Sierra Leone Telegraph: 20 May 2017
“You have sold everything – please don’t sell the soul of our sovereignty – our democracy,” Kapri Kolugbonda tells the president of Sierra Leone, as condemnation of the ruling APC party’s steep descent into the bowels of Chinese economic imperialism grows.
Critics of the ruling APC party are referring to this development as further evidence of APC party officials’ habitual boot-licking, rather than working hard to harness the country’s vast natural resources to develop the country.
This is Kapri Kolugbonda’s analysis of the dangerous decision of the Chinese Communist Party to blatantly interfere in the politics of Sierra Leone:
China’s shrewd financial interference in Sierra Leone’s domestic politics is aimed at debauching our national economy, by screwing up our governance system. This very ugly development represents an unprecedented national threat of the gravest dimension.
If ours was a living democracy, Ernest Bai Koroma would have been impeached long ago for his flagrant and constant constitutional violations, among the hundreds of other solid reasons that abound.
But since ours does not in any way resemble a true democracy, we swing wildly on the ropes of “everything goes” as long as you are in a “position” to pull it off with a wad and a wink.
Meaning if you find yourself thrown ”into power”, you simply kill the trust of the people and then you are free to do as you “wish” – rather than as the constitution demands or the laws dictate. Certainly not as the people would desire or need.
We all know that Ernest Bai Koroma’s ruling APC has always prided itself in using unsavoury “tactics” and ill-acquired money to bludgeon the nation into the gutter.
I consider the latest move by the Chinese to build a seven storey building for the use of the APC party, as the most dangerous stunt ever attempted on the nauseous stage of our deranged politics. This is a move that deliberately flouts our laws and definitely undermines our democracy.
And we don’t even know how much of our resources we are being obliged to ship off to Beijing in return, whilst our unemployed youths continue to suffer and die, and our under-resourced schools crumble and rot.
This unprecedented sale of our sovereignty opens our political institutions, including our government, to all sorts of unpalatable possibilities.
The real fear is that this sale of our sovereignty to China may even open the doors to any other unscrupulous group of political players, who might contemplate being bankrolled by any manner of reprobates – such as ISIS or North Korea to plunge our nation into the bottomless abyss of mindless mayhem and merciless murder.
Who can prevent such a daring move, especially when “political party sponsors” are not being vetted, but sneakily ferried in at the discretion of the ruling party. And that, in direct contradiction to the established dictates of our laws and the very letters of our national constitution.
APC must stop this sickening sale of our state sovereignty. It is not good for the stability of our country. It greatly undermines our security and flouts the principles of our democracy.
If the APC and their Chinese guests want to “help” the people of Sierra Leone, building an APC party office is not the nation’s priority. In fact, that is a responsibility that should be carried out by the party and its members.
It should never be done in our collective name or at the expense of our national resources through “hidden deals” orchestrated by “shady characters”. Here is a list of some priority areas for which the country needs immediate help:
– FBC, once famed university of Sierra Leone – our national pride
– Our hospitals have become mortuaries. They are in need of serious financial support
– We keep nursing the shame of importing questionable rice varieties from a dozen and more countries though we have acres of fertile Boli land sprawling out in every direction
– The Bumbuna hydro-dam project is long dead and is steep deep in corruption, while the intermittent electricity system has become a new curse, both in terms of cost and the lies that attend every blackout
– Nothing seems to be really working here, except the many brand new jeeps of ministers and senior government officials. And nothing seem to be improving anywhere except the bank balances of our political pillagers who are being helped along by Chinese Communist grabbers, who are now poised to take full control of our country’s resources.
Like clueless donkeys being led to the slaughter, we are being savaged and sold without any reference to decency or due process. This is no not just sad – but corrosively foul and crushingly tragic.
This is all about the APC seeking their own self interest first and that of the nation second. I have heard the lackluster response by government officials defending this, and I must say how disappointing that people do not see the wood for the trees.
One ruling political party’s support to another ruling party with whom they trade – and with one in a stronger position than the other, brings about conflict of interest.
There is nothing like a “free lunch” and favours are expected on the other side. This is not rocket science and any Government with moral fortitude will think twice about the implications for such a gesture. The APC party hierarchy will see nothing wrong with this, as it is business as usual.
President koroma promised to run Sierra Leone like his personal business and yes he did. Firstly, the Chinese government built a brand new house for his personal use, after he had demolished his house in Goodrich.
And now the Chinese are building a communist party office in Freetown to run our nation. I hope the parliamentary members will put a stop to that project, because according to some political experts it is unconstitutional.
Please President Koroma, do not sell our birth right for a bowl of porridge.
This is a test case for the new Chair of the PPRC (Political Party Registration Commission. Over to you, sir!