ARISE IIP TRAINS COMING TO SALONE
We have read many viewpoints on why Siaka Stevens, the man who ruled Sierra Leone as a ONE PARTY state for years, phased out the railway. Some say the late political maverick thought the railway was becoming too much of a burden to operate while others talk about the move being an integral part of his overall scheme to consolidate power around himself and impoverish his opponents. With the railway gone, his friends put large vehicles on the road marked WE REPLACE THE RAILWAY to move agricultural products from the countryside to Freetown for export. Many Sierra Leoneans born after Siaka Stevens have only experienced trains when they travel out of Sierra Leone but that is about to change now.
We are told that in the next two weeks or so, a company that is building an industrial zone in Songo, just outside Freetown is bringing a few train cars to be used to transport people from place and obviously there will be those to be used to carry finished products from their plant site to the port for export. We are a good few months away from putting those trains on the rails but excitement is building up.
Please when the trains eventually start running let’s take safety as a priority. We shouldn’t treat the trains like any poda poda. In Freetown poda podas safety is sacrificed on the altar of profit making – people are packed like sardines; additional benches are brought in just to increase capacity.
We will return to this topic when the trains land in Freetown.
SANCTIONS: NIGER CUTS THE NATIONAL BUDGET BY 40%
We are reaching the point of reality in Niger where soldiers kicked their president out and declared themselves as the new leaders of that country. Months later they are still detaining the president and his family. Bad as that may be, they now face a more serious challenge than the mess they have driven themselves into.
All but three countries in ECOWAS have cut ties with them, they have lost a key external partner in the European Union and the Americans are moving slowly towards declaring what the soldiers did in that country as a coup and that comes with a lot of consequences for bilateral funding support and security cooperation.
Here is a country that is facing a dangerous insurgency being forced to cut its budget by 40% instead of spending more than the projected 5 billion US dollars. Which areas of the development agenda will suffer this cut? We know defence spending is bound to increase. How will the government and people of Niger cope with such deep cuts?
1. Anyway, while we wait for budget proposals from Mali and Burkina Faso, why can’t those two neighbors plus Guinea put some money together and bail Niger out? They all came together to challenge ECOWAS. They can do it again.
2. The junta leader can easily fly over to the Kremlin to meet with Vladimir Putin and some oil money will hit the central bank in Niger. It’s that easy.
3. The junta can decide to bring home all foreign reserves and spend. What’s the point of having money in a foreign bank when the domestic budget is facing a 40% cut?
4. They should now mobilize the same crowds they encouraged to attack France, bring them to the stadium and tell them to the stadium and tell them of the impending struggle. Let’s see if they will accept it as the price they will pay for supporting the junta and return home dancing in support of the junta.
5. The soldiers should simply release their president and return to barracks. Too many soldiers have been killed since they took power and now homes are going to feel the pain of military adventurism.
KKY OUT OF NGC SO WHAT ABOUT THE ALLIANCE WITH SLPP?
Honestly it was clear even before the last general and presidential elections that KKY had made up his mind to quit NGC. Yes his body remained in the NGC, such that he attended meetings and physically received NGC people at his home but his spirit had returned to the SLPP. In truth, the SLPP worked very hard to bring him back because whether people like it or not, KKY is a strong politician with enormous international clout that could benefit any political party in Sierra Leone.
The NGC probably had plans for the post-KKY period, anyway, they have no choice now but to pick themselves up and look forward to 2028 should they survive. We have a terrible history with political THIRD Force organizations in this country going back to Thaimu Bangura’s PDP and Karefa Smart’s UNPP. Both parties are gasping for breath not able to get even ONE PERCENT of the national vote.
KKY took the NGC into alliance with the SLPP in June but now that he has left the party, what’s the future of that alliance? Does the SLPP really need what is left of the NGC?
1. We may be wrong and we are prepared to accept that, but we believe that with KKY returning to the SLPP, the alliance document has been torn to shreds and NGC people who were hoping for jobs and other political favors because of that document should join KKY immediately.
2. The NGC performed badly in June and is on the verge of being wiped out. In fact the only thing the SLPP gained from the alliance was keeping KKY as a person on the campaign. He is a power campaigner who would have obscured the SLPP’s message on many fronts.
3. In many ways the NGC dug their own grave. They were split down the middle over which of the two big parties to work with and long before KKY decided to have meetings with Principal, Brightest Man had declared BOTE GAME with Orsamu as his man. He even withdrew NGC candidates from by-elections that SLPP lost.
4. Some NGC people have now entered government while others are warming up on the touch line. It’s time to join up guys. NGC is heading the way of PDP and UNPP – with the greatest respect to those two parties.
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS BANNED IN EUROPE
So what message is Europe in particular sending to the rest of the world, especially those of us in Africa who are being lectured daily about democracy by banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations? We’ve heard from the French and the Germans and other countries are doing the same. They are very clear that the only demonstrations they would allow as the war between Israel and Gaza rages on are pro-Israeli ones. This is democratic Europe in the 21st century.
We have no intention of going into the heavy issues about attacks and counter offensives and self-defence actions and all that in this column so please don’t drag us there. What we are interested in is why are the high priests of democracy not attacking what they have told us is a fundamental requirement of states that practice democracy – we are talking about the right to protest.
Last year some of our people went to the streets of Freetown defying police regulations to protest about many things. The police tried to stop that but they fought back and killed SIX officers in the most disgraceful manner on the streets of this country. Next minute, the High Priests of democracy were all over the place talking about THE RIGHT TO PROTEST. Now, the same people are allowing one side of a complicated geo-political conundrum to protest and threatening the other side of that same situation from protesting. Is this happening in Europe?
When we read our lesson notes on democracy before writing this we saw what the High Priests told us long ago: that we may not agree with what people say but we MUST at all times die defending their right to say it. That’s the only reason why we are here calling out our great High Priests. We urge them to always practice what they preach.
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