THE SUN GOES DOWN IN KAILAHUN – ALL HAIL THE WIDOWER
It shouldn't have come as a surprise that the Green Movement candidate won the election in any constituency in Kailahun district. But the rock-solid certainty of a Green Movement victory all over Kailahun at any time was thrown into doubt during the last general election when the Red Movement, under the GREAT leadership of De Pa, took one seat – ousting the Green Movement’s Spokesman from parliament and in the process gathering many presidential votes. So here was another opportunity for the Red Movement, led by their recent signing – Robin the son of Fallay, to prove that November 2012 was no fluke.
So it came to pass that Robin the son of Fallay recruited a cute Western-accented lady and challenged her to bring down the former diplomat widower who presents a constant mellow mood like a man who just can't stop being happy. We are hearing now that Fallay was well-resourced by Red Movement HQ for the fight. He also had a Paramount Chief who was under sufficient threat of losing his seat in an election petition hanging in the courts.
As it turned out, the SUN failed to rise. We also hear that Fallay is finding it difficult writing his report – narrative and financial – because many suspect some figures just don't add up at the moment. Fallay is beginning to look like that failed Kissi Warrior who claimed supremacy over Kissi land in another bye-election only for his candidate, a former junta soldier to be trounced by a young teacher. The Warrior was then sacked from his ministerial job (he had no clue what he was doing in that office anyway). Once in a while now he writes long, boring and confused articles in an attempt to re-establish himself.
The new mellow widower MP will continue in that mood but he will not always have Osuofia by his side to bail him out like he did this time round.
ASP SAMURA BLUNDERS AGAIN – PROSECUTOR AND JUDGE
When will this guy step back from this gung-ho approach to police PR, and comport himself like a real servant of all the people who pay his salary? When we asked for him to be moved from being the public face of a police force that has serious problems with its public profile, we were being genuine. We recommended that because Samura, even more than Francis Munu, has contributed immensely to giving the force a very bad image which is contrary to the job he is unsuccessfully trying to do now.
Samura was on Radio 98.1 on Monday morning trying to justify the undemocratic imposition of a curfew on Kailahun town just as it became clear that the Red Movement had suffered another defeat at the hands of a resilient opposition, despite spending big and bringing out all the big guys to help take constituency 001.
After accusing the people of engaging in "riotous conduct", he then gave the reason for whatever "disturbance" he alleged occurred in Kailahun. According to Samura the problem occurred because of "Political intolerance" and the "belief" that "only one political party should exist in Kailahun". He also said that people were being "victimised" because of the political views. He then proceeded to tell the journalist that the police were investigating the issue. What is there to investigate when you have already reached this conclusion? Fairness is the REAL VICTIM, ASP Samura.
To understand why we think Samura's nonsense must stop, Imagine this scenario: Let's take out all the references the interviewer made to the interviewee as a police inspector and then play the interview to students at any civilised police academy (excluding Hastings, of course, where the SLP training school is) and follow up with these questions:
Tutor - Who do you think was speaking there?
Students - A politician belonging to a party that has just lost an election
Tutor - No, that was the spokesman of the Sierra Leone Police
Students - (Obviously very shocked) Is he still in his job?
Tutor - Well I told you he works for the Sierra Leone Police
Politico – Imagine if a similar incident had happened in Makeni or Magburaka where the Green Movement had just been trounced by the Red Movement, would there have been a curfew? NO!!! Let us even say that the winners attacked the losers as allegedly happened in Kailahun would the SLP Spokesman have accused Red Movement supporters of “political intolerance” and wanting "only one political party to exist in Makeni/Magburaka?" you know the answer to that, of course.
This was the same police spokesman who described a former US marine cold-bloodedly murdered by police in broad day light at Lumley Beach as a "miscreant" whose death the police were showing off as an example to "hooligans" probably because the same fate would ultimately befall them. Later his bosses went on their knees to beg for forgiveness from the family of the murdered man who was buried with full military honours in America.
As a matter of grave concern, can Samura tell us the latest about a Sierra Leonean Police officer who was killed in Guinea while on duty just before the election in 2013? Samura is pathetic! The SLP needs redemption.
ON THE ROAD TO FBC WITH DE PA; AND THERE WAS LIGHT AT LAST
De Pa embarked on a rare road show to FBC campus and its environs last week and some magic happened. A Large part of the campus and living quarters that had been in darkness since late March was lit up again the next day. We are sure you are tempted to think this is a kind of Cinderella rags-to-riches story. It happened at Kortright just up the hill from the College campus.
Zubairu Kaloko's NPA gave all sorts of excuses prior to De Pa doing the road show – from lack of money to the unavailability of materials locally to do the job. We suspect he hired a special flight to bring the materials bought with money that suddenly fell from the sky and electricity was restored to FBC and its surroundings.
There are many problems in the area – the road is the worst in Freetown, there's no water on a campus of more than five thousand students, administrative staff and lecturers. The general FBC infrastructure is crumbling fast. Yes we know the BADEA largesse is coming but life must go on before that happens.
We notice that Petito only came to the place because De Pa was around. We are inclined to believe that he was in fact ordered to join up. As for Blackout Minister, he is so low on confidence that we didn't feel for one moment he would be making any public appearance soon.
This idea that nothing happens without the personal intervention of De Pa is a real shame in this country. He has appointed nearly 50 ministers and deputies, some of whom are clearly out of their depths in office but are kept on for political or personal reasons or both at the expense of the people.
We hope that over this complete neglect of the people that De Pa is PERSONALLY trying to deal with, heads must roll. Petito, Blackout Minister and their people knew since April that FBC and its surroundings were in a bad shape but they ignored the cries of the people. We are waiting.
AL - SHABBAB THREAT IS REAL, BUT WHY SHOUT ONLY NOW?
De Pa's government appears to have gone into overdrive in an attempt to reassure the people that the Somali Islamists will be prevented from launching a Kenya-style attack on Sierra Leone. Well, we pray that God in His Majesty will help Sierra Leone.
We warned even before our troops were deployed to that troubled country that there could be consequences. And it's not as if we were clairvoyants, we merely followed their track record in terms of their determination and love for staging spectacular attacks against their enemies. So while the nation was told our troops were going out there to keep the peace, Al-Shabbab declared them enemies of their cause and threatened to attack all countries contributing troops to that mission.
We are never totally against deploying our troops to help other countries but we had some problems with the Somalia deployment. It's only now that Kenya has been hit that our government is coming to life on the dangers we face. Al-Shabbab started with security-conscious Uganda and then sophisticated Kenya and when you consider their audacious piracy activities in that region, you are clear about the power we are up against.
And please let nobody tell us we are too far from Somalia. There is nothing as difficult as trying to stop a man who is determined to hurt you. Osama's operation was organised from far away Afghanistan and executed by people living in the US. Instability is spreading across West Africa and we should never convince ourselves that we are safe.
De Pa has to mobilise the nation properly and prepare the people for what is very possible without panicking and arresting foreigners unnecessarily. We knew the consequences of that deployment before we went in. We have been down this road before. Why do you think Charles Taylor will soon be the guest of Her Majesty the Queen.
(C) Politico 01/10/13
