JUST WHAT KIND OF OFFICIALS does President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf appoint? This is a question which keeps nagging every time where there’s something major.
THEY—AT LEAST MOST of them—are aloof, arrogant, standoffish and completely nonchalant about the people they serve, especially her ministers and managing directors of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs).
A MINISTER IS ONE who attends to the need the needs of someone. When you get to public office, you become servant of the people.
WHEN THEY GET APPOINTED, all they care for is to ride big and luxurious SUVs, collect the fat paychecks at the end of every month, cater to their many concubines including male ones—well, some of them are LGBT—and their endless social activities.
SOME ARE NOT LIKE THEIR FOREBEARS who, in years gone by, had some common decency for the country and its people and would always note at the rear of their head that come what may, Liberia remains first.
ABOUT A FORTNIGHT AGO, the internet was abuzz with news about fake rice from China being seized in the West African Nation of Nigeria. According to CNN, the Nigerian Custom Service had seized 2.5 metric tons of reportedly fake rice. 102 bags were intercepted after the recipient of the gift alerted the authorities.
MAMUDU HARUNA, COMPTROLLER of the Federal Operations Unit, called it plastic rice at a press briefing in Lagos. “We have done preliminary analysis on the plastic rice. After boiling, it was sticky and only God knows what would have happened if people had consumed it.”
WITH ITS SOARING POPULATION, rice remains one of the main staples in Nigeria. And with what would have been a potential disaster, the Nigerians were quick to nip it in the bud.
THE ONLINE MAGAZINE ORGANIC AND HEALTHY warned that fake rice was first found in China — where it is being produced on a large scale—and has since been found in Vietnam, India and more recently in countries in Europe, “although it has not been identified in the USA yet.”
“THE PROBLEM WITH FAKE RICE IS that it is almost undetectable from normal rice, and it is being branded in normal every day rice. The fake rice has been known to cause stomach complaints and it is thought to be able to cause serious digestive problems, as it is made from dangerous unregulated ingredients such as synthetics, chemicals and even potato off-cuts,” the magazine stated.
BUT—AND A BIG ONE TOO—HAS that hit home with a ring of the bell so the rat would be saved?? HELL NO!!
THE ELEGANTLY AND EXQUISITELY dressed Minister of Commerce—Axel Addy—and the Ministry he leads with his deputies and Assistants have been completely mum on this issue. NOT even a single press release has come out to assure an already antsy public.
IT IS A KNOWN FACT THAT LIBERIANS eat a lot of rice. In fact, there’s a common joke that if a Liberian doesn’t eat rice for a day but eat other stuffs, he wouldn’t be satisfied. Rice has a steep role in our troubled past. We must not forget what happened on April 14, 1979.
AND JUST WHAT DID THE “always dressed elegant” minister and the ministry he leads did? Nothing. They were/are being completely reticent and impervious to this issue, even forgetting about the history of the nation’s staple. Perhaps they are waiting on a national tragedy for the Liberian people to protest a’ la April 14, 1979.
BUT THIS NONCHALANT attitude is not unique to the Ministry of Commerce alone.
A FORTNIGHT AGO, THERE WAS an acute shortage of water in Monrovia and its environs. And you think there would have been an explanation from the top brasses of the Liberia Water and Sewer Corporation (LWSC) about this? The high and mighty sat in their air conditioned offices, forgetting that it is water and sewer charges billed to the tax payer which keep them in their frigid offices but no, it doesn’t behooved them or their dormant public relations department to do a PSA.
THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD of LWSC, Kimmie Weeks, is a social media frequenter but did he, in any of his Facebook posts alerted the public about what has been the problem for the acute shortage? We don’t recall reading anything of such.
HOW SWEET IT IS TO DREAM of service. Good bye to service. Welcome to big shotiness.