THE CHIPS ARE DOWN IN LUNGI AND BIG HEADS COULD ROLL
We are only a few days into the period after the people of Lungi took matters into their own hands to fight criminality targeted at government facilities installed in that place to improve the lives of the people but already the surprises we asked you to prepare for are beginning to appear. At this stage we are going to be careful not to cross a crucial line in journalism and call anybody a criminal despite the indications we are getting about those that were behind all the criminal activity in Lungi in particular and Port Loko district in particular.
To put things in proper perspective, solar panels and batteries, electricity transformers and cables are also being stolen in other parts of the country including Freetown but the thieves in Lungi have been brazen and unrelenting. Like other ordinary Sierra Leoneans, we have been asking ourselves why people would steal or destroy government installations that should serve whole communities. We’ve been told it’s largely about politics – so if the New Direction lights up Lungi and supplies water to the people, Tolongbo would lose support in their own backyard. That would be the worst thing to do to stop voters from deserting a political organization. What we really think is happening is that criminals are at work and we should stop them.
We have said in this column before that EDSA must do everything possible, including deploying the army to protect our properties. We will not listen to any more complaints trying to win our sympathy. EDSA has been complaining all over the place while the criminals continue to destroy such vital installations.
We should all stand by for surprises from Lungi. This is not politics. It is CRIMINALITY.
THE MAN WITH A MACHETE NEAR THE LAW COURTS BUILDING
What we saw on social media the other day is something we must handle with a lot of seriousness. No matter how we look at it, a man turning up with a machete at the gates of the High Court building is no joke. In the video he could clearly be heard shouting out the Arabic words for GOD IS GREAT. We don’t want to read too much into this for now but we want to urge the authorities to speedily investigate this affair and tell the good people of this country what all of that nonsense was about. He was not shooting a movie because the only cameras around at the time were those from mobile phones. In any case the police ought to have been informed.
The hefty man could clearly be heard trying to tell the officers that approached him that he was causing no offence by carrying a machete in the middle of Freetown in a very threatening way. For now and until the police tell the nation what the issue is with that man we will insist that he should be treated as somebody who breached the peace in the heart of our city and he should be brought before a court quickly. The man threatened law enforcement officers who approached him by raising his machete and telling them to back off.
It is possible that he wasn’t acting alone and in that case we should brace ourselves up for dozens of such people turning up with machetes in different parts of Freetown shouting GOD IS GREAT and who knows what else. We want a speedy investigation but obviously respecting his human rights and doing a thorough job.
FBC - SU JOINS FIGHT AGAINST EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE
We are happy to hear that the new Student Union government has joined the fight against examination malpractice. They have recently organized a program to send out a powerful statement to their colleagues that the period when they enjoyed unqualified support against the college administration even when caught red handed is over. We don’t have the full details of what the SU government would do to carry out this promise to act in an effective way so it’s good to wait for the details as exams approach at FBC.
We believe the college administration would welcome this initiative but we are also waiting to hear from them just how this collaboration against examination malpractice would work. In other words what roles would the SU play in the fight apart from urging their members to believe in hard work and drop any tendency to cheat?
We also want the college administration to clean up all the channels that facilitate cheating by the students. They know what we are talking about. For now we wish the parties well and the coming exams would be the first test of this new partnership.
MARIJUANA EXPORT FROM SALONE MUST STOP
This is not the first time we are calling attention to what looks like a booming trade in marijuana from Sierra Leone into Guinea and Liberia. It emerged recently that a large quantity of marijuana bound for one of our neighboring countries, possibly Liberia, was confiscated at a checkpoint in Bo district.
We have always called on the authorities to stop this cross-border trade in marijuana because it’s doing enormous damage to our economy and food production and indeed the reputation of this country. We really can’t afford that at this time.
There is certainly no national outcry over this and it’s almost as if the nation and its institutions are powerless against a few criminals who prefer to make big money at the expense of the economy and reputation of Sierra Leone. We should NEVER be surprised or outraged when a serious western country slams a ban on Sierra Leoneans traveling to their place because we are slowly but surely moving towards becoming a supplier of narcotics.
The immediate danger we face is that people are turning away from growing food crops to the production of marijuana on a large scale because the market exists in Liberia and Guinea. Why can’t they grow what they smoke in those countries?
The other danger is many Sierra Leoneans are being jailed in those countries and our innocent people are facing intimidation and harassment on a daily basis on the streets because the security agencies there think they are all part of the marijuana trade.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency knows that periodic news items about the agency or persistent calls for more money will not solve the problem. There’s a lot of money in this business and the big guys running the show are influential and dangerous but we have to fight them because we have no choice.
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