DEMBY MUST DEAL WITH UNPROFESSIONAL HEALTH WORKERS
We’re not sure brother Demby was prepared for what he now has to deal with when he picked up that call and agreed to return to this country to serve as Minister of Health. We’re not suggesting that everything is rosy even in the great United States but the sort of problems brother Demby is being called upon to attend to now in this country are distracting him from the huge task of putting our health care system on the rails.
In the last 48 hours we’ve seen videos on social media of sick people turning up at a government hospital in Magburaka with no health worker to attend to them, a clear case of absenteeism which is widespread in the public service. We have also seen another video of nurses having fun out of a man who is too scared to take the COVID-19 jab. Apparently one of the nurses filmed that whole affair of the guy behaving as if he was before a firing squad and put it on social media to shame their patient. Obviously, there are some people who’ve been having fun seeing the young man so frightened of the jab but many Sierra Leoneans are not so amused and they’ve made that known also on social media. Here’s what we have to say:
1. Brother Demby has no choice now but to deal with unprofessional behavior in the health service of Sierra Leone. The strike-prone Medical and Dental Association are refusing to bring their professional weight to bear on those badly behaved health workers. They are waiting for somebody to forcefully take a mobile phone from the hands of their insubordinate colleague so they can shut down the entire system. There was a doctor around when those nurses misbehaved. Did he promptly take charge of the situation and tell the nurses they were being unprofessional?
2. Brother Demby MUST set some very bright examples. As we write there is a pair of scissors, probably still lodged in the abdomen of a poor woman after a surgery that one of our doctors clearly bungled. Despite the national outcry, the SLMDA has remained quiet and even Brother Demby has not addressed the media on that. He knows if such a thing happened in the US, strong action will follow. What is he waiting for?
We are monitoring that woman’s situation carefully. We know who to hold accountable should anything go wrong with that woman beyond this point.
CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE MARIJUANA GATHERS PACE IN SALONE
If the small but obviously growing Rastafarian Movement in Sierra Leone gets their way, marijuana smoking will soon be legalized in this Land that we Love. We understand there is a company in Sierra Leone doing medical marijuana but what the Rastafarians of Salone are asking for is for all those wanting to light up to be able to do so just like those smoking cigarettes even in public places. We should not pretend about this, marijuana is being smoked openly in many places in Freetown in particular. Once in a while, an overzealous police officer will arrest an unfortunate man with marijuana and put them through the elaborate process of bringing them before a magistrate only for the prosecution to fail.
In fact the legalization campaign has been going on for a long time now. The movement even presented a position paper at the last Constitutional Review Commission meeting asking for the right to have a free smoke. In the last few weeks the campaign has moved to another gear. We wish the Rastafarians all the best given the power of the forces lined up against their project.
Legalizing marijuana in Sierra Leone has enormous implications to consider, including our relationship with our immediate neighbors where some Sierra Leoneans are in jail for taking marijuana across their borders. We have heard the economic argument, which on the face of it sounds persuasive but we want to hear a bit more on the security front. That’s very important. We will keep this matter in view.
MORE AFRICAN PERISHING IN MINDLESS TEMPLE RUN
More Africans are dying daily trying to cross the rough seas to Europe in small boats because somehow they believe that the continent is flowing with MILK and HONEY and that all our brothers and sisters need to do is to turn up by any means and enjoy themselves. We have lost count of the good souls we’ve lost in the Mediterranean since this so-called Temple Run thing became so fashionable among many young people in Africa.
In the days of the Slave Trade, Europeans came to Africa and forcefully took our ancestors away and enslaved them, today our young people are selling off their family possessions to pay their way through the dangerous Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea just to reach European soil. Many are perishing daily and that has not deterred others from embarking on that journey of death.
It’s beginning to look like African leaders have run out of ideas on how to stop this crazy movement of the young people of Africa. We don’t know what to do either. What we know is that this Temple Run thing cannot continue. By some means our leaders MUST stop the suicide mission across the Mediterranean. It’s a real disgrace.
BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU GO OUT FOR A DRINK WITH PEOPLE
These days we’re hearing a lot about people being poisoned at beer joints apparently by so-called friends they really trust. Such killings are not new but it would appear as if the trick has returned and has claimed a few lives including that of our dear Queen of the land. A whole industry specializing in warning people about how to protect themselves at beer joints has sprung into action on social media. What the new counselors are saying is just basic stuff. The important thing in all of this is that only those you know and trust can harm you by pouring some poisonous substance in your drink with a clear intention to kill you. So whether we heed those warnings or not, we will continue going out for drinks with people we consider friends and in the circumstances open ourselves up to being poisoned.
The suggestion that the brother of the Queen of the land was actually poisoned to death recently is very serious and we would call for the police to investigate the circumstances and bring charges against people they think have a case to answer. We cannot emphasize any more how serious this issue is because we don’t want a situation in which killing people with poison will become the order of the day. We are waiting to hear from our FORCE for Good on this issue.
SLFA, THE ONE HUNDRED MILLIONS LEONES AND THE MISSING NAMES WAHALA
Once again we have reason to believe that the only thing that has changed at SLFA secretariat is the fact that Queen Johnasen is no longer physically present inside that building.
All other things remain the same – we are talking about attitude to work, sloppiness and total disregard for basic standards of administrative decency. We are still in the honeymoon period with her handpicked successor but we cannot help but point out the shoddy way in which they have handled the national largesse handed out to our national players and officials for reaching AfCON.
All we expected the SLFA to have done since Principal made the commitment to give money and cash to our heroes should they qualify for Cameroon was for them to work out an acceptable formula by which they would advise the Ministry of Finance to pass the money on to our players and technical officials. Maybe the SLFA actually did not believe that their own team would qualify so they did nothing to prepare to distribute the promised presidential largesse. When the team eventually qualified and the order was given for the money to be paid, the SLFA secretariat was all over the place trying to find a way at the ELEVENTH HOUR to avoid blame. This is what happens when so-called new people find themselves in office with a directive to only do what those failed people who put them in office tell them to.
We will continue to observe the honeymoon period until the end of July because by that time some key decisions would have been made in that organization.
Copyright © 07/07/21 Politico Online
