Ernest Bai Koroma – his cronies and the Party he badly destroyed and sold out on

Mohamed Kanu: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 10 July 2018:

I was sleeping in my apartment in Atlanta, Georgia when I received a call from my younger brother who sounded excited and wanted to pass what he believed was good news. He screamed “Broda, the pa cam nar office yesterday. We gladi for see am.” (Photo: Koroma, Yansaneh and Minkailu).

Which Pa I asked, “the President, Ernest Koroma.” Incandescent with rage, I immediately dropped the call, switched off the phone and tried going back to sleep. I stoutly wished I could stretch my hand across the Atlantic and give him at least five heavy slaps he so deserved.

I tried going back to sleep but my mind was restless, and thoughts of Sierra Leone and my beloved APC flooded my mind. How could this have happened? How could ignorance and travesty grip us so bad? What is it about Ernest that people cannot see through?

How could a fellow with so low an IQ be able to have such a wicked hold and grip over the APC, and all others sit sheepishly and allow him to behave to them as he did and continues to do?

What has the APC turned into and how can we allow what we have turned into, to continue permeating our heads?

Is there not even one intelligent human being in the party that can see through what has happened and the imminent danger and appalling future that we have been subjected to?

Where are we heading, and what is wrong with the youth in the party who continue to glamorize ignorance and rally behind people who have sold out their future and put them in an inescapable destiny of illiteracy, hunger, poverty and destitution?

In seeking to answer the questions I asked myself, I initially simplistically concluded on two potential factors, poverty and illiteracy. However, my mind suddenly jolted when I recollected lessons from my history classes at Magburaka Boys Schools, of the French and American Revolutions where good and selfless minds stood up to defend their pride, dignity and the interest of the common people.

Those men and women were not the most educated of people, most had never attended school and they were the poorest in their societies. What they had, was pride, self-esteem and an unwillingness to be treated as dogs and pigs. They were prepared to die for the foundation of their very existence-their dignity.

With the APC, the fellow with very low IQ, terribly unacademic used a Mafia approach, spread money and bought the soul of the young and restless who were deprived of education and transformed into thugs.

Those thugs genuinely believe in him and still clung on to that belief, which is intermittently buttered by millions of Leones.

Intelligent, smart and outspoken characters were ostracized and even denied a place in their own very party.

Unfortunately, even educated and trained minds, some of them lawyers and doctors came to worship the man with the low IQ, as they wanted to be part of the system and to be in the same league of people with no pedigree, no substance – low mindedness became fashionable and a norm.

The APC became a jungle of political intrigues and only pathological liars and common thieves reached the highest of places.

I cannot believe that there was no one in Sierra Leone and the APC that was smart enough to observe these developments over the years. No one was smart enough to read through and conclude that this is where we would end. Oh APC, the APC of Siaka Stevens, S.I. Koroma and others, where are you today?

How could your spirits rest when we have evil and self-seeking characters destroying what you have built over the years? How could you dare treat us like this, how could you leave us in torment, sorrow and fear?

28 men vied for the leadership of the APC, 28 men, and all of them were promised coronation.

Even the lowest of men, with no substance, pedigree or calibre, men of no character like Mamoud Tarawally, Alimamy Kamara, Alimamy Petito Kamara, Ibrahim Bundu and Minkailu Mansaray, were convinced that they could be president of Sierra Leone.

Apart from insulting the APC, which was ready for such insults, they insulted Mama Sierra Leone. They men were arraigned like bulls for slaughter, paraded and insulted like slaves for sale by a man with little IQ and they took it all with smiles.

At the end, a politically daft, low minded and ignorant character was chained on the party as its flagbearer.

Even the two young candidates that I preferred Joseph Kamara and John Sisay could not cough up a word.

I called both gentlemen after the Makeni Convention and they were singing from the same hymn book “nar d pa in decision.”

I took a long walk that day across the streets of Decatur, Georgia as I wrestled with my mind and the fury in me. After five miles, I stopped and called a senior official of the party to ask why so much power could be left in the hands of one man.

The official said to me “Da man nor dae joke with power oh, if any bodi challenge am, e go do am bad. E tok am dae. Ar go send u watim e say nar watsapp.”

I watched the videos from the convention and listened to the bit where he was threatening people, and I felt very sad for the APC and knew the game was up, we were set to lose the presidential election.

Then we lost, I fell ill for a very long time and my friends and family in the US could not understand why I took the loss personally. I tried to explain what has happened and the negative implications for our people and they only took me seriously when they started hearing news form Kenema and other places in the Southeast.

Koroma as I was told, could not leave his house for a while, initially afraid of the wrath of the people. Understanding bush politics, he used that time to spend money in calming people down and after the dust has settled, orchestrated a hero’s welcome in Makeni. Who does that?

Sadly, all the normal sycophants were there, Minkailu Mansaray, Osman Yansaneh, Bai Mamoud, Elizabeth Mans, etc, were there in style and spectacle. Such spectacle was completely avoidable and unnecessary.

I have only met Yansaneh and Minkailu but the ‘More time’ and ‘Leader for Life’ brought Mamoud to my attention. But hey, they benefitted the most and they have to continue padding the elephant.

If you have someone as evil, corrupt and ‘kongosa’ as Yansaneh and Minkailu close to you, nothing good will ever come from any arrangement – what an alliance. Joseph Saidu Momoh warned many of his friends of the evil of Yansaneh and others like him before he died.  (Photo Above: Koroma, Yansaneh and Minkailu).

Serry Kamal did the same and specifically pointed at Yansaneh, Minkailu and their god – the Supremo. Yansaneh brought what could have been a good man (Momoh) down to his knees alongside an entire country and its people- through blatant and outright corruption.

These are the people that Koroma knew he could play ball with and they have succeeded in bringing APC down again.

It was Yansaneh who recommended Nfa Alie for the position in NEC and at the end they organised a mass failure that will hunt our party and its people for a very long time.

Koroma continues to have a firm grip over even those that completely hate him. Sometimes, I wonder why they have to pretend they like him and be with him in the same room and smile to him.

How could any human torture him/herself that much. Especially, when dealing with someone who denigrates others.

The entire batch – the executive, refused to resign after losing the elections as people with good character would have done. They continue to determine the fate of the party and they continue to strangulate even the little dignity remaining. They cannot challenge the SLPP as they fear a Commission of Inquiry. But at the same time they do not want to leave the positions they hold.

This is killing the party and that is their aim. Unfortunately, to paper the cracks and the house of cards, a committee was formed full of people who were responsible in the first place for the party’s fall.

These people include, Kabba Koroma a friend of my nephew, who is said to be a thief of the highest order and may soon be investigated; Captain Spaine, who can never criticize Koroma, I know him very well, we worked together once; Oballeh, he cannot dare speak the truth and sees his inclusion as a recognition; Dr. Abdulai Conteh, he cannot be trusted, always wanted power but does not want to invest in the party; Lansana Dumbuya, don’t know him but heard he will also be investigated for funds stolen at the Maritime Agency with Wuroh, my good old friend. The rest I do not know enough to comment on.

No one should treat whatever report they produce seriously as it is all stage managed. Knowing him, those people were carefully handpicked to cover him.

Koroma destroyed whatever last hope we had during the elections when he told Umaru Fofanah that he will resign few months after the elections.

Why is he still there and what does he want with a party he has destroyed alongside Minkailu, Yansaneh, Bai Mamoud, Elizabeth Mans, Patso, Minkailu Bah (another terrible fellow) and others?

As our people in Sierra Leone have failed to stand up for their right and take back their party.

We should when we meet for the APC July 2018 Retreat, come up with resolutions to take back our party.

We cannot allow tyranny and usurpation to continue. Ernest needs to go for the sanity and the health of the party.

We need an APC that is ready to get past this difficult phase and we cannot do it with the crooks and sell-outs we have at the moment.

My comrades, I am looking forward to the retreat and the candour that will energise it.

God bless the APC and may we be strong and bold as we go through this very difficult moment.

Author: Mohamed Kanu, Georgia, USA