By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Thomas Josephus Dixon, the Editor of Salone Times newspaper who is also the Managing Editor of New Age newspaper, is a typical undiluted “Kroo Tong Road” guy who does not hesitate to speak his mind no matter the consequences. He embodies the old journalistic adage of “publish and be damned”.
One thing I like about him is his frankness in telling you the truth to your face and laugh about it in his characteristic Kroo Tong Road boisterousness. Despite his journalistic eccentricities, his seemingly inability to keep “friends” who will want their way with him, and his sometimes daredevil manner of doing things; Thomas Dixon is a good conversationalist who is always fun to be with. There is never a dull moment around him as he has that electrifying ability to light up a room with his taunts, anecdotes, and light-hearted jokes.
In his reply to the presidential address, delivered by President Julius Maada Bio in the Chamber of Parliament on Tuesday 6 August 2024; Thomas Dixon strips off some of the euphemistic dressings from that speech. With just three tweets, he appears to have demolished our Commander-in-Chief’s version of factual facts making him look as if he is being economical with the truth!
In one tweet he jibes: “Bio says the Leone he met Le6 to [US]$1 has appreciated against major currencies but a dollar to [the] Leone is still at Le23 while to a Euro is Le24….How the Leone appreciated?” In another he quips: “De Pa say den employ 5000 nurses but de ratio of medical workers to patient in Salone according to World Bank Report is 2 to 10000….” And in the third tweet he savagely twists the dagger, so to speak, in the fresh wound: “Bio say from 2023 to 2024 den don expand rice production…De rice nar Maseray ba [Maseray is a female dwarfish dwarf at Kroo Tong Road in Freetown]?” That is Thomas Dixon for you. He is always the gadfly who irritatingly irritates people with his tweets!
But Thomas Dixon, in my opinionated opinion, is still trying to clean the little wetness behind his ears. As for me, being a man who is no longer wet behind the ears journalistically; I won’t say President Bio is being economical with the truth. I will, humbly and respectfully, disagree with some of his “facts” as presented in the well of parliament on Tuesday 6 August 2024.
First and foremost, I disagree with him when he says, “Confidence in the Audit Service has increased.…” That might have been intended to be a kind of mockery because the suspensions and eventual sackings of the Auditor-General, Mrs. Lara Taylor-Pearce, and her deputy, Tamba Momoh, for merely unearthing alleged fake receipts submitted by the Office of the President for auditing purposes for the financial year 2020, has made majority of Sierra Leoneans to lose confidence in the current set-up at Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL).
So, it is mockingly mocking for President Bio to claim that right-thinking Sierra Leoneans now have confidence in the current ASSL after his government chased the unblemished Mrs. Lara Taylor-Pearce out of office for merely “ensuring that public funds are safeguarded and used for the benefit of Sierra Leoneans” (according to her response, dated 14 July 2024, to a Press Release from State House). Even though Section 119(6) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone clearly states that, “In the exercise of his [or her] functions under this Constitution or any other law, the Auditor-General shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority,” yet the Bio-led administration still used a sort of legal sleight of hand to recommend her sacking simply because she persistently refused to be directed or controlled by the powers that be!
Now, it appears as if ASSL is infested with ruling party faithful and Yes-Sir people who seem to be willing to be directed or controlled by the powers that be to produce seemingly white-washed audit reports. It seems to me that most of ASSL’s current activities are just window dressings for the rolling cameras.
Another area where I, humbly and respectfully, disagree with President Bio is where he claims that his administration has “strengthened response strategies for sexual and gender-based violence…especially in rural areas”. The first thing that comes to mind is the issue of Satta Lamin Banya who was allegedly gang-raped in the presence of her children and relatives, dragged around like Good Friday effigy of Judas Iscariot, and her farm destroyed at Nyanyahun village, eastern Kailahun District, in the aftermath of the 2018 general elections.
Despite the incident was reportedly reported at the Kailahun Police Station, Satta Lamin Banya’s alleged attackers, whom she was able to identify, are still moving around freely simply because they are said to be supporters of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and she is a supporter of the All People’s Congress (APC). It is over six years now that that alleged incident occurred and she is yet to receive any compensation nor any rehabilitation or psycho-social support services from the SLPP government on whose behalf the perpetrators claimed to have acted!
The case of Satta Lamin Banya should have been the litmus test for the Bio-led administration to show that it is seriously serious about sexual and gender-based violence especially in rural areas. But, again, what can one expect from a government in which one higher-up is on record to have stated that, “Only SLPP supporters are true Sierra Leoneans”? Even President Bio’s promise of a firm commitment to “promoting and protecting the rights of women in Sierra Leone,” I will take with a pinch of salt.
And lastly, one of the problems I have with the presidential address, delivered by Julius Maada Bio in the Chamber of Parliament on Tuesday 6 August 2024, is the vagueness on several issues highlighted. Take this portion as an example: “We have created hubs in key rice production areas, rehabilitated markets, replaced hand drawn ferries with bridges and constructed a dyke and 35 kilometres of feeder roads”.
It would have been better for the President to tell us which key rice producing areas in Sierra Leone the hubs were created. Which cities, districts, towns, or villages the markets were rehabilitated? Where were these hand drawn ferries replaced with bridges? And which parts of the country were the dyke and 35 kilometres of feeder roads constructed? President Bio should have been more specific about these “developments”, so that citizens would have gone to those places to verify.
Another example of vagueness is where he says, “We have invested in rural roads, bridges, markets, and social infrastructure across five regions to create safe farm-to-market channels….” Again, the five regions should have been named for verifications.
As I see it, the whole presidential address appears to have been written and delivered as if President Bio was in a hurry to catch a flight.
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