Sierra Leone Telegraph: 15 August 2017
Fellow Sierra Leoneans, our nation has once again been gripped by grief. Many of our compatriots have lost their lives, many more have been gravely injured and billions of Leones worth of property destroyed in the flooding and landslides that swept across some parts of our city.
I am very disturbed by this national tragedy and with a heavy heart, let me extend profound condolences to the bereaved families.
This is not a tragedy for you alone; it is a tragedy for every Sierra Leonean because the people who have perished in this disaster are our compatriots.
Every single family, every single ethnic group, every single region is either directly or indirectly affected by this disaster.
Fellow Sierra Leoneans, this tragedy of great magnitude has once again challenged us to come together, to stand by each other and to help one another.
We therefore salute the bravery of our police, the Army, our National Fire Services, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation and the Office of National Security who are in the front line of the rescue efforts.
We also applaud the enduring support of the Red Cross, civil society, the media and the selflessness of our youths for the great compassion and patriotism you have all demonstrated during this very trying time.
Let me assure you that my Government is fully engaged on this situation and, in collaboration with our development partners, we have already established an Emergency Response Center at Regent to coordinate our response and to provide relief to the survivors.
We have also established Registration Centers in various locations across the capital where our affected compatriots will be registered.
In the meantime, let me urge everyone to remain calm and to avoid disaster – prone areas while we continue to address this grave emergency.
I thank you for your attention and God Bless Sierra Leone. (End)
Please give generously to the Freetown Flood Disaster Emergency Appeal to help the Freetown Flood Victims by clicking on this link:
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/freetownflooddisasteremergencyappeal
My simple answer is NO. If there is any pride in him for his tenure of office and the country. The answer is NO. We have enough resources, which with good management, planning and implementation the government should do their part based upon the geological Land structure of the country. And the people will do theirs based on the development plan for the Nation, ensuring that square pegs are in square holes.
Country first and wealth after. Not the reverse. We come with nothing, we go with nothing. The infrastructure should include wide accessible roads to all areas – including side roads, proper drainage, sanitation, electrical layout, water consumption and drainage, all on the lands survey layout of the country.
Owners’ names must be recorded in the lands survey plan for buyers to see whenever a piece is offered for sale. Construction designs and usage of buildings MUST be based on the geological survey type of soil. The survey department says the order MUST come from the top. This is an opportunity the government must seize for the development of the Nation, as other African countries have done.
This disaster has left many Sierra Leoneans with mixed feelings, especially over the running of the affairs of the state since President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s term of office came to an end.
Let me just step back a bit to explain to your proper understanding. When Tejan Kabbah fought to end the ten years of civil war in Sierra Leone, the next project he embarked upon was focused on rehabilitating lives after the war in all areas of Sierra Leone.
He stepped up rehabilitating all educational institutions that were affected during the war and to energise the educational system in the country such as the introduction of scholarships which was meant to give birth to free education in Sierra Leone.
Tejan Kabbah’s next step was to rehabilitate people back into the provinces from where they came to resettle in Freetown as a move towards the dismantling of the clustering of the national population in one section of the country and leaving some areas vacant.
Unfortunately, Tejan Kabbah’s term of office ended and the power of political rule was handed over to Ernest Bai Koroma and it was therefore left to him as a state responsibility to rehabilitate the population after the war.
However, he didn’t and he (Ernest Bai Koroma) saw the plight of the situation as an investment opportunity to encourage the population in such a calamitous condition in the Freetown peninsula. Whenever people are clustered together in such manner, it will give birth to so many inconveniences including housing, food, education, water supply shortages, Prostitution and Outbreak of diseases.
Whenever such situations occur, it will be at an alarming stage that will cause death to a high level of casualties that may justify Ernest Bai Koroma to open his arms and beg for donations from around the world to help Sierra Leoneans.
We have seen such happen in the recent Ebola outbreak that has left Ernest Bai Koroma unable to account for the donations he received during the outbreak. Has he got the right or the justification to ask any donor for help for this mudslide that has plagued the country now?
This mudslide occurred in a mountain in the West-end of Freetown where the internal refugees of the civil war had settled and had embarked upon cutting down all trees for firewood for personal consumption and selling to households in Freetown.
With ignorance of the geographical conditions of the mountain, they never realised the dangers they had caused by digging in that area for years.
Also the rich men in Freetown including the politicians saw the need for accommodations and thus embarked upon building houses for renting to the dwellers of that environment which has now collapsed into such calamity at an unexpected time.
Can Ernest Bai Koroma give an account for the Ebola funds before opening his mouth to ask for donations for the mudslide?