WATERLOO WATERLOO WATERLOO
This is not the first time we are calling attention to the situation at Waterloo. On this issue, Waterloo doesn’t mean the town alone. We are talking about all the areas around Waterloo, from including Lumpa right up to Newton. We are asking the authorities to move extremely fast and deal with lawlessness and crime in Waterloo itself and the surrounding area.
The events of August 10 have proved that Waterloo is a time bomb waiting to explode and it really doesn’t take much to put the conditions in place for the bomb to explode. The whole place is just too chaotic and unpredictable so that the presence of that police station means nothing when criminals want to do things. We know that state resources would have to be directed at other areas but to assume that the current structures by which security is maintained at Waterloo cannot be described in any way as adequate. That will be a huge mistake and we will continue to regret any time an explosion takes place there.
Here are some reasons why we think the security sector has to take a new approach to dealing with Waterloo. At this point we want to remind the security sector that not too long ago they organized a meeting in that place where issues of concern to the sector were discussed and recommendations made. We can now conclude that those recommendations are on the shelves inside the ONS. Otherwise what happened in that place would have been prevented or dealt with easily to avoid the kind of damage to public property we saw on the 10th of August, 2022.
1. Some of the most powerful and wicked land grabbers and their private army of thugs have set up their bases at Waterloo. They are busy grabbing and selling state land and their thugs are under instruction to kill anybody trying to disrupt that trade. That includes security personnel.
2. There was this case of a police officer who was called to a small corner of Waterloo as part of an investigation. The officer was killed and even at this moment we have no idea whether the killers of that officer were even arrested. Waterloo is a good hiding place for hardcore criminals. Armed robberies are organized and executed from Waterloo.
3. Hundreds of ex-combatants from our civil war, including those discharged from the military are now settled at Waterloo. A good many of them grabbed parcels of land and built homes. They are dangerous when they have no jobs and social amenities around them.
4. Apart from criminals roaming the vast market area of the town, teenage pregnancy, prostitution, high rates of school drop outs, even in the era of free education and lawlessness have taken hold in that place.
5. Most of the cars stolen on the streets of Freetown are taken to scrap yards in Waterloo. A notorious guy in that business was recently arrested in a blaze of publicity. We still don't know how that case ended. That's another lost opportunity.
FREETOWN’S FLOOD MITIGATION PROJECT IN RUINS
We are waiting to hear from our Transform Freetown and Flood Mitigation Mayor on what happened to this wonderful city that she has transformed since coming to power FOUR years ago. Please, we are not talking about the Freetown she posts on social media daily. We are talking about the REAL FREETOWN where we live. Her social media Freetown is for those who live abroad and are so tied to her spin that they believe everything she says. We experience Freetown daily and our experience bears zero resemblance to her social media Freetown.
The last three days in August have proved that no transformation or flood mitigation has been done either by our queen of social media or by the government, the latter, as far as the areas they are supposed to handle are concerned.
WILKINSON ROAD is a total mess. We understand that was King Messi’s flagship road program. 24 hours after the rain stopped, the area from Indian Temple to Big House is still flooded.
We can only say sorry to those who suffered for three nights just to get through Murray Town Junction. Messi created that problem and we are still suffering after all these years.
MENDS STREET – DUNDAS STREET – we don’t know what to say about this area stretching right down to Saint John. Our Mayor drives through this place to and from work because she had that last minute change of address from rural Freetown just to be qualified to contest for this job.
We know a group of people in Freetown who have put together pictures taken throughout Freetown during the last three days of non-stop torrential rain. They are waiting for the Mayor to publish her highly sanitized pictures before they release their album to prove that we are dealing with an incompetent Mayor who believes smiles on social media can account for huge public funds from the CRF and those daily market dues.
The people who compiled the album have nothing to do with party politics and may well have voted for our smiling Mayor. We have seen some of the pictures and we believe they captured the true picture of Freetown. Let’s see how that goes.
SIERRA LEONE FACING ANOTHER IMAGE REPAIR WAR
The events of 10th August, 2022 have changed a lot of things about Sierra Leone. Like the other bloody events that took place during the civil war, August 18 has exposed a lot of things about this country. And it’s not as if many Sierra Leoneans had fallen asleep even as danger loomed especially after the dress rehearsals of the 8th and 9th of August. The government of Sierra Leone says this was an insurrection driven by the main opposition party aimed at seizing power. Others say it’s the revolt of the ordinary people who are completely fed up with rising COST of LIVING.
Anyway scores of civilians are dead and half a dozen police officers were also brutally killed. Our information is that the officers were not even part of the force sent to stop those who attacked Freetown on the 10th. They were either on their way home from work or were attacked inside their stations and killed. Police stations were indeed torched or vandalized and looted. The visiting president of Guinea Bissau says he’s NEVER heard of such a thing in ECOWAS for TWENTY YEARS.
The pictures fed to the rest of the world on social and mainstream media told the story of a nation that hasn’t learnt anything from its brutal past. Once again our passport is in big trouble around the world.
Just when we thought the world had forgotten about our violent past, we are now confronted with even more serious questions about the little space called Sierra Leone. Within a few short days, some of our brothers and sisters have carried out their threat on social media to plunge this country into another round of violence.
1. We now have to first let the world understand what actually happened here on those three days and it doesn’t help when those who should know begin to behave like hypocrites. We have to look for powerful and innovative ways to attempt once again to change this narrative. It takes a lot of money and time.
2. Let’s tell our big friends that criticizing this country for all her troubles is one thing and quite another to make a conscious effort to understand why off-duty police officers were attacked and killed by some Sierra Leoneans. We should accept help to investigate those who instigated and financed this and bring them to book. We’re told they are Sierra Leoneans with strong foreign allies.
3. We are not against dialogue if it’s just ONE route by which we want to heal this nation. If dialogue means setting free those who killed our police officers, then we have a small problem. The Special Court building is still here.
4. Investor confidence in this country has been badly shaken. There was very little Foreign Direct Investment coming this way before August 8. Let’s now see what happens because our competitors would simply show the pictures of August 10 to the world and the money would be gone.
Copyright © Politico Online (19/08/22)
