Currency Or Calamity
The news that a consignment of rice has been rejected at the Queen Elizabeth II Quay because it is rotten has suddenly become national news in the country.
In other countries, such an incident would have been seen as the usual act of a government ready to serve the interest of its citizens. In Sierra Leone, there is a totally different view all together. To us in Sierra Leone, rejecting a ship load of rice is seen as a strange occurrence which can be likened to the landing of a space craft from Mars.
The reality is that at no time in the history of the Sierra Leone Ports Authority has a ship load of rice been denied because of its unfitness. Here, it was the philosophy of everything goes, whether it is good or not. The bottom line is that currency has more importance than the health of the nation.
It is a usual occurrence for all sorts of food, be it rotten or expired, to be imported into the country with neither the care nor the concern for its repercussions, and this explains why the newly appointed Ports Authority General Manager recently became the target of some newspapers who, in their lack of patriotic responsibility, unfairly lambasted Captain Davies because of his noble action in collaborating with health officers to put a stop to the consignment being unloaded and sent into our markets.
There is a need for some media practitioners to realize that money is not the only solution. Sometimes it pays to show concern for your nation.
We have to start somewhere in maintaining standards for our country and in seeing that these standards are not observed in theory, but put into practicality.
Those who are trying to cover up the nefarious works of Ahmed Mackie need to be properly educated about the far reaching effects of corruption.
We understand that Mackie is working around the clock to ensure that the rice is imported. This means he has no concern if the country and the people are killed as long as ‘his own pot is boiling.’ Even if the country’s leaders tomorrow eat weevil filled rice, it does not matter.
The question is: Are we working towards currency accumulation and giving way to calamity to strike us in the safety of our nation?
We have had various instances of how our nation has been the brunt of wicked and deliberate transactions with dubious interests and negative thinking individuals. We have not forgotten how corruption caused some Sierra Leoneans to accept money in exchange for the dumping of nuclear waste into this country, which at the end of the day would have caused the demise of numerous people if not all the people in the country.
We have been witnesses to the situation wherein billions of Leones were spent on a mere fishing boat which was sold to us as a war ship, with even some journalists coming out in support of the Lebanese national who had the audacity to pass off a wreck as a new vessel.
We have been witnesses to Sierra Leone security officers accepting bribes from rebels and even selling weapons to them and showing them the time when to attack innocent civilians.
That is why we pray for a conscious leader to save this country from the iron hands of corruption which continues to strangle us, and there is a need for the Anti-Corruption Commission to look into this issue of rotten rice before we have another calamity on our hands.
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