Sierra Leone’s parliamentary debacle –  what goes around comes around

Puawui – Dr. Sama Banya: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 27 April 2018:

There is a story that a member of the nobility went across the border from England into Scotland, and stayed with another noble family. Not far from where he and his little boy stayed was a farm with a fast flowing stream running along a section of it.

Unknowing to his parents, the little boy wandered out into the farm and soon got into the river only to discover that the current was much too swift for him. And he began to yell for help.

He probably would have been carried away by the current and drowned, but for the intervention of the farmer’s little boy of about the same age who jumped into the stream and brought him breathless but safely to the surface.

In the evening, the Lord went over to the farmer’s cottage to express his gratitude. And in the course of the general conversation, he asked the little boy what he would like to do in future. The latter replied that he would like to be a doctor, but that he was not sure his father would have the necessary resources.

There and then the nobility told him to study hard as that anything was always possible. The lad eventually found his way to Edinburg University at the expense of the noble man, where he graduated and became a renowned Research Scientist.

In the late 1930s, he discovered the wonder drug PENICILLIN to which almost every bug was sensitive at the time.

Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister in Britain’s darkest hours during the Second World War. But his oratory and exhortations contributed to the British rear-guard and with the allies conquered the forces of Nazis Germany.

In 1944 the Prime minister flew out to the British troops in Egypt and fell victim to an infection. A doctor from St. Mary’s Hospital and Medical School in London was flown out to treat the Prime Minister with the new wonder drug Penicillin.

The mischievous lad who had nearly drowned in the stream was the same Winston Churchill who was to become Britain’s Prime Minister.

The discoverer of Penicillin and the doctor who successfully treated him with the wonder drug was Professor later Sir Alexander Fleming – the boy who rescued Churchill from drowning.

So you see what goes around comes around, a phenomenon which our friends of the opposition APC Tolongbo red sun refuse to accept, or even acknowledge. All of what they are criticising or mourning about was of their own making; it had never entered their head that barely at the end of TEN rather than the FORTY about which they had boasted all along, they would come face to face with their NEMESIS.

When I read the pathetic appeal letter from Lawyer Ansu Lansana, formerly of constituency 05 in Kailahun district to the then President Ernest Bai Koroma, tears rolled down my cheeks.  The appeal fell on deaf ears as it was not even acknowledged.

Hafiju Kanjia underwent a similar fate in constituency 12. And instead of Justice Showers at least ordering bye-elections, she offered the seats to the APC candidates – neither of whom had even come second in the polls.

And now in the same way, the APC is about to lose some 16 seats. The APC set some very dangerous and undemocratic or unconstitutional precedence that are about to haunt them.

For example, they were certain of electing SBB Dumbuya (Photo) as Speaker of the House. But that has gone to the SLPP’s Abass Bundu.

Osman Yansanneh speaks about millions of their supporters being deprived of representations of their choice, without giving a thought to the constituents of former Constituency 05 in Kailahun district and 12 in Kenema district respectively.

Incidentally, I note that Paramount Chief Bai Kurr Kanagboro continues to fool himself as if he is a member of the opposition APC. His friends must warn him that if he continues with that attitude, there would be nothing to stop the government of the New Direction from it appropriately. LONTA is the appropriate word.

I wonder why Yansaneh did not brief his prospective Members of Parliament that there are minority governments in the world, and that with our Parliament the governing party has always sat on the right side of Mr. Speaker, rather than allow them to make ridicules of themselves.

By the way Osman, do you recall what happened to the SLPP young people who attempted to masquerade on the country’s 50^th and the SLPP’s 60^th anniversary a few years ago? You ought to remind your supporters who like to jump on the street like in the days, that the security forces will mete out the same treatment to them that they inflicted on the SLPP then.

The Constitutional Review Commission under the late Justice Cowan had done an excellent job, both in their consultations and discussions with the general populace, and then presented a draft report to his Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma.

The latter was disappointed that there was no reference to his need for Executive powers – that is, he wanted the stable gates locked after the horses had bolted; he also wanted the position of Prime minister which would have enabled him to come back to power through the back door, (after you na you or more time etc,etc).

The APC had been well represented on the commission in the likes of Alpha Kanu, Yansaneh himself and others.

Those people had the effrontery to request the withdrawal of their signature from the main report or to insert his Excellency’s wish thereto.

Justice Cowan would have none of it, and so the Report lies in State House where it will now receive the attention of President Bio, so that the wishes of the people would be fulfilled. Who then has ignored the wishes of the vast majority of the population?

Alhajie Osman Yansaneh “Yorki tegbeh; konor Tei! Lef! Bimahugbey!”  – reality appears to be dawning on you only now, although not how you would have liked it. But what goes around comes around.

I thought it was only I and a few critical ones who believe and insist that the ministers of the past regime must be investigated, including especially, how they had accumulated so much wealth in just ten years, even as the rest of the country has been groaning under the imposed austerity measures brought on by their terrible mismanagement of our economy.

All mining contracts, particularly the ones that were passed under certificates of urgency or those laid before Parliament on the last day of its sitting, other than that they were over-confident of victory because they had the notorious 99 tactics to deploy.

All, along with various dubious contracts, need urgent review. The mining contracts which were laid before Parliament, should be thrown out and the people behind it advised to renegotiate.

Author: Puawui – Dr Sama Banya