Peripatetic Puawui
At last it is going to happen. The President of the Republic his Excellency Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma is expected to visit Kailahun some time in early February. I hope the visit will incorporate as much of the district as will be practicable, knowing the busy schedules of heads of state.
It will be EBK’s first visit to the district since he assumed the high office of President. Whatever the programme and no matter how tight it is, the President may rest assured that he will receive a welcome and hospitality that only the people of the eastern horn know how to extend to their heads of state. I have no doubt that practically every person of note from the district will be there to join in the welcome.
Readers of this column could count on Puawui to be in the “Receiving Line.”
During the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary campaign, the President and I met at a reception and as always we exchanged humorous bantas; he told me he had taken over Kailahun and I offered him my family compound and my personal bedroom. The offer still stands, the only constraint being that everyone would like to meet their President and staying in the Banya compound would frighten Lamini Vonjo Ngobeh and his faction of the Ngobeh family who would stay clear of the surroundings.
I hope his Excellency had been reading some of last week’s newspapers, particularly the Standard Times, African Champion, Awoko, and others including Makuta, Uncle Joe, Abibatu and Pikin in the Thursday edition of For di People newspaper under the Mamie Salone and Pikin column. Yes Mr. President, contrary to what your Excellency may have read in the We Yone, the Torchlight and the New Citizen newspapers, all the others contain articles about the escalating cost of living in today’s Salone and its negative impact on peoples’ lives. The papers quoted above, including Peep, only stopped short of saying “yesterday betteh pass tiday.” Your Excellency must in all sincerity turn a deaf ear to your insincere praise singers and revisit such areas as the GST and its high starting point.
Dr. Owizz Koroma is currently our only Consultant Morbid and Forensic Pathologist. I have continued to have great admiration for him, the same that I have for Edward Nahim, Victor Willoughby, late Ivan Johnston-Taylor who was laid to rest last week, Len Gordon-Harris, Sahr Gevao, Abu Kargbo, Bernard Frazer: O my goodness! Where do I stop? That’s the danger of beginning to call names; I give up. All the others must forgive their aging colleague. They and others not named have resisted the temptation of greener pastors and stayed right here. Dr. Koroma has earned himself a solid reputation in the past and he would be well advised to guard it with zeal.
Sierra Leone Brewery and its STAR BEER and other products have gained world wide recognition for quality. It would be difficult to believe that those products could be contaminated with bacteria (germs) and that a customer who imbibes a pint could immediately develop symptoms of an ACUTE ABDOMEN; that in the same breath his stool would contain a most virulent growth of bacteria. Was the remnant in the bottle cultured for bacteria growth and flora found which were the same as those in the patient’s stool? I was taught in Medical School that symptoms were subjective;Â here there is no mention of tenderness or “guarding.” Such unqualified categorical statement as published in the newspaper could seriously compromise ones professional reputation.Â
Unless we take very stringent measures to protect our coastal and wetlands areas we shall pay a very high price in the not too distant feature.  Various destructive agents are at work and symptoms of some of the effect are already being felt. Dwindling fish stocks, disappearance of our mangroves which we refer to as the forest of the sea, pollution of the sea and destruction of the coastline and beaches are all in evidence. In short we are burning our environmental candle not only at both ends, but in the middle as well by destroying the forests and the coastline. I don’t understand the reason why we are deliberately putting the future of our children lives at risk by our indiscriminate use of our natural resources.
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