27 February, 2008

Sierra Express Reader, Freetown

Letter to the President

His Excellency Sir,

This time I am writing with heavy heart and concern about the future of our country Sierra Leone. Some days ago, a pastor was dragged out of his house by APC youths and was seriously beaten. According to the pastor, he did not do anything that warranted his molestation. The pastor in an interview with one of the radio stations; said that he was serving as a moderator in an accident tussle when these APC young people resorted to beating him. He said that he was beaten, dragged in a black jeep, chained, put under gun point and taken to the APC headquarters’ office. At the office, according to the pastor, he was given a further beating until someone identified him as a pastor at a time the said Pastor was almost hopeless. This kind of situation has led me to write you this letter.

Sir, I am worried about this kind of development. This is absolute violence and thug life. You should not encourage this kind of thing. I am therefore craving your indulgence to take drastic action to put it to a final halt. If you can remember sir, in my previous letters, I have been complaining about the activities of these youths. I am sure these guys want to bring the old style of the APC that resulted to the crisis in the country. I have been saying always that, you were not part of the APC that ruined the country that is the reason people overwhelmingly voted for you. I am sure you will not want to stain the clean record you have strived very hardy and rigorously to build up for yourself. I also know that, you are very much aware of the close watch the international community are putting on your governance and I trust your integrity to foresee danger in encouraging violence. It is absolutely dangerous. Last night I was at Kissy when a woman and her husband were having a conflict and the woman promised to bring APC youth to beat her husband. That is a bad perception. Those things are not supposed to be seen happening. I tell you his Excellency; those days are gone when youths will continue to be used as thugs to silence opponents. I don’t want you to be part of those things. You are too straight a man to be seen running a government that does not encourage liberalism. I know you to be a liberal person. I have not been very close to you, but friends that are very reliable and close to you do tell me that you are a liberal person. I trust those guys, therefore I trust you. Sir, I want to insist that you bring these guys to book or even make a press statement to show that you are not part of this and that anyone caught doing such should be treated like a criminal.

I want you to instruct your police officers to start going after these bandits that are saying that they belong to your party; APC. By now you must have known the reason for me to stress on your action to stop this ugly situation. To say the truth Sir, the SLPP may not have been voted for by the people of Sierra Leone but they did not encourage thugs or vandalism. The SLPP did not even support their members that intimidated other people of other parties. I think good examples should be emulated. Like the legacy of the NPRC of cleaning the country so should other good things be followed by your government set by the SLPP. If we can say the truth, at no time did the SLPP youth or young generation as they call them, harass anybody and beat that person. Sir, if you see the quick reaction of the people on that day, you will surely know that Sierra Leoneans will not be taken for granted.

People came out just within minutes and gathered in front of your party office and protested the action of the boys. I know these boys must have been supporters to your campaign during the past elections but something else should be done for them not to be as violent as they are now. Sir, we are fed up with violence in this country now. Let no guru tell you to use that means for politics. Believe me or not his Excellency, the majority of the people of this country do love you for now. I want you to create ways that will maintain that popularity.

In case I forget Sir, there is a massive dismissal of civil servants these days or since you came to power, what are the reasons for this dismissal? What procedures are being used for the sacking? Why the dismissals so early as now? When I hear these things, it makes me sick. I know very well that you should reward those who assisted you to come to power, but I think that should be done with caution and reasons. Do you know that since you dismissed Kakay at the Commercial Bank, things are not going normal in that bank? The computer system in the bank is badly functioning now. This is the reason, when you want to take dismissal actions, you must look at it yourself and do not allow your men to influence you. I am used to telling people that you, Berewa and Margai are people that have been on the ground for long and for that reason all of you know what is happening here. You are not like Pa Kabbah who just breezed in from the United Nations and assumed power - No!! You are men of the ground. You know how much ground nut is being sold per cup. This is the reason I am earnestly imploring you to take things the way you know them before assuming power and act on them. There are plenty things that former President Kabbah didn’t know because he was not on the ground. He was not on the ground and he refused to set up an intelligence system that will report to him directly and relied on the men that brought him to power. Those guys reported to him what was suitable for them to remain as ministers. So he somehow failed and the repercussion was his party was to be thrown away from the power. I would not want you to fall in that category. You do act quickly to volatile situations but you do not put ongoing modality that will deter the reputation of those incidents. That does not tell well Sir. I admire you when you attended the funeral of the Fullah businessman that was killed by bandits. That was a superb move because the Fullah Community had started becoming seriously disgruntled. Sir, since that day, nothing is being said about the investigations. I was expecting that you would instruct your spokesman to issue a stern statement concerning those kinds of banditism and that the APC is not synonymous to violence. Why should people boast of APC to act for them when there is a violent situation? Please wipe away those things from the minds of people and institute drastic measures on the persons behind such act.

His Excellency Sir, I want to draw you attention to the customs department at the NRA. I am not convenient with the way taxes are collected and are levied on people in the country. There is no one, not even me that can tell the tariff that customs officers are using to impose duty on people. That is very ridiculous Sir. At the customs, the people that are working there have become millionaires. The reason behind it is because they (customs officers) work on their own. No one can challenge the duties they levy on goods. That is because citizens don’t know the criterion which is very wrong. All over the world, even Guinea our neighbor, publish in newspapers and on radio the percentages that are collected on different types of goods. This is the only country in the world that negotiates price when levying a duty on goods. I am not convenient because the ordinary citizens have to suffer for those kinds of actions.

How was your trip to Bo Sir? My friend told me that your minister there did everything to make it a success. I know the minister did not draw your attention to the action of the Traders Union. That was because of the workload may be. I will try to tell you Sir. Please warn the Traders Union in Bo to stop the pretext that they are controlling price. When did that start happening in Sierra Leone? I implore you to tell the Traders Union that they are not a price regulatory body. They should not be seen harassing traders on goods that are not government provided goods. That will bring serious dispute and unrest. The Traders Union should know that they are an organization that seeks the interest of its members not to suppress the membership. They should be seen working for the traders. They should also know that traders do sell their commodities according the present transportation cost apart from the hard labour compensation they are supposed to get. That is the reason I said the last time that, petroleum fuel is the centre of prices as far as local commodities are concerned. Please Sir, give stern warning to the Traders Union in Bo to stop posing to be a law making body.

His Excellency, I want you to privately ask your Vice President (VP) what kind of guys he has at his office. I am disturbed with information that those guys are going around extorting money from people. There is a case at the Police that involves a British man dubiously doing business with a Guinean and a Sierra Leonean which has led to these guys at the VPs office to be ordering the arrest of innocent citizens and intimidating others. Please Sir, tell VP to ask his boys to desist from that if that is the case. I have respect for the VP because I know him to be another gentleman. No one will talk something about him in this country’s politics. At times, these so called investors do dubious business with these people and when the business boomerangs they started to cry foul. When they start the business and it goes on well without the involvement of government and tax evasions, no one will hear them. No sooner something happens along the line they will want government officials to act on their behalf to retrieve their monies. That should not be encouraged. This business people should be questioned on how they enter into business with the people they claim to have duped them.

Finally Sir, I am pleading for Bo and Kenema to be assisted and restoring their electricity. Sir for a very long time the people there are used to electricity for it to just get out like that, it is becoming unbearable. Please tell Haja Hafsatu Kabba to restore the light and give them water. As for piped borne water, it has been for decades the people of Bo and Kenema have not been privileged to realize. Please sir, if you go to Bo and Kenema you must not work at night because you will likely fall in water well. There so many well in those two towns that one will not believe that Bo is the second capital of Sierra Leone. Somebody informed me that there are moves to make Makeni the second capital Sir but I will continue with that in my next letter when I have made thorough investigations. I thank you sir.

Yours sincerely

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!