The week just ended …
The week began with a well attended Annual General and Scientific meeting of the West African College of Physicians at the Miata Conference Centre. The colourful ceremony was opened by the head of state his Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma. The membership comprises the entire West African Anglophone countries and Benin, Ivory Coast and Senegal and was presided over by its Sierra Leone President the popular Dr. Patrick Coker who along with the Vice Presidents of the other chapters installed President Ernest Bai Koroma as an honoray Fellow of the College. President Koroma’s acceptance speech and opening statement were quite humourous and went down well. (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)
To the amusement of members of the SLPP, the chairman of the Kailahun district council Rtd. Lt. Colonel Tom Nyuma declared that he was still SLPP; a cynic retorted that if Nyuma who had sort and received the party’s endorsement for his election campaign was indeed SLPP what was the need for a formal declaration? That erudite publisher of the Awareness Times newspaper announced that Nyuma was leaving the shores of Sierra Leone on a trip which would take him to the United Kingdom to pursue a course and on to Ghana for a conference. Who sponsored the trip, the Kailahun district council, the Decentralization secretariat or Tom Nyuma’s very generous friends? All this old man would like to do is to remind Tom Nyuma of the old Chinese proverb which says that “What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.” There you are Ranger, if you really are still SLPP why do you need to advertise the fact? Would you not rather that it was seen in you, in your commitment and activities within the party? Do you remember what former President Stevens said when he was preparing our minds to impose Major-General Joseph Saidu Momoh as his successor? “In this mundane world of ‘dog eats dog, no one is indispensable.” As you enjoy your Range Rover jeep and your overseas trip, take care that your present course of action does not lead eventually lead to your being heard murmuring to yourself, what may be described as “Sentiments in soliloquy.”
But for Puawuin and other environmentalists the news item of the week was the Cabinet decision to declare the Gola Forest as a NATIONAL PARK. What a service to the preservation of our rich natural heritage and Biological Diversity. Yes, not to mention the opportunities to be derived from any carbon trade.
Olu Ritchie Awoonor-Gordon is among a small group of persons who persist in repeating the myth that former President Tejan-Kabbah promised this nation a bridge to Lungi and a Railway that would run from Freetown (Water street station) to Pendembu with a branch line that would run from Bauya to Makeni. The former President spoke about Feasibility Studies; it is a pity that even a self-proclaimed professor of English has to be taught the difference between a feasibility study and an unambiguous statement of fact. But let me ask the professor as I have asked others like him before. Is the Masiaka to Bo road a plan, or the Masiaka to Makeni, or the Lumley to Tokkeh, Rogbere junction to Pamlap or the hillside road only a plan in the SLPP’s development strategy? Yes, we may not have been development oriented but what we achieved can only be dismissed as frivolous by cynics who cannot boast of any meaningful contribution to the development of the country other than a noriety to ‘Pull others down’ or Phd. By jeeves what we achieved even before the end of the rebel war and after will take some beating.
I was in the eastern regional city of Kenema brieflyover the weekend. To the shame of SALWACO, the agency responsible for the supply of drinking water to the city and its environs, and to the Mayor and municipality of the city, that water continues to ooze right in the middle of Hangha road to this day despite numerous reminders.
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