THE REALITIES FREE QUALITY EDUCATION COMING HOME NOW
When Principal and his New Direction declared Free Quality Education as their flagship program upon assuming office, there were celebrations all over. And those celebrations were justified indeed? The FREE side of the project meant that parents would no longer pay fees for their children even for public exams. Students offering certain courses at university also said goodbye to college fees. School buses are now here to also ease movement to and from school. It’s all looking good. Right?
The QUALITY side of the project is now beginning to manifest and uneasiness is beginning to be felt. Next time when politicians release manifestoes please try and understand what will happen once they are elected. Many people went home celebrate the FREE side. Welcome to the QUALITY side of that aspect of the manifesto because of the following developments:
1. For the first time in many years a GENUINE effort is now underway to fight massive cheating at all levels of our education system. And we know things are working because secondary school children are crying all over social media. We have no sympathy for them.
2. The exam supervisors and teachers who made a fortune coordinating cheating in our public exams have either been put out of business, displayed in chains at the Cotton Tree by the ACC or are now before our courts.
3. Matriculation exams that some used as a by-pass route into university, cleverly avoiding WASSCE has been dealt a mortal blow by the government. Why did it take so long to kill this abused system?
4. To supply more quality, let’s turn our attention now to WAEC itself. They pulled out of the ACC’s systems review proposal for God knows what. We must send the ACC now inside that building at AJ Momoh Street. It’s very urgent.
5. In the meantime we should close hundreds of examination centers around the country and be prepared to deploy technology in large centers for core subjects. Why should anybody travel from Portloko to take WASSCE in Waterloo? How come WAEC has not noticed that there is something VERY WRONG with that?
MINING COMPANIES VS. GOVERNMENT OF SIERRA LEONE: WHAT’S THE LATEST?
In the last week or so we’ve not seen any press release from the government and a mining company or two disagreeing over this and that. Is it all over now or are we now at the next stage – in court or on the table somewhere in the mines ministry or in western capitals? Frankly those exchanges covered none of the parties in glory.
In the last few days we’ve been reading through them over and over again as we become increasingly concerned about where and how this will end. In whatever both sides decide to do now they should not forget the following:
1. That since 1930 this country has been mining one mineral or the other but we remain one of the poorest in the world while those who came here and exploited our riches are living in wealth taken from our soil. Surely this can’t continue.
2. Thousands of jobs, no matter how badly paid are on the line in those mining communities. This fight maybe in the long term interest of those people but they want to have something to eat today.
3. While looking for investment, countries make sacrifices. All our leaders need to do is to go to our parliament with clean hands and explain the situation to our MPs. The rest of the country will fall in line once they approve. But please we don’t want a King Messi style midnight parliament simply to approve concessions for mining companies.
4. As a country we should tell mining companies we do not give in to cheap blackmail. We want constructive engagement based on mutual respect. It will be an exercise in futility to attempt to bully or blackmail an elected government.
5. Please let us all read the final documents when this is resolved. We remain ceased of this matter as they say at the UN.
THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA DOING WELL AT SEVENTY (70)
On the anniversary of the establishment of the People’s Republic we join the rest of the world to congratulate the people of China. TV pictures out of China depict a proud nation celebrating their achievements including their arrival on the world stage as a power to reckon with in all areas – trade, military and international diplomacy and cooperation. The people of China achieved this unbelievable position not by sleeping all day and spending the night at TB Joshua’s shrine praying and hoping for miracle. They worked hard and sacrificed many things. Well done.
Looking back now at China countries like Sierra Leone and indeed many other in Africa should learn lesson and try to put those lessons to work in our own countries. Those lessons include the following:
1. Believing in ourselves. The Chinese people believe in China. They do everything to protect and develop China as a country and their culture. They have not allowed foreign culture to dominate theirs even when they are abroad. Sierra Leoneans are the first to get lost as soon as they land in other countries.
2. Hard work. The Chinese people think and really work hard. Look at the infrastructure in their main cities and tell us how else any nation can achieve such a feat. We had a president who for eleven years went all over the country shouting infrastructure and left us a nonexistent drainage system and major culverts caving in with a few millimeters of rain.
3. The Chinese are very entrepreneurial. They travel around the world investing in profitable ventures. When they talk about the BELT and ROAD initiative, they are simply talking about major infrastructure projects across the world to facilitate Chinese trade and contacts with the rest of the world.
4. They are going about it slowly but they are spreading Chinese language culture around the world and encouraging lots of cultural exchanges between their people and the rest of the world. Hundreds of Sierra Leoneans, including our leaders always visit China. They return home talking about the beauty of the place but never try to see how much of what they saw can be done here.
5. We may not always agree with their strategy but we agree with everybody else that after SEVENTY YEARS, the people of China have a lot to celebrate. Sierra Leone will be SIXTY soon. We will be back here asking serious questions.
KOTOR JULDEH’S FLYING VISIT TO FIFA HQ AND THEN WHAT?
So what did Kotor Juldeh get out of that much publicized visit to the headquarters of FIFA? When this country was thrown out of world football by an organization that frankly, cannot lecture any nation about anti-corruption and good management, Kotor Juldeh flew into Zurich and left after a meeting with FIFA officials smiling and not saying a word. The country has not heard from him or the government and since then things have simply continued to deteriorate in the SLFA. Now is the time for Kotor Juldeh to speak up otherwise newspapers will continue to speculate about what happened in one of those rooms at FIFA HQ.
We should let Kotor Juldeh know that we will not allow this to be treated like the land question in the western area that has gone very quiet since it landed on his desk for the following reasons:
1. The government continues to pour large chunks of our money into Sierra Leone football which is run by an illegal body backed by a corrupt FIFA. Creating a feel-good factor at the stadium is not bad but we cannot continue putting money into the hands people who have over-stayed their mandate and are engaged in cruel manipulation to stay in office.
2. Football in Sierra Leone is too serious a matter to be left in the hands of a clueless and vindictive administration operating illegally.
3. The political consequences of football finally collapsing under the weight of the incompetence and wickedness of the current SLFA will be too devastating for the New Direction to take. And Kotor Juldeh will have a lot to say about that to the nation.
4. The second person in our country cannot go to FIFA HQ only to be told to go home and pray for FIFA bosses to wake up one morning and have mercy on Sierra Leone. Totally Impossible!
5. The way things are going in the SLFA unless there was an elective congress before Christmas with all the activities leading to that date unambiguously outlined and monitored for compliance by an independent body, we can as well prepare the grave to bury football in 2020 with Kotor Juldeh doing the janazah.
© 2019 Politico Online
