Stop The Baloney
If there is one thing the ruling All People's Congress party of Sierra Leone is good at, it is their capacity to look at every single issue through the tribal lens. If you talk against the current ineptitude of APC, you must not like northerners. If you talk against the corruption plagued Vice President Sam Sumana, you have a grand plan against the Kono people. In essence, the only thing you can do is keep very quiet, while your poor people back home wallow in poverty and despair. Some parochial minds even say that those of us in the diaspora should not talk about things going back home in Sierra Leone, disregarding the fact that our daily trips to Western Union and Moneygram are directly related to the fact that folks back home are growing increasingly dependent or in some cases totally dependent on those of us here who care for families back home, as the Sierra Leone economy is now a basket case.
Where is My Money Mr. VP?
When I read Titus Boye-Thompson's article on Facebook yesterday, insinuating that Vice President Sam Sumana's current predicament was a grand conspiratorial design against Konos, I could have laughed if the matter was not so serious. One problem most of these western area intellectuals have is their serious lack of understanding of the social relationships between the people of areas beyond Freetown. I attended primary school in Freetown and was always surprised at the number of my classmates who had never even stepped their feet beyond Wellington, let alone know what Waterloo looks like. Titus' long piece was just one example of knowing all that you know about your fellow Sierra Leoneans either through history books or through hearsay.
Titus Boye-Thompson of Ethnic Mutual
If Titus Boye-Thompson thinks that the relationship between SLPP and people from Kono was dependent on ex-NDMC head Abu Aiah Koroma, then this guy has some serious history class to take. I know Titus worked at one time with the first lady until they had a falling out over some visa manipulation issues or some sort of corruption reminiscent of the time police in London broke into his apartment when they were diverting funds from Ethnic Mutual to a group they set up, but I will come to that at a later date.
Conspiracy Pick A Peck (Empty Suit)
Titus Boye-Thompson will benefit some if he took some time out to visit old man Sama Banya for some history of the Kono-SLPP relationship or get some proper sociological prospective of the relations between the peoples of southeastern Sierra Leone. If he does he will know that Abu Aiah Koroma the father of the first lady and former president of OBBA, may God bless him, was a very late comer into Sierra Leone politics, having spent most of his time at NDMC away from party politics even during the 80s. The old got into politics as a retirement past time and to think that SLPP-Kono relationship depended on him is an extreme manifestation of ignorance by someone writing as if they had even a faint idea of the geopolitical history of Sierra Leone.
I just want Boye to know that the relationships between peoples from Southeast, predate party politics and is hinged upon a commonality of culture, customs and traditions that have allowed the diverse Kono, Mende, Madingo, Kissi, and Konyanka(Komende) to exist peacefully for centuries. It was because the old APC could never penetrate this cultural barrier that made Siaka Steven rely on northern Sierra Leone as the backbone of his new APC, giving rise to the regional party affiliations that have become so magnified and exploited by the presidency of Ernest Koroma.
Boye-Thompson would also benefit from knowing that Kono district is not a homogeneous society, but a heterogeneous melting pot. So any desire to introduce the politics of tribalism into Kono by APC as a way to gain loyalty as they are doing in the north, will be disastrous for the district, as the different tribes in Kono district have assimilated and coexisted for centuries. If as APC preaches that SLPP is Mende, then the proponents of this particular ideology should realize that there is no tribe that shares a more similar culture with Mendes than Konos. Though Mendes and Lokos share almost the same Language, Kono and Mende culture is sociologically identical.
Is it Really a Conspiracy?
The truth of the matter is that Sam Sumana should not hide behind his being Kono to justify his legacy of fraudulent practices that has diminished the office of the vice presidency in the country. The American investors that are accusing the vice president of swindling do not know Mende from Temne or Loko from Limba. All they know is that they met this ambitious fellow who told them that there were opportunities to be had in mining diamonds in Sierra Leone. The Americans did some research and realized that the country had great potential. The war had ended, there was no major dominant mining company in the country at the time and it therefore made good business sense to go in. They invested in heavy equipment and put Sam Sumana in charge.
Sam Sumana took the people's money, went to Sierra Leone and stopped communicating with them. He represented himself in Sierra Leone as if the business was his and used the proceeds to buy the vice presidential ticket. SLPP had no knowledge of these people in America who Sam conned and now that the people want their money, it is suddenly an SLPP conspiracy against the Konos. Anybody who believes this load of baloney about conspiracy against the Konos, need to have their head examined or better yet need to be on some serious psychotropic medications.
Was is SLPP that was also responsible for the Al Jazeera timber scandal, or the vice president's lies that he came to attend Obama's inauguration while he was thousand of miles away from Washington in Florida meeting with questionable business characters. Was it SLPP that maneuvered a cocaine load of plane in the middle of the night into the country's main airport? This is such a load of crap.
What APC supporters should realize is that the only thing that is true about Sam Sumana is that he is the vice president of Sierra Leone, a positioned he indirectly gained through misrepresentation and improper vetting. Every other thing about our VP is unfortunately false and accusing people of targeting Konos is not going to change that, When in the 80s Victor Foh was accused of embezzlement he was made to pay for his crime and nobody cried that it was a conspiracy against the Mendes. The truth of the matter is that there is no smoke without fire. When an American and an Arab( Al Jazeera) agree that somebody is a crook, walahi, bilahi, talahi, they are a crook. Americans and Arabs never agree but on Sam Sumana, they have an agreement and SLPP has nothing to do with it.
What has APC ever done from Kono? Successive APC leaders have robbed that country blind. Where is the star of Sierra Leone? Let us stop hearing about this conspiratorial bull crap.
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