THE PMDC LEADER, THE LAND QUESTION AND ALLEGED SUBVERSION – THE REAL QUESTIONS
The PMDC leader spent the weekend in a police cell at CID headquarters on Slater Terrace in central Freetown. It’s been a real rollercoaster few days for the Dalai Lama and his future as a free man is uncertain as he faces a serious charge of subversion that could land him at the notorious Pademba Road prisons for a long time. A lot has been written and said already.
We have analysed social media contents on the issue from all sides and we found them very interesting. We shall hold back from making the kind of comments we would have loved to make at this stage because of legal reasons. But here are some points we can make without jeopardising the current investigations that the police say they are doing.
This land question that is at the heart of this issue has been dragging on since 2010 and as usual those who ought to have come out strong to lay bare the facts of who actually owns the land have simply pretended to be deaf in the silent hope that the matter will die out naturally. The PMDC leader is now being accused of basically threatening state security and for that he could be charged for subversion. Our approach is to keep the light shining brightly on where all of this started – The Land Question. At which point in all this did the Ministry of Lands find out this was state property? Yesterday?
There are many Sierra Leoneans who are suffering in silence because of the way they’ve been treated in land matters. The cases take unnecessarily too long to decide in our courts and in general people just don’t believe they will get justice in our courts. We are prepared to take a stroll along Siaka Stevens Street with the Chief Justice in her full Supreme Court garb asking just one question: Do you really trust Sierra Leone’s justice system? We can assure the CJ that more than 90% of any sample area would say NO.
The PMCD leader has learned a few good lessons from the events of the last few days. He is no stranger to prison even though he hasn’t been there for a long time.
He must have used those boring hours for deep reflection on issues like POLITICAL ALLIANCES, POWER, PUBLIC SPEAKING and BURNING ONE’S BRIDGES on your way to the unknown.
PETITO PROVES HIS INCOMPETENCE AGAIN AND AGAIN
One of the most incompetent people in De Pa’s government is Petito. He would dispute this vehemently and we have no problems with that but we stand on real facts saying that. He should never attempt to push us on that matter. We spent the last five months leading to the last elections reading around the man as Minister of Works. We shall reveal our findings at a time of our choosing.
Here we have a minister who is supposed to be delivering an important part of an Agenda for Prosperity allowing the SLRA to be treated like a piece of rag by Kaloko’s Road Fund Board with all that body’s alleged lack of accountability and possible corruption. The SLRA, which is indebted to many people, is being strangled. They don’t receive salaries sometimes for up to three months. Meanwhile their counterparts at the Road Fund Board enjoy regular fat salaries and other allowances. Apart from that Kaloko withholds monies due the SLRA for road projects. Doesn’t that explain why we have some many potholes on our streets?
Things have gone so bad that parliament is now dealing with the problem. Petito who is so distracted by his ambition to succeed De Pa as president is busy running clandestine campaigns instead of getting Kaloko to understand that he cannot continue holding the SLRA to ransom.
If Petito genuinely believes he could become president of Sierra Leone, he must prepare himself for a real fight. We shall be making the case for the people against his insatiable desire for power and wealth.
We hold no brief for the Roads Authority but we just can’t understand how is it that people can go without salary for three months with their minister pretending to be unaware. In fact we believe he is the one using Kaloko to mess up the SLRA under Munda Rogers.
When will Munda resign and so end the suffering of the other SLRA staff. Petito hates him. HE SHOULD KNOW THAT BY NOW.
“RUMOURS” ABOUT A THIRD TERM FOR THE GREATEST OF ALL
The government’s statement attempting to deal with feverish public debate about De Pa planning to seek a third term in office has just failed to land any serious punch where it should. So we are sorry to disappoint De Pa by saying, the issue is still very much alive.
For starters we respectfully disagree with State House that the issue was a “rumour”. It wasn’t. We take the very basic definition of the word rumour to explain why we disagree with that classification. The New Penguin Dictionary – updated 2001 defines rumour as “1. a statement or report circulated without confirmation of its truth. 2. Talk or opinion widely disseminated but with no identifiable source”.
The recent third term debate doesn’t fit this definition. State House says:
“It has come to the notice of Government that certain individuals are peddling rumours that His Excellency the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma intends to run for a third term as President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. This is totally untrue and against the provision of the 1991 National Constitution which stipulates the tenure of President and restricts such tenure to two consecutive terms only. Whoever is circulating the rumour is doing so out of ignorance or over-zealousness.
POLITICO – We can’t believe that State House is refusing to name and shame failed Logus Koroma who actually threw this issue into the public square as a signal of the APC’s intention. And the timing couldn’t have been more inappropriate. The APC convention was only a few hours away when Logus went on Universal Radio and talked about a third term for De Pa. He followed that up with further appearances on the government mouthpiece called SLBC and on Radio Mount Aureol.
The whole thing was well-organised and the man who coordinated De Pa’s successful second term campaign should be believed in such matters. And can anybody please tell us how long it took for State House to issue this statement which leaves so much to be desired?
“The rumour threatens to undermine the democratic credentials of President Koroma, as such rumours stand at variance with the thinking of His Excellency the President who has on many occasions made it very clear that he is not interested in a third term of office”.
POLITICO – Sorry! This was never a rumour. The man who brought the issue to the fore is a key member of the APC; he coordinated the last presidential campaign that returned De Pa to power and he is in a position to speak for the party. And let’s not hide it; De Pa’s democratic credentials have been dealt a severe blow. Many Sierra Leoneans believe that this was a deliberate kite-flying move by the government aimed at getting public reaction on the issue. The force of the people’s rejection of any such idea was so strong that the government has been forced to pull back and blame the “rumour” on “certain individuals”. Come on people, you actually meant failed Logus Koroma.
A quick word on the constitutional review initiative: We shall follow this process from start to finish. It is so important to this country that De Pa and his government must never doubt our resolve to keep it in the public domain with forensic analysis.
DEFENCE MINISTRY AND THE MOUNTAIN OF RUBBISH
Just behind the Ministry of Defence on the Fort Street end is a mountain of rubbish comparable only to the one at the main dumpsite at Bormeh. We expect the ministry to argue that it has nothing to do with them since the rubbish thing is taking place in another person’s place. We understand that but Pallo Conteh knows that the rubbish is too close for comfort.
A ministry as important as that should never allow itself to be defined by that rubbish in its neighbourhood. In fact, soon the consequences of allowing so much rubbish in your backyard could be disastrous inside the defence ministry offices soon. We call on Pallo Conteh to quickly deploy one hundred soldiers to the place to clear that rubbish and keep the place clean henceforth. Well done Soja!
