“Gee Den Chance,” for wetin?
From a particular building along Old Railway line the loud speaker was blaring the whole of Monday afternoon. It was difficult to discern what the excitement was all about. Was it because his Excellency had commissioned the Bumbuna hydroelectric project thus supposedly bringing 24 hour electricity to Freetown and I am told Makeni and Lunsar as well? Was the joy a way of “take dry yai cober shame?” or was it simply continuing panic and fruitless endeavour to counter Emerson Bockarie’s soul moving and thoughtful lyrics of what the people are going through today? But as the ruling APC party is known to dance for everything, including savage attacks on the opposition SLPP’s property and members, one needn’t scratch ones head to find out what the latest revelry was all about.
Emerson has described the hard and hostile economic environment in which all Sierra Leoneans now live, with everything affordable only by the privileged rich. I wonder how many people saw the way the cultural performers in Bumbuna were being showered with crisp new Sengeh Pieh notes straight from the Central Bank’s vault as compensation for morale boosting.
My poor wife grumbles at the pittance that I give her to go to the markets to feed a fairly large household. Very soon not even the very robust resilience of the Sierra Leonean would prevent an endemic of protein-calorie malnutrition. In spite of the selective employment of people especially those from the diasporas who happen to be mainly APC party supporters, unemployment continues to rise, more intense among young people and the disabled.
I watch the financial market reports on television where the Dollar is barely holding its own against the Euro and the Pound sterling and yet here in Sierra Leone it continues to appreciate against a struggling Leone.
Yes, “yesterday, no Bumbuna, tiday Bumbuna” but will the slogan fill hungry stomachs? Is paying an artist to compose a special lyrics that ‘tiday betteh pass yesterday” or Gee den chance” make today better than yesterday even as those dancing may not have had a square meal the whole day, unless of course it is specially ordered to sustain the vigil? What an illusion. Would someone educate our friends that no amount of propaganda will satisfy a hungry stomach other than food?
In any case what were they celebrating, the humiliation which they received at the hands of the opposition SLPP and the electorate in Bo last Saturday? They had thrown a considerable amount of financial resources into that bye election campaign and had assured both his Excellency and the minister for political affairs that the ward was in the grips of the APC. Wasn’t that what convinced honourable Alpha Kanu to travel to Bo? But my friend Alpha Khan is stubborn; the countless times when I have advised him to hang heads with me and not allow the Musa Tarawallies and Moijueh Kaikais to mislead him, he won’t listen. I like him and he must listen to me rather than to characters whose only claim to fame is that they know which side of the bread is covered with jam. In the absence of thuggery and violence, our people will vote SLPP every time. If it was not for that trademark the APC would never have won that ward in Soro-Gbeima chiefdom in the Pujehun district; those who misled them know that.
Now for Bumbuna! Oh Bumbuna! My heart cries out in sympathy for you. You were going to be the answer to all our ills, our ambitions and our hope. There was going to be an industrial revolution; employment would be enhanced and a good time would be had by all. Because of all that, you were commissioned with great fanfare; although 95 percent of the work had been completed by the erstwhile SLPP government, there was no acknowledgement of that. Instead we sang the APC victory song with great gusto, with every minister straining their vocal cords so that the President would hear them loud and clear. After all that, and like the Attitudinal Change slogan, nothing has changed. Many parts of the city are still subjected to abrupt power cuts. Poor Bumbuna! We’ve tried to politicize you only for the plan to backfire; was there overwhelming desire to rush the commissioning? What was wrong with making haste slowly? All the same the Pres. must now come out with a clear statement as to why it is happening, or better still, why it is not happening as we expect.
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