FREETOWN: SORIE FOFANA: The Author is the former Information Attache at the Sierra Leone High Commission in London. He is currently the Publisher of the Global Times Newspaper published daily in Freetown.
On Sunday June 21, the death was reported of Retired Major Abu Bakarr S. Jomo - Jalloh. Indeed, he was a soldier's soldier. The late Jomo - Jalloh was a brilliant and eloquent Army Officer. He served in the Unity Government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah as Minister of Tourism and Culture. The late Jomo - Jalloh died of frustration. Very recently, the Sierra Leone Housing Corporation took him to Court, for failing to pay outstanding rent for Villa 59 at Hill Station. His situation was pathetic. He could not even afford to pay his medical bills. He was greatly assisted by Roger Crooks, an American businessman who took great care of him until he died on Sunday.

The APC government failed to pay him his Pension, like all other former Ministers that served in the Kabbah government. This was a man who served his country very well, both in the Army and in Cabinet. He will be sorely missed by great friends like Roger Crooks, Kanji Daramy and Okere Adams. READ MORE

FREETOWN: JAMES OSAIO KAMARA: In presenting the 2009 budget, then Finance minister who has been shifted sideways to be replaced by a tribesman and personal friend of the President announced that "the 2009 budget will support the priority sectors identified in the second Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP II) and agreed under Government’s “Agenda for Change”. These sectors were reiterated by His Excellency the President in his address on the occasion of the State Opening of the Second Session of the Third Parliament of the Second Republic as follows: Energy and Water Supply." Accordingly, the APC government allocated "an amount of Le45.5 billion" to "the Ministry of Energy and Power, of which Le41.6 billion will cover the cost of fuel for the Emergency Power Programme during the first half of 2009 to avoid a return to blackouts." This amount was twice more than the total Le20billion allocated to the health sector and this amount was in addition to other grants in millions of US dollars to the power sector. However, in spite of this massive allocation, the APC government has failed to maintain uninterrupted power supply to all parts of Freetown. READ MORE

The APC are Up to their Usual Dirty Tricks Again: The NATCOM Charade.

06.29.2009

FREETOWN: JAMES OSAIO KAMARA: Kimberley Process monitors investigating the dramatic 500% increase in diamond exports through Guinea and a vastly dramatic 90% slump in diamond exports from neighboring Sierra Leone which is a signatory to the Kimberley Process have intimated that the All People's Congress (APC) government may be complicit in either its failure to control cross-border smuggling of those precious stones or that some government officials may be in cahoots with those who are smuggling the precious stones for a commission. The KP official intimated in an email to The New People that "it would seem that the Kimberley Process is too stringent to monitor the diamond trade in Sierra Leone, " and "officials believe that a parallel trade through Guinea that is unmonitored will yield them more money." A new preliminary report titled "Blood Diamonds: Time to Plug the Gaps" which focuses on the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process and another report released by civil society organisations notes that "despite having all the tools in place, the scheme was failing effectively to address issues of non-compliance, smuggling, money laundering and human rights abuses in the world's alluvial diamond fields." READ MORE

FREETOWN: JAMES OSAIO KAMARA: The latest review of the Sierra Leone economy by the International Monetary Fund Team dated June 24, 2009 confirms gloomy speculations especially by the ordinary citizen hit by rough economic times and increasing hardship that the APC-run Sierra Leone economy is in deepen trouble. The indicators are clear - the APC government has consistently failed to make the mark in domestic revenue collection in spite of President Koroma's claim that he aims to run the country like a business. The national revenue authority run by the APC is still not efficient, the report continues, and taxation on goods and services needs to be implemented consistently and with purpose.

The report also casts enormous doubts on one of President Koroma's much-touted "successes" such as the electricity agency, National Power Authority, which is run by a key political ally, Dr. Zubairu Kaloko. The report notes that "restructuring the National Power Authority and improving its finances" were urgent priorities, drawing attention to the fact that the agency, quite unlike what the APC government keeps announcing to the general public, has been making enormous losses which the government refuses to reveal. READ MORE

"Drug-trafficking poses at least two threats to good governance, a principal focus of U.S. diplomacy and foreign assistance in West Africa. First, trafficking normally is facilitated by corrupting public officials from law enforcement and judicial actors to the highest levels of government.

Second, politicians could look to drug money to finance their elections. Being a transit state is detrimental to a country’s development. . . Investors are less inclined to do business in transit countries: unstable environments are risky and operating in high-crime areas entails higher business costs"

FREETOWN: JAMES OSAIO KAMARA: The All People's Congress (APC) government would have wished the the last gavel by Judge Nichols Brown was the last they had heard about the cocaine landings at Lungi International Airport in which cabinet Minister, Kemoh Sesay was implicated but never arrested or tried and for which case Vice President Sam Sumana was implicated in not only having physical and business links with the suspects but for which there was a document trail that linked the vice president with authorising landings from Guinea which were believed to be cocaine transshipment loads. Now, a trident of problems is still hanging over the heads of the APC Government. Today, Monday June 22 and tomorrow, Tuesday June 23, the US Foreign Relations Committee is meeting and discussing the persistent problem of narcotics trafficking and the possible implications for US foreign policy. The APC government and the connection of key leaders with the recent cocaine scandal is still an open lead being explored by the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) which took custody of three of the convicted drug smugglers.

The US senate foreign relations committee is being presided over by Senator Russ Feingold at the Dirksen Senate Building and will continue tomorrow at 10:30am. W William Wechsler, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Counter narcotics and Global Threats, Department of Defense and Thomas M. Harrigan, Chief of Operations, READ MORE

By: Raymond Dele Awoonor-Gordon awogordon@yahoo.co.uk 
As a nation and as a people, there’s definitely something wrong somewhere and no amount of political indignation can change that truth. 

So, let’s take our minds out of the realm of politics and into the sphere of realities. I mean, let each one forget political persuasion or inclination and delve into the contraption called Sierra Leone. 

Let’s head for the imaginative because imagination is the place where we work out how our actions will affect others and without it, we are at the mercy of nincompoops. It is also a place where we can develop our own opinions. 

OK. Now that we are there, (hopefully with a dispassionate mind), what you’ll find is that some of the things happening in this country of ours would have been a cause for mirth but for their significance and the dire implications for the nation. READ MORE

City Council in Selective Demolitions: Recipe for Chaos?

06.22.2009

Citizens Losing Confidence in Michael Von Schulenburg.

06.22.2009

COLORADO: PROF. KELFALA KALLON: “The Whiteman’s Burden,” a poem Rudyard Kipling wrote for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, justified colonialism as an altruistic obligation of people of European descent to rule over non-whites and teach them their customs. This rationalization was not new, however, as the transatlantic slave trade had been similarly justified by the claim that enslaved Africans were being done a favor by their European enslavers because, through slavery, they became Christians and were therefore saved from eternal damnation. In the post-colonial era also, the intervention by people of European descent into the affairs of post-colonial states was justified on the grounds that it promoted good governance and economic development.

In his How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, the late Walter Rodney provided an alternative perspective (which I will label as the Blackman’s Wahala) about the motives for, and impact of, the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism on African peoples. READ MORE

APC-run Economy not Buoyant - New Bank Governor Declares.

06.18.2009

FREETOWN: LISA DENNEY: Recent rioting and violence in Freetown and the east of Sierra Leone has brought into focus the fragility of the post-conflict peace, held in place since 2002, writes Lisa Denney. At first glance, says Denney, it points to a new breed of trouble in the West African nation, a harbinger of the party political and ethnic violence that some predict will be the next great challenge faced by the country.

Not just the work of criminal elements, the riots belie the potential for a new wave of violence that requires serious prevention efforts, Denney cautions. But events since the violence have taken a surprising turn, with inter-party tensions prompting youth cooperation, rather than escalating conflict. Thus a seemingly low-point in party politics may prove to be a necessary wake up call that quells rising tensions, rather than fuelling them, Denney suggests. READ MORE

Attorney General Kamal Scams Client: Client Pursuing Kamal for Money.

06.18.2009

FREETOWN, JAMES OSAIO KAMARA: New People can now present a comprehensive international report [READ THE FULL REPORT FROM EJF IN PDF] on the prevalence of illegal fishing in Sierra Leonean waters and the fact that those illegal vessels which fish in our waters at the behest of corrupt APC handlers, are emptying our oceans of fish, flouting European Union hygiene standards, while just the few APC officials are getting bribed. Little surprise then that recently, local fisherman have been complaining about dwindling revenues and smaller catches. The reason is now obvious. Because of APC government corruption, illegal vessels are shipping most of the fish off our shores while the illegal vessels pay bribes directly into the accounts of APC government officials. 75% of the fish caught, which is fit for our local Sierra Leonean consumption is thrown away at sea as bycatch thereby depriving ordinary Sierra Leoneans. No wonder then that the price of fish has been rising rather steadily in the market recently as Sierra Leoneans are said to be eating less and less fish because of the near-prohibitive costs. All of this, as APC government officials collude with illegal foreign vessels to exploit our own shores of all our fish while they throw away most of what would otherwise be consumed in the local market.READ MORE

Freetown Residents Boycott APC-Schulenburg Charade.

06.14.2009

MINNESOTA, NEW PEOPLE SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: The New People correspondent in Minnesota is monitoring the activities of Vice President Sam Sumana. He is staying with his wife at an executive suite at The Northland Inn. Although Sam-Sumana officially traveled from Sierra Leone with a TEN person delegation, only 4 people are in Minnesota. Are the other 6 fake delegation members (friends and family who will not be returning to Sierra Leone)? is this zero tolerance for corruption? Again, APC Minnesota sympathisers (Sierrasota) flopped a dinner activity for the VP and had to be bailed out by a the SLCM. Then they started an embarrassing scheme to hire a camera man in order to cut into the profits. But there are rising tensions already. More later. We will also keep an eye on his usual yuki-yuki activities. READ MORE