Friday, October 19, 2012

Sierra Leone News Round Up: The Sheep's Buttocks

Ex. President Julius Maada Bio
President Ernest Bai Koroma
Today is Friday and as elections in Sierra Leone get closer the tension is rising, the expectations are high as the fissures in the society have deepened and are continuing to widen. As opposed to ex-President Tejan Kabbah who saw the need for national cohesiveness, President Koroma is pathologically partisan, with a winner takes all mentality. Politics in Sierra Leone today is simple, either you are with the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) or you are in the wilderness. With government being the largest direct employer in Sierra Leone the chances of getting a good job in Sierra Leone these days is directly proportional to the number of red shirts in your wardrobe. The situation is such that a man in Makeni almost divorced his wife for buying him a green shirt as a birthday present.

The need to identify with party extends even to funerals. Funeral convoys in Sierra Leone are now bedecked with party colors. Could you imagine, wearing red to a funeral! But this is Sierra Leone, and these days, we take politics to the grave. If red and hell did not have such an intense color similarity, there would definitely be a brisk business in red coffins these days in Sierra Leone, to convince the president that your dead uncle was also APC. Imagine going to meet your maker in a red coffin, the choice between heaven and hell would be just a little bit easier.

The last past week the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) painted the city green and at the end of the week the APC plastered the same city red and as we did not see many other other paints, we can safely assume that the red and green parties are the main parties, ceteris paribus.

Then the political clowns also came out. Mohamed Bangura the flagbearer of the UDM was at the presidential rally of the APC as the presidential candidate of his own party endorsing the presidential candidate of the APC, Ernest Bai Koroma. If you are confused don't worry, even Sierra Leonean politicians are confused about Sierra Leone politics.

Then we heard news that President Ernest Bai Koroma and the SLPP leader Julius Maada Bio were supposed to have a presidential debate, American style. Sierra Leone Association of Journalists' Umaru Fofanah was giddy at the prospect of the intellectual tangle. But as with all things Sierra Leone, Sylvia Blyden came out the next day stating  that the debate would not happen and that she was due to talk to the president. Voila, by week's end, we have heard that the debates have been cancelled, much to Facebook's chagrin.

The disappointment of the president withdrawing from the debate is palpable on the blogosphere. Facebook has be a lit with apprehension. Many questions had already been generated. To Bio: what can you say about those passports? What about Bambay and all those Strasser killed, where you involved? Why does John Leigh hate your gut so much? Have you ever turned down a romantic offer from Sylvia Blyden, if not why does she hate you with such a passion? How are you going to treat all your party defectors if you win?

To President Koroma: If you believe in attitudinal change, what is the attitudinal change in reappointing a world renowned master scammer and celebrated 419 expert as a vice president? You promised that the price of a bag of rice will be twenty thousand Leones and now it is two hundred thousand would you say that you lied or you have failed woefully, or was it just a case of poor mathematics? When President Kabbah was leaving office he listed the roads that he had secured funding for and that were under construction. Now you are claiming most of these roads as having being constructed by your effort; why are you not honest with the Sierra Leone people? Your aviation minister was embroiled in a scandal involving a planeload of cocaine, why have you reappointed him as your adviser? Why did you create an aviation ministry for a country that does not have a single plane, was it the reward to Kemoh for sponsoring your campaign? Many American business men are after your vice president for him to  repay them after defrauding them of huge sums. Now that you have reappointed him are you going to convince him to repay these monies or are you going to tell him to tell them to go to hell? You promised that Freetown will have continuous electricity 90 days after you were president, where is the continuous electricity. You promised to run the country like a business, is Sierra Leone now a family business?

Well, the debate did not happen and Sylvia Blyden thumbed her voluminous nose at Umaru and said, "I told you so!".

So we did not get the presidential debate we wanted, what about a vice presidential debate between Alhaji Aljazeera Sumana and Dr. Kadi Sesay? The questions they will ask Sumana; he won't do it, he won't dare. It will be like a debate between an ebola virus and Penicillin. There will be no debate or may be there will be one between Mohamed Bangura and Charles Margai.

Then there was the case of convoy obstruction. APC operatives are hopping mad, saying Maada Bio obstructed the president's convoy and told the police commissioner to warn the SLPP not to do so again and of course IGP Munu warned the party. SLPP Secretary General Banja Tejan-Sie said that there was no blocking and the statement was meant to cause chaos ahead of the election. Many people are concerned that the president's convoy has started mysteriously appearing whenever there is a large gathering of SLPP. Is it Bumbuna all over again? Everybody knows that the president has right of way, but the president can also not be obstructive. The presidency is a respected position and politics must not be used to cheapen it.

In my hometown Segbwema, Robin Fallay is promising State House jobs to the youths, what a phenomenal rise in the APC for my brother, from Kenema jail to State House employment consultant. Well since he joined APC, the elections fraud case against him has mysteriously been dismissed by Sierra Leone's infamous Kangaroo courts. He was guilty when he was SLPP, but he has proven his innocence by joining the APC.

 However the wise men of Segbwema have told Honorable Fallay the following:
" A sheep will be dragging its buttocks on the street thinking that it is making the town dirty, but in truth it is just destroying its own buttocks."

Segbwema Blogger

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Reading your blog posts for the very first time. Thank you very much for the laugh about such a serious "thing" I refrained from reading SLE Political blogs because I really couldnt get the message, I must say however that you enhanced the knowledge I already had about current state of affairs between the two parties. Keep writing bro. You have a big fan here. Looking forward to my next read. God bless.

Anonymous said...

Thanks brother! Your penmanship knows no boundary for you call things by their names. I am truly impressed. Sylvia's position regarding the SL Presidential Debate further epitomizes the fact that her journalism is questionable. A friend once told me that she is on the APC payroll and eluded to one simple truth i.e. writing does not necessarily imply being a journalist and that not all degrees translate into what those hard working professors actually intended to produce. Lol.

Considering Sylvia’s academic stature, I initially took my friend’s taunt for a joke but subsequent revelations of her true colors – especially when she clearly came out her case to exonerate, of all people Charles Taylor for crimes against humanity – made me I take a step back and have never stopped wondering why she walked out of the hospital and instead dressed herself in a coat not meant for her – journalism. But with time and having known what it means to be by the bedside of a sick person who relies on the compassionate care, empathy and honesty of a caregiver, I can reason with Sylvia. She has no business in healthcare. And that is not all, she is where she truly belongs – the APC, where the likes of her true and innate personality conglomerates.

Regarding the presidential debate, I say kudos to Umaru cum SLAJ. I once worked with Umaru in Mile 91 in 2001 while working with an ex-combatant group – OPARD. He is a true journalist and I am sure he will drag those two guys to a debate. Can EBK stand Maada? I think EBK has seen the writings on the wall. And maybe Sylvia is only trying to buy time to prepare Pa EBK for the debate. She can buy Teleprompters to help sheepishly answer questions on behalf of De Pa and His Attitudinal Change – what a joke. Sierra Leoneans during Pa Sheki are not the same Sierra Leoneans today. So, no amount of intimidation will make them misplace their votes for cash. Let him distribute all the cocaine cash he has made as pay offs. As for our prodigal son, he can pass for an opportunist. Sadly, he came from where people had historically categorized as the bedrock of wise people. He did what he did to save his skin. APC did the same to Tom and will continue doing so even on the 17th November. Daddy once told me that sweet words are for imbeciles and not people with backbones. Can Robin still stand tall in Segwema? I doubt it. Segbwema Moi, you have done well by supplying a list of questions Umaru can use. And I do hope SLAJ is going to push this debate issue forward. Thumbs up brother, and count on me to join you in this effort later.
Andrew G. Banya

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