GOVERNMENT FORECASTS 35% GROWTH - 11TH HOUR PUSH?
Every journalist knows how politicians like to manipulate figures. They play around with opinion polls, unemployment figures, economic growth forecasts and all that. And you know they do it deceitfully depending on where they stand with the figures.
Early this year De Pa predicted that Sierra Leone would experience revenue inflow at a growth rate of 50%. By the time we reached April the figures reduced to 35%. It’s still at 35% and probably will remain at that until the year being forecast comes to an end. Morgan Heritage asks this question: “How can the government play so many games?” In all this, the ordinary people who are being bombarded with these figures by Spin Doctors. We are left to think of another question by Morgan Heritage: “Do you see anything to smile about?”
De Pa should know that it is one thing to throw figures around and completely another thing for those figures to be relevant on the dinner tables of the average Sierra Leonean. What’s the point of shouting to the roof top about “fastest growing economy” when it’s only a few poorly paid public sector jobs that thousands of University graduates are fighting for? Ours is an economy that manufactures nothing in a country plagued by diseases like cholera. Cholera thrives only in filth and squalor where basic hygiene is a real problem.
We ask De Pa to ask his economic advisers to be very careful how they dish out figures to people. Many of us now understand how these things are done and we are educating our people.
A FEW WEEKS TO ELECTIONS – OUR YOUNG PEOPLE ARE STILL BLIND
We have seen many mini rallies around Freetown in the last few weeks. All political parties are busy mobilising young minds and energies to spread their messages. Once again these young people have refused to see how their youth is being abused by politicians. The pattern is the same down the years – when it’s election time, the politicians come around, provide the usual stuff – booze, food, marijuana and sometimes offensive weapons to the young people who are then unleashed on their political opponents.
When the young people get arrested by police for acts of violence, the politicians appear on TV denouncing them and calling for tough action. They then sign so-called non-violence agreements and appear statesman-like at the expense of people they mobilised in the first place.
As soon as the elections are over, the new ministers and MPs change their mobile phone numbers and instruct their secretaries never to allow certain groups of people to see them in the government offices.
After five year, they switch on their phones again, like they’ve done now and then begin to visit ghettoes pretending to be normal Sierra Leoneans. It galls us to see the same used and abused young people dancing on the streets again for the same people. When will they learn? That’s why people like us have no sympathy for the many young people trying to take money out of our pockets at every street corner in Freetown. Now they have an opportunity to make a clear statement about how they wish to see their country run going forward but they have squandered it once again. When will they learn – or wil they ever?
The day a politician calls a rally at the stadium and discovers that only he and his bodyguards are around, he will be forced to bring his entire family home from London, Paris and Washington to dance the streets of Freetown.
While our young people are dancing and smoking marijuana, their children are studying hard in big Universities with the nation’s money, preparing to return and take over from their fathers. When will the home boys learn?
FATTENING THE PIG ON A MARKET DAY? DE PA HITS THE ROAD.
We managed to watch SLBC TV the other day only to be bombarded with pictures of De Pa on one humanitarian mission after another - Watin nar donation, look am Pak. De Pa we understand the trick. SLBC we understand pass una. It’s about being on TV as much as possible and getting people to settle into this feeling that there is only one pebble on the beach until they reach the polls on November 17. We are tired with saying categorically that the SLBC is totally unable to hold the balance among the parties in terms of reporting on the coming elections.
By the way we urge De Pa to do something about all of those people who assemble at the gates of his residence day after day in the hope that he will splash a few US dollar bills that will take them for a week at least. A lot of them are not genuine supporters. They are there in the same way they gathered at the home of defeated presidential candidate, Solomon Berewa in 2007. The assembly started near Saint Augustine’s church, now they’ve moved to the main gates. People who otherwise should be doing something in the economy so early in the morning are always standing there waiting for manna to fall. Manna was a free offer from God Almighty. Whatever De Pa gives will be in return for votes.
The deputy Prime Minister of the British government, Nick Clegg yesterday told his party delegates; “If we secure our country’s future, we secure our own.” The people near the residence of De Pa at Hill Station and a good number of his ministers and friends care only about securing their own future. Does De Pa know that?
POLICE OFFICERS IN PUJEHUN AND DE PA’S BAG OF RICE
For long hours last week police officers in the whole of Pujehun District abandoned their stations and gathered in the district headquarters to collect their bags of rice under an old and corrupt scheme re-introduced by De Pa. We are still assessing how the program will work this time round.
The thing about this one bag of rice policy that we consider a little patronising is that it pre-supposes that all public servants eat is rice, rice, rice and more rice.
When police officers abandon their posts like that, criminals could have a field day. The roads are so bad in Pujehun that police HQ decided not to risk any of their vehicles. While Munu is in Freetown jumping up and down about being on top of the security situation, we just want to call his attention to what his people did in far way Pujehun. Every district is important.
SLRTA AND FORCE FOR GOOD WHAT’S UP WITH THE CLAMPS?
If Sierra Leone had an FOI law, we would have easily written to these two bodies – the police and the road transport authority – to ask how much money they have collected since they introduced those yellow clamps with which they have been harassing motorists around Freetown. These bodies should be careful. With or without FOI, let them tell us how much money they have collected so far.
A friend of ours whose car has been clamped twice in as many months told us the other day that when he paid Le 100,000 at the Central Police Station, all he received as receipt was a small paper apparently plucked out of an exercise book on which the officer scribbled something. How will they account for that at the NRA? The City Council has no designated parking areas. Vagrants are taking over the little authorised parking areas and selling access to them to the highest bidder, selfish house owners place rotten tyres on the roads to prevent people from parking, rotten cars are all over the streets with nobody making an effort to remove them. What is Freetown turning into? To increase the pain of people, police are busy
clamping vehicles. We shall soon publish those receipts and urge the NRA to look into this issue. We will not call attention to this trouble anymore. We will act to save the people from further police corruption.
