KOTHOR IB BOUNCES BACK; REALLY?
One newspaper headline screamed last week – I B KARGBO bounces back. It was one of the many papers we bought on that day. We really can’t afford to buy them all for two reasons: it’s just too expensive doing that day after day. Our monthly income can’t support that. The other reason is that for a handful of others, we can’t knowingly contribute money to the media lynch mob mentality that they cherish.
Anyway we bought this one principally to see how high Kothor went after his “bounce”. It turned out that De Pa had finally taken pity on Kothor and appointed him SENIOR ADVISER. Not bad. We have seen many presidential advisers before and we have to say this: With respect to Kothor, Presidential Advisers in Sierra Leone terms are really just there so that they feel part of the system that had just ditched them. We will accept that Kothor had a bounce but how significant.
Kothor is our mentor in this business so we always wish the best for him and it is along that line that we pray that Kothor’s role is made really effective. He has a lot to offer.
Kothor, please include the following in the first policy brief you submit to De Pa.
a. De Pa must get the parliament to pass the Freedom of Information Bill in this session. De Pa’s party completely dominates parliament so there is yet again no excuse.
b. De Pa must expunge criminal and seditious libel law from the Public Order Act – it’s retrogressive, it’s a bad law. In 2007, he promised to “review” the law. He ignored it totally. Let him expunge it now.
c. De Pa must re-instate subvention to the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists. He cut it off without notice. Kothor stood by and watched. Act now sir!
Kothor, this is not an attempt to remind you of the most important things you ignored as minister. We believe you have more power now in this new high office to deal with them.
IF OSCAR PISTORIUS WAS A SIERRA LEONEAN IN SIERRA LEONE
An intriguing case is going through a court in South Africa right now. The celebrity double amputee Olympic runner Oscar Pistorious is accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend. The world media have descended on Pretoria. Here is a great man being brought to book like everyone else. If he were a Sierra Leonean living in Sierra Leone, we have a good idea how the case would have been treated.
How did the case against LAJ, BIG FISH and the other guy end? They were involved in some fighting and high speed car chase along the beach last year in which an innocent man lost his life after he was shot. The local celebrities were charged to court and the nation held its breath waiting for the justice system to set the brightest example in THE RULE OF LAW. We all know what happened.
Now BIG FISH and LAJ are enjoying life on the streets, the innocent man is lying stiff and cold in his grave. We saw in many papers, LAJ and BIG FISH having a handshake with De Pa at State House. They were even declared Ambassadors for Peace, Peace, Peace. Nobody has told us anything about the family of the man who was killed and even today we are asking this question: Where is THE RULE OF LAW?
If Oscar Pistorious was a Sierra Leonean, the police would have charged members of his family for “destroying the image of the big man – Pistorious”. Funny eh?
BOOMING RICE TRADE NEAR DEFENCE MINISTRY IN FREETOWN
For the third time in as many months we have seen market women buying rice from soldiers near the ministry of defence located close to the most important buildings in Sierra Leone. The last thing we want as a nation is for our soldiers to start behaving like they use to do in the days leading up to the war and those foolish military coups that turned the hands of national development in the opposite direction.
The idea that when our khaki boys get their bags of rice, they quickly sell it back on the streets is something we don’t want to even think about. We remember how the whole buying and selling business was corrupted particularly by senior officers leading to disgruntlement and violence.
It was against this background that it was decided that the soldiers be paid in cash so that they can go into the open market to buy whatever they felt like eating. We were a bit uneasy that De Pa re-introduced this one bag of rice per soldier thing.
Let our soldiers take the bag of rice home to their wives and children or sell thme in some other place.
Let nobody tell us the women we saw were their wives. We spoke to some of the women sitting near the bags of rice and those conversations have informed this tweet. Not again, please!
OVER ANNIE WALSH WAHALA – CLERGY MAN GOES AWOL
By the time this Annie Walsh saga ends, ordinary mortals like us would have learned a lot about some of the people who we have grown up to believe would make our meeting with the creator a pleasant one. A clergyman who is widely reported to have given the wrong impression to government about the attitude of the Anglican Church to the government’s proposal to make Annie Walsh compound a kind of Kroo Town road market of the east is nowhere to be seen.
We understand he pulled out of the Standing Committee meeting of the Anglican Church – the equivalent of a parliament which was to discuss the Annie Walsh re-location issue. Watin dae apin nar dis contri baaaaa?We also understand that when his colleagues rang him up, he told them he was somewhere in the east of the country. May be he was busy praying for Diana Konomanyi as she toured the region.
It is our practice not to rush to conclusions but even at this stage and with what we know, we believe the clergy man under our microscope has no alternative but to come clean.
The ambassadorial job to Zion is looking increasingly unlikely so our man has nothing to lose. Please, next time the Bishop calls, remember to reply: Speak dear Bishop for thy colleague heareth. It will be a great day when all mankind came before the Lord in judgment!
MARIJUANA TRADE GROWING IN WATERLOO AND ENVIRONS
We can’t understand why the police have still not put up their hands in defeat in their fight against small time marijuana growers in the Freetown peninsular. Marijuana is now grown in many parts of Waterloo and outlying areas unchecked. Marijuana is being consumed in all forms openly on the streets of Freetown with the police looking the other way.
We have evidence that Sierra Leoneans are smuggling marijuana across the border into Guinea and Liberia. Some are in jail in those countries.
We have asked several questions about the work of the so-called anti-drug agency headed by a disgruntled former soldier who got his job purely as compensation for belonging to the inner core of some clique. That organisation is dead and our young people are using marijuana as a recreational drug all over the place.
This might sound alarmist but, we risk having our own Medellin Cartel in the general area of Waterloo in the next few years if we don’t call for international help now. The anti-drug agency has failed and the police are either neck-deep on the business or are just incapable to dealing with the problem. The situation is extremely serious!
