEXT?
So we now know that John Keister, the national football coach, would be gone from that job by the end of September. The SLFA has told us that after days of kite-flying about his possible successor and what they intend doing with Keister. The only reason Mohamed Kallon will not be in that job in the next 14 days is because once the SLFA flew the kite to gauge public opinion regarding his possible appointment, they were bombarded with negative feedback targeting the guy’s disciplinary record and temperament. No amount of spin-doctoring moved the needle in Kallon’s favor. The SLFA had no choice but to withdraw an offer our sources say was already on Kallon’s table.
We are already looking beyond Keister and we expect the SLFA to start by setting out what their plans are for the future of the national team before telling us the kind of person they are looking for to take us to the next level. We sound a note of caution here: we want a Sierra Leonean to do the job but please don’t bring us Amidu Karim. His appointment would represent a significant step backwards compared to Keister.
Those who established a cottage industry specializing in Keister bashing will realize soon enough that the real problem with the national team is that we have low quality raw materials to work with and the SLFA is fractured from within and as a consequence they are indecisive.
A VERY GOOD JOB DONE AT WILBERFORCE ROUNDABOUT
We drove past Wilberforce roundabout the other day and were pleasantly surprised to see that the place has been cleared of street traders and the criminals that are always around them. It was a very sweet drive because we didn’t have to fight for space on the road with pedestrians and market stalls.
While we congratulate those that have done that job, we want to say a few things for them to consider:
1. Those street traders are some of the most stubborn Sierra Leoneans. They will attempt a comeback in the coming weeks. They do it gradually – one after the other until they swamp the place. We should have people keeping a close watch for signs of return in the next few weeks.
2. There are other areas of Freetown where such illegal markets have been established. We know people have to look for something to eat but the truth is that it’s not in the interest of us all for our people to be risking it all in front of vehicles and criminals daily. There are designated market spaces that these people have abandoned to take their chances on the streets.
3. Anyway, this is our time to go take nice pictures at that fantastic roundabout to upload on Instagram and on social media in general. That’s life.
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