Here comes AIRTEL again
Last week we received a strange letter from AIRTEL. They were attempting to take issue with our well-researched front page story the other day in which we told our people that the company had admitted to fraud in handling their internet services. The letter is a strange one because AIRTEL was clearly unable to decide on what to say to us. At one point, the letter attempted to explain away the question of why people are losing so much money just to get internet services and at another point they attempted to threaten us – corporate bodies do this all the time.
The Corporate Affairs/ Public Relations (Whatever this means for goodness' sakes!!!???) Office told us we had made “slanderous comments” about AIRTEL. Actually, we are not lawyers but we believe, slander applies to the spoken word as in the case of radio, you know. Libel would have worked for your Corporate Affairs office.
Hear them: “We consider the story printed by your newspaper falls short of professional journalism not to mention highly defamatory.” Forget about this statement being grammatically-challenged, the real issue is that we will take no lessons in “professional journalism” from AIRTEL, please.
We however did take up your offer to read the website you referred us to and we found some interesting details in the fine prints on the website which you probably didn’t have time to read. We shall, for equal measure refer you to them soon and our people will also be informed.
For your corporate affairs office to imagine that we would just go to press with such information without proper checks, speaks loudly about the quality of corporate and public affairs service at AIRTEL.
June Rose-Johnson is normally a nice and warm lady so she probably was pushed into writing this confused and confusing letter after those many and long meetings on the day we published the story – anyway, forced or not, she has bills to pay – we know that. We are just extremely disappointed that she clearly has lost her humanity just like all people who work for corporate bodies like AIRTEL. It’s the profit motive that has taken over. Isn’t that why the company keeps changing hands – CELTEL – ZAIN – AIRTEL – what next? We still dae wait. Anyway the whole issue points to one thing – ARROGANCE – on the part of Airtel. One would have expected decency to reign and the company to apologise to its customers and work on improving their clay-legged services which has forced almost all their customers grow grey hair – STRESS!
De Pa and the Lokomasama Shirt- burning Incident
This is one incident that we were unable to witness in person because our reporter who was detailed to cover De Pa’s ‘official’ or ’campaign’ visit to the restive chiefdom of Lokomasama fell ill on the way and had to return to Lungi hospital for treatment. The hospital was bare, nothing...the young man returned to Freetown. He feels better now and returned to work on Monday.
So we have to rely on the press release prepared by the most recent media hack recruited to State House. With information about De Pa, we believe he is very credible. So here he goes: “...dozens of former SLPP leaders and partisans of the chiefdom publicly took off their green SLPP T-shirts...and put on red T-shirts of the governing APC – in the presence of the APC Leader and Chairman, H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma.’
(Our question: Was this a party event or the Head of State at work? Just curious!) “...the green T-shirts were then publicly burned by the former SLPP partisans now turned APC,” (source – State House press release).
You know, we are genuinely shocked even embarrassed that this happened in the presence of De Pa, but it’s a fact the APC has been actively chasing, harassing, cajoling members of the opposition to join them. They started with their former allies, the PMDC and now they are pushing against the SLPP. With so much poverty around, a lot of people just can’t stand the wind. That’s life.
The point is, that melodramatic moment when people claiming to be SLPP stalwarts came forward to denounce their own party and announce they were now joining the APC could have ended with just that, at least while De Pa was around.
The State House press release says, De Pa witnessed the people setting fire to those ‘SLPP shirts’. We can only say that De Pa ought not to have allowed that to happen on his watch. It was very bad for the political tolerance, De Pa is preaching even as we write. The fact of the matter is (as IB would say) there are many people in that chiefdom who support the SLPP – we have just checked the last election figures. They are in the minority, no doubt about that. But they will feel badly let down by their president.
It is his job to protect minority rights, you know. Wasn’t he Minority Party leader in parliament just yesterday? We wonder what happened to SLPP supporters in Lokomasama on that day. Thanks Oswald! Nice press release. Unisa Sesay now becomes ambassador extra-ordinary and plenipotentiary to ‘insai de media’ on SLBC.
Friendly Fire Incident At MOD
We are extremely disappointed at the response of the Ministry of Defence to the sex scandal that has rocked the ministry in the last few weeks. To cut a long matter short, they are telling the good people of Sierra Leonean that they are ‘investigating’. A lot of Sierra Leoneans who’ve spoken to us about this are very surprised that the MOD has refused to act against the officers involved in the FRIENDLY FIRE incident and is looking for an excuse to keep them in the military.
Just in case the MOD insists on going ahead with their ‘investigation’, we can only wait for one more week to get the result and these are the issues the people want the MOD to explore on their behalf:
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Are those two people who appeared in that video clip having sex in an office inside MOD, army officers or not? The people say, they are indeed. Just in case you want to tell us they were total strangers who merely found shelter there, the people say that would represent an appalling breach of security, totally unacceptable, for which the minister must resign now. The people believe however that they are soldiers.
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Did the incident happen during normal office hours? Yes Mr. Minister. We actually heard somebody knocking at the door just before the friendly fire got underway. So there were lots of people around working.
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Does this incident have any implication for the safety of Mama Salone, Yes it does, Mr. Minister. We hear that our lover boy Colonel has been earmarked to lead one battalion of our troops to the troubled country of Somalia. Imagine this man going to Somalia with our lady and repeating the incident without knowing that Al-shabaab are closing in on their base and therefore not being able to give appropriate orders to our troops. Our boys will return home in body bags – God forbid.
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Finally, just in case the minister hasn’t seen the video, we are willing, able and ready to email it to him before 2pm today
SLBC, Not Reporting But Making The News Again
The SLBC finally got round to sacking many of its workers over the last two weeks. It was that same drive that resulted in a strike action that compelled De Pa to set up an inquiry panel, like he does for every other thing. The panel’s report says nothing – it’s full of bland statements and non-sequiturs but the government wanted to shift the responsibility for the sackings to the committee. It’s very important to find scapegoats in an election year.
Anyway, now the SLBC has slashed salaries by between 15 to 20%. We dare to ask why? How did you arrive at the salaries you’ve been paying for the last two years or so? Please tell us also if the DG and his deputy’s huge salaries are also affected. By the way is that deputy Director General still on seat? The man is completely out of his depth in the place but apparently his appointment is absolutely politically-correct from the Koinadugu end as argued by the Momoh Konteh’s of this world (Is Momoh Konteh back now?)
One institution that feels very sorry about the departure of Michael Von Schulenburg is the SLBC. He was their greatest supporter. Perhaps he alone had faith in that soulless propaganda outfit the government calls Public Service Broadcasting.
They have just treated their staff like English Premiership footballers who are ‘surplus to requirement’ and are therefore prepared to take a pay-cut to join other clubs. We have received a leaked copy of the KPMG audit report of the SLBC. It’s very interesting indeed. Watch out for forensic analysis in the coming weeks.
Sierra Leoneans at the British High Commission Visa Section
If only Sierra Leoneans are always as well behaved and orderly as the usually are in front of the Visa Consul at the British High Commission in Freetown, then the following positive things will happen to the country:
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There will be no violence when decisions go against people – at elections or in a football game
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This culture of informality will end – people will call no ministers to intervene in everything, including when their children fail exams
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No fake papers will be presented for jobs (even by Diasporans) or university admissions; because they will be picked out quickly
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Everybody will appear for work at the correct time, no excuses about traffic or lack of transport and people will pay the correct money for services - no bribery. Guma Valley and NPA will grow.
Who’s with us on this?
