From the Editor’s Keyboard

Point by Point

29 August 2020 at 17:01 | 1455 views

Point by Point

With Gibril Gbanabome Koroma

Recent happenings in Africa have triggered the following observations:

1. Mali will return to civilian rule faster than originally thought or predicted. Former President Ibrahim Keita has decided to abandon power and the coup makers have agreed to hand over power after elections as soon as possible. ECOWAS is happy but have said no soldier should head any transitional government. They also could not, through the current ECOWAS chairman, resist the temptation of indirectly calling the soldiers "demons."

2. Sierra Leone’s president, Dr. Julius Maada Bio is not sick as wildly propagated by his enemies on social media. He is on a private visit to Lebanon with his wife, First Lady Fatima Bio.

3. The prices of locally produced food items is directly related to the increase in the price of oil on the world market. This is basic elementary economics. When the price of fuel goes up in a place like Sierra Leone truck drivers who transport food items from the farms to the cities increase their transport fares and businessmen and businesswomen (or market women) pass on these increases to the final consumer. Basic economics that has been turned on its head by angry and power-hungry opposition elements who had decided, in their wisdom, that government is to blame for the price increases in the country.

Apart from the price of oil, nothing is even said about the effects of Covid-19 on the economy of Sierra Leone.

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