SOJA MAN PULL EASTER DEBUL FOR DE PA
Sojas were on the streets on Easter Monday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ – not bad. We can thus say that Christianity is taking hold in the military, can we? We felt very bad to hear them, not ‘singing thy praise O native land...’ but singing the praise of De Pa. It’s so disturbing to see soldiers doing this. We accept they are human beings like the rest of us and thus have a social conscience – we know that. What we can’t accept is that the military should politicise itself in this way. It didn’t happen in Senegal. Senegal is in West Africa, in fact just over one hour from here by plane.
When Bu-buakei Jabbie dropped his case against the SLPP, there was a soldier among the crowd of jubilant people. We heard later that he was sacked. Can the military now sack all those soldiers who took part in that mask devil parade? What is good for the goose is also good for the gander, they say. Soldiers should stay out of partisan politics. We will not negotiate this.
The military under Pallo Conteh is full of double standards – a senior officer is accused of sexually abusing a colleague, he is reprimanded and suspended from office. Another senior officer is caught on camera in a mess of his own making, having sex with the same lady that complained of harassment in the earlier case. The MOD issues a bland statement promising action. Like the Grand Old Duke of York, Pallo Conteh matches his ten thousand men up the hill and matches them down again – no action. Pallo Conteh has a warped sense of justice. He has refused to deal with this matter and is trying to kick it into the long grass. We will keep it in the court of public opinion.
TELL De Pa TENKI MARCH – WHEN NEXT, WHERE NEXT?
The traders under the leadership of one Tanue Jalloh recently organised what they called the “one million man march” to “tell De Pa tenki” for his work. But the thirty-five thousand capacity stadium was somehow in dire need of people. Businesses were closed down for the day and some people walked to the stadium to hear De Pa speak. That looks perfectly normal on the surface. We just feel that this was a badly disguised political road show organised for De Pa to test his strength in the volatile Freetown base. So how did it go then, Mr. Tanue Jalloh, president of the importers association? Please remember to also say thanks to Teachers, Nurses, Fire fighters, Garbage collectors, some Police officers and many other ordinary people who deserve a thank-you march for keeping our country together despite all the odds. They were doing this long before De Pa came along in 2007.
By the way, is the Sierra Leone Labour Congress still in existence? Sierra Leone is a strange country – a few people are enjoying and the rest are left to go around demeaning themselves with “Bra you borbor dae yar” all day. COSATU is an integral part of the ANC government of South Africa, but they still fight hard like any trade union for workers’ rights. The Labour movement in the UK bankrolls the Labour Party, but they organise strikes and demonstrations to put workers’ demands to the government. In Sierra Leone, the Labour Unions are chopping and keeping quiet, even when the ordinary workers are groaning under the weight of under-development, corruption and lack of opportunity. Rather they organised a funny and useless conference a few weeks ago. Who even noticed it? We dae beyen fos.
THAT BERLIN WALL AT SLBC
With SLBC everyday brings something new and exciting for hacks like us. On our way to Wilberforce the other day, we saw a huge wall separating the people from their broadcasting facility. We have no problem with SLBC building a fence to try to secure the station from, MUSA TARAWALLIE’s so-called Coup boys perhaps, but we have to say that this is not a fence; it’s a WALL. An unfriendly wall the broadcaster is using to hide from the people.
There’s a story behind the wall that we shall unveil soon. At that point people will understand why putting square pegs in round holes is a totally unproductive political gimmick that transitioning countries like Sierra Leone cannot afford. Our source has promised to bring us the unedited version of the KPMG report on the SLBC. Already we have some good ideas about what happened to a significant amount of money at SLBC. We want to have the document before we move on the story and we trust our source.
Building the Walls of Jericho around SLBC is not enough to hide the corruption and professional incompetence that we see on the screens and hear on radio daily. Come on Elvis, “tear down this wall”.
POLITICAL THIRD FORCE – LIB DEMS, UK – PMDC, SALONE.
As we discussed this issue in our newsroom, a journalist friend who was visiting us, told us in clear Salone terms – “Una nor compare sleep en die”- simply put; “don’t compare sleep to death.” We understood why he was so graphic but we decided to give it a try anyway.
- Both parties regard themselves as the third forces in British and Sierra Leonean Politics
- Both parties helped in significant ways to bring the ruling parties in Salone and UK to power
- Both parties demanded a stake in government (ministerial positions) before joining up
We didn’t go too far in the area of similarities. Look at what we found out in the area of differences.
- The Liberals in the UK also ensured that some of the policies they would have pursued, had they won, would be taken up by their coalition partners in a verifiable way.
- The Liberals allowed elements within their party who weren’t quite happy with the coalition to speak their minds without engaging in Kangaroo processes to throw them out of their parties.
- The Liberals did not allow their political identity to be swallowed up by the big coalition partner. Nick Clegg did not say for example, that if Cameron and the Tories failed, his political career would come to an end. He did not go to a public debate only to spend his whole time supinely speaking about the qualities of Cameron instead of addressing issues from his party’s perspective. We will find it difficult to believe that Clegg receives cash from Cameron for his personal enjoyment.
- Lest we forget, unlike the Liberals, the PMDC was set up with just one motive: to defeat the presidential bid of Solomon Berewa. That was achieved in 2007. (We don’t regret that by the way). The Liberals like other parties in the civilized world, build their parties on value systems that they hold dear. That’s why they don’t have small time opportunists like SB Saccoh, Tom Nyuma and John Leigh masquerading as the only ones that care for this country.
- Finally, the Liberals will survive for a long time to come, but the PMDC whose greedy members are being relentlessly pursued by De Pa who desperately wants a second term is on the brink of total destruction. Why is it that people always refuse to learn from the mistakes of others? Kabbah dealt with the PDP and UNPP in the same way Koroma is dealing with the PMDC. Wake up Charley! Never dig a pit too deep for anybody; you might be the one to fall in it. Aren’t you in it already sir?
WHERE IS THE SIERRA LEONE STATE LOTTERY?
Here is one institution that has clearly failed but the government refuses to accept the fact and then take the necessary action and relieve the people of Sierra Leone from the burden of continuously paying for a failed para-statal. The National Privatisation Commission, squatting the State Lottery Company building at Tower Hill is completely missing in action. They are busy privatising bits and pieces of the ports authority, the airport, etc, but have not done anything about their landlords.
As a nation, let’s take the following steps without further delay:
- Let’s accept that MERCURY has comprehensively trounced the State Lottery and made it irrelevant in business terms and that there should be no argument about keeping the name. Private companies run the lottery in countries that have benefitted from such projects. Let’s get on with it. There’s nothing in the name in this situation.
- Let’s also call on MERCURY to make a decent offer for the State Lottery Company, an offer that would bring profits to the government and support good causes for which the State Lottery Company was set up in the first place. We hold no brief for MERCURY. We are just realistic. Besides, we are tired of those suspicious fire incidents at Lotto every time people become concerned about corruption in the company.
