Being a patriot who has won many accolades for his patriotism and kindheartedness in this kingdom, the great Parrot always wants to see that his country and people are happy and satisfied at all times.
Since his usual and most popular sitting place at the central part of the capital was blown away by heavy storm few years ago, the old bird is still finding it very difficult to have another comfortable abode where he can relax and carry out his daily activities.
But in spite of the difficulties, the hard working and committed animal has never relented as he continues to fly from place to place to get correct and accurate news for fellow citizens who had relied on him for ages as source of reservoir for true and factual news.
Few days ago, the bird was around the central business district (CBD) area to be precise, the PZ round-about, busy Sani Abacha Street right down to Eastern Police and noticed that, the erection of the new railings or street guards (fence) by the Sierra Leone Roads Authority (SLRA) at Sani Abacha had stopped since December 2024.
To have a bird’s eye view of the project, old Parrot came down slowly and perched on top of one of the unfinished buildings unnoticed. His anger however forced people to take notice of him and he immediately starts to ask the traders some questions whether they have any idea why the work has abruptly stopped. The traders too were not of relevance to Mr. Parrot as they could not provide any suitable answer to his question.
Meanwhile, the patient bird was reliably informed that in fact, most of the authorities including the Minister of Works and Public Assets had no knowledge about the almost abandoned project at Sani Abacha Street.
According to information gathered by the brave bird, the Director of Roads Authority allegedly took upon himself to erect the railings not only to protect his job but importantly to gain more favour from his bosses.
Some of the affected traders have told Bra Parrot that the reason for the erection of the railings was and still is to prevent them (traders) from selling at Sani Abacha Street because about 85% of them are perceived supporters of the main opposition APC party. How true this claim is, the patriotic citizen does not know.
According to information, the minister was seriously embarrassed when he got the news for the erection of the railings.
The bird went out to sound the views of people as usual on the matter and almost all the people he contacted expressed dismay over the project, arguing that if the government had sincerely wanted the traders to leave, it would have been just too easy with fair negotiations instead of erecting railings to prevent them and in the process narrowing the street further causing both vehicular and human traffic than before.
Giving the backdrop of this already failed project, some people have described those working in the president’s administration as saboteurs and enemies of the state.
They said as far as they are concerned President Dr. Julius Maada Bio is not even aware of most of the wrong things going on around him but because he is the head, he has to carry the blame squarely.
One Mr. Thomas Sulaiman Senesie who the bird spoke with described most of the people Bio brought to work with him as ‘square pegs in round holes.’
The man said spending so much of the country’s resources on such people who cannot yield the expected dividends is a mere “WASTE OF TAXPAYERS’ MONEY.”
The bird is watching!