FORCE FOR GOOD – BUT HOW DO YOU COMMUNICATE?
We want to humbly plead with De Pa to bring back Keith Biddle, the British policeman who performed very well as the Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police. Can DfID please help with any information about what this guy is up to now? We are absolutely sure he didn’t return to Greater Manchester Police as a Constabulary officer after that high profile job out here.
In Keith Biddle’s days, police stations had enough paper, there was always light – they had generators, in true English fashion, night duty officers had tea and snacks, uniforms were cleaner, the police had many vehicles and sophisticated communication equipment.
Let’s concentrate for now on the complete lack of communication equipment that we have noticed on the streets of this country. Police Officers are using personal mobile phones to communicate even when De Pa is on his way to work or to Makeni. How low can the so-called force for good go? And Munu tells us they are ready for elections?
How can a 21st century police force use mobile phone network (especially those we have here) to communicate for goodness’ sakes? One morning we stood in a corner at Christchurch observing them preparing for De Pa’s journey to work and because there was no mass mass so early in the morning, they had no credits. It was a case of flash me ar flash you. This is disgraceful.
If De Pa can’t bring back Biddle, we urge him to beg DfID to do emergency order and land solid communication equipment for the police in the next two weeks. It’s possible. We will not allow them to use mobile phones in the coming elections – NO WAY. We want a truly professional police force. We shall return to the other burning issues about the police after the elections.
CAPITAL RADIO - WE HAVE SOME LITTLE CONCERNS PLEASE
No doubt we like Capital Radio. They play good music; they talk a lot about the weather, air travel and they are making a fantastic kill with high quality jingles produced in the Channel Islands with sharp British accents that make those jingles acceptable only to that small group of foreign NGO personnel and consultants passing through Sierra Leone to take back some of the aid money tied down with all kinds of strings. No problem.
We have a problem, though, with Capital Radio pretending as if people don’t understand how radio operates. Listen to them: “This programme was produced by the BBC in London for Capital Radio.” Really? We understand this to mean that Capital Radio commissioned the BBC to produce the programmes. We listen to Top of the Pops and it ends with the BBC announcing the name of its partners that produced the programme on their behalf. And then twenty seconds later, Capital Radio tells us, the BBC produced the program for them. Come on Guys, behave yourselves.
By the way why is it that your Sierra Leonean presenters are pretending to sound British? They produce this accent that stands between the average Sierra Leonean and those British guys we meet in pubs around south London. You have excellent presenters, but tell them to be themselves and natural! We love them all, ya!
OLYMPICS OVER – ARE THE BOYS BACK NOW?
In this country we like to take things for granted. When we don’t want to think hard about something, we blame it on God. Yes we are very religious people but let’s now start asking hard questions to find answers to serious national problems.
Let’s start with our delegation to London 2012. We had only two athletes on register but there were fifteen officials at the Games. They included two journalists who were more concerned about uploading pictures on Facebook than telling us what was happening to our athletes. As for the officials, we are getting interesting news about them. Keep reading Politico!
How come Sierra Leone was able to send only two athletes? Our 100 M man came in a very distant last. Nor fallah we, boys. Nar for train more, yah?
The politicians spend all their time meddling into football. The only ones who talk about athletics are the young people who are struggling to keep the association going between one Olympic Games and the other. We know we have a wealth of talent in this country in athletics, but it’s just football, football and more football. We will leave Paul Kamara to continue running the SLFA because what is left of the executive has collapsed, thus abdicating their responsibility in a secretariat that is as bereft of organisation and professional mien as the Ernest Bai Koroma ELEVEN that was walloped in Cameroon a few days ago.
Let the deputy minister in charge of sport take athletics and start preparing for the Rio Olympics in 2016. Please don’t use inter-secondary school athletics to pick your squad. We don’t want any violence on Freetown’s roads anymore.
METEOROLOGY DEPARTMENT IN PAINT HALF LEF HALF APPROACH
Since we started writing about the poor physical condition of this antique building referred to as the headquarters of the meteorology department, we have noticed that attempts are being made to give some respectability to the building. But the process is painfully slow and leaves a lot of room for doubt as to what is really going on there. Months after we first raised the issue, painting started. Right up to this moment, a quarter of the building is still not painted. And we don’t think that shade of yellow is appropriate.
The roof is old and it’s leaking in some places. The floor is something else.
We don’t think the government takes this department seriously. In fact we hardly ever hear De Pa talk about meteorology department. Even their minister, who recently had that fantastic wedding in the Caribbean, has never spoken publicly about the department. But he had to rely on good weather information to fly to the Caribbean to marry his bride.
When the government wanted to do things for other departments, they did it. Is the government making a statement about its attitude towards this very important department? The last time we heard about the construction of weather stations across the country. What is happening to that now? Does that include the station at Tower Hill?
Do we now understand why our people are never prepared for the harsh weather nature is throwing at us these days?
Before we close this chapter, can the head of the department please remove that filthy Green, White and Blue national flag? Get a new one done with material that can withstand the harsh weather conditions around Freetown. Don’t disgrace this country, please.
THEFT AT UDM OFFICE – THE TRUE STORY
A “politically-motivated” robbery is reported to have taken place at the headquarters of the United Democratic Movement at Pademba Road. As usual, other opposition parties like the SLPP were on Editayo Temple’s mind when he gave an interview to one Freetown radio station. He suggested that the “theft” was “document-based.”
Actually, we have carried out a thorough investigation of this matter and we arrived at the following conclusions.
1. That a group of students of tertiary institutions across the country broke into the building looking for information to write their joint dissertation on the topic: “failed political parties and leadership ambitions – election 2012, Sierra Leone.”
2. To their disappointment they discovered that no academically worthy documents were available because they had been purposely leaked to Global Times and Independent Observer.
3. The students categorically deny the claim that they splattered faeces all over the building. They say it is a calculated attempt to destroy their reputation.
4. Asked how they intend to complete their dissertations, the students said they would now turn to PDP, PLP, RUFP and so on. According to them, they have received positive indications that these other parties will cooperate with them. How about that for a clueless clue? LOL.
