By Andrew Keili
I have listened to a lot of speeches in my life and made a few myself. I must however express some degree of exasperation at the amount of speeches we make in this country. Sometimes these speeches could appear so perfunctory, bland and pointless. Let me tell you the stories of two of my greatest speechmakers. I recall while at CKC a certain Minister was the favourite of Father Lambe to give speeches at our inter-house sports functions. A man known for his absent mindedness, he was known to leave Sabbagh supermarket, forget that he came in his car and walk home. Anyway, this Minister was our constant speechmaker-and he delivered every time! Not really surprising, as he gave the same speech, which we had in anyway crammed- If we could cram our History textbook, “The Last hundred years”, cramming his speech was small stuff! He would be sleeping in his guest chair when he would be woken up when it was time for his speech-usually with a gentle nudge from Father Lambe.
He would stand up and start his speech with: “It is gratifying………..”. Then he would go on to tell us what was gratifying, lacing his speech with worn out phrases- ‘Mens sana in corpore sano”-Never mind Bo school boys- “Mens sana in corpore sano” is a Latin phrase, usually translated as “a healthy mind in a healthy body”. The phrase is widely used in sporting and educational contexts to express the theory that physical exercise is an important or essential part of mental and psychological well-being. I suspect you know what psychological means. Let’s move forward. Wanting us to be truthful, he also mentioned our Motto “Adveniat regnum tuum” and “Dirige nos in veritate”-Don’t ask me what the latter means- ask any St, Edwards student-even an expelled one!
My other great speechmaker was a friend of mine-Mr. B in Tongo, not known for his English speaking prowess. Though we were initially worried about him, he stole the show and gave the best toast of at the reception. I cringed when Mr. B rose up with confidence and processed to the high table. This was a man who used to write in our plant log book “motto born” for “motor burnt”, Mr. B. adjusted his collar and started-“Ladies and gentlemen, today is the wedding of John and Hannah. All I can say is “le we lik””. Those of us who had actually gone there to “lik” and had been fed up with the long speeches clapped unendingly for him. Good old Mr. B. May his soul rest in peace.
Anyway, back to my topic of speeches in Sierra Leone. Just listen to news on our radio stations or on TV. Even where the talk is about one event or another, it is always about speeches by Ministers, heads of parastatals, NGO heads, councilors, MPs etc. -everybody gives speeches, I like the way Radio Stations like Radio Democracy explain things in Krio. When they relate what a Mr. Mansaray has said, they always continue- “Same way so, Mr. Mansaray say….”.
And have you attended workshops? Well, the first part of it after the Christian and Muslim prayers is littered with speeches followed by a tea break before the actual workshop starts. Usually half the speechmakers do not stay on after the tea break for the actual deliberations because they are “too important to participate”. Usually if you are lucky and the pastor decides not to have a “praise and worship session”, that may include “No weapon fastened against this government shall prosper” or the Iman decides not to read a long “surah” which only a few understand, the Chairman will be introduced- and usually this is a long speech starting with explaining which Primary school he attended. The Chairman will pitch into the speechmaking process followed by a few functionaries, who probably mention the things the keynote speaker would have to talk about anyway. And this is followed by the keynote speaker who would have had his speech written by a civil servant (if he is a Minister of government) who rehashes old speeches. Then the keynote speaker will rise and probably start by addressing all the important people present and end with “all protocols observed”, if there are too many of them. Then the real speech would start “It is gratifying-……If the keynote speaker is a Minister, he would usually mention that a particular idea came from the “President, in his wisdom”-some would add infinite before the wisdom.
I wonder if anyone has ever totaled how much time is spent by our top political people in making speeches. When one counts the number of workshops, seminars, political events, social events etc. to which these people are invited, it is an awfully long time-valuable time that could have been used in doing something else useful. Judging by statements made by the two main political parties, speechmaking should perhaps be kept to a minimum. APC used to mention “Action Pass intention” and used to claim “De Pa de woke”. SLPP now says they are a “talk and do government”. They both should keep to their mantra in this direction and talk less.
How I wish the next State of Emergency will be about banning all speeches for three months. Do I hear you say, “some man go die?”. All those in favour of this motion say “aye”. Ok, don’t bother giving me any feedback-I don’t need any counting! A little voice tells me-“the ayes have it” , but this has to be a voluntary ban. Let’s reduce the speeches. Le we lik!
MAN SHALL NOT LIVE BY BREAD ALONE……..
A bread strike? Bread consumers recently found out there was a bread shortage as bakeries failed to supply their sales agents due to the skyrocketing of the price of flour. This has led to several problems coming to light- or shall I say “than need to be explained. We have heard about bread strikes in other parts of the continent and probably laughed them off. Recently in Sudan there were deadly protests against a rise in bread prices that the government says left 19 people dead, including two members of the security forces.
Luckily for us this shortage has not resulted to violence. People are however irked because the use of bread is now so prevalent in this country- breakfast food, lunch for your kids, “ emergency food for servisman dem”. Even in rural villages, bread often replaces the cherished “col res” or “pemahui”. I have listened to the fascinating discussions on this issue and would like to share my thoughts. To those who claimed the government had raised duty on flour, the NRA Commissioner General quickly dispelled this myth- duty had in fact fallen from 20% to 10%. The General view of government spokesmen was that the rise in flour price of flour was in fact due to external factors-there had been a sharp increase in the world market price. I had to tutor a friend of mine that contrary to what he thought, the world market was not a new market on Sani Abacha street but outside Sierra Leone.
Not so fast, opined the Head of the Consumer Protection Agency (or is this what they are called?), Mr. Kabia admitted duty had dropped and that indeed external factors played their part but was quick to implicate the Trade Ministry. According to him, they used to be part of a consultative and monitoring group assisting the Ministry but were now no longer consulted on issues of essential commodities. Without providing specifics he mentioned there were now “hidden taxes”. When pressed on these, he did not elaborate except to explain thus- “Dark suits are now two a penny which anyone can buy from “Big markit”. There are now a lot of people donning “chinch coats” who play a middleman role in creating obfuscation in the clearing process leading to “de facto” duty increases. Well, how I wish Mr. Kabia were able to prove his “Chinch coat theory” further. Looks like the Trade Ministry and Mr. Kabia need to confer some more.
I was more intrigued by the apparent split in the Bakers’ Union (or is this what they are called?). The leader Mr. Joggor Jalloh appeared very conciliatory and reasonable and seemed to condemn the Bakers’ strike which he claimed was started by some young hotheads who had formed a breakaway group, I did not understand the full meaning of this until I saw a picture of the leader of the breakaway group donning a red hat, red shirt and red rousers on social media.
Whatever the case, even though the strike has ended, bread prices have gone up by some 50 percent- either reflected in higher prices or smaller loaves, leaving many people hungry and angry. I have seen a “tapalapa” resembling a small worm. Meanwhile we are none the wiser on what should be done to remedy the situation in the long run. Somebody joked-“We used to talk about the need for government to address bread and butter issues as if this was the lowest baseline. Well bread is no longer cheap and perhaps we should be talking about “granat and wata” issues to put things in the right perspective.”
Perhaps we should implore the people at the Trade Ministry to get to the bottom of this issue and enlighten us. Who is at fault? Is it external factors? Is it the “chink coat brigade”? Is is the red shirted rebel bakers? Whodunnit?
Indeed nowadays man shall not live by bread alone, bot by granat and wata as well!
Ponder my thoughts.