THE CASE OF ROBIN THE SON OF FALLAY
When Robin the son of Fallay walked across the floor of parliament from the opposition side to De Pa’s domain, he was joining a long list of people who’ve done irreparable harm to our trust in politicians and their profession. He also ended two years of speculation and investigation about what Fallay was really doing to his political career by his former SLPP friends.
Here was this guy who, like Usu Boie, was even trying to lead the main opposition party. It was only the matter of paying Le 50 Million that kept Robin’s name off the list. Did he really have to create that melodramatic scene inside the House to demonstrate he was putting a dagger through his people’s heart?
Seriously, if our political parties had strong ideological foundations, we will understand why people change parties. But Sierra Leone politics is all about food on the table, government contracts, expensive overseas travels, jeeps, vacuous statements on unprofessional SLBC and small change from De Pa.
De Pa’s government accused Fallay of aiding and abetting school children to commit electoral fraud by doing under-aged voter registration. The following events then took place.
1. The State prepared their case and brought Fallay to court after two nights in a police cell.
2. Soon his name was all over the place as a potential electoral fraudster to be even disenfranchised.
3. Attorney General himself had to travel – wonder why – to Kenema to lead the prosecution. Robin was denied bail and locked up in a stinking police cell.
4. In jail, an angel visited Fallay in the middle of the night. Fallay shouted “speak Lord for thy servant heareth.”
5. The angel told Fallay he must join the RED Group or be kept in jail for two years. Fallay replied: “Lord, be it done to me according to thy will.”
5. Meanwhile, NEC named and shamed 700 other people for the same offence. AG’s men say they can’t find all of them. What a country! May be they are not opposition members or supporters like Fallay was.
6. Frank Kargbo has returned to Kenema and told the court Comrade Robin Fallay has no case to answer. He is a member of the APC. This Cut-Yah-Put-Yah politics must stop.
The ordinary Sierra Leonean is truly fed up with all this manipulation and selective, politically-motivated prosecutions. It is both a SHAME and a SHAM!
LIKE RONALDO, LIKE MESSI – DE PA IS WORLD’S BEST O YEA!
No we are not talking about Ibrahim Babangida, the former Nigerian president who called himself “THE MARADONA OF NIGERIAN POLITICS” when he was at the helm. But he was never elected so perhaps he and his band of sycophants could have been forgiven for that.
So we go: The president of a grievously poor country appeared in parliament at the end of his first five year term – elected – to dissolve parliament and prepare the nation for elections. He made a speech that lasts two and a half hours live on idle national TV. So what? First the speech was too long and even if that speech was about putting Sierra Leone on a war footing, nobody would be watching after 20 minutes if they were watching for substance. And remember this was just a few days after he had addressed the nation to mark his fifth anniversary as president.
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De Pa just can’t resist the temptation to make partisan speeches even at a time when people expect him to be the Father of the Nation. Yes this is politics, but a two-hour-long speech dedicated to ridiculing a threatened, battered, jailed and bribed opposition, was like killing a man and then cutting his tongue afterwards.
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It was also during what was supposed to be a serious speech that De Pa announced he would accept the name WORLD’S BEST bestowed on him by his $ 65,000-influenced friends at Belgium. Come on Mr President, you
should be above those petty things at a serious business like state-of-the-nation address to dissolve parliament in a country being ripped apart by cholera with poverty boldly written on every contour on the face of every less-privileged compatriot of yours! In an election year, these little things probably matter to De Pa. But we have a few questions sir: Which other president did you compete against in the world? Or let’s bring it closer to home; was it Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf or old Alpha Conde? You see, you just can’t be the best unless you compete against somebody. By what criteria did De Pa compete? Don’t mind us sir, we are just enjoying our democracy. We hope it was not about wealth acquired while at the helm. If so, we would be interested in having access to the Asset Declaration Forms of De Pa and his team of WORLD BEST PLAYERS. We mean the un-doctored Asset Declaration Forms please. God is watching. Good thing is, He is not sleeping. -
In five years, De Pa scored so many own goals that we wonder how he became WORLD’S BEST. His tackling was worst than Paul Scholes’ of Manchester United, his goal keeping was only marginally better than Gomez of
Tottenham and his tactical decision-making was as poor as Brendan Rogers of Liverpool. By the way we hear De Pa is an Arsenal fan, so do we suggest for him in his team? Sorry where is Bendtner?
MPs FALLINGFROM GRACE LIKE LEAVES IN THE DRY SEASON
Now we know that a good many of those people we called MPs yesterday were sitting in parliament representing themselves, only. One after the other, from both opposition and government, they’ve been losing party symbols left, right and centre and falling like a pack of cards. I still can’t understand how people were thrown out of parliament so easily after occupying a constituency for five years. Their own parties so distrust them that they won’t allow them to go forward for the main challenge in November. This is unbelievable!
Some of them pulled out of their races at the last minute but only when it became absolutely clear that defeat was as certain as death. They’ve been taught a bitter lesson in intra-party democracy.
Now questions are being asked about just what will happen to the Jay Cees who virtually paid for their seats in 2007. They don’t want to return to their cleaning jobs in America and UK. How can you be an MP today and a cleaner doing agency work in Europe and America, the next day? But do they have any choice? The rest of us are still here doing our normal thing.
FINANCIAL AND JOB COMPENSATIONS FOR THE DEFEATED
Many of those who were denied symbols by the ruling party are said to be queuing up now to see De Pa to get compensation or they will tell their supporters to vote with the opposition. Last night we did some projections as to
how much more De Pa would spend. Le 15 Billion is what we are seeing on radar. These are rough figures but we may not be far from the truth. Others are hanging in the wings with promises of big jobs should De Pa scrape through in November. The jobs are few but let’s see if we can help De Pa identify some more opening:
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2nd Deputy ADC to De Pa.
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Deputy Minister of Health Number 4 and 5
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Two Press Attaches to all Sierra Leone embassies. The new embassy in Brazil will have 4. The country is too big.
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Two Ministers for the new Ministry of waste management, Freetown.
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Minister in charge of cleaning State House and its environs, especially near the library board.
We shall create more openings soon. Please note: No consultation fees charged.
PRESIDENTIAL TASK FORCE ON CHOLERA
We have to be very honest with ourselves that whenever governments start setting up task forces, the nation is in real trouble. We have a well-resourced Ministry of Health and Sanitation which only yesterday had a high-profile minister; in fact a former presidential candidate, yet De Pa had to declare a national emergency on cholera. The disease has killed nearly three hundred of the most vulnerable Sierra Leoneans.
On the back of this, Sierra Leone has resorted to adhoc national cleaning exercises which have failed woefully, partly
because they were more of a political show ride and bogey walkabout than anything meaningful. Such exercises have only brought more rubbish on to the streets. This government’s abiding belief that military-style cleaning programs are the only means by which to clean the city is a real disgrace and a sign of people at the helm being out of their depth.
Is cleaning one’s household daily not part of the new attitude change we are talking about and have spending hundreds of millions of Leones only? Is an effective waste management programme that does its job without being
driven by a presidential task force not part of the new Sierra Leone we want? Isn’t this part of what De Pa was supposed to have put in place in the last five years?
The nation has THREE MINISTERS in the Ministry of Health alone with all the cost implications. Especially that former police man who travels to the far east of the country every week with government vehicle to campaign for De Pa. What this guy is doing in government, only De Pa knows. His grip of the issues is very slack and weak, his Public Relations skills non-existent and his English is as bad as the road to his homeland, Kailahun. We tire!
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Politico 2 October
