BABA OLUSHAMBLES OBASANJO ENDORSES DE PA: DEJA VU?
Baba Olushambles Obasanjo returned to Freetown for the first time in five years to endorse De Pa’s bid for a second term of office as President of the
Republic of Sierra Leone. Welcome Baba.
We are only now waiting to see if Or Bangu will call a news conference to describe Baba’s behaviour as an inexcusable interference in the internal
affairs of the SOVEREIGN REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE. This is exactly how he would have reacted if opposition man, OSOUFIA was your host.
But, we are waiting and the next 24 hours will be enough for him to act.
Many Sierra Leoneans will not tolerate Olushambles continuously making a nuisance of himself in this way every five years. His democratic credentials
were fatally damaged after his failed third term bid in Naija. The people of Sierra Leone will take no lessons from him.
Five years ago. De Pa beat a man called Solomon Berewa in the race to State House. Now De Pa is fighting like a wounded lion to keep his job. We cannot help but notice some of the striking similarities between his campaign and the failed Berewa campaign in 2007. Here we go:
Year 2007:
A. Baba Obasanjo flew to Freetown and drove to Waterloo in the peninsular and told Sierra Leoneans not to “change a winning horse”. Solo was the
“horse.” And the APC media went for Baba’s jugular.
B. Young people were given lots of marijuana, booze and ONE T-SHIRT and Le 10,000.
C. There was an intoxicating array of support groups jumping up and down all over the place proclaiming the birth of a saviour.
D. Failed international footballer-turned “musician”, a man called GALLON PAN did a nice song for Solo titled – WANS AR REGISTER, AR GO VOTE FOR SOLO B.
E. Solo travelled to all parts of the country fighting for every point like an English Premiership club fighting relegation battle on the final day of a league season.
F. There was also that little matter of the Dalai Lama of PMDC blocking Solo’s way at a CKC program in Bo.
G. The rallies were lively, colourful with well-designed t-shirts and big.
H. Solo waited till the chicken went to roost before naming his running mate, a reclusive minister who knew only Pa Kabbah’s office.
I. In the end Solo lost. He withdrew to his house at Goderich to live quietly ever after.
J. Solo boycotted the presidential debate saying his opponent was a violent man and he would not share a podium with him. He also alleged bias of the SLAJ Executive, the organisers of the debate, saying they were pro-opposition.
Year 2012
A. Baba Olushambless is here again with much the same message in respect of De Pa this time saying he should be allowed to continue like he urged for Solo.
B. Marijuana, booze, T-shirts and Le 30,000 getting through to the young people by the same pipeline. Just drive up to the road leading to De Pa’s
official residence. We have spotted that happening in many other areas.
C. The number of self-seeking support groups has grown a thousand times. Kuwait has become Dubai.
D. Using the same lyrics and rhythm, GALLON PAN has done a song with the same title for De Pa – ONCE A GERISTER A GO VOTE...
E. Like Solo, De Pa hardly spends a day now in Freetown. He is visiting all parts of the country commissioning one project after the other – a well, a
public toilet, corrupt NACSA FOOD FOR WORK programme, incomplete road works, etc.
F. De Pa has accused Osuofia of blocking his convoy. Let’s call it the Goderich Street Incident.
G. In terms of participation, De Pa’s rallies are just unbelievable. Hundreds of thousands are turning up.
H. The running mate came when the chicken were dead asleep. According to Reuters he is a “scandal-hit” man.
I. De Pa will withdraw to his NEVERLAND RANCH at the same Goderich if the “possibility” of his defeat is actualised on November 17.
J. De Pa boycotted the debate accusing his main challenger of being “a violent man”. His APC party also accused the SLAJ Executive of bias alleging they
are pro-opposition.
The more things change, the more they remain the same. WORLD BEST Sir, Isn’t the coming of Olushambles another INCREDIBLE AND COSTLY OWN
GOAL? Something like Wayne Rooney against Manchester United in the 20 October 2012 fixture against Stoke City.
THE KILLER IS FOUND: BUT WILL JUSTICE PREVAIL?
The man we believe killed our colleague journalist, Ibrahim Foday, is finally in police net and we cannot wait a minute longer for him to have his day in
court. The family and colleagues of the late journalist have been waiting for this day for more than a year.
Our information is that the killer was arrested in the northern town of Kamakwei taking active part in a political rally. So after murdering our colleague,
all the killer does is flee to Kamakwei and then hibernate between that town and Thambaka on the border with Guinea.
Why did it take the police so long to arrest a small time criminal like that. We suspect it’s because the road to Kamakwei is very shameful. It takes seven hours between Makeni and Kamakwei, a distance of less than 80 kilometers.
As we put this work together, another colleague who is visiting our office has just warned us to wait until the criminal is convicted because the police
could bring a flawed case to court, for which the most stupid criminal will need no lawyer. Or, he could walk free on appeal if we manage to get a conviction in the High Court but not the court presided over by that judge. Or, an angel will visit him in his cell and encourage him to join the RED boys and like Robin the son of Fallay, the Attorney General will enter a nolli-prosequi. We call on SLAJ to hire lawyers to follow this case to the end. At least we will have the records.
TIFFY TIFFY JANKOLIKO + FBC CAMPUS = BEST OF FRIENDS
If serious action is not taken right now and we doubt it will, there will soon be nothing left to steal anymore from Fourah Bay College campus. Thieves
are raiding the campus and systematically stealing from department to department and it seems the authorities have no reply.
In less than two weeks, the departments of Physics, Extramural Studies and the ECOBANK offices have been broken into. The thieves stole computers and other valuable equipment. As for the abandoned student hostels, thieves are busy stripping it bare and ripping it apart.
When the students return from the longest vacation ever, they will find their accommodation facilities worse than they were before they were asked
to quit for “repairs”.
Lecturers' living quarters are playgrounds for thieves.
FBC campus is surrounded by some of the most depressed communities in Freetown which have been overrun by violent criminals. We are talking about
Leicester Road, Tree Planting, Kamanda Farm and so on.
We are not even sure how clean the so-called FBC security guards are in this wave of thieving sweeping the campus. As far as we are concerned, FBC campus is open for the thieving business. Soon the Anyampis will set up their own checkpoints to steal from commuters. The official checkpoint is useless. Thieves on okada are roaming free as birds. Welcome to the most violated University Campus anywhere in the world.
Ride on boys!
Or BANGU “SHINES” AT PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE HELD AT AJEGUNLE
Well after all the arguments and pontificating by Sierra Leone’s High Priest of national morality and conduct, His worship Leonard Balogun Koroma,
the SLAJ-led presidential debate was declared a stillbirth and a new group moved in to organise this extremely important event. There were loads of empty chairs around but the debate was a sight to behold on the mother of all TV stations, the SLBC headed by two guys who before they took over had never seen the inside of a radio studio.
Only two potential presidents showed up. Our man Or Bangu was on stage with another candidate we saw for the first time in Sierra Leone politics.
It’s the sort of platform Or Bangu likes. He used it to the fullest. We have a few concerns though: Our children were left more confused in terms of
their use of grammar than when the program started. We will not touch the gory details of how Or Bangu performed his operation but we were left asking a few questions English language construction – class (parts of speech), concord (subject verb agreement), and things like that, you know.
One of the people on the panel that night must surely have asked the question, “Who brought me here?” It was written all over his face. School children
now have clear doubts about what this whole emphasis on BRIGHTER GRAMMAR was all about. If people who have no control over basic English can aspire for the highest office in the land and get away with it, why bother.
Now we have to ask this question: Who actually convinced Or Bangu he could become president of Bai Bureh country?
A real disaster, like the Egyptian plague would have befallen this land if those two were the only candidates and Or Bangu was the frontrunner. Can
anybody imagine Or Bangu representing Sierra Leone at the UN general assembly alongside Michael Satta of Zambia? Please let’s not have such a debate anymore in this place. That is certainly not what we deserve as Sierra Leoneans.
