TOO MANY PREGNANT TEENAGERS IN SIERRA LEONE – UNICEF We are waking up once again to another piece of bad news about our country. The other day, an international NGO issued a report saying our country occupies the 71st position out of 79 countries with the hungriest people on earth. Now UNICEF has just said that Sierra Leone has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in the world. The problems are piling up and we seem not to know how to start solving them. What makes it extremely serious is that for the most part we are in denial. In denial because governments always feel that accepting such problems means they are losing power. For them the whole thing is about power, power and more power. When we recently had the cholera outbreak, it took scores of lives and screaming banner headlines for the government to declare a national emergency and we all saw how the whole country and the international community reacted. We seem to have the situation under control now, waiting for another rainy season. Following that same logic, can the government now declare a National Hunger Emergency? Can the government also declare a National Emergency against Teenage Pregnancy in Sierra Leone? It’s up to sociologists to tell us why some many of our young girls are becoming mothers today. Our business is not to allow those in power to pretend all is well. The facts are there for all to see – Many Sierra Leoneans are HUNGRY, many Sierra Leonean girls are pregnant and many of our children are out of school. Let parliament discuss the UNICEF report and stop this traditional hypocritical debate about saying thank you to De Pa. THE MINISTER AND HIS FURNITURE – CHANGE ALL FURNITURE NOW! One of the ministers recently reassigned by De Pa has a big problem with the furniture in his office. He has ordered his officials to change all the furniture in his office otherwise he will not use the place. This comes just a few months after his predecessor had changed it. This is how the day begins at that office: The Permanent Secretary and others move documents from one part of Youyi Building to the other, in search of the minister who is still hibernating in his former office. We want our ministers to have good offices, cars, housing and all such things as they go about doing their work. We however don’t understand why this particular minister wants to change furniture supplied only four months before the elections that returned him to power. Last week some of contractors were already pouring into the ministries with invoices and write-ups about this and that project that they have done before. The minister will press on with his furniture-change plan despite disapproval even from among his staff. We are however watching carefully to see which company eventually gets the contract and what happens with the existing new yet “old” furniture. The minister knows that on the national priority list, NEW FURNITURE for ministers is rock bottom. Anyway, let the minister enjoy. The cost of our democracy is becoming unbearable. MORE “PRO-ACTIVE” WORK FOR ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY The so-called Environmental Protection Agency was on Gbanabom TV last week harassing the catholic community at FBC as they cleared a piece of land they legally acquired from the college authorities to construct a church for the catholic community comprising both students and lecturers. The so-called EPA people had with them TV and armed OSD personnel. We have no problem with agencies of government doing jobs for which they were set up but when we finally unmask the hidden hands and faces behind that EPA charade the other day, Sierra Leoneans will be clear about how institutions genuinely set up to make Sierra Leone good are wickedly manipulated by shadowy characters on ego trips. If the so-called Environmental Protect Agency wants to be useful, here are a few cases to handle immediately:
- Why don’t they check out that environmental disgrace at SS Camp where Chief Sidikie planted his Igwe palace. Can we please see the environmental permit? What about all the movements at Mount Sugar Loaf, Leicester Peak, near the SLBC’s transmitting facilities and all around Regent?
- Why don’t they go to Sierra Rutile where the company has devastated the land, leaving pools of dirty water all around? What about Koidu and Tongo?
We can name a lot more. If Musa Tarawallie is not careful, this agency will embarrass his ministry. As for the SLBC, we are not surprised. They are crooked and unprofessional. Here’s what they did: They superimposed the picture of the land on the picture of the dam to create the impression the two places are very close to each other – manipulating pictures to please their masters. Even by their own terribly unprofessional standards they just went too low. Soon they will have nothing more to manipulate. AND SLBC GOES OUT WITH THE BEGGING BOWL While their junior staff were busy trespassing on FBC property, senior officers of the debt-ridden and professionally-devoid SLBC went to see Commonwealth Marrah at the ministry about their huge salaries. The funding window opened by De Pa in the period leading to the elections will close in a few weeks and the bosses are rattled. And it’s not so much about their staff but their own big monies (second only to the ACC boss’s salary). It was an interesting meeting. It was as if Mr Commonwealth had been lying in wait for them. He told them to go home and produce a Strategic Plan clearly indicating many things. We will not outline them because we don’t want to unwittingly help SLBC do something Gbanabom ought to have produced in his first month in office. By the way where is his producers’ guide? Wonders never end! SLBC has debts totalling more than Le 3 Billion at the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank. It’s only by the grace of De Pa that they are still sitting in that place. We really can’t understand why De Pa is refusing to put his hands up and declare Gbanabom a failure as the people at that small Canadian NGO did. The UN will not put any money in SLBC because the ACC has refused to do to SLBC what he is thinking about doing at the Ministry of Health. We can assure him that there is more money in the SLBC debacle that the Health wahala. Edmond Koroma, formerly of NASSIT and others still there and Gbanabom are SACRED Cows. The guys at Health are dispensable material, no political consequence. And the ACC calls itself a fair organisation. Strange Country! THE MOTHER OF ALL ELECTIONS COMING UP IN CONSTITUENCY 92 At a time of election fatigue and disappointment with the outcome of the November 17 polls, Christiana is calling people of constituency 92 to go to the polls again. Let’s prepare for the most ridiculous electoral turnout ever in Sierra Leone. Worse than the ten percent turnout that voted in the Diana Konomanyi election as Chairman of the Kono District Council. Some of us will have very serious problems with anybody declared the winner if the turnout is below 40%. The ruling APC has a lot to worry about. All three independent candidates are APC men who are dissatisfied with the selection of a candidate that came from nowhere to represent the party. Just before you conclude that the SLPP should be rubbing their hands with glee, we should state that the SLPP are very weak after their defeat by De Pa. The little vigour that was left in them has been sapped by the recent infighting between J.O.B who does no job and Osuofia who seems not to want to leave the leadership as stated in the party’s constitution. If they are able to bring out their core votes, they will claim their first seat in the Western Area since 2007. But that will be difficult. In fact IMPOSSIBLE. By the way, how did Christiana arrive at the numbers put on these constituencies? They make no sense. We used to have geo-political names but like for everything else, she brought her own style. Look at this: Constituency 91 is in Pujehun, 92 at Regent and Grafton. Come on! (C) Politico 07/02/13
