“This was a victory for the Media” – Mr. Lewis

A lot has gone down in Sierra Leone during my final month here. First, there is the ongoing investigation of the cocaine saga. Just a couple of nights before I returned to the states for a week, police seized a plane which landed at Lungi International Airport and contained 600 kg of substance believed to be cocaine. Kemoh Sesay, the Transport and Aviation Minister of Sierra Leone, was implicated in the incident and eventually fired.

In response to the drugg trafficking that took place at Lungi, Parliament acted immediately and passed into law a new Drug Control Act, which placed new punishments for drug abuse and selling – my colleague Ishmael told me that the old law “punished” drug criminals with a $1,000 fine or a few nights in jail. The new drug law passed by Parliament can sentence them with life in prison. Talk about turning over a new cannabis leaf.Parliament recently reconvened from recess to debate the new Drug Control Act and make it retroactive for the current cocaine suspects.

Here’s where things get dicey:

Members of Parliament thought they were reconvening only to cover the amendment for the Drug Control Act, but also tabled on the agenda was a proposal for a 900% (!) salary increase for President Ernest Koroma and his ministers. And, according to the Sierra Leone constitution, if no member of Parliament objected to the measure and it wasn’t debated, after 21 working days that measure would become law. One member of the opposing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) rose to make that objection and better yet, almost every single media outlet in the country was all over this somewhat sneaky proposal.

The press, including Awoko, went right after the salary increase and the President’s Office replied with a press release to say President Koroma was “unaware” of such an increase and doesn’t seek any salary increase, either (which, honestly, sounds hard to believe). And just yesterday, the Secretary to the President, Sampha Koroma, took full responsibility for the matter and resigned. Even then, though, the secretary said he was unaware that his representatives sent the order to Parliament, so it’s not like he’s taking responsibility by saying he was the one who tabled the measure. It’s as if he’s just trying to be the scape goat for the President, who “regretfully accepted his (the secretary’s) resignation with immediate effect.”

PHEW! That’s a whole lot to digest in the last week, huh? All jokes aside, my editor, Mr. Kelvin Lewis, said of the matter: “This was a victory for the Media, because if we hadn’t covered the salary matter extensively, it could have slipped into law.”

These are the times that make me excited and (admittedly) proud to be a journalist – a member of the fourth estate, if you will. Even though I missed out on the presidential elections in Salone last year, this summer’s been an absolute thrill, and not just because of the recent two events in the cocaine saga and Preisdent’s salary increase. The local elections, Awoko’s 10th Anniversary, the Zain concert and traveling to Pujehun on a special project, among other news, will be the highlights of the summer of 2008 for me.

Speaking of which, my departure date looms… T-minus five days and counting… A final column of Through the Eyes of ‘U’ will becoming up later this week to say goodbye to Sierra Leone.