Published on January 10, 2011 by Cocorioko News · No Comments
By Leeroy Wilfred Kabs-Kanu :
Everyday, the gimmicks of officials and supporters of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP ) , who seek to discredit the Sierra Leone Government, astonish right-thinking Sierra Leoneans . While the opposition has the constitutional right to question the performance of the ruling government, accusations and allegations made should be based on the reality . Politics can be as dirty as it wants to be but for the sake of common human decency and in the interest of the nation, politicians should refrain from skewing established facts and creating their own distorted reality to score points and deny the government the credit it deserves .
PHOTO : WAKE-UP, J.J. SAFFA
The statements said to have been made by the SLPP Secretary General, Mr. Jacob Jusu Saffa , to the Awareness Times newpaper in an exclusive interview in which the scribe spoke about ‘the laziness being exhibited by the All People’s Congress (APC) government in implementing development projects’ are not only dishonest ; they are sickening and are redolent of the typical SLPP strategy to paint their own distorted picture of reality in the country. According to Awareness Times, Mr. Saffa posited that “the efforts of the APC government in rehabilitating the thirty two roads in Freetown it has earmarked for rehabilitation is nothing to write home about. ” The SLPP Secretary General accused the government of slowness in completing the projects. He also said that ‘the APC government has abandoned the Hillside Byepass Road after demolishing houses and other structures along the SLRA right-of-way’ , according to Awareness Times .
The statements are black lies and a distortion of facts that reek of the most perverse dishonesty imaginable. Everybody , even independent diplomats , coming from Sierra Leone are commending President Ernest Bai Koroma and the APC Government for the pace of the infrastructural developments going on in the country. Sierra Leone presently is like a workshop with development projects going all all over the country. Even government officials contacted by this newspaper to comment on Saffa’s allegations were completely taken aback by Saffa’s lying outbursts , wondering where the SLPP Secretary General got those facts. Mr.Saffa is trying to deceive the nation with a well worn out propaganda strategy where truth is persistently perverted and distorted until untruth begins to look like the truth.
The President Koroma Government recognizes the importance of roads to the socio-economic and political well-being of the nation. It was for this reason that the government , as soon as it came to power in 2007 , made road construction and rehabilitation , electricity and farming the centrepiece of its AGENDA FOR CHANGE in Sierra Leone . This is a Government of Infrastructure , which has embarked on one of the most ambitious road-building projects in the history of the nation. The government has constructed and rehabilitated roads in every region and district .
In March 2010, the APC Government completed the 164 kilometers Masiaka-Bo Highway ; the Matotoka Highway was started in 2008 and completed in 2009; Last year, the 65 kilometers B0-Kenema Highway which was started in 2008 was completed; The Government has also constructed or rehabilitated roads-including trunk and feeder roads-in all provincial cities and headquarter towns . 555 kilometers of feeder roads in Bombali, Tonkolili, Kailahun , and Kono which were started in February 2008 , have been finished while 70 % of feeder roads started in Kambia , Port Loko, Kenema and Pujehun have been completed. Presently, about 130 kilometers of feeder roads are being constructed in Port Loko, Kambia, Pujehun, Kenema, Bonthe, Kailahun, and Koinadugu through the Rural Roads Project , Infrastructural Development Project and the Multinational NERICA Dissemination Project (MDP ). The 87 kilometers Kenema-Kailahun Highway has started and will be completed in 2013. Construction of the Tokeh-Lumley Road , the Hilside Pademba Road/ Blackhal Road and the second phase of the Fretown-Conakry are ongoing .
With all these projects, J.J.Saffa must be out of his mind to accuse the government of laziness in completing development projects . At times, Sierra Leoneans wonder whether the SLPP is talking about a different Sierra Leone from the real one they are seeing . It is shameful when politicians deliberately seek to misinform the innocent public for political gains and in the process leave everybody wondering about the deceitfulness of these power-seekers. Imagine Mr. Saffa deliberately lying through his teeth about phantom road projects completed by the SLPP . Where are the road projects Saffa is talking about ? Maybe, he is talkng about a different Sierra Leone , because the people of Sierra Leone are not aware of these projects. If in their 11 years of leadeship the SLPP had done half as many infrastructural developments as the APC has undertaken, they would not have been kicked out of power by the Sierra Leonean people.
J.J. Saffa is just another SLPP liar and deceiver . The Deputy Information and Communications Minister, Hon. Sheka Tarawallie, according to Awareness Times ” insisted that the developmental projects of the APC government across the country are being felt by all and sundry, adding that anybody who fails to acknowledge that is far from facing reality.” The Minister went on: “The evidence is all over the place and the massive votes the APC pulled in recent bye elections in Tonkolili, Kono and Kambia speaks volume of the fact that the citizens are impressed with the work done so far by the APC.” Who said J.J. Saffa did not know that ? The man is just trying to fool the listening people, SLPP -style.
WHAT A SHAME ! ! ! !
