AT LONG LAST, PROFESSOR SEPTIMUS KAIKAI LEAVES SLBC BOARD
Mr “My President, Your President and Our President” has finally called time on his tenure as chairman of the SLBC board. The professor has been out of action for quite a while leaving the former “civil society” leader, Festus Minah in charge of a broadcasting experiment that has failed. The UN is refusing to go as far as saying so because they are ashamed to. They brought Ban Ki-Moon to this country to inaugurate their flagship project that was the SLBC. Even before the UN boss left, politicians had taken over, effectively defeating the purpose for which the UN put so much money into the place.
The professor has left at a time when any opinion poll would clearly show absolute public disgust for the politically-correct and mediocre performance of SLBC. In saying this, we reference the European Union Observer Mission report on the 2012 elections. From Mr Taz to media harassment of the opposition, in line with Logus Koroma’s disgraceful attack on Kadi Sesay, the SLBC under professor Kaikai refused to serve the people of Sierra Leone. It was plagued by strikes and Kongosa with staff fighting all types of kitchen battles for position and money and the attention of the government.
When the professor was a minister in charge of the then SLBS, his government resisted all efforts to re-organise SLBS and make it a public broadcaster that would be accountable to the people. His government preferred to keep it within their claws. We don’t blame the minister entirely for that but we must point out the irony of him becoming the first chairman of the Board of Directors of a CORPORATIZED SLBC under another regime.
Anyway, we wish him a peaceful retirement. You will NOT be missed.
SARAH BENDU AND THE TOLL-FREE LINE JOKE
It’s amazing how some of institutions set up to provide very important services to this country behave and take the people for granted. The SLRTA is one such. Sarah Bendu must be told that she is not fooling anybody by her feel-good gestures she undertakes from time to time with the taxpayers picking up the bills. After a high spending retreat in Bo, now she has just held another ceremony to announce so-called toll-free lines for passengers to call SLRTA when their vehicles are in trouble. And failed minister Logus was in attendance for the KEYNOTE SPEECH. Imagine this: a minister makes a KEYNOTE SPEECH to announce a toll-free line for the SLRTA. What does Sarah Bendu and Logus take us for? Isn’t this just one of those routine functions that a small department within the SLRTA should perform? In the 21st century we are having such noise about a toll-free line. Come on!
We have had a long experience with toll-free lines in this country and that leaves us with no alternative but to say from the outset that this is purely another publicity stunt. How dare Logus declare something as small as this as part of De Pa’s Agenda for Prosperity? What does he think the Agenda for Prosperity really is? We are beginning to doubt if some of our ministers have actually read that document.
When the whistle-blowers at the SLRTA make statements about the decadence in the SLRTA, the management complains all over the place. But such gimmicks have convinced us that Bendu has lost the plot in that place. SLRTA has left the most important things undone and is busy doing things it ought not to do. Have the SLRTA been paying the mandatory levy they are supposed to pass over to the Road Maintenance Fund? We mean some of the huge cash they collect as vehicle license fees. Doesn’t their refusal to pay that money to the Road Fund Board reflect on the quality of our roads in Freetown? We have the records of the last time they paid and how much they now owe the board.
What has the SLRTA done about the massive fatal accidents on our roads? We are dead sure that more than one hundred people have died in road accidents in the last few months and all the SLRTA can do is organise a retreat and set up a toll-free line that is sure to fail. We shall publish our encounter with the tool-free line soon. We don’t like too much privatisation but with performances like this, we are reviewing our position. Apologies for not mention the abysmal failure that OPERATION WID has been. Another SLRTA failure!
ACC HITS THE LITTLE FISH BUT AREN’T THE LARGE ONES SWIMMING AWAY?
When Transparency International told us our country had the greasiest palm in the whole world, our politicians cried foul and invited their supporters to take on the TI. Even an organisation like STATISTICS SIERRA LEONE that had been killed by corruption, that was stone dead, sprang to life to condemn TI with full page newspaper supplements. They were only fooling themselves.
Now the ACC has started picking up those people the TI report referred to. What is Kan Kan Kan’s position now? How long does he think the cash-for-report-cards nonsense and booking fees on the roads have been going on for?
In laud the fact that the ACC are arresting some school authorities for alleged corruption. But we are appalled that while the little fish are being drag-netted the sharks and whales are allowed to swim away unchallenged. We are willing to cooperate with the ACC to point out where the big fish are hiding.
Mr ACC commissioner Sir, we deserve explanation as to what, if anything, is being done about the financial audit that KPMG did on SLBC? Every time we’ve called up your staff on the issue, they have told us “the matter is still being investigated”. Our understanding from within the same ACC is that those investigations were completed a long time ago and you are the man refusing to prosecute because there are very powerful people involved. We are talking about faulty procurement procedures at SLBC that were skewed to benefit particular SACRED COWS who “bestride this narrow world like a colossus”.
If the ACC boss is happy with the rot and failure of our public broadcaster, the rest of the people are not. Does the ACC boss now understand why people feel there is semblance of Selective Justice? Anyway…we will return to SLBC.
QUEEN DIANA TAKES A HUSBAND: LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE OF KONOLAND
Ibi, Ibi, Ibi, - Ibi ma. Diana Konomanyi…o yea! Marrade Nor Dae Yaaaa? Maraide Dae! On behalf of our esteemed readers, we congratulate Queen Diana on this wonderful achievement. By this time next year, we could be welcoming a royal baby like the British did a few days ago. O what a joyful day that will be.
Well the guest list will be interesting. We know Chief Sidikie will be invited for the sake of protocol. But will he eat, booze and dance like the others? Or will it be a kind of snake dance – you know, a kind of wach me ar wach you.
We urge the Queen to provide space for three hundred poor people like us. EXCLUDING the Paramount Chiefs. We are confident that we shall have the best meal of our lives on this day. Thanks in advance.
(C) Politico 25/07/13
