PRINCIPAL’S NEW YEAR’S DAY ADDRESS: OUR TAKE
Principal delivered a short and reasonably nice speech on New Year’s Day and then set free more than 500 prisoners serving various offences throughout our Correctional Service system. He definitely believes they should now go home and sin no more. We shall see.
For some of those recently released we believe there should be a number of community programs to help reintegrate them into society because without that they will re-offend and become recidivists. For now they can be grateful to Principal for his New Year’s gift.
Now we turn to the speech itself because we have comments to make on some of the issues taken up by Principal. And please, we are doing this as ordinary Sierra Leoneans considering the fact that it’s not always that we get an opportunity of this nature – to respond directly to the big man. We want Principal to read our take on his speech himself. Left with some of those hanging around him, we can bet our bottom cent that they will never knowingly allow Principal to meet anybody or read anything even remotely critical about his government.
PRINCIPAL - Throughout the year, our confidence and optimism as a nation were shaken by mild economic turbulence and unavoidable shocks we inherited. Typically, Sierra Leoneans have made light of the situation with the usual humorous jibe, “the gron dry".
TWITTER – Sorry sir, we think the “economic turbulence” you referred to was anything but “mild”. It is harsh! It was like trying to land a small plane at Manila airport in driving monsoon rain. And this “the gron dry” thing is real but where we differ a bit is the extent to which some are politicizing it or are trying to use it as an explanation for their laziness or indeed their abiding belief in always taking money out of the pockets of others. So yes “the gron dry” but any return to those King Messi sporadic money sharing expeditions will be stoutly resisted by the vast majority of the good people of Sierra Leone who believe that from now on people MUST earn what they spend.
Having said that 2020 is the year all excuses for Principal’s failure to create plenty jobs must come to an end. And in this year the political accountability standards for Principal will rise substantially on the pages of Politico newspaper. That’s the nature of this game.
PRINCIPAL - As we look forward into 2020, our Country is at peace with falling crime rates, lower prison populations and no security threat. At Bintumani 3, Sierra Leoneans suggested ways to further lower tensions and establish a permanent infrastructure for peace. We have moved to repeal criminal libel laws that successive governments had used to suppress free speech. We continue to open up civic spaces and we encourage our citizens to speak up and make our democracy stronger and better.
TWITTER – We applaud the moves outlined above with all sincerity. But we feel compelled now to ask Senior Prefect who was so key in the Peace Commission issue to come back to the nation to explain why the commission remains just an idea after all these months. If that commission is not properly established in the first quarter of this year then we doubt there will be anybody in Sierra Leone to believe it will ever happen. On the criminal libel thing, we think Principal has good intentions and has done well so far but how come he appears to be so out of step with his own MPs who are now threatening to throw spanner in the works? As a first step sir please declare a moratorium on the use of that law until parliament throws out Part FIVE of the 1965 Public Order Act which is what that obnoxious law is.
PRINCIPAL - In spite of the cynicism about foreign travel, we have, through those travels transformed the reputation and image of Sierra Leone abroad by comprehensively telling our friends and partners who we really are and where we are taking our nation. And they have watched our unrelenting and determined fight against corruption.
TWITTER – We understand the value of such foreign travels to the overall development efforts of the country. But after two years in office it’s really time to spend more time on the ground in Freetown and around the country dealing with our growing problems with the help of the international goodwill behind you. No more travels this year except for compelling trips.
PRINCIPAL - As we go into 2020, more than two million children, especially girls, have access to free quality education, free teaching and learning materials, expanded healthcare services, school buses and free school feeding in some areas. We have intensified our national campaign against early child marriage, introduced robust enforcement and tougher sentencing guidelines for sexual and gender-based violence. Teenage pregnancy, menstrual health and hygiene are no longer taboo topics. Our women are at the center of our country’s future development and security and we have recruited more women into our armed forces than at any time in our country’s history.
TWITTER – Clearly, these are the issues on which your New Direction government will be judged. Things appear to be holding up nicely but there are enormous challenges that you must confront in 2020. You have to deal seriously and more decisively with teenage pregnancy and rape. We like your bold pronouncements on the issue but your workers on the ground must raise their game to unprecedented levels. The problems persist and soon people will begin to wonder whether there has been any change since you declared a State of Emergency to deal with the issue besides the toughening of the law.
PRINCIPAL - We will convene a national forum on the future of education. We do so mindful of our national development priorities and goals and knowing that for our children to lead and participate in the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the global economy, they must be equipped with a 21st century education.
TWITTER – We are looking forward to this National Forum. It is long overdue. The aims stated above are indeed very important – talking about the Fourth Industrial Revolution but our objective for now is very basic: we want to put our education system back on the rails and prepare for departure. In the last decade things went so bad that in the 21st century our children are openly demonstrating on the streets for them to be allowed to cheat in public exams. So let’s go back to basics with those who require that and continue our journey with the others who are in the 21st century.
PRINCIPAL - In 2020, we will turn the sod for the construction of an ultramodern diagnostic health Centre using funds recovered from corrupt officials as seed money. Our public sanitation and waste disposal investments have yielded public health benefits. We enter 2020 with a renewed commitment to fighting climate change while improving clean energy access in off-grid rural areas and tackling energy poverty through the nearly-complete regional grid and other new initiatives.
TWITTER – Honestly we like the way you have decided to handle the cash retrieved from those who made it their habit to steal from their grandchildren. We hope money will come from other sources including the balance of all our stolen wealth. Principal please do us a favor – write the names of all those from whom the monies for this project were recovered on the fence of that building. We want their children and grandchildren to feel the pains of their parents’ corrupt ways.
You talk about the regional electricity grid and its potentials – that’s ok. The poor electricity system in Bo and Kenema is killing businesses and causing you serious political problems. There is growing discontent with the 2018 promise on electricity not having been matched with your work in the last two years. An insurgent party in the south and east now has a lot of material to play with.
If there is no sustained supply of electricity beyond July 2020, this New Direction should stand by for problems in their backyard.
PRINCIPAL - The challenges are huge but they are not insurmountable. Your expectations are high but they can be met. Your aspirations are boundless but they can be fulfilled. Nothing is impossible, even the miracles you expect us to perform. Therefore, I call for your relentless optimism and hard work to develop our nation.
TWITTER – No problem sir but remember to keep your promises and rein in the excesses of some of your people who are running around behaving like Roman Conquerors. We the good people of Sierra Leone are their masters, not the other way round.
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