By Ibraheem Daramy
FERENSOLA
Passing through major streets of Makeni this morning, 21/03/2024, I saw a substantial number of vehicles with personnel of the Sierra Leone Police at the front and back. One of the vehicles had a public address system mounted on its top with the announcer informing the general public about the threat of Kush to our society. Most of those onboard the vehicles had placards conveying different messages on why we must collectively fight the Kush.
I followed the motorcade as it moved along selected streets hoping to see what I’d long expected. Unfortunately, though unsurprisingly, instead of emphasising on plans of putting those in the supply chain out of business permanently, the messaging was more on what we have been hearing whenever the Kush issue pops up. They seem entirely focused on the users – better known as the victims. When I took a careful look at the organisers, primarily the police, I couldn’t help but saw our Chief protector capitulating. For them, it was nothing but just acting up. Probably for their lack of sincerity, they see this fight as asking for too much of them. Whatever reasons they have for their lack of belief, they will have to tell us. Yes, we know there are invisible players, who, with the stroke of a finger, will have some high ranking officer sent to one god damned deployment – such as it is. You can trust some of us, just tell us whose fish is too big for your net. I haven’t said much on how the authorities pulled resources together and sent the coco samba people parking. While all the numbers are saying Kush is the elephant in the room, you went for the one with much lesser evil. I’ll come up with something on why sellers of the former have all gone underground.
When the parliament of Sierra Leone summoned the relevant agencies on the fight against substance abuse, if their mandates are anything to go by, I am not sure they were quite prepared for what one of their respondents had in store. Andrew Jaia Kaikai, the head of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), as per law prescribed, primarily charged to lead the fight, must have left his hosts scratching their heads for having him on their invite in the first place. Maybe it’s a case of the very parliament playing some mind game – but their guest would have none of it. By his posture infront of our law makers, there was no doubting his willingness to deliver on his core mandate. You can see the consternation on the faces of his all attentive audience when he said his agency with such huge expectations has only twelve staff with no mobility of any sort. I wish our legislative arm will invite others so they will know a lot of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), are a joke.
Couple of years ago, a plane that was later identified to be carrying the banned substance, cocaine, landed at our international airport, Lungi. At that time, our legal minds had advised parliament to come up with something around the subject matter, because there was none anywhere in our law books. Please I’ll respectfully ask that you allow me not to get into how the investigations and trials all went down – that would be asking for another article. My unrepentant assertion on my preceding article that government is complicit is predicated on the fact that Kush has been around long enough with devastating effects, and yet they have not come out with all guns blazing. When the authorities abandon their statutory responsibilities to cash in, there could be only one outcome.
