‘Borbor Tok Tok’ … So where is N’goh Victor Foh?

 Introducingournewcolumnist

The last time we saw him on our TV screen, he was fully adorned in a bright overflowing green gown with the unmistakable image of President Bio plastered on the chest. He’d already tore and dumped in the bin his bright colored red shirts and caps. When we spotted Ambassador Victor Bockarie Foh on our TV screen during the June 24 elections campaign, he wore a bright colored green cap to match his gown and his new political party, the SLPP. He marched majestically alongside another political turncoat, Alhaji Alpha Bakarr Kanu, grinning sheepishly and waving expansively. While Kanu may have already had his bread buttered with his new political party, there is no word so far about the man the APC people call the most treacherous politician that ever lived in the recent history of Mama Salone. Some say that the former vice president and former ambassador to China is fabulously rich and does not need an handout from President Bio neither the government. That may as well be true but politics being what it is in this country, enough is never enough, especially with the issue of money. Victor Foh has properties scattered all over this country dating back to the 1980s when he was first convicted for corruption in the Voucher gate scandal.

So, why exactly did N’goh Victor betray his old comrades in the APC after so many years praise-singing and groveling? Some political pundits believe it to be Foh’s unfinished business with the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).We believe the ACC to be holding a file on the former vice president’s three years as ambassador in China during which time he reportedly opened a secret private bank account. Money and resources the Chinese people reportedly offered during the Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone were allegedly deposited into Foh’s personal China account. The fear was with the protracted ACC investigation into the New York Chancery, it may have been not too long for investigators to turn attention to what really happened during N’goh Victor’s three years in China. ‘Bo man get for be smart for join SLPP’

Will Jaiah Kaikai challenge for chairmanship in the SLPP?

The recent sacking of the head of Immigration turned out to be something of a final funeral rite at the SLPP head offices on Wallace Johnson Street. Dozens of staff abandoned their jobs to dash to the nearest transistor radio to listen to the news that one of SLPP’s foremost benevolent has unceremoniously been fired. Mr. Jiah Kaikai was a regular and popular visitor at SLPP headquarters where he often dishes out large sums of money to the long suffering SLPP dredgers. So the news of his demise sent shock waves right across the SLPP head office. People shook their heads down unable to digest the news.

Staff clustered in small numbers asking what exactly has Mr. Kaikai done to merit the unceremonious sack from State House. No one saw it coming. Elsewhere many people have also spoken of Mr. Kaikai as the ultimate philanthropist and could win the election of an SLPP chairmanship if elections were called anytime. This may not be good news for current holder of the party’s chair, Dr. Prince Alex Harding. Harding is perceived by many in the SLPP as selfish, pompous, greedy and arrogant, a man who has no time for anyone other than himself. These days he’s pretty somewhat unsure of his position either in the party or in government so you find him restlessly on the move. The SLPP chairman feels hunted by his past when he was a prominent APC party stalwart who stood for election under the party symbol in his local Baoma constituency, Bo district.

What next for the masses?

Now that the elections have come and gone, many people will be asking how much of their daily life will transform over the next five years during the second term of President Bio. Ministers have serious work to do; the praise singing should be phased out so that attention is turned to looking at the bigger picture and urgent needs of the masses and people. After all this is why they choose their leaders. What is of utmost concern is provision of the very basic day-to-day needs that affect the lives of the majority of citizens. With a desperately hungry and struggling population, how can anyone justify the sudden increase in fuel prices let alone the outrageous 100%tariff increment in electricity, two commodities so close to the heart of the masses? Whatever the justification where the government is concerned, shouldn’t they have looked at the political and economic implications and the insurmountable effect on the lives of the average man. Is this what the propagandist J.J Saffa calls a caring government where the life of the average citizen is turned upside down?  The business of government elsewhere is to find solutions and improve the life of their citizens, not pass on the burden of government onto the lap of the poor struggling masses.

Meanwhile, I hear that the police are increasing concerned that sooner rather than later, many of them will be taken off the street after the installation of the much anticipated traffic lights. Wouldn’t it be advisable Mr. IG if these officers are put on regular night patrol to curb crime and the increased lawlessness? The level of lawlessness is on the increase right across the country; passengers’ hand bags and possessions are regularly snatched with impunity in broad day light, sometimes right under the nose of the police. Was it not the former British police officer, Peter Biddle, (here to reorganize our police force during and after the rebel war) who told the Sierra Leone police (SLP) that the business of police officers is not sitting in the office all day taking down statements but to be out there to prevent crime? Biddle famously coined the phrase calling the SLP, ‘A force for good’.