December 31, 2020 (SALONE TIMES)
FREETOWN – Like the rest of the world, a year with lot of promises, hope and opportunity was punctuated and punctured by a deadly virus called COVID-19. In fact, for us in Sierra Leone, the President New Year message in 2020 was full with hope as he dubbed the 2020 “a year of delivery.”
Whether this is actually a year of delivery or not will depend on who you talk to. But let’s look at some of the key events amidst the COVID-19 VIRUS in SALONE for the year under review.
COVID-PREPARATION
Sierra Leone is one of the few countries that started preparing early for the deadly virus even before the index case.
Of course, nobody should tell Sierra Leone how to handle diseases of such nature as they suffered a lot during the EBOLA Virus in 2015. It was very quick for the President to set up a COVID team and things were put in place very early.
By the end of March, a 37 years old Sierra Leonean who had travelled to France on the 12th of March and returned on the 16th of March was tested positive when he developed flu-like symptoms in quarantine.
When that happened, Sierra Leone moved from preparedness to response but it wasn’t left with protest from nurses and medical personnel who demanded for a pay rise and risk allowances.
As the cases rose up, Sierra Leone had three days lockdown on two separate occasions and curfew was imposed.
PALO KONTEH’s GUN SAGA
As we were responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic, a member of the opposition who was called upon to serve in the COVID-19 response based on his expertise, allegedly took with him a pistol for a meeting at State House.
He was arrested, detained, investigated and charged with Treason among other charges but the court did not find him guilty for treason but sentenced him to two years in prison for unlawful possession of arm which he is now appealing. After the court acquitted him, call for the President to sack the then Attorney General increased and finally President Bio listened to the call of the people and fired Dr. Priscilla Schwartz.
ATTEMPTED PRISON BREAK/ PRISON MASSARCE
Following social media audio about a prison break allegedly to liberate some political detainees by some people in the diaspora spurred what has been described by government spokespeople as attempted Prison Break at the Central Maximum Prison.
On the 29th of April, there was some form of commotion in the Central Maximum Prison as it is believed that prisoners were protesting while other school of thought maintained that it was an attempted prison break.
It is also believed that Presidential Guards were the ones who came and settled the issue but that could not be done without fatalities and injuries including the killing of one prison officer.
Although the Vice President said that they were going to set up an independent investigation into the issue, the government through the Prison Department came up with a whitewash report on the issue.
MAKENI GENERATOR ISSUE AND TOMBO SAGA
Immediately after the Prison Break, an unfortunate incident happened in Makeni, which was the removal of a thermal generator from Makeni which is the stronghold of the opposition. Before the removal of the thermal plant from Makeni, wicked elements on social media in the diaspora did audio clips calling on the people to come out in the street and stop the removal of the generator from Makeni as according to them, the generator will be taken to the South-East which is the stronghold of the ruling party.
This ethno-regional sentiment flared up thousands of young people in Makeni who went on the street. Sadly, it led to the police opening fire which left 6 young people dead and other hundreds injured.
But this could not have happened if there had been proper planning from both the central government and the local authorities in Makeni before the removal of the generator.
Similar incident happened in Tombo in which youth vandalized the police station and even burnt down the hospital for which the names of wicked elements on social media were also mentioned.
This spate of violence and protests in the country prompted the President to address the nation in which he blamed the opposition for the violence and indiscipline in the country. He even described the opposition as terrorist and the spate of violence as act of terror.
Some of us believed that the speech of the President was tensed and tough and failed to give hope as father of the nation and symbol of national unity.
WHITE PAPERS
In the midst of the fight against COVID, the white papers of the three judge led commissions of inquiries were published and high-profile names in the previous administration were named.
It was recommended that their properties should be confiscated, others were asked to pay back money allegedly stollen and the ACC was asked to look into the matter for further investigation.
Following the white papers, the Anti-graft agency of Sierra Leone invited former President Koroma for questioning, a situation which became very serious as people asked the ACC to visit the former President.
The ACC decided to visit the former President at his resident in Makeni but huge number of supporters of the President including secret society came out and prevented the ACC from interviewing the former President.
After back and forth, the interview was held at an undisclosed location in Freetown when the international community intervened.
CRIMINAL LIBEL LAW REPEALED
The law that has been very restrictive to media freedom and free speech in Sierra Leone was finally repealed.
This law has been used for 50yrs to suppress free speech in Sierra Leone. Despite the fact that previous regimes have made statements about removing the law, they ended up doing nothing.
President Julius Maada Bio stated that he will remove the law and indeed in 2020, Sierra Leone media was unshackled.
By doing this, it is believed that the media has been opened to massive transformation and investment.
LEONE STARS VS NIGERIA
Shockingly, the Sierra Leone National Football Team came from 4-0 down to hold the super eagles of Nigeria to a draw of 4-4 in the AFCON qualifier which pundits have described as the greatest comeback ever in football.
Even in the return leg, Sierra Leone held Nigeria to a goalless draw but the issue of our poor pitch was the subject of discussion on social media platform.
Still with Football, before the Leone Stars/Nigeria Match, Football Administrator and Philanthropist, Rodney Michael declared for the SLFA Presidency.
Rodney Michael is amongst 7 Sierra Leoneans who have suffered injustice for the past 7yrs but were finally cleared by the FA’s own Ethics Committee of all fictitious match fixing allegations heaped on them by the FA President, Isha Johansen for lack of evidence.
MCC ELIGIBILITY
United States of America Millennium Challenge Corporation came out and Sierra Leone passed 13 out of 21 indicators in the score cards including the fight against corruption and political rights and freedoms.
This made Sierra Leone compact eligible for a huge grant from the US Government depending on a proposal that would be put forward by Sierra Leone.
Despite the grants, the fact that Sierra Leone has been made compact eligible is a huge endorsement of the governance principle of Julius Maada Bio.
2019 ANUAL AUDIT/ COVID AUDIT
As we are celebrating the MCC, the much-anticipated 2019 General Audit Report and the COVID Audit report were published and shown a consistent pattern of thievery in public service.
This is the one that has closed the year and has shown terrible systemic problems in governance architecture.
This one is going to be the discussion throughout the holidays and into the New Year. With this, Dixon’s Pen will like to wish Sierra Leoneans and Reader of SALONE TIMES Newspaper Merry Christmas and Prosperous New Year!
