Milan Victor Dawoh:
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 18 December 2017:
In my third edition of “To my People in MABBEN FAMILY”, I cautioned to beware of fake promises. I gave a clear example of the Bumbuna hospital that was promised to us during election time in 2012, but was never completed. I also cautioned you about the government agreement of the 0.01 % community development fund (approximately $8,000,000) that was not paid to our communities.
I also talked about the Bumbuna Phase II Dam project that was recently approved and signed but in reality, there is no money to start the work.
My crusade is to present the facts to you, so that you will make an informed decision at the 7th March 2018 elections, and vote for change by electing Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella as your next president. Remember, your vote is the only weapon you have to change this country for the better.
I don’t hate the APC, I just want the best for my country. As a matter of fact, I supported, and am still supporting President Koroma’s agenda for prosperity with hundreds of millions of Leones by building a school and by supplying clean drinking water to poor people, just 300 meters from the Presidential Palace.
My contribution to national development is a clear manifestation that I don’t hate any political party. I just want the best for my people, and the best candidate in this elections is Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella. That’s why I am supporting him, and that’s why I am asking you all to vote for him so that he can change our country for the better.
In today’s edition, I will talk about “the wind of change” that is taking over the world. In February 1960, when the then UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan addressed the whites-only South African parliament, he could not have known that his speech would still be studied by historians years later.
But that was the year 17 African countries achieved their independence, with many others soon to follow. His words were prophetic: “The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as a fact, and our national policies must take account of it.”
Those remarks would come to be seen as the epitaph of European colonialism in Africa and the harbinger of an African nationalism sweeping irresistibly from the north.
In recent times, that same wind of change has continued to blow, and it has reemerged in the Arab Spring and in West Africa: Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, and Gambia. In less than three months from now, that same wind of change will touch base in Sierra Leone on the 7th of March 2018.
No matter what kind of propaganda that is propagated by the APC government, it will not deter the people of Sierra Leone to vote for change. My people, the signs of change are written on the wall:
1. SD Steel has suspended its’ operations for now and I am not sure they will open before March 2018.
2. London mining is closed.
3. Sierra Rutile has been sold.
4. FBC, Njala and our entire educational system in Sierra Leone is in total disaster (poor quality and low standard of education).
5. Sierra Leone is the third hungriest country in the world, where people go to bed without sufficient and nutritious food.
6. We 70% youth unemployment nationally; and in Bumbuna, Mabontor & Bendugu, even though we have the biggest mining company in the country, we still have more than 70% of youth unemployment.
My people, if you are happy with the current situation in the country, and if your life has improved during the past ten years, then please vote for APC again and give them more time. But if you are among the 90% of the suffering people of Sierra Leone, whose lives have gone from bad to worse, then Vote for change.
Cast your vote for Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Yumkella (KKY) as president. I am sending this message to you because I love you and I care about you.
I brought KKY to Bumbuna so that he can see for himself how deplorable our communities are.
Today, everywhere KKY goes in Sierra Leone, Bumbuna is central in his campaign, and it has become the reference point of neglect.
We now have the opportunity to change our destiny through the ballot box. I heard that on the 28th November,2018 some senior government officials went to Bumbuna and distributed money to the market women.
If that story is true, then please tell the market women to eat the money and vote KKY for change.
I have also been informed that Bendugu will be having a Red Sunday soon. My people, any money that is given to you, please eat it, but during the elections, go and vote for change. Vote KKY.
Let’s send a clear message this time that MABBEN Communities (Bumbuna, Mabontor, Bendugu and Kalanthuba) are not for sale. You have seen all the candidates in this election, and you can clearly tell that KKY is the most qualified candidate to rule Sierra Leone.
You also saw what happened during the commissioning of the Bankasoka Dam in Port Loko. While president Koroma was giving his speech, Dr. Samura Kama was busy sleeping and snoring, sending a clear message to the people of Sierra Leone that he is tired and he is not interested in ruling this country.
Please note that I don’t hate any political party, I just want the best for my people, and the only candidate that can deliver the expected result is Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY).
I will close with my proverb: “Madness is tapping palm wine from the same palm tree for 56 years and expecting to get petrol from that same palm tree”. Let’s redeem our country from this madness by voting KKY as President on March 7th 2018.
Finally, please remember that we are all one family, let’s respect the political views of each other, respect the laws of our country, and let’s continue to be peaceful citizens.
This Op-ed was written by Milan Victor Dawoh.
If KKY is casting blame on those who have handle political appointments in Sierra Leone, how do we brand him? Has he ever handle key political appointments in this country? YES! What impact did he make during those years? Why did he join them to corrupt this nation? He could have rejected any offer of a political appointment, then we could have classed him as free from any blame related to the backwardness and corruption facing our nation. If you walk on the streets of any city with rubbers, thieves, gamblers killers, criminals, you could be branded as they are.
KKY has many hurdles to overcome to be the next king of the jungle. He needs to understudy the dynamics of Sierra Leone politics and he is not yet due for it. He should have exercised patience and political timing when he arrived but he wanted to lead the helm of SLPP politics at all cost even though his financial support was very meagre.
He claimed to have joined SLPP but never supported the party financially while working with the UN. Even the newly formed NGC has problem and is still paving the way for conflict by he becoming like a dictator. Time will tell when you will see his dictatorial tendency. He could have served as a running mate for at least five years and then go in for the highest leadership office of the SLPP.
For the NGC, if there was a level plane field, other prominent aspirants could have joined in for the same position which he wanted but you hastily went ahead and did the elections without conducting lower level elections. Please note this with great care and courage that KKY will not make it.
He will likely come third in the coming elections; believe it or leave it and when this happen KKY will merge with the same APC he is condemning today instead of joining SLPP. Please understand also that the same fate that met Margai when he defected and formed his own party the PMDC awaits KKY.
The worst mistake he will make is to merge with APC as Margai did. Even if he decides to join APC, some members will prefer SLPP. When that day comes, many will come to know if KKY is really APC in disguise or not.
Milan Dawoh wrote for a significant number of Sierra Leoneans,notwithstanding their political,ethnic/tribal affiliations or any other consideration.
What is afflicting most of us at the moment is fear – fear of change,which has,as some of its element, sentiments and emotions,which devour objective assessment of the political scene.
The most melancholic and insidious part of the emotions is being borne by the so-called educated, whose analyses of why and how we have found ourselves where we are as a nation are at best parochial and myopic. It is the main source of the paralysis which is stopping them from joining NGC for the good of the nation.
If this were not the case,the educated would clearly see that with Yomkella as president the political scene would explode and when the durst settled the nation would be the better for it as both SLPP and APC vied for the position of who carried the most effective venom in opposing Kandeh Yomkella.
The uneducated can be forgiven for not being too analytical but they are by no means stupid. Some of them still remember the colonial period when things worked,including medical facilities. They know that it was during the Siaka Stevens era that the nation lost its balance.These are the people who are in the majority,supplemented by those who are young and slightly above them in terms of education.
If KKY continues to attract their attention with his simple message of the need for change and reminding them of the morass of corruption which APC and SLPP have dumped the nation in the presidency is his to lose.
SLPP lost to APC in 2007 partially because foreign donors insisted that donor funds would only become available once again when a new government was in place.Clean as President Kabbah was,he could not control the excesses of his ministers.
Little did foreign donors know that the party they were implicitly helping would turn out to be even more corrupt with no conscience.Ebola [“kasankay”]funds mean nothing to them.Audit reports mean nothing to them.Mudslide funds mean nothing to them.They spend $250,000 to fix a single street light,according to Kandeh Yomkella.The list is endless.
Fellow Sierra Leoneans let us wave the cape at the bull called fear of change.Our number will make it fear to make a move towards us.
Milan Dawoh is quite simply calling on all of us to discard any label other than that of being Sierra Leoneans on 7th March 2018 to usher in a new era.
Ignorance is what is starving us. Politicians roll around with bags of money and we foolishly believe they will still care for us once they have our vote.
We vote for a party because we think they support our area. We need a politician who cares for the entire country. There is enough for all of us if we stop our leaders from eating all our money.
We have sold our future to the highest bidder and made ourselves slaves under a new colonial master, the Chinese. Until we demand more from the people who serve us, we will continue starving.
There are those who only come back to take advantage of Mama Salone (Palo conteh) and those who stayed to eat everything we had (President Koroma).
Wake up! Vote for the country, not the party.
Every one has the right to vote for those they want. But if you deliberately vote for a thief and/or evil candidate, whatever hardship and/or deaths their thievery may cause shall be laid on your feet and your posterity, in Jesus’Glorious Name. Come on let’s say Amen to this.
As a political novice and just a plain speaker, I believe what Sierra Leone desperately need is conservative ideology and patriotism which can only be found within the Sierra Leone people’s party (SLPP) because of the geographical location of the supporters who are very humble, hard working and unassuming – this is the greatest chance to take over the state house on the first round of the election.
The strategy the SPP have to use with the current situation on the ground is to choose a running mate from Kono district in order to solidify the south eastern vote. Since Freetown and the north is a battle ground between the APC, NGC and ADP, any extra vote the SLPP would acquire from these regions will be an extra bonus.
But the ball is in the court of the south easterners if they choose to put party ideology in front of hatred – which if they are fortunate to assume power since 1967 under the leadership of Albert Margai they can have more leverage on how to use the natural resources ( Diamond, Gold,Bauxite, Rutile, Cacao, Coffee and possibly Petroleum) that they are blessed with or continue to leave all those wealth in the hands of the Northerners to build their cities and the lives of their people.
The President alone has too much executive power and the possibility of sharing that power with his southern wife is far fetched because their role will primarily be the homemaker as was in the case of late Hannah Momoh, late Patricia Kabba and now Sia Koroma. Even the Vice President will be used as tools to fool the south easterners as in the case of late FM Minah, Sam Sumana and Victor Foh.
My advice to the SLPP voters is to open your eyes and pray for spiritual instincts to direct you to take advantage of the present opportunity that is now presented to you because at the end of the day you will be the victims for more decades to come and based on historical evidence the SLPP will use the natural resources of the country to provide better lives for the people of Sierra Leone in terms of Education, Agriculture, health and the basic necessities of life which will be built on the foundation of truth.
That is your choice if you feel the governing party and SLPP have done their best for the country. What have you done for Mama Salone?
Where was your kandeh yumkella all while,when Sierra Leone was crying for help, the people that he rejected long ago, denied the responsibility to defend the state and now he wants to use us for his selfish desire. Kandeh is another kelfa smart and Charles margai
That is your view Sir, but some of us still stand in support of our colonial political parties whom we believe are doing much better to develop this country than any new party like the NGC, whose flagbearer has never voted in this country and now expecting people to vote for him. No way for some of us to cast our vote for that kind of leader Sir.