19 February, 2008

Sierra Express Reader, Sierra Leone

Follow-Up Letter to the President

Your Excellency Sir,

In the last letter I wrote to you, I informed you about a gang of young men and women that are harassing peaceful citizens around the country. These young men are even worse now, if you do not take action, it may result to something very severe because when the harassment is enough for Sierra Leoneans, they will act in defense of themselves. Please sir, these guys are thieves but they are using the name of your party, APC, to bring disrepute to your rule. You must stop them. I am sorry if I am using a hard word but I must. I am not able to think of another word at the time of writing because of the stress.

May I draw your attention to the issue that most newspapers wrote about on the 11th February, 2008?  Police torturing people? This is an issue I will want you to keenly look into and act or pass it on to your Vice, as he is the chairman of the Police Council. It is very important because most Police officers are boasting that with the emergence of you and your party, the Police can act in any kind of way they want. That is a serious allegation and it is counter-productive for you being in power. According to the TRC report, the Police have plenty of responsibility for the rebel war. It is a fact that before the rebel war the Police acted on their own laws, not the laws of the country. Most young men that are joining the Police these days think that the Police force is the place for accumulating quick wealth. That cliché must be removed from the minds of people; otherwise we are running into another serious problem. I feel sad when I see Police officers taking bribes openly nowadays. It had drastically reduced during the SLPP rule. I think we should follow good examples. I am thinking of it that you are giving too much of a free hand. As you know sir, anything too much is bad so please stop them now. The Police and judiciary must be under your close watch although you should give them total independence to execute their jobs.

I want to stress that the Police must be closely watched. I am saying this because I have strong feelings that some people are bent on destroying the image of some of the senior Police officers in that institution. I can’t believe people will say that Acha Kamara is SLPP. I feel sorry for that man. Sir, during the SLPP rule, Acha was accused of being a strong member of the APC.  SLPP members snubbed him in assigning duties to him and rather relied on other people because they felt he was APC. He was between the devil and the deep sea. Sir, he was working for the SLPP government while all his relations were A.P.C. He was like being loyal to your bosses (SLPP) while your family is on the other side. I remember when some people accused him of creating the way for Johnny Paul Koroma to escape. He was accused and nearly molested on that issue. Now people are accusing him of being SLPP, because they want his job. Sir, the only thing I will advise on that issue is that, you use your personal discretion to choose the Inspector General of Police. Please Sir, don’t forget that if you choose the wrong person, the whole country will be in a mess. Do you remember the old APC?

There is a serious and urgent issue that I want to draw your attention to; it is the issue of Hon. Kemoh Sesay and the managing editor of the Independent Observer newspaper, Mr. Jonathan Leigh. Jonathan Leigh offended Hon. Kemoh Sesay but has since apologized for that grave blunder he made. Jonathan retracted in his paper on the front page and showed remorse for his action but Hon. Kemoh is still angry. Sir, I know Hon. Kemoh Sesay. We were in Conakry, Guinea together and I was with him almost 24 hours every day. I know him to be a very nice person. He can go out of his way to please or solve people’s personal problems. I want you sir, to personally talk to him to please drop the case against Jonathan. Jonathan Leigh is a young man that is struggling his way to prominence as Hon. Kemoh Sesay has done. Please prevail on him to drop the matter. No one is infallible, today it is Jonathan and tomorrow it may be me or any other person. Please sir, treat this request with urgency as time is running out.

There is an increase of young men that are idle in the streets of Freetown since you assumed power. People have moved from up country, especially the north, to Freetown. The city has become congested these days. As I have been investigating, most of the people that have exodus to Freetown have the feeling that you have the magic wand to change their socio-economic status and therefore they should be where you can see them quickly. Up country is too far for you to see them they think. 

Sir, I heard you are changing all senior civil servants and other senior officers in the country. I don’t think that will be wise or will earn you something. If your guys are advising you those ways please don’t take to their advice. It was not everybody that performed badly during the SLPP rule and in fact I believe the SLPP did not perform badly as some people would want to say. It will be good for you to closely examine the things the SLPP were doing and pick from amongst them the good ones. One of your Ministers has started doing so. If I can mention the persons name with permission, he is the Minister of Marine Resources, Dr. Moses Kapu. I am sorry; I am afraid to mention names because I don’t want to appear in court. Really, he is pursuing the development of Antisana Fishing which the SLPP started. That is a good move. Please encourage him to continue doing that.

Sir, I am seriously disturbed by this 32 million dollar electricity project. It has given me insomnia. Thinking of it last night gave me sleeplessness. Someone at the Ministry of Energy and Power whispered to me that about 74 million Leones is spent on that machine every day as a running cost. How ridiculous that is! Apart from the 32 million dollars for one year rent we are spending another 74 million Leones everyday for its running cost. Any way, I am not properly informed maybe the 74 million Leones is part of the 32 million dollars paid for the machine? That means the 74 million Leones is not extra. If that is the case well and good, but if it is not, you will have to seriously reconsider your position on that rental of the machine. In fact, what I will say is that, I am not convinced that it is possible to rent a machine for 32 million dollars for one year. I want you to call on experts to come and study the situation and propose the cheapest way to handle this light problem.

Sir, I understand fuel will soon be increased in price and the actual price will be eighteen thousand Leones (Le 18,000) per gallon. I also understand that you want to use some techniques to suppress the price to sixteen thousand Leones (Le 16,000) temporarily, and later on allow the actual price. That may look like a smart move but I warn that the repercussion on escalating fuel price after every other month is unpopularity. It will be the worst mistake you will allow happening. Please bear in mind that petroleum fuel is the centre of all price increases and decreases in the country. I want you to handle it yourself. Please do not send anybody there. It affects you directly.

His Excellency Sir, I went to Bo and Kenema these few days, I was astonished to see the level at which people are suffering in those two places. I don’t understand the reason behind it but some citizens of those areas said to me that they have the feeling your government has started neglecting them, although your Minister of Presidential Affairs South, I was told, has started picking up. He is said to be making serious moves to unite the people and has contacted several development partners abroad for the development of that area. If that is the case, please give him your support. I know him to be someone that can move investors into the country. The only thing I want you to advise him is that he should embrace everybody. He can be of plenty help for the success of your governance.

Sir, I am advising that you act on the Queen Elizabeth II Quay issue. Since the days of the SLPP it hurt me when Pa Kabbah brought a Ghanaian to head that port. I asked myself, will Ghanaians allow a Sierra Leonean to head their ports? That was a crazy move by Pa Kabbah. Our brothers and sisters that are at that Quay have the capability and potential to run the place. Please move fast to do that sir. It is time for that Ghanaian to go back to Accra and make post mortem on how the Ghanaian football team failed to win the African Nations Cup.

Sir, allow me to draw your attention to something that is regarded as a trivial issue but can be very serious. It is the customs. Please Sir; I want you to put in place a system that will properly monitor the activities of customs officers in the country. There is an example of one that is at Port Loko.

Sir, The NRA has set up an anti-smuggling check-point at Port Loko that is posing a serious problem for business people. The check-point itself has become a paradise on earth. The officers are doing nothing but just extorting money from drivers and business people and lavishing the money on women and liquor. Sir, that place has a generator at night and while officers are lying in their make-shift houses some hired young men harass people. If you see that place sir, you will be discouraged about how Sierra Leoneans can abuse their jobs. The guys are not working at all. They sit in a little corner drinking whilst these boys that have been hired by them, harass drivers and business people. I saw one of them that I knew to have been sacked by the NRA and reemployed. He is called Alhassan Conteh. Please Sir, ask Hon. Kemoh Sesay to act on that issue because that area is where he hails from.

Lastly His Excellency, I want you to make a statement about those so called APC young men that move around in the black Jeep with red cloth behind the Jeep, harassing peaceful Sierra Leoneans.  I am stressing that these young men are still molesting people and extorting money from peaceful Sierra Leoneans. I will continue reminding you until these guys are arrested and questioned about their actions.

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