Ernest koroma has lost his 2007 manifesto

Austin Thomas

26 October 2011

PUBLIC NOTICE This is a public notice to the people of Sierra Leone that President Ernest Bai Koroma has mistakenly lost his 2007 election campaign manifesto, which has resulted into the complete disregard or forgetfulness of all the promises that he made to Sierra Leoneans, during his desperate bid to become president of our dear Sierra Leone. I am therefore appealing to the public that anyone who finds it, should report to the Office of the National Security (ONS) or the office of the Attitudinal and Behavioural Change (ABC), in return for a handsome reward. Signed: Poverty Stricken Sierra Leoneans

Sierra Leoneans would bear witness that if the President had not lost this important document, he might have kept to the promises made to us four years ago. There would have been immense economic revival in the land; the university of Sierra Leone would never have ran out of papers for examination; schools and colleges would have been re-opened; and election violence would never have returned to this our precious land.

I say this because what ever the President has done is contrary to what he promised in 2007 during his nationwide campaign tour. One must therefore ask the President, how on earth he managed to misplace such an important document, given the importance attached to it.

If it is not true as stated by us - the poverty stricken people of Sierra Leone, then the President has intentionally deny faithful Sierra Leoneans the prospect of enjoying all that he promised. In which case, my negative opinions and statements about the present and previous APC governments are well founded.

Readers would recall that for the past four years I have been criticizing president Koroma constructively, because he has failed to lift us up from the economic doldrums of poverty. He has failed to unite the country, and moreover he has brought political anarchy back to the country that had suffered eleven years of war.

But quite honestly, there are some policy areas where he has tried to make improvements, though the majority and most important of problems facing the country have worsened under his presidential watch.

Who will in his right mind think that our prestigious university will postpone exams because of the lack of writing paper? Who in their wildest dream would have thought that a bag of rice will today be sold for Le150,000, and petrol for Le20,500. All these increases have taken place without a commensurate rise in basic salary.

Ironically, the President has by his deeds, provided enough evidence to substantiate all that has happened in Sierra Leone in the past four years.

The President seems to be doing exactly the opposite of what he says, and sadly Sierra Leoneans are no longer taking him seriously. To cite a typical example; when he assured Sierra Leoneans that the composition of his government will have a national character, instead we see the opposite.

When he said there will be no sacred cows, instead members of his family and key ministers and party faithfuls are being protected from prosecution for corruption and graft.

Since taking up office as President, not only has consumer prices and business costs gone up exponentially, taxation too has gone up, causing immense suffering for most people in the country.

In 2007, before winning the elections, president Koroma was quite vocal in criticising most of the taxes that he has now increased, only to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Early this year in Kenema, he told the people that the former SLPP government whose record the people of Kenema are so proud of had left nothing in the government’s kitty when they left office.

But less than twenty-four hours later, his minister of finance confirmed the opposite. The former SLPP government he said had indeed left Billions of Leones, and that money was used by the APC government to kick-start their new administration.

One of the initiatives funded by the money left in the coffers by the previous SLPP government was the $20 Million spent by president Koroma on the rental of electricity generator for Kingtom power station for one year.

President Koroma had promised not to succumb to popular agitation by his party supporters for the dismissal of workers believed to be former government sympathisers. Less than one year he sacked more than 200 civil servants and other government officials presumed to be SLPP.

Does this not suggest that President Ernest Koroma is only good at doing the opposite of whatever he says or promises?

Furthermore, is this not a government that has great difficulty accepting its mistakes?

In 2009 the President and his government were informed by a Commission of Inquiry into political violence that his bodyguards, the mayor of Freetown and some of his ministers were either directly responsible or culpable for the violence. Two years on, the president has done nothing to implement the recommendations of the Inquiry Report.

Today the vice president has become a laughing stock in the country, as ministers are refusing to give him the respect he deserves. What is the president doing to ensure discipline in his government? It is clear that nothing is being done by the President to assert his authority and powers as a leader.

That takes me back to what President Roosevelt once said: "Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike."

The President after three years in power said he has been successful in running the country like a business, and his foot soldiers are singing the same song. But how can we measure his success, when the cost of living has doubled; inflation is rising everyday beyond the means of the ordinary men and women in the country; and average life expectancy has again dropped to around 40 years.

If Sierra Leoneans - surely and truly, want to improve their lives, then the time has come once again for them to have a rethink. The 2012 elections are just round the corner and I hope we can be positive in our thinking for a better Sierra Leone.

And I close this piece with another President Roosevelt’s quote: "Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."


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