Alhaji Salieu Mansaray: Sierra Leone telegraph: 25 September 2022:
Patriotic Citizens of Freetown and Sierra Leone, Our Mayor of Freetown, Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, has won a highly valuable prize that is worth more than the US$1 Million, plus technical support, she will be bringing to Freetown for Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.
There are over 10,000 cities in the world. Hundreds applied for the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge. 15 Cities won. This is a big win for Freetown and an even bigger win for Sierra Leone. Our Mayor is changing the narrative about our country.
Her innovative and transformative endeavours are winning global accolades for us. She left our shores in tears because one her team members was stopped at the Airport just before they boarded the flight to go and represent our city and our nation. She deserves a resounding welcome. She deserves a big Thank You!
Great! Hopefully she can now concentrate on making the City a better place not the current eyesore that is the Capital City.
This is a good boost for us all: if funds are properly utilised to grow leafy, shady trees along the main streets of freetown with small parks (grassy gardens) no matter how small. Cheers, always Mammy Sawyer!!!
Einstein once said the definition of insanity is:”Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different results “. If Einstein was with us today , he will probably conclude to himself ,one of the countries in Africa that perfectly fit that analogy is Sierra Leone. As a nation state, we might just be suffering from this merry go round of collective insanity safe in the knowledge that the people and the two major political parties APC /SLPP leadership knows this vulnerability exists with vast majority of the population that continue to elect them to power . And they exploited it for their own advantage and never deliver on their promises , but are canny enough to create divisions in our country so we maintain the under development status quo..The irony then becomes the ones that are willing and have the foresight to bring the necessary changes our country needs , are treated like the enemies of the state .Or how can one explain it ?
Mayor Akin Swayer , the elected Mayor of Freetown , with an estimated population of less than a million people , working on a shoe string budget , due to limited central government support have done more to deliver on her manifesto pledges for the residents of Freetown than the collective power of Bio and his one directionless government have done for the rest of the country .So the answer to our country’s problems , slow economic growth , lack of education , lack of good roads , power and electricity , healthcarev, housing ,and lack of social mobility , and economic opportunities for the youths , corruption , lack free-speech , and above all, the respect for the rule of law , can all be a thing of the past if we can just identify and elect people like Mayor Akin Sawyer as president ,that have proved her sense of duty and responsibility to her people and continue to act as the best ambassador our country have produce in our times .The best patriot in Sierra Leone .
Bio and his cronies are just their to exploit our country for their own selfish gains. Unless their is a seismic change the way we elect our leaders and demands transparency and accountability we will continue to have the same old under development debates for many years ahead .