Only in Salone: British High Commision Visa Section Inffeciency Alert

I had already planned to complain about the cost of getting a British Visa as a Sierra Leonean national when upon arrival at the British High Commission I was informed that prices had been increased because of the exchange rate. I asked the security officer why the website hadn’t been updated to indicate this change and he said sorry ma they are working on it. As of Oct 13th 2009 when I changed my appointment to the 19th Oct the website still had le.970,000 as the fee, and they have now increased it to 1,290,000. British nationals applying for Sierra Leonean visas pay about le.450,000 a fee that is set by Sierra Leone immigration. If you are going to charge such excorbitant prices the least you could do is update your website i'm sure they have enough money for that.

I want to make a recommendation to the SL High Commission (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and SL Immigration to in the future develop a policy where they do matching fees with respective Embassies in Sierra Leone. I guess they may be thinking that they don’t wont to deter foreign nationals from coming to SL and that is why the fees are so reasonable but I will say that they should use the same rational the British High Commission uses i.e. high fees cover processing costs, deter undesirables from entering their country, and use the fees raised to pay high commission staff etc. etc.

So the price of the visa was strike 1. The price increase that was not updated on their website was strike 2 please read on for strike 3.

Already fuming at the price increase I was informed that I had to make a photocopy of the 32 pages of my passport. “Why isn’t it on the website that you must photocopy all the pages of your passport?” “sorry ma please ask them when you get inside”.

I walked away from the High Commission determined to find a place to photocopy the documents to make the 12midday processing deadline. I went to two locations in Lumbley that had photocopy on their signboards. Neither of them actually did any photocopying. I had reached my boiling point and my eyes turned read as the steam whistled from by ears.

I finally went to a friend’s office on Wilkinson rd and was able to scan the documents and print them before I headed back to the security post at the British High Commission.

They took my phones and I asked me if I had a camera or USB device. I said I don’t have anything. He said ok good luck and I retorted I don’t need luck. I went through the metal detectors and followed the arrows to the visa/consular section.

There were a handful of people waiting to be processed by two Sierra Leonean…a man and a woman. The man behind the counter says “I recognize u from somewhere” and I said “probably television” and he said “yep on TV”. I asked him why they hadn’t updated their website re the price change and he said that they had…and I said no u have not and he said yes we have and I said NO YOU HAVE NOT. I also asked him why did I have to photocopy all the pages of my passport and he said because the visas are processed in the Gambia.Yes i know they are processed there but why is not on your website and you have to photocopy 32pages of your passport.? I said that was problematic and he said I can complain there is information on the wall and I said or I will. He took my money and my papers and said that I should wait to be finger printed. I sat down and much to my surprise my friend Omar’s dad walks in, also at the high commission for a visa to attend the SLIEPA conference in November.

Some minutes went by and I asked the guy behind the counter if they served lunch. He smiled, “do u wanna buy me lunch”? “No, I just thought that with all the cash u guys have your provided refreshments”. He smiled again, only I was so not joking…my belleh bin don begin fo at.

A little later I get called into a small room where a Salone lady I had seen about town was sitting with my papers in a file. She didn’t ask me anything and just made guttural and nasal noises to herself as she flipped my application pages and typed some info into the computer. . We didn’t exchange any words. She asked me to put my fingers on a biometric scanner much like the one at the airport at JFK. I did as I was told.

Then she told me to look into a camera…and kept repeating I can’t see your eyes I need to see your eyes. I guess my side swept bangs were in the way. Eventually she saw my eyes, took the photograph and told me she was done. I made my exit after she handed me a slip that said that I qualified for premium visa processing service which meant that my visa app would be processed in Freetown and not sent to the Gambia. I am to collect my passport in 2days. Will they or Or wont they?

Should I wait till after I receive my passport to post this blog? Will they not give it to me if I complain on my blog? Well we shall see cause I’m posting right now!!!!

Sierra Leone Cricket Squad beats Rwanda to advance to the World Cricket League (WCL) Africa Division 2

(couldnt find any cricket images of the team)
(map indicating countries with cricket teams in Africa)

As i checked in at the Kenya Airways counter two weeks ago on my way to Ghana. I was flanked by almost a dozen young suited brothers in a maroon and green combo. I couldnt make out the crests on their jackets but when i asked later i was informed that they were the Sierra Leone National Cricket Squad on their way to a competition in Malawi. Countries included in the Africa Division 3 competitions were Malawi, Rwanda, Gambia, Lesotho, Morroco, and the Sierra Leone underdogs.

We got on the airplane and the teams manager a very dapper greying krio gentle man in a straw hat turned around to respond to a team member behind me who was asking to have his photograph taken in the plane.
"Bo you sure say u want make ah shoot you"-team manager.
"Yes shoot me"- team member
"Bohboh you sure? Oona yeri oh na di man say make ah shoot am na plane"- team manager
People started to chuckle aware that he was poking fun of the player.

A Lebanese guy sitting next to the team manager asked where they were going and he explained that they were headed to Malawi for a competition.He wished them good luck. Not to be out done and totally meaning it, i too wished them goodluck as i exited the airplane two hours later when we landed in accra.

I was most proud and happy to learn when i came back on tuesday that the team had in fact returned home with medals last week as the runners up to compete in the World Cricket League Divison 2 Africa competitions to be played in Benoni, South Africa next year.

The cricket squad consisted of 5 Under19 players and 8 seniors. Sierra Leone and Lesotho were the only two teams playing with 100% locally based and born players

Back in April this year Sierra Leone and Uganda were the only african teams to qualify for the U19 championship September games in Canada. However, the canadian government refused them visas and they failed to make it to the competition and were disqualified (according to the Canadian consul in ghana-Sierra Leone submitted their visa apps too late...but it is the widely held view that they are afraid that the players will not return to Salone after the matches in Canada)

Despite all this the Cricket Team continues to fly the national banner up way way high. Your cricket is cool!!!

A VERY BIG CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU TO OUR NATIONAL SIDE.

YOU MAKE ME VERY PROUD

SOS Valentine Esegrabo Melvine Strasser

SOS signal is a prosign, its respective letters have no inherent meaning per se


On April 29th 1992 I was 7 years old. Valentine Strasser was 25. The APC of my father and Joseph saidu momoh was at the zenith of its decay and decadence and way month don man dem noh day get pay but this is not a commentary on the politics of then or now. This is about Strasser. Every couple years or so someone takes interest writes an article in the paper and some people feel sad, others laugh, while many make a mockery of his current state rightly drinking his days away at a poyo bar living off his military retirement package. Some pipul dem kin say "if mi na bin Strasser ah noh fo bin end up so". Ask anyone about Strasser and they have an opinion..."oh he started out well with the right intention but he lost it", "na da im ooman way im bin day wit na im make im end up so" "na blood day fet am".

Valentine Strasser is a victim and a perpetrator. A victim of youth, ignorance, arrogance, power, a perpetrator of violence and like most military dictatorships Strasser and his comrades were choked and strangled by excesses, ills, and the corruption of absolute power.

I lived in Sierra Leone for two years of their almost 4 year rule, from age 7-9 and mi na bin pekin but I remember the fear in grown folk’s eyes. The way people hush hushed when they spoke of the killings or jail sentences, early retirement, or who had left the country in exile. Congosa, rumors, and accusations beat the rhythms of the era. I heard Bambay Kamara had an underground safe with big snakes that he worshipped. I heard his house was ransacked. I heard his wife (who was a really good friend of my mom's) was stripped naked in the street. My heart used to jump every time their convoys sped down the road causing chaos as cars swerved every which way to let them pass.

Those were the days when u could get a beating for getting to work late and grown men in suits would sweat beads as they were made to frog jump in the sun. Those were the days of kabasah lodge skirts and bleached out skins, pato banton's "go pato", community empowerment, national cleaning Saturdays, Leone Stars victories, and 50 heroes of Sierra Leone handbook, mural paintings and city wide beautification projects. Those were the days when people were scared into doing the right thing. Those were the days when being young was cool. Those were the days of national pride.

We left Sierra Leone in 1994 for Ethiopia and that concluded our NPRC experience and their regime went south after that. They plunged the coffers of the state and infighting led to a coup d'etat that oust Strasser and brought in another one of his comrades who eventually gave way to the democratically elected government of Tejan Kabbah.

Strasser is now in his early forties withering away and he could quite easily spend the rest of his days playing poyo to poyo. In fact with life expectancy the way it is in Salone he may not even have that long to live...who knows...

What I do know however, is that the constitution of Sierra Leone makes provisions for former heads of state and Strasser is not and has not benefited from it. Whatever your thoughts on Strasser or his regime we must show the man some compassion. It would be telling of us as a people if we let this man's life close in such a way and do not find avenues to restore his dignity as a man, a citizen, and as a former head of state.

What message does Strasser's current state send to young people?? If you ever get an opportunity to be in a position of power, steal mercilessly so u don’t end up like Strasser.


(Two of his former military comrades Maada Bio and Karefa Kargbo can both be found rubbing shoulders with Freetown’s elite. I wonder what they did right that Strasser did not)