Sir Milton Margai's Independence Message

This message was delivered on Thursday April 27, 1961 

by Sierra Leone's first Prime Minister

Sir Milton Margai

Men, women and children of Sierra Leone, I greet you all on this historic day, and I rejoice with you.  

Sierra Leone today becomes a unified and independent nation to take her place as an equal partner in the Commonwealth of nations and as equal entity in the world at large.  For this we rejoice, and may your own rejoicing wherever you are be really full of happiness.
 

We must also face up squarely to the problems which will confront us, and I want you all to understand clearly that the Sierra Leone Government in future will depend very greatly upon the active support and assistance of each one of you.  The aim will certainly be to make a our country a land worth living in, a land worth serving; but this can only be done by wholehearted service and hard work now.  I have told you this before, and I call upon you to give the Government your active help and support.

I ask you to deal fairly and honestly with your fellow men, to discourage lawlessness, and to strive actively for peace, friendship and unity in our country.
 

We have much to do to bring improvements to all parts of our country.  I am fully aware of this and I assure you all that my Government is determined that general progress shall be made as fast as possible.
 

But there is also much that can be done by yourselves to meet your own needs, and I shall continue to support and encourage voluntary local support, whether it is directed to the building of a road, a bridge, a school, or a community centre, a sports field, a water supply, or any other communal requirement.
 

I would like to make it clear that independence will not result in any sudden changes in our day-to-day life.  Whether you are a farmer, a clerk, a trader, an artisan, a daily wage worker, a fisherman, a lawyer or a judge, life will go on just the same, with the same rights and privileges safeguarded, the same type of laws, the same justice in our courts, the same taxes and other responsibilities, the same articles for sale in the stores.  Mining companies, missions, trade unions, hospitals, schools, and government departments will go on as before.
 

The significant change is that we are now in complete control of our destiny and for the formulation of our external as well as our internal policies.
 

I wish you all to be assured that we in Sierra Leone will stand for the freedom and prosperity of men everywhere.
 

Sierra Leone is proud to be a member of the Commonwealth because this great family of nations has exactly the same aims.  We believe in the dignity of men and the sovereignty of states, and we will oppose to the limit of our power any movement of aggression which may conflict with these ideals.
 

This is the time when all you men and women should strive to know what is being done, what your responsibilities are and what the responsibilities of your country are.  The Government Information Service is working hard to help you to do so, and I and my Ministers will continue to come round and talk with you, but you must want to know, and you must bring others with you to listen to the authoritative words of Government, and you must pass the true word to those who cannot attend.
 

As I have said before, Paramount Chiefs, Section Chiefs, Tribal Headmen, and Tribal Authority Members all have a great responsibility to do this, and I expect them all to do what is required of them.
 

Exactly the same applies to Town Councillors and more particularly to District Councillors.  It is not enough to attend your Council meetings, and then go home to sit in your hammocks.  Many of our people are thirsting for knowledge of what your Council and the Government are doing.
 

All your elected people must tell your constituents the true word and bring their questions and desires back to your Councils so that they may be answered.
 

I look forward to a long period of mutual cooperation and unnderstanding between the Sierra Leone Government and the Sierra Leone Council of Labour.
 

Over the past years we have supported and encouraged the growth of trade unions in our country because these are accepted as the best means of ensuring good relations between the employers and employees, and of securing the rights and deserts of trade union members.  

Much of what I have said before in this message applies with great force to trade unions.
 

The Sierra Leone Government in the years to come will depend upon your cooperation and active assistance.  You have an especial responsibility to maintain the high standards you have set in past years, to stand by the rules of procedure in the case of disputes, and to avoid conflicts which may be detrimental to the good of your country.
 

And to those of you who are studying at school or college I say: You are seeing history made this day.  Work hard, for you are the future leaders of your country.  We will lay traditions of which you will be proud.  It will be for you to uphold them and to build upon them in the future.
 

I pray for God’s help and guidance on this historic day and in the years to come, and for His blessings on you all.

A Strange Good Friday!

Today is Good Friday. This is the day on which Christians commemorate the brutal murder of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

It is the culmination of what the Christians refer to as the "Holy Week", which begins on Palm Sunday, and it takes place two days before Easter.

Whilst elderly Christians spend this day in fasting, praying, repenting, and meditating on the agony and suffering of Christ on the cross, the younger Christians create various caricatures depicting Judas - one of the disciples of Jesus who sold the latter for crucifixion. 

The Judas caricatures are normally dragged and mercilessly manhandled for what the kids refer to as a revenge for Jesus.

Interestingly, the aforementioned manner in which the younger Christians used to commemorate Good Friday by dragging, beating and even tearing to pieces the caricatures of Judas, took a different turn this year. Instead of manhandling the caricatures, the children used it as a means of collecting money.

One of the numerous scenes today in which children were begging money for Judas

The caricatures were carefully carried by various groups of children around the country requesting 'money for Judas'. Door to door, street to street, the children had bowls on their hands displaying their caricatures to elderly folks and collecting money.

 
This is strange! Truly strange! How could the children be collecting 'money for Judas' instead of beating him up for betraying Jesus?

Could it be true that the Churches and parents are no longer teaching the children about the history of Jesus Christ and Judas? Or does the new way of commemorating Good Friday has something to do with the growing poverty in the land?

By Abdul Fonti

 

 

BEWARE!!! Scorpions in Town

Publisher's Note: The article in the ensuing, which was first published in various newspapers and online media outlets in September 2010, earned me (Abdul Fonti) the 2010 National Award for Best Newspaper Columnist in Sierra Leone.

This is a breaking news from the desk of the Roaming Pen. ‘Scorpions’ have invaded the Freetown city. These ‘scorpions’ are indiscriminately attacking and harassing people, especially those who refuse to produce their local tax receipts for inspection. The new breed of human scorpions is all over the city and they can be easily identified by their uniforms. 

This 21st century scorpions are dressed in gold shirt and navy blue trousers. They were recruited by the Freetown City Council (FCC) as a result of the reluctance of the citizens to honour their obligations of paying their local tax dues. Those who fail to produce their local tax receipts for inspection are being attacked and showered with several bites.

Beware of scorpions in Metropolitan Police clothing and don’t wait until they victimize you. Take to your heels whenever you come across them, especially if you are yet to pay for your local tax. Take this advice seriously as it is definitely no joke. 

Don’t ask me whether or not biting people for local tax receipts have become a part and parcel of the bye-laws of the Freetown City Council, because I will refer you to the Mayor for answers. But what I will tell you for sure is that people have already started suffering from this new cruel way of collecting taxes – produce your tax receipt or risk being bitten.
 

As recent as last week, I read in the Awareness Times Newspaper that metropolitan police officers descended on a businessman and gave the latter a couple of bites, reminisce the actions of scorpions. The ‘crime’ of the businessman was his failure to produce his tax receipt on the spot for inspection. As was reported by the Awareness Times Newspaper, the metropolitan ‘scorpions’ insisted that the businessman should buy a new tax receipt irrespective of the man’s explanation and plea that he had earlier obtained one which was not in his possession that moment.
 

An argument later ensued when the businessman reportedly pleaded with them to be patient, so that he can make a telephone call to his residence, which was just a stone throw from his business place, in order for somebody to come with his tax receipt. The aftermath of the disagreement was bite injuries and evidences of slaps and kicks plastered all over the businessman’s body.

This is just an example of one of the numerous citizens who have been victimized by these ‘metro-scorpions’. Biting people for local tax receipts, which seems to be the latest strategy of collecting local taxes, has left people wondering whether these metropolitan police officers are real human law enforcers or scorpions in police camouflage?
 

One cannot be far from the truth to speculate that the instructions to beat and bite people for tax receipts are coming from the hierarchy of the Freetown City Council (FCC). These ‘scorpions’ in police smokescreen always boast that they will never be brought to book for their reckless acts (buff case), and true to this, all of the perpetrators are allowed to go scot-free.

Apart from biting people, it is also an open secret that metropolitan police officers are engaged in all sorts of reckless and lawless behaviors, which include raining abuses (mammy curses) on peaceful citizens, beating people to coma on frequent intervals, and rudely approaching people to produce tax receipts when the fact remains that most of them are without tax receipts.

As recent as last month, a female school teacher of the Saint Michael Primary School was mercilessly manhandled by these metropolitan officers for no just cause. The lady was later frog-matched and dumped into a waiting truck like a common criminal and whisked to the Freetown City Council Works Yard at Blackhall Road. Notwithstanding the fact that she was bitterly weeping and complaining of body pains, she was inhumanly forced to sit on the ground whilst a statement was being recorded from her.
 

She was later dragged again into the FCC truck and whisked to the FCC’s Wallace Johnson Street Headquarters for further torture. With the help of vigilant journalists, the head of the metropolitan police, later tendered unreserved apologies to the female teachers and promised to punish the perpetrators. That was the end of it.

Few days later, a boss driver who was traveling from Kabala to Freetown was attacked at a place called Ojuku Junction, and was mercilessly manhandled by metropolitan police officers until he went into a state of coma. Also, nothing was done to the perpetrators. These ‘metropolitan-scorpions’, whom some people now call ‘city thugs’, are having field days harassing, abusing, beating and biting people with total disregard for law and order.

They are gradually becoming ‘city murderers’ and the need to put a halt to this trend cannot be overstressed. They started as city police, gradually became city thugs, degenerated to city scorpions and they are soon to become city murderers.

Beware! Scorpions are all over the city with a mandate to bite anyone without a local tax receipt.