ONCE UPON A TIME, SIERRA LEONE AND A MAN CALLED ORBANGU When we come to write the political history of Sierra Leone, the chapter dealing with De Pa’s presidency (2007 – 2017) will be incomplete without a generous 2500 words on his relationship with the most unbelievable character in recent Sierra Leonean politics - a man called Orbangu. On nationwide radio, Orbangu has described himself as “politically powerful” because he has the “ears of the president” and that he has the “same four-wheel drive vehicle” as the president and always “travels with the president on overseas trips” and he will use his influence with De Pa to secure jobs for his restless party officials. You see, De Pa’s presidency has a long history with Orbangu. The last time he made wild statements about De Pa, including some really personal ones, the whole thing was spun as an opposition gimmick. Is what he said on nationwide radio two days ago also an opposition gimmick? Those quick-to-label blokesmust answer this oh!!! Going back now to what he did at the UN and his attack on Michael Schulenburg and indeed the premature withdrawal of the UN diplomat from this country also another opposition stunt? We have no reason to believe De Pa will do anything to finally nail this Orbangu rubbish. Intestines are never strong unless there is a stick or some iron inside the. However, we feel extremely bad that the presidency is being treated in this way. Is this the land our forefathers bequeathed to us? De Pa must go no lower than this. After all he does not need a ventriloquist for there is no third term for him. Let him sever links with him. The other day he was on tape saying he organizes girlfriends for De Pa. What nonsense! What disgrace! DANCING ON THE SREETS WITH GRAND AYATOLLAH SISTANI The last event anybody expected our new ministers to turn into another round of street carnivals is the process of scrutinizing them through parliament. With respect to our MPs, the process itself leaves much to be desired but we will examine that on another day. As far as we know, this is supposed to be a very serious affair with our representatives asking good and pertinent questions dealing with the performance, character and educational background of those put forward by De Pa for big jobs. That’s why we could lay hands on absolutely no reason why Ayatollah Sistani had to mobilise such a huge number of people to dance to parliament and back through central Freetown singing long live the Ayatollah. Are we really still dancing? The realities of living in Sierra Leone after the elections have started kicking in but because our people love instant joy and somebody like Ayatollah Sistani knows that, he recruits them easily to make a public show of the “love” the people have for him. He has only succeeded in fooling himself. We don’t think his approval for the job was under any threat but he probably needed such a show of force to convince the MPs he was the Man of the People. We shall be watching to see the crowd accompanying John Kerry, Obama’s new Secretary of State, to Congress for his confirmation hearing. Look, if we don’t totally eliminate this culture of dancing, singing, clapping and wearing ASHOBI for every occasion in this country, we will remain lazy and weak, feeding from the palms of the likes of Ayatollah Sistani all the time. HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION – CAN WE SUGGEST ANOTHER STRATEGY? We have a lot of respect for the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone. They have given a very good account of themselves and have stood firm even in conditions when many loudmouthed so-called democratic institutions collapsed into singing praises of the high and mighty – siding with power against the people of Mama Salone. But we want to make this humble plea as great friends of the HRCSL. Please don’t behave like the fire service. You have done a fantastic job with the WIA soldiers and the workers of African Minerals, now you are pushing into Kono over the miners’ strike in which two innocent people were killed. All such mining companies have Environmental Impact Assessment plans and Corporate Social Responsibility documents. But we have never heard anything about their Human Rights Compliance Certificate or something that sounds like that, something that guarantees the ordinary Sierra Leonean working in such sub-human conditions that their Human Rights will be respected under all circumstances. In fact, it’s not only institutional Human Rights we are talking about; it’s about a deepening culture of fundamental respect for human rights throughout Sierra Leone. You may cite the constitution but it’s not enough. And let IG Munu know this: we are counting the number of innocent Sierra Leoneans the police under his command have killed and might kill if a handful of people assemble to protest over any issue not in favour of De Pa. We know there are human rights groups doing the same. We are doing so for a reason. Our IG will one day answer questions in a court of law somewhere on planet earth – the former Kenya Police boss is in The Hague, Mubarak and his men are doing so in Egypt, Hassaine Habre will appear in court in Senegal soon. May be Munu will turn up in a courtroom in Cambodia. Who knows? God’s time, they, is the best. From his many utterances, it will be easy for the most rookie of Lawyers to prove that IG Munu had command responsibility over those who are busy killing the people. He defends them and justifies their actions – ALMOST ALWAYS. How many people would Belfast police have killed in seven weeks of protest were Munu the Chief Constabulary Officer there? No escape Mr IG! ELECTRICITY RETURNS TO REGENT - BUT WHO’S ENJOYING IT? You can bet that in the coming election in Constituency 91, the ruling party candidate will use the restoration of electricity to parts of Regent as the first of many developments that will take place under his leadership. We don’t think there is anything wrong with that but before he embarks on that campaign, we should let the NPA know a few things about the restoration project that NPA is doing in the general area of Regent.
- The restoration of electricity to Regent started at the residence of Bilo Kamara, head of the prisons department. That’s bad PR. The local people of Regent or their community structures should have been considered first. Bilo Kamara has just built his Igwe house at Regent (He still has to convince us he didn’t use prison labour – both prisoners and artisans). Bilo is the one getting all the attention.
- People are being asked to buy their own cables to be connected to the national grid. Zubairu Kaloko must know this. So what happens after three to six months when I get quit notice or I decide to move on, could I work up to the NPA and ask them to bring my cables down and hand them over to me? Remember I bought them.
- We now know that NPA workers are concentrating on outlying areas coming towards IMATT. The people there are rich and eager to get power. The rest of the population of Regentmust wait until it pleases Zubairu’s boys.
- People with pre-paid meter there must go to NPA office to top up their system. We think that is really bad. Zubairu expects customers to come from Regent, Babadorie and such far flung places just to top up their meter? Come on Mr NPA boss, wake up! If you can’t operate a pre-paid system as they do in the country you spent many years in and always show off about, don’t try it here. You know how these things are done abroad. We shall deal with this in detail next week. By the way, please tell your people at the so-called customer centre never to be rude to those paying their salaries. This is one service Zubairu should out-source to a professional customer care agency and sack those rude staff of his who are just not ready for the job.
DARK FOURAH BAY COLLEGE – THIEVES ON THE RAMPAGE The people of Regent may grumble about the selective distribution of electricity starting with Bilo Kamara the boss of the over-crowded miserable prison where people die every day; but spare a thought for FBC campus – Athens of West Africa. It’s been without light for weeks. NPA says it’s the result of underground fault and the machines they used to find and isolate the fault line, is also faulty. We suspect this is the first time Zubairu is hearing something like this. Imagine what that campus looks like at 8pm without NPA. All this bogus talk about developing human capital without the necessary investment and prioritisation is just naked lip service. Sorry! ECOBANK AND THEIR CUSTOMERS – WATIN DAE APIN Baaaaaaaaaaa? Even as we write this, we still consider ECOBANK one of the best banking groups in this country and Africa in fact. They are a blessing to Sierra Leone. They are our bankers, which is why we think we have a responsibility to make the following observations. A customer walked into an ECOBANK branch that is close to his workplace the other day and this happened: Customer – Excuse me madam I applied for a chequebook three weeks ago and I still don’t have it, what’s the problem? I am running out of patience now. This is my third visit in two weeks. ECOBANK Teller - We don’t just print chequebooks like that. Some people apply for a cheque book when they know they don’t have a cent in their account, even to pay for that service. “What?” Asked the stunned customer. “Why are you talking to me like that?”he went on, before walking away promising to “take action”. We suspect the action will be for him to transfer his money to another bank and close his account with ECOBANK. That guy has a lot of money. At another branch customers almost rioted when they waited for hours to be served. All the poor ECOBANK staff told them was: “the system is down” – meaningtheir IT was faulty. To worsen matters, the generator went down. And with NPA failing badly, the place became dark and hot. We don’t blame ECOBANK for everything, but it’s their fault if their Tellers look down on people and their system is more down than up. If ECOBANK can’t effectively run the few dozen offices they operate in Sierra Leone, let them consolidate their resources and effectively run only 5 or so and put up with the consequences on their turnover. Expanding to all corners just to create the impression they are the greatest bank ever, serves no useful purpose. We love ECOBANK. We don’t want them to go the way of others including the one that is debt-ridden, inefficient and may not survive beyond 2014.
