The week in reflection
The APC are their own best news makers, whether the news is positive or negative. The rest of us merely take delight in helping them to propagate it, particularly news that makes unrealistic and more often than not unsubstantiated claims of their achievement. It is the irritating habit of ours in highlighting bogus claims that earn us notoriety and malevolent descriptions from the insincere propagandists of the ruling party. But, we shall press on regardless; there has not been a single occasion when my comments have as much as caused a ripple among the many clauses of the libel laws or the public order act of this Republic.
As an example I would like to invite my readers to revisit the famous proposed Kenema to Koindu road, the first phase of which terminates in Pendembu. Readers with a good retentive memory and I credit my faithful readers with nothing but the maximum level of remembering things; yes, readers would recall that the SLPP government of former President Ahmad Tejan-Kabbah had surveyed the road from Koindu on the Guinea/Liberia border in the Kailahun district, to Kenema the Provincial regional headquarters city of the east and of Kenema district. Yes, the government went beyond that and summoned a donor conference in Freetown to raise funds for the project. And by golly! John Benjamin the then Finance Minister secured pledges totalling US$63 million out of an estimated total of US$103 million. Then we had a change of government. On his first trip to Vienna the headquarters of UNIDO and of OPEC one of the organizations that had pledged support, the latter handed a cheque for US$5 million to his Excellency. No sooner had the delegation returned home than the Minister of Information and Communication went on air at the weekly news conference actually, to announce how his Excellency had already secured funding for the road project that he had promised the people as part of his campaign development pledges.
All we in the SLPP did was to set the record straight as outlined above, and that’s how some of our problems began with the ruling red sun. Two years ago the APC claimed the road project was launched with great fanfare by the Supremo himself; it lasted well into the night as every village had to be reminded about the development strategies of our new administration. As I type this page in Kenema, REAL WORK on the road has yet to commence. Oh yes, machinery and equipment have been mobilized, a work camp has been constructed outside Segbwema, BUT apart from clearing the shoulders of the proposed road, NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE.
This must be a great disappointment to the administration which has declared 2011 the year of implementation. As far as this dinosaur is concerned the only APC implementation road project is that from Congo Cross to Lumley. All the rest “nar SLPP pull na doe.”
Would anyone care, least of all the Minister of Works, Housing and Maintenance and the Minister of Information to tell the nation what has gone wrong?
Incidentally the same road project has been launched twice already, but it is all nothing but vuvuzella. The other tragedy about the road is that for the next five years or more, the people who live on the east side of Pendembu will continue to have the road to Kailahun and beyond cut off during the rains. Tigo spot is simply waiting for the first heavy downpours between miles six and nine on the Pendembu to Kailahun section.
The APC propagandists allege that the previous SLPP government did nothing for the people of this country even after 11 years in power. On one occasion the Information Minister in an unacceptable burst of anger said on SLBC tea break that “Dr. Banya and others had done nothing for their Kailahun district and that it was only now that the APC was taking developments there.” True we’ve much evidence of this; money and motorcycles are being distributed like water (Not Guma water for Pete’s sake) during the rains. But where are the developments compared with the schools, health centres, water wells, decentralisation, police stations and quarters, you named them which were all in place by September 2007. But others are irked that a senile 80 year old could recount these without stopping to think.
The decision taken by the leadership of the SLPP to re-engage with the Supreme Court is a procedure of wisdom. They should not be swayed by any group which thinks otherwise. It is our responsibility to state our case unequivocally; the Supreme court IS THE SUPREME COURT. LONTA.
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