ALMIGHTY AWOKO slaps Traffic Warden (E say buff case – ‘nar we get government’)
Last week at least two newspapers reported an incident involving the Maradona of Sierra Leone Football politics, Alhaji Unisa Alim Sesay aka AWOKO (no relationship with Awoko newspaper) and a lowly Traffic Warden. According to the papers, Maradona slapped the poor Warden who was doing his lawful duty. Maradona denies this. But can he really hope to win in the court of public opinion? We cannot vouch for the authenticity of claims made by other newspapers but Awoko has to be careful what he does in public. Driving without proper documentation is a very serious offence, Sir. Those Stone Age bully tactics are anachronistic relics of the Siaka Stevens era. You are a public servant in charge of one of the most confused State Commissions – ‘National Assets Commission’, paid with our taxes. What’s your job in this commission in fact? We are waiting to see how the police will react because we recall that when the late Hon. SB Marah was accused of slapping a police officer, he was dragged to court. If Awoko became a sacred cow...it would be a huge cow indeed - both in physical size and political clout. How can anyone tell us there is no selective justice in this country?
SCHULENBURG ‘THROWN OUT’
Sierra Leone has a chequered history in her dealings with top UN diplomats. Let me just go back to the days following the end of the war. Remember Elizabeth Lwanga? - the Ugandan lady who was UNDP Resident Representative here? She was kicked out of the country by Alhaji Tejan Kabbah for God knows what. She became a bit of a cry baby at all public appearances once it became clear that the government had asked for her to be withdrawn. Then came the ‘smiling assassin’, Victor Angelo. Kabbah again created the atmosphere for him to be recalled shortly after the 2007 elections. Now the APC has forced out Michael Schulenburg. IB Kargbo denies this...instead he blames the United Democratic Movement. That’s for another day. Mr. Kargbo, we do not rely on your ministry for ACCURATE government information. And you should have realized that by now.
A senior government official told us in November that Schulenburg would be out of Sierra Leone by December 2011. Only a few weeks delay...surely he will be out before Valentine’s Day. We do not support this action by our government and if this was the only election issue, this APC government would be defeated. Go well MICHAEL SCHULENBURG; the political and diplomatic consequences of this action will remain with Sierra Leone for a long time. Ow for do? But wait oh... Has the UDM's Mohamed Bangura claimed victory yet for this non-persona non grata
OLD MAN ABDULAI WADE
Sometimes when you read the history of the Kings of Israel – their rise and fall, you begin to ask yourself why is it that people don’t learn from other people’s mistakes? OK that was more than two thousand years ago. Fly out of Lungi airport and one hour up the coast you come to a country called Senegal – a beautiful, reasonably developed and clean country. The president is Abdulai Wade. The country is now on the brink of going the way of its neighbour, Ivory Coast because of Wade’s ambition to hold on to power despite what the constitution says. This is a truly bad example for African democracy.
Here is a man, who was a symbol of democratic faith and tolerance; who waited for 20 years to come to power through the ballot box. Now he is using another compromised constitutional court like the one in Ivory Coast to stay in power and keep his opponents out. Mr. Wade is a friend of Ernest Bai Koroma. We urge our president not to learn this lesson from him. We are a different kettle of fish, completely. No one should be surprised if the West African Spring begins in Senegal.
INFORMATION OFFICERS ABROAD
All information attaches at Sierra Leone’s missions abroad are our colleagues and friends. We would normally not address them in public but this is getting serious and we think we must put it on public record. We do not believe they are doing themselves any good by taking political sides so openly. From Monrovia to London, and Brussels to Washington, our attaches are busy churning out articles attacking and ridiculing opposition leaders. This is not right, in fact it is WRONG! Our attaches are NOT paid by the APC, rather by the State where supporters of all parties pay taxes. We will not address the wider issue of how some opposition people are treated by our missions abroad at this stage. When British and American opposition figures come here, the embassies treat them like government people. Why should Sierra Leone be different? Are we not a decent democracy?
On the eve of the last British election, we were among a few journalists at the British High Commission, watching a TV program on the election. We noticed that the High Commissioner kept a straight face – very British indeed. Then we asked him which party he would be voting for. His reply, ‘as diplomats, we are not allowed to show political emotions.’ After that we held back. Can you therefore imagine what will happen to an information officer in a British or American embassy publishing articles in New York Times or Washington Post, The Guardian or Daily Telegraph attacking Mitt Romney or Ed. Milliband? Come on friends, as they say in America, stay in your lanes.
MIATTA FRENCH OR ENGLISH
For sometime now we have been following the public utterances, attitude and body language of our dear Lady Miatta French of NEC. When she addressed the IFES program at Mamba Point, she was busy talking down at people. Ask a simple question, and Miatta French would display her know-it-all attitude bordering on slight rudeness, to be honest. Last week Miatta was on radio talking down on her children once again. And this is why: A colleague journalist had gone to Koinadugu to report on the biometric voting exercise. He found unbelievable lapses in the system – six centres were not in operation and even the others that appeared to be doing things were truly mediocre.
The journalist was furious that despite assurances from NEC, the registration had got off to a bad start. That was his crime, according to Miatta.
We have to tell this “English” French woman that we still remember how the laws were side-stepped for her to become a Commissioner. We don’t want to go beyond this for now but perhaps it would be great to once again state that, the people are the masters and Miatta is a servant. We can offer a two-hour lecture to NEC for free on media audiences and how to approach them. Besides, whose job is it to deal with such Public Relations issues in NEC? Is she the NEC spokesman or just a Commissioner for Western Area?
MINISTER MOMODU KARGBO
The Commonwealth and Sierra Leone seminar on media and development has come and gone. It was a fantastic project and we hope things will move forward from now on.
We cannot however forget the comments of Deputy Minister Momodu Kargbo of Finance. He said a lot but for today's tweets let us deal with his insinuation that many journalists don’t know how to conduct an interview. Kargbo told the international audience that every time he presented a loan agreement to parliament for ratification he would explain why the loan was vital to the country. He said he is sometime taken aback when journalists approach him after the event for interview only to ask the same question about why we needed the loan. To him, that is incompetence.
OK Kottor Momodu, this is why? All the Sierra Leoneans you claim to be contracting the loan for can only get to hear about the loan, through radio or newspapers. The radio journalists are trained to ask that kind of question as foundation on which the interview will stand. The real audience are never in parliament for such speeches. If you expect the journalists to record your unchallenged, politically-correct speech and broadcast it to their audiences lock stock and barrel, we say to you, it’s not possible – that’s absolutely boring radio. We have taken this pain to explain this so that you take great care what you say about journalism in public. We have a lot to ask about the nation’s account books, concentrate on that. We will take no lessons in journalism from you sir. By the way these your loan agreements, how much difference have they made on the lives of our people? We shall return to the other matters soon.
Airtel, Where Is Our Airtime?
There is a growing common complaint making the rounds among frustrated subscribers of Airtel, now Sierra Leone’s least reliable mobile phone service provider. First it was calls not going through or connecting at all; and then cross-calls i.e connecting a caller whose number you didn't dial. No serious effort is being made to correct what many would refer to as ‘unpardonable corporate thievery.’
Airtel services have eventually degenerated into garbage. Internet Modem users have joined in to complain about erratic internet traffic with huge unit losses. For every passing minute internet mobile phone users continue to have their credits slashed by as huge as fifteen units even without connection. This complainant, himself a vexed victim, has had close to 1,000 of his credits slashed off and statched away in bits over the last three days. Lek wae thing tranga so! And if you have a smart phone, hmmm...same wahala.
We are told that a quiet demonstration is being planned with huge anti-Airtel processions from Cotton Tree to Airtel office on Rawdon Street. The organisers are finalising their talks with certain international TV crews so that the world knows about the rashness of a global brand with a village reach. Even the police will be glad to issue them with permit to demonstrate.
Water! Water! Water!
“There is fire on the mountain”, “Run! Run! Run!” “And water water water!”... Not in Freetown oh! And here is the reason: Guma Valley Water Company is up to no good. Many schools in Freetown have had to close because of water shortage with the latest being Lemount College and Apex International School. Children/pupils staying at home and losing out on education because of the ineptitude of the water company which is barely scraping through using scrapped facilities. Who says all about life is an electic electricty supply in parts of Freetown? However better it may be, it is not all about life. Did I someone say WATER IS LIFE? Then we are lifeless! And come to think of it, if we have praised the Ernest Bai Koroma government for bringing light – and not NPA – then we can as well criticise the same government – and not Guma Valley – for the water KOMBOLO.
