FIRST LADY ROLLS INTO KONOLAND IN COL. GHADAFFI-STYLE CONVOY
The people of the troubled district of Kono must be forgiven for thinking that Col. Ghadaffi had resurrected from the grave and was on a visit to their headquarter town of Koidu last weekend. Actually, it was the First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone who was in the area for the funeral of a prominent native of the district.
The late man was a member, deputy minister and MP under the SLPP, but on a day like that, such sensitivities didn't matter.
We counted 15 vehicles in the First Lady's convoy with siren blaring all the way into the town. Amazing stuff! A 15-vehicle convoy carrying the most important woman in Sierra Leone driving at top speed on some of the country's worst roads.
Many years ago, Vice President Albert Joe Demby was heavily criticised in Freetown for his love for the sound of sirens. By the end of his term in government, he was known as the siren man. Now look at what we have: ministers like Musa Tarawallie and Pallo Conteh have convoys and their own sirens. Disgraced former Mayor Herbert George-Williams had his own siren.
We just can't understand why the First Lady needed such a huge convoy and all that siren just to attend a funeral in her home district. At what cost is all that to the taxpayer – the fuel, wear and tear on the vehicles, drivers’ salaries and per diem, etc?
The people of Kono district are very disgusted with all this display of power, wealth and influence when they, like many others around this country, live in such grinding poverty and squalor. The King of Spain gave up his luxury yacht a few days ago to bring himself closer to his people in the period of austerity. Here our political leaders are keeping, even increasing on their privileges. Strange eh?
As for the sirens, sometimes, it's the officials around such powerful people who are so overzealous and sycophantic that they create a god out of them. But again, we expect the nation's mother tell to the sycophants to stop the nonsense of convoys and sirens and present her to the public as an ordinary woman who has a private life after the 2017.
WASTE MANAGEMENT COMPANY vs. MASADA = ABSOLUTE RUBBISH
We are witnessing the most bizarre and extraordinary show of institutional disorganisation between the Freetown Waste Management Company and a company called Masada. They are fighting over whose job it is to clean Freetown now and keep it clean for the foreseeable future. Operation WID, or not, the city is swimming in filth and street traders are multiplying daily. Even roads under construction are not spared.
Both parties claim to have letters instructing them to do one thing, and the other is an order from ABOVE. While all this is happening, rubbish continues to pile up on our streets. If anybody thinks we’re are being alarmist, ignore the usual places like Model Junction and Lewis Street and go to the back of what used to be Brookfields Hotel, close to those government quarters. The rubbish there is higher that Mount Everest.
We know the people behind Masada and we know the value of the contract signed with this company on our behalf so we will not tolerate any ambiguity about what next to do. Rubbish is piling up, dogs are having a field day and disease is spreading. This RUBBISH WAR must end now. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
21 DAYS FOR AIRTEL BUT WILL CUSTOMERS BE COMPENSATED?
The last one month, or so, has been particularly difficult for customers of the mobile phone company, AIRTEL. The quality of the service has fallen to the extent that making a call on that network is almost like using connecting flights across West Africa - long delays, cancellations and flying coffins.
Customers have complained and complained about phones being "currently switched off" even when the person is sitting next to you with the phone on, or the nauseating "all channels are busy at the moment". Which channels please? Look, we understand that we can never have a perfect communication system with the frailties of electronics and the vagaries of our weather and all that, but Airtel has really gone mad.
And Siray Timbo's has waited until now when many people have lost so much money trying to use Airtel to give a 21-day notice like any labour union wanting to go on strike.
We are surprised NATCOM hasn't called another COMSUMER PARLIAMENT Jamboree in the last few months for people to talk and talk, and collect per diems with no results. Airtel service is bad and we need action from the regulator now.
Siray Timbo must also answer the question about how the company will compensate its long suffering customers. We are not interested in the withdrawal of licenses. It will not solve the problem because of the socioeconomic backlash. We must be compensated directly and both Airtel and its arrogant staff and NATCOM know how.
“THE SYSTEM IS DOWN”, SAYS ECOBANK. “AGAIN?” THE PEOPLE ASK.
They say only two things are certain: Governments will collect taxes and people will die. We beg to add another certainty in the Sierra Leone context. You can’t walk into an Ecobank office anywhere in Sierra Leone any week without being told by not-so-polite tellers that “THE SYSTEM IS DOWN”.
We love Ecobank. It's a great Pan-African institution that has served extremely well in many countries including Sierra Leone. But we are getting fed up with this business of the system going down so frequently and embarrassing customers. And we have problem too with some of the staff we meet behind the counter, in term of how they treat customers. They are not very pleasant at all.
Imagine a man under serious pressure to solve some problem with a few thousand leones turning up at an Ecobank office only to be told in a slightly rude way that the system is down and by the time he tries to ask a question, the teller picks up her mobile phone and starts a long conversation, laughing and feeling pleased with herself. That's serious.
The IT system at Ecobank is a problem and we don't want them to pretend it's all hunky-dory. We love the bank but they are beginning to open the way for people to flee. We are waiting for them to call a meeting of their customers so that we can tell them what we really think about their service.
MELIAN’S CONAKRY SHUTTLE – WE'VE DISCOVERED THE DEAL
We call on the authorities at the Melian Transport Company to save customers from their greedy staff. Things will come to a head soon and the biggest loser will be the company.
We have spent the last one month investigating ticket sales on the Freetown-Conakry shuttle and it seems as if the bug from the SLRTC station at Wallace Johnson Street has bitten deep into Melian so that now all the glamour and organisation that made them distinct from the SLRTC is gone. In fact the SLRTC seems to be doing better than this private sector enterprise.
For a bus with a 50-seater capacity, the conductors only sell about 10 tickets. Then they will turn to the crowd and say "ticket don don" – no more tickets. All their attention is focused on monies they collect for luggage. They charge very high fees. Sometimes they prefer to have luggage than human beings sitting on their buses. What kind of madness is this?
I don't know if the owner of this company knows what is happening with her customers. On those buses they charge for even a plastic bag full of dirty underwear. Do they expect people to travel to other countries without clothes? Even on planes passengers are allowed a certain kilo of luggage. Why should Melian be different?
Many people are complaining about this wickedness. Melian company must stop their greedy staff from attempting to get rich quick by stealing from passengers now.
SWEIZY JEWELLERS ELECTIONS AGAIN 444 DON PUT HAN DAE?
These 4-4-4 people and their winner-takes-all mentality are really getting on the nerves of the people of Sierra Leone. The latest we've heard is that even the election to pick a chairman for Sweizy Jewellers has captured the attention of senior State House people who've gone there to tell some of the influential boys around that De Pa is interested in who gets elected to the post. We can't believe this!
It started with Students’ Union elections and quickly spread to Belgium Sellers, Chair Lady of police wives, Bike Riders, Motor Drivers, Dock Workers, Omolankay United, Poyo Sellers, Land Grabbers Incorporated and Ferry Dreg Man Association. Now it's the turn of Sweizy Jewellers.
Can we all just surrender this country to 4-4-4 and leave town?
