OBAMA IS NOT COMING TO SIERRA LEONE
The most powerful man in the world, Barack Obama will be in Africa at the end of June. He will visit three countries: South Africa, Tanzania and Senegal. This tour is taking place only months after Obama received De Pa in the White House for talks on "democracy and trade". For us here it was a great honour that our leader was among three others invited to that meeting.
Now, Obama is paying a return visit to the continent but he will pay a return visit to only one of those countries invited to that White House meeting. De Pa must be absolutely gutted that Great Barack Obama is not coming here.
We've been trying to find some reasons for Obama's decision to stay away from our country. Here we go.
1.Obama is disappointed that De Pa has not moved on some of the key commitments he made in America. For example the FOI bill in still somewhere in parliament and by the look of things, it will remain there until De Pa leaves office
2. Seditious and Criminal libel laws still exist in our books despite the unequivocal clarity of the RED FLAG manifesto and the new spirit of openness in the world.
3. Obama is angry that De Pa allowed the third term kite to fly from the lips of failed Logus Koroma only for State House to issue a statement denying involvement but refusing to punish failedLogus for being flippant. In fact State House called the whole thing a "rumour".Unless that word changed its meaning last night it was anything but that.
4. The ruling party convention was very heavily massaged in the most undemocratic of ways in favour of De Pa’s friends, completely marginalising Chief Sidikie. In fact Chief Sidikie's job has now been taken over by Kothor IB and a lady who has admitted to it.
5. The main opposition party that should stand up for the people is in complete disarray as leadership struggle takes hold and holds sway. Where are the alternative policies?
6. “Civil Society” groups are only thinking about the next proposal and the administrative expenses that will end up in some of the new settlements around Freetown.
7. The fight against corruption is facing its worst moments in Sierra Leone. The ACC is too slow and they don’t seem to know how to prosecute well. Even as we write Allieu Sesay’s case is still in the Court of Appeal, two years after he was cleared of corruption in the High Court. And we hear that the ACC Act is about to be amended, probably watered down.
8. This fight between Freetown Waste Management Company and MASADAhas worsened the sanitation problem in Freetown so the leader of the Free World cannot come here and expose himself to the kind of air quality we have in Freetown.
9. The road leading from the American embassy to the rest of Freetown through FBC has been abandoned by the CSE contractors after cutting off water and power supply lines to thousands of homes without explanation. The sight of University Professors carrying jerry cans every morning in search of water will be too much for Obama to take in.
10. The final reason is that De Pa refused to either address the nation on the outcome of that historic visit to the White House on radio or call a news conference. Instead he allowed bits and pieces of information on the issue with heavy propaganda and lies on the edges to appear in Facebook and other social media outlets from which many have unsubscribed. People are really fed up with all the spin.
You don't have to believe us. We are only speculating.
LAW OFFICERS’ DEPARTMENT FIGHTING IN THE DARK
Public cynicism over the slow turning of the wheels of justice may take a new turn. And wait for it…There was fighting on Tuesday at the Law Officers’ department over the use of some donor funds and the hooha was between the Solicitor General and the Attorney General. Twitter understands the two are like a cat and a mouse. We are investigating the reasons. But one thing that does not need investigating is that if there was any matter in court on Tuesday requiring serious state prosecution it would have been fluffed because of the bout, or adjournment sought by the state. Well while peacekeepers are planning to calm down nerves, there is another contentious thing to contend with – blackout. Sections of the office are onprepaid meters which have not been recharged for a while now. Darkness in justice. It has always been metaphorical, now it seems to be literal.
ONCE UPON A TIME, SIERRA LEONE AND A COMPANY CALLED CSE
The history of this country will be incomplete without a whole chapter being dedicated to a construction company called CSE. They manage to get many road construction contracts in this country even when the reality is that they are unable to do them on time and with any serious quality. Ten days for tiff man wan day for master os. Tem go fit klok.
Their pattern is to go into some place, on winning a contract(never mind how), start some work, cause a lot of misery for the people in the area and then move on to start another project and another and another. Meanwhile the misery of the earlier ones continues. Biting more than they can chew.
Their latest victims are the people of Regent, Leicester, Kortright, Tree Planting and Leicester Road. CSE workers have cut off electricity and water to hundreds of homes, leaving thousands in darkness with no water for nearly two months. Continuing their pattern, they have pulled back their workers and with the rains pouring down, the laterite has been washed away and the road is worse off today than the day CSE arrived on the scene to start work. SHAMBOLIC is an understatement.
Despite all this, CSE are ready to bid for another contract tomorrow and they will get it. Who is the person behind this company? Ordinary Sierra Leoneans like us don’t care what people get for keeping a company like CSE in this country even with such performance. What we want is a company that delivers on time for the huge money they get paid.
Unless we get that, we will not stop raising issues with CSE. Thousands of people have been left without water and electricity while CSE continues as if things are normal. The people’s patience is being stretched beyond limit.
DEAL WITH THIS ALBERT ACADEMY SHAME NOW
The idea that students of Albert Academy School can riot almost every month, disrupting the lives of commuters and destroying private and school property, is unacceptable. And the authorities must deal with that now. It’s getting out of hands and they risk serious confrontation with people living in the community around the school who are empowered by law to defend their property in the face of an attack by criminals in school uniform.
We can’t believe that it’s now the responsibility of students to determine what the pass grade is in their school. When did the school authorities surrender that task to them? No sooner do students feel uncomfortable with something than they jump on the streets pelting cars with stones and stealing from passers-by. This cannot be allowed to continue.
We are waiting to see how the police and the courts handle this clear case of riotous conduct, worse than that forwhich opposition supporters spent almost one month on remand.
The Sierra Leone police have to approach the security of the whole Model Junction and Leicester road community in a much more robust and intelligence-led manner. Those places have changed and they present new security challenges to what used to obtain one year ago.
The sheer number of people who assemble at Model Junction on a daily basis is a cause for concern. We are waiting to see if the police gained any lessons from what has happened in the place over the last three months.
LIKE SLFA, LIKE HANDBALL ASSOCIATION, LIKE WAFA,LIKE PAMELA WILLIAMS, LIKE NOC LIKE ...?
Pope John Paul, the journalist, Human Rights activist and this and that is on the war path again. He has just announced the suspension of the operations of the National OlympicCommittee because they rejected his attempt to meddle in their elections the way he did with the SLFA one that never was. Well this is what a nation gets when people refuse to collectively deal with problems because they were not affected at the time the problems began.
There's no doubt that the Pope is the most meddlesome minister in the recent history of Sierra Leone. He started with the SLFA and now look at where the nation is in terms of football administration: We are lumbered with an undemocratic body called Normalisation Committee set up by corrupt FIFA. Ten Premier League clubs, taking advantage of the chaos have set up a rival league and are fooling themselves all over the country with Mercury money supporting the breakaway.
Now Paul says he has suspended the NOC – a very decent organisation, run by highly educated and well respected citizens of this country who know the issues.
The Pope is one man who believes that just because he is minister, he can never be wrong. We have reached the moment of decision. If all the sporting bodies fail to come together now to fight this blatant inexcusable ministerial interference and throw the Pope out of their affairs, then they will all fall like dominos.
And those fifth columnists within those organisations who are colluding with the Pope to defeat the course of justice constitutionality within their own organisations, we warn them that they will not escape. The Pope will also come after them sooner rather than later.
The Pope's Macbethan Logic is leading to doom.
(C) Politico 23/05/13
