PRIVATE SCHOOLS DEBTORS EMBARRASS WASSCE PUPILS
Conrad Sackey has to quickly deal with this unbelievable mess that private schools have caused. On Monday he reported that results for TWENTY EIGHT private schools were not released by WAEC because those schools owe the examination body some cash. Those schools have now seriously embarrassed parents and our children. While their colleagues in government schools and well-run private institutions have received their results and are applying to universities at home and abroad, they have to anxiously wait for their schools to pay WAEC.
Thousands of students are attending these schools where parents are made to believe that a decent pass at all examinations is guaranteed. So we are now at a point where Sackey has to stand up and convince us that he means business in that ministry which means so much for the legacy of Principal. We are spending a good part of our small budget on education so we are not prepared to accept any joke with the system.
1. We want WAEC to explain how the children from the 28 schools named and shamed became candidates with genuine INDEX NUMBERS without paying full examination fees. This really sounds strange to us.
2. Why is WAEC now trying to collect their debts using our children’s results into the bargain? Their business is to release the results of candidates who took the exam and were not involved in any malpractice.
3. What if the schools fail to pay and those results remain in the drawers until University admission windows close, what would those schools and WAEC say to the children and their parents?
4. Is this not a big opportunity for Conrad Sackey to take these schools off the books until he is convinced about their ability to operate in a fit and proper way. The institutions that fail should be struck off. This is not the time for jokes.
FRANCE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST BED BUGS
We use to think that bed bugs were only found in our part of the world, well, to be honest we always knew bed bugs existed in all countries but for those tiny wicked insects to become so much of a problem to a place like Paris and force the issue into the headlines of the world news is quite extraordinary. How did this come to pass in Paris of all places?
We know France is under pressure in their former African colonies – they have been kicked out from three countries now with others threatening to do so this bed bug infestation is really making things worse for King Emmanuel. Now that the French ambassador is out of Niger, let the good people of Paris concentrate on destroying all the bed bugs so they don’t spread all over the country. Well’ if they are not on the move already.
Anyway France has taken the first very important step to fight off this menace by making their worries public. There are many other countries that are hiding the same situation from public view. In Sierra Leone, we have a wealth of experience fighting bed bugs and we are stepping forward now to provide some advice and even take practical measures to help Paris.
1. We have hundreds of people on our streets selling insecticides of all descriptions claiming they can eliminate bed bugs, cockroaches and the like within minutes. Some of those insecticides are probably banned in France but these are desperate times so open up and allow you people to fly in for a month and end the bed bug infestation.
2. We can introduce our soldier aunts to France for the first time. They will destroy those troublesome bed bugs quicker than any insecticide. They themselves will die within a week of completing their assignment.
3. The final option is for France to pack every item of furniture or clothing on which they detect the presence of bed bugs into containers and ship them over to this land that we love. We will do the job here and keep the items. We will not charge professional fees if you select this third option.
SLAVE MASTERS MUST PAY REPARATION FOR THE SLAVE TRADE
The President of Ghana may be having a rough time with his economy at the moment like many other presidents given the harsh economic realities of today but when he appeared at the UN the other day he re-opened a conversation we always like to take part in. He called on those who enslaved Africans for many years to try and make amends for that. This is not the first time civic and political leaders from Africa have made that call. The guilty parties in the industrialized West have always played down the issue. Nana Akuffo Addo has thrown that debate wide open again and this time we believe we should push things so hard that we will eventually reach a conclusion.
For some people every time we mention reparation they think only in terms of container loads of money being sent down to Africa. Yes we want all the money they refused to pay us for work done in those plantations and in building certain cities but that’s not all.
1. Let’s start with an apology that is genuine – an apology that comes from the heart. We are not impressed by those qualified apologies they keep churning out. They apologize but quickly tell us that our ancestors also played a part in the trade. We don’t want to litigate that here again. Give us an unqualified apology and let’s take the next step.
2. End the unfair world economic practices forced upon Africa in particular. We are talking about the system operated by the World Bank and IMF. The burden those bodies have put on Africa is on that we cannot carry. We want a seat among the permanent members of the UN Security Council with full VETO powers.
3. Stop encouraging and sometimes participating in wars in Africa. All those arms shipments and mercenaries are not needed in Africa. The beneficiaries are those who enslaved Africans all those years ago.
4. Stop racism in the West. There’s a constant racist KNEE on the NECK of the African diaspora.
Let’s start with these actions while we calculate the amount of cash we deserve. The pay day MUST come NOW.
KORTOR JULDEH AND THE SS STADIUM: WE ARE WAITING
Kortor Juldeh was at the stadium the other day to talk to the Chinese contractors renovating the place. He is the most senior government official to undertake that exercise as the work grinds on slowly. Kortor Juldeh was assured that the work will be completed on schedule and on budget. That’s fine. We have endured pain to get the 1979 facility to a reasonably good standard to host local and international events.
Kortor Juldeh is reported to have said that ALL the original land space belonging to the Siaka Steven Stadium will be recovered. We thank him for that and we want to help in our own small way to call his attention to areas of concern around the stadium.
Kortor Juldeh should look at the area at the back of the swimming pool. Of course the entrance to the swimming gate near YWCA is a complete mess. Next is the area leading to the big gate opening towards STAND 17 – that place is now totally in the hands of car dealers, vehicle mechanics, drug pushers and small-time criminals. Kortor Juldeh should also clear those illegal stalls along Kinsella Street opposite the cemetery. They are a complete eyesore.
In a politically –correct society like ours, this is a difficult task to undertake but the VP surely knew what he was up against when he made that statement. Well done sir!
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