Kabs Kanu: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 08 July 2023:
No honest, credible media will support a bloody, despotic, corrupt and abusive government like the SLPP. Let us face reality and call a spade a spade. When you have a blatantly lawless, tribalistic, unconstitutional, undemocratic and criminal government like the SLPP, where does the government merit the “Both sides of the story “ or objectivity benefits of journalism?
Journalism and Mass Communication schools teach that it is not just up to the media to supply news. Journalists are the light of the world. They enlighten and show the way. They are there not only to report the news but to provide clarity , understanding and reliable viewpoints and spins to events in the socioeconomic and political spheres.
It should not be forgotten that the reading public in Africa is not as enlightened and sophisticated in thinking and conceptualizing issues as that in advanced democracies. Most Africans who access the news do not have enough time ( especially in these days of the internet and social media with the glut in information) , academic grounding and knowledge to form reliable points of view on complicated events around them. They need the media to help them put events in their right perspectives.
Interpretative journalism has become the vogue
The world’s leading news media The New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, the Philadelphia Inquirer, CNN, MSNBC, VOA, FOX, CBS , ABC , AL JAZERA, London Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, the Guardian ( You name them ) all interpret the news today for consumers. And where there is established evil, they call it by name. They do not rationalize it. In so doing, they are not being one-sided. They just call it as they see it . In fact, they are being objective by calling evil for what it is.
Certain issues and problems are very clear and undisputable. For instance, Politics is supposed to be inclusive, providing actors and actresses from across the political divide equal opportunities to participate in nation- building.
When you have a Government like the SLPP that denies citizens from other tribes and regions this opportunity and employs only Mendes and Southeasterners , which is absolutely wrong, journalists should have the duty to condemn the government for practicing exclusive politics and bigotry without fearing that they would be accused of not being objective.
If the facts are clear and can be backed by statistical data, there are no two ways about it. It is wrong. The issue of “objectivity “ as government spokesmen and operatives would want it to be framed does not apply for the question will always be asked : What justification does the government have for employing only Mendes in a country with over 20 ethnic groups? Is there any? Will there ever be any? So where is the “Both sides of the issue “ conundrum here? Has tribalism become relative?
Similarly, governments are supposed to promote transparency, accountability , probity , democracy , honest governance and respect for the votes of citizens across the polity. If a government therefore patently rigs an election and denies people their rights to vote in the leaders they want, what justification is there for such s criminal and anti- democratic behavior? There is none and the media has the duty to bring the government to account for such unconstitutional and anti-people behavior.
When you listen to President Maada Bio ranting against the U. S, Britain, the European Union ( EU ) and the international community for concluding that the recent general elections in Sierra Leone lack transparency and validity because of the manner the votes from the polling stations were tallied, you see a president that is a bully, that does not want to do the right thing and that wants to force the international community to help him legalize illegitimacy.
What plausible excuses can President Bio ever advance for rigging the elections? There are none and the media outlets taking the SLPP government to task for its criminality and unconstitutionality cannot be justifiably condemned for not being objective.
Only brown envelope journalists receiving bribes under the table from corrupt government officials or sycophants and gravy- gobblers within the government would seek to excuse or ignore or downplay President Bio and his despotic SLPP Government’s electoral crimes committed against the people of Sierra Leone. Any serious, committed and principled journalist worth his salt would come out swinging.
President Bio has also committed grave and egregious human rights abuses in power. His security forces and rabid supporters and thugs have gone around intimidating, beating, killing and maiming innocent civilians and opponents and these atrocities have been highlighted and condemned by Amnesty International and the U. S State Department.
President Bio has no excuse for these violent and bloody crimes against the people he swore an oath to protect. So, if journalists take the government to task for these atrocities, can they be justifiably accused of not being objective? Where does objectivity come in?
The media are there to promote the public good. If the government is useless and not serving the people’s interest, it is a mark of patriotism , not bad journalism, to propagate the evils of the government from the rooftops.
Media offer a platform for public debate on national and international issues and media help frame and shape public opinions ; media help the public make up their minds on salient issues. The media are not there to connive and collude with undemocratic, despotic, fascist, terrorist and totalitarian governments. Therefore, the Bio Government is getting what it deserves from trustworthy, credible and patriotic media. Supporters and sycophants of the SLPP should not blame media for being biased and one-sided.
Mr Mannah i asked you to send the latest world poverty and happiness indexes as a riposte to my comments but to no avail. It is therefore given that President Bio has made Sierra Leone worse off for the past 5 years whether your viewpoint is via the lens of poverty, happiness or peace even. You do accept then that Bio is no upgrade to Ernest Koroma – the better version of our nation-wreckers?
Nice try though! It is you having a go at obfuscating and dangling red herrings here. You are bringing Steve Swarray and the IMF to the debate here. May i just remind you that he was Sierra Leone’s bank governor during the NPRC regime – a regime just like the PAOPA that made everything worse than what they inherited.Who could ever forget that bogus promise or their raison d’etre – ending the war in a year? Who will ever forget the PAOPA promise of solving the bread and butter issue within 6months? Or was it just a Freudian slip and actually meant 6p years? As far as the IMF is concerned, as a lender of last resort and with an eye on adding value and enhancing the bottomline of their shareholders'(including diamondseferous Botswana) investments, they hobnob with everyone at any time. Having the IMF in your capital city is the clearest signal that your country’s economy is camatose and requires life support. Of course, you wil continue pleading mitigating and extenuating circumstances for Swarray/NPRC as you are doing for Bio. Yet, you could not acknowledge that every other Sierra Leonean President/nation wrecker could find a lazy and lame excuse. Siaka Stevens will claim the 1970s energy crisis; honest Momoh could have blamed the 80s world-wide recession instead of admitting his abject failure; Strasser and Kabba will have fingers pointing at the RUF and their operation no living thing; Ernest Koroma had Ebola and the world commodities price crash to moan about. I guess as Bio tanks the economy to a standstill by making us the the poorest nation – a first in peacetime – you will still have his back covered and continue to put your head above the parapet or shout at the roof top that Bio is a .transformational leader with leadership qualities.
Coming to your comment about the elections, why is Konneh continuing to konnehnize and not publish polling station results. His he at it again – sanitizing things – to paraphrase him. I still have my COVID-era sanitizer if he needs one. I always go through the results of every ward in my constituency published in the local newspaper. Why is he hoarding the election results like the way Bo School kondor managers used to hoard loaves of breads of the general student body for their own selfish ends? Does he not know that the unprecedended shenanigans he is exhibiting is a recipe for disaster as it will embolden copycats and make all future elections in Sierra Leone unmanageable and untenable? Does he not know that this will create a constant entropic state of confusion and chaos for many many years to come leaving the door ajar for armed forces to once again intervene in national governance under the pretext that “the bloody and useless civilians can’t manage state affairs better than us”. Perhaps, it is then, and only then will ECOWAS be alert from their deafening silence, stop their winks and realize afterall that all is not well in the old Athens of West Africa. Old Athens indeed as shown below! https://www.timeshighereducation.com/sub-saharan-africa-university-rankings?page=4#!/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats
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Dear Mr. John Mannah:
First off, I want to make it clear that I am not writing this to bato Mr. Kabs Kanu. I used to read his newspaper Cocorioko regularly, hoping I was getting objective news and then when EBK became president, the tone of the paper started to change, I became suspicious and then it all broke wide open that he was actually being paid to be a mouthpiece for the government. I say that, so that you don’t jump to conclusions, and what I want to say to you and others like you does not get lost. Please read with an open mind.
The recently concluded elections were stolen – plain and simple. This is not conjecture. There are the Results and Reconciliation forms that all parties involved signed after ballots had been counted, meaning all parties agreed those counts were legitimate. Those that were there for those counting are now saying that the results released by the ECSL do not tally up with the Results and Reconciliation forms. Furthermore, the ECSL is so far refusing to release them. If their numbers are correct why not release them and shame those claiming the official results are wrong? Oh wait, because those (correct) numbers conflict with the numbers they released.
I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you care and love your country. If that is the case, injustice, stealing elections, robbing people, etc., of their votes should be offensive to you, no matter your political stripe. Maybe you are SLPP so you are turning a blind eye to what is being done, but if you pause for a second and again, assuming you care about your country, you will see the grave danger here. Please put country first.
You actually said:
“He is so desperate and jealous of the transformational work of reform minded President Bio” Huh? What exactly is your idea of reform-minded? Robbing the country blind just about every time he travels, you know he is not spending all the money he withdraws on travel, he is stashing it away. What is your idea of reform, forcibly removing members of parliament so his party can have a majority and now stealing elections in such a brazen manner? That is not reform, it is as old as elections themselves.
What is your idea of reform-minded? Harassing Mayor Aki-Sawyer who WAS ACTUALLY reform-minded and bring first world mayoring to our capital city and then trying to have her unseated? If we are not careful, if we do not put a stop to this somehow, Bio will be worse than Pa Shaki and utterly destroy what is left of our country.
After, all he is “reform-minded” right? You might be a Maada Bio fan, but understand this, anyone who steals election, steals a majority in parliament and will do anything to stay in power is not thinking about what’s best for the country. Again, please put our country first. We won’t get ahead otherwise.
Albert Sanusie, let’s put this issue into context and perspective by synthesizing it accordingly.
If you are saying that the ECSL should published the Results and Reconciliation Forms in the aggregate without which your party will not accept the results as they will be deemed not credible, the question then becomes where is the responsibility of the political parties who were in the pooling stations during the conduct of the elections and counting of votes? Where are your own results? Have you counted your results and compared them with those published by the ECSL?
I am asking these probing questions because my wife is an election judge here in Maryland in the United States. When she completes conducting elections, the results are collated and counted in the presence of the representatives of all the political parties. They will count the ballots in the presence of all the parties and come to a consensus that all eligible voters voted, and their votes were counted and accounted for appropriately and accordingly.
It is after this exercise that the final tally is sent out to the main elections headquarters for final announcement and publishing.
Now, it is the responsibility of political parties to go to their parties and report the results knowing that their result mirrors the result announced by the Elections Commission.
I am sure similar election laws governs the Sierra Leone elections managed by ECSL.
If my above hypothesis is correct, in such a system with rigid checks and balances, there is no need for discrepancies in the system. If there is, however, a variance, and all channels for redress were exhausted without success, a measure of last resort is the court of law and jurisdiction.
Based on the above analysis, where then is the responsibility of the APC on this matter? If the APC has collated and counted all their Results and Reconciliation Forms to their dissatisfaction, have they presented the discrepancies to the ECSL for enquiry and reconciliation? Or more seriously have they taken the matter up with the legal elections management organizations, such as the PPRC or courts with tangible evidence?
If the answers to the questions above are not in the affirmative, what’s the reasons for not engaging these institutions?
Given the arguments of the APC that they do not have confidence in these institutions, but have confidence in the doggy, compromised and scientifically challenged elections results published by the National Elections Watch (NEW) based on the same RR forms, with the collusion and support of some rogue players in the international community, then I will say that the leadership of the APC is taking an unreasonable position and making demands that are at best unethical and at worse unconstitutional and such actions by one of our leading opposition political parties is unacceptable.
Mr. Albert Sanusie,
I was elated when I started reading your comments only to become discouraged as I read further. Like others, it is evident that you have been bitten by the APC bug. Commentators that find themselves in that unfortunate situation are tempted to make outrageous claims that they cannot substantiate. You make the claim that the recently concluded presidential election was stolen by the SLPP and the ECSL. However, you offer no evidence to substantiate your claim. Why?
It is interesting that since they were eviscerated at the polls, APC and their supporters have been doing all the talking. They have either been polluting the air with unsubstantiated and bogus claims about stolen elections or even acting as spokespersons for the United States, Britain, and the European Union. This desperation and greed for power have always characterized APC’s participation in the political process. Interestingly, this behavior has also held the red party to scorn and ridicule. Indeed, among other things, it is funny that a political party that historically have had a love affair with the communists of China could suddenly become the spokesperson for neocolonialists in western Europe and America. Does the APC have wild dreams of somehow accessing governance with the help of external forces? Tough luck.
It is equally funny that APC have already betrayed their new friends in Europe. On May 25, 2023, Samura Kamara and the other presidential candidates signed a pledge with the advice of Patricia Scotland, the Commonwealth Secretary General, that stipulated that all electoral disputes must be adjudicated by the supreme court of Sierra Leone. Thus, after their mauling at the polls, it was expected that disgruntled APC leaders would take their case to the supreme court. They refused to do so. The reason for this refusal is easy to establish. APC leaders have no documentary evidence to substantiate claims of elections rigging.
Broke because of stealing and misappropriating party funds, APC leaders could not hire polling agents for many polling stations in the country. Consequently, the party could not gather data that was critical to a case that could be filed in the supreme court. With the window for filing now closed, APC has continued to lie to their supporters to preserve whatever is left of its shattered life in the political process.
Dear Mr. Abdul Rashid-Thomas, some of us do not like to participate in public forums because of the disrespect sometimes forced on us, but I am compelled to write to condemn the rude, obscene language John Mannah, who is no stranger to uncouthness in public forums, used to address another participant on the forum. Granted that Rev. Kabs’ articles do get under the skin a lot, but is that any reason why the gentleman should have been subjected to such crude language?
Rev. Kabs is entitled to his opinions. He is a celebrity journalist, despite getting on our nerves often. I too disagree a lot with some of his views. But hey, that is what Journalism is all about. Robust analyses.
This is also a democratic forum and the least we can do is disagree with the views of others but to use profane and insulting language is unacceptable. I think John Mannah should have been outrightly banned. The issue of John Mannah’s rude responses to forumites dates back to the Cocorioko and Bintumani Forums, where the erudite and learned Economist, Dr. Mohamed Allie Jalloh took John Mannah back to school. There was a debate on the economy of the Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah government and lacking in intellect to counter the brilliant presentation of Dr. Jalloh. John Mannah resorted to profane language.
It seems to me that whenever John Mannah is caught in the glare of the academic brilliance of a participant, the best he can offer is crude language. Here below is an example of what one forumite thought of John Mannah (Culled from the Cocorioko forum achives online ). This will prove my point that he ia a repeat offender :
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Subject: Re: OPEN LETTER TO MR. JOHN MANNAH
From: New Testatment
To: All
Date Posted: 08:21:01 06/26/07 ()
Email Address:
Entered From: cache-mtc-aa04.proxy.aol.com at 64.12.116.8
Message:
“John Mannah, you are a brilliant and learned brother and I believe we can all learn from you in the same way that you can learn from us too.'( kabs )
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Kabs, please don’t let your christian belief of love thy fellow mann blind you to the reality of their true character.
For you to call John Mannah brilliant is like Jesus Christ calling Judas loyal. Both statements are totally false, no matter how well-intentioned.
Every thinking man who has read Mannah’s communist length rambling diatribes that he imagines in his ignorance are economic analysis knows that Mannah has been shown to be very stupid. He was exposed as a bootlicking, ignorant SLPP apologist in this forum by the really brilliant forumites we have here,especially the learned Mo’hm Allie Jalloh. Why do you think he avoids coming here? Stop being naive, Rev. Kabbie. Call a spade a spade. Jesus said love thy neighbor, but He did not say tell lies to cover thy neoghbor’s failings! Lonta.
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John Mannah’s ignorance about economic matters was exposed in the cocorioko forum, which could be the reason he is so angry with the Rev gentleman. It is no surprise that even the very President Maada Bio he is praising here has no room for him in his government and has confined him to the dustbin, as was also done by President Kabbah. Not fit for purpose. At least, the Rev. got a big one at the UN from President Ernest Koroma. Do I sense the green monster here?
Mr. Rashid Thomas, do not countenance rudeness on your forum before the likes of John Mannah drive us all away like they did in the other forums.
Osman Thollie
The link below says it all. So it’s time to move on with the development of our country:
https://ayvnews.com/at-ecowas-summit-united-nations-congratulates-president-bio-on-his-successful-re-election-as-president-of-sierra-leone/
Fake reverend Kabs kanu ” what you are about speaks so loud that we can hardly hear what you are saying” says Sir Waldo Emmerson.
This refrain by Waldo Emmerson speaks to the desperation of the fake referend.
He is so desperate and jealous of the transformational work of reform minded President Bio that his own Tabloid is no longer enough to peddle his hate, bile and animosity against our president but now using the Sierra Leone Telegraph to spread his lies against the government of Sierra Leone. What a bigot and evil man Kabs Kanu is!
Readers should understand that the vendetta Kabs Kanu has against President Bio and the SLPP is personal and has nothing to do with objectivity.
Kabs Kanu was one of the first people President Bio removed from a job he had no clue about in the United Nations as Minister Plenipotentiary. This man was elevated to this job without the necessary competency, qualification and knowhow.
Before his elevation to the UN job, Kabs Kanu was a Group Home attendant taking care of mentally challenged and retarded children and adults in New Jersey.
As a result of his tribal connection to his mentor and Chieftain, both Loko’s by tribe, former President Koroma elevated Kabs Kanu from the obscure job of Group Home worker and attendant to a diplomat overnight because of patronage and tribal lineage as Former President Koroma ran Sierra Leone as a family business enriching his friends and family members at the detriment of our country.
Therefore, it is not a surprise to us to see Kabs Kanu so desperate to go to the extent of calling for war in Sierra Leone, and colluding with foreign powers with ulterior motives and agenda’s to destabilize our country to pave way for his corrupt and diabolical APC party to return to power.
Kabs Kanu, I have bad news for you!
It is not going to happen. President Dr. Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP won the June 24th, 2023 Presidential and Parliamentary elections squarely because he worked hard in his first term and ran on his record in governance.
On the contrary, the record of the APC in governance from 2007-2018 was about theft of government funds, hiring people like you based on patronage and tribal connections and sold government buildings and offices to APC supporters and their children.
It is why I support the sentiment of Dr. Prince Harding when he said that Sierra Leoneans will never make the mistake to hand over political power to the APC because they are not good for themselves nor for the country.
There are therefore no stolen votes to give back because the APC woefully lost the elections.
John, you of all people know very well what the rules of engagement and civil dioscourse are in this forum. Please refrain from personal attacks, otherwise you will be expelled. Thank you.
John Mannah i know you studied economomics. I know you suffered hardship at Mount Aureol during the regime of the other soldier in the early 80s. Don’t you think Bio is just another Momoh.At least Momoh was honest enought to admit his abject failure. As an Economist – theoretical or whatever, what do you think of Bio bringing down our GDP per person from a record high of over $700 under EBK to $435 and making us the 3rd poorest and unhappiest country in the world? Give Ernest Koroma that credit where it is due.
I guess even if your man sets a record and make us the poorest and unhappiest in the world, some of you fake intellectuals would not give a damn. Just like the NPRC regime, Bio’s regime is a downgrade to their predecessors no matter what socio-economic performance metric is at your disposal. Stats do not lie.
Post me the latest world poverty and happiness indexes if you want to contradict me. That poor country is stuffed with fake and dishonest intellectuals – hence us being always stuck in the last rungs of most indexes.
Bob Massally, let’s put away the red herrings, ad hominins and concentrate on the real facts of economic management and governance under the Bio Presidency. I will admit that macroeconomic management has been difficult during the Bio Presidency, not because of poor leadership but because of external economic shocks that plagued the Sierra Leonean economy specifically leading to challenges in managing the Business Cycle, due to the fall in commodity prices such as mineral and cash crops like Cacao and Coffee.
Incidentally, the Sierra Leone government is mostly financed by commodity exports, a sector that also employs a lot of people, namely, the mines, coffee, and cacao farms. It is these challenges that led to the fall in Sierra Leone’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and concomitantly, its per capita income that you referenced in your reply.
My knowledge and understanding of these macroeconomic challenges are why I wrote an article I published on my Facebook page in June 2022 “The Progressive Forum” titled: “The case for President Dr Julius Maada Bio to hire an A-team Leader – Macroeconomist in the Finance Ministry to improve the Performance of the Sierra Leonean Economy.” In that article, I argued that Dr. Samura Kamara’s candidature in the 2023 Presidential elections will be a far cry from what it was in 2018, as it will be formidable, particularly given the poor state of the economy in Sierra Leone.
It is against this backdrop that I advised the Bio administration to appoint a seasoned macroeconomist at the helm of affairs at the Finance Ministry to forestall the pending shocks to the business cycle and hedge against attacks on the struggling economy under President Bio’s watch, as Dr. Samura Kamara a trained economist, would make a better case to run the economy successfully than the job President Bio was doing, and the people will be opened to listen to him and hear him on this issue.
I recommended that they hire the services of Mr. Steve Swaray, a seasoned Macroeconomist, former Lecturer and Head of the Department of Economics at Fourah Bay College, former Budgetary and Financial Comptroller of the Mano River Union, Former Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone, Senior Economist at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for over a decade and a London School of Economics graduate.
However, even though they did not hire Steve to replace the then Finance Minister, they instead elevated his deputy Mr. Sheku Fantamadi Bangura to replace him. Finance Minister Sheku Fantamida Bangura is also a trained IMF and World Bank economist with almost the same pedigree as Mr. Swaray.
Steve Swaray – our former Professor was hired as a consultant to the Ministry of Finance in Freetown, and he was part of the delegation that escorted Finance Minister Fantamadi to the IMF headquarters in Washington.
Here is what the Managing Director of the IMF said when Minister Fantamadi Bangura visited her in Washington: “Being a familiar terrain of Minister Bangura, the IMF MD, Ms Kristaina Georgieva congratulated the new Minister and said, she admires the courage of Minister Bangura to take the position of a Minister of Finance at a time economies across the world are struggling to stay afloat with the impact of covid 19 pandemic and effect of the Russian-Ukraine Crisis. That IMF will continue to support Sierra Leone whose President has demonstrated his commitment to reforms and has become a world leader for education. In a precise word, she said “The Country (Sierra Leone) is lucky to have a good President who means well for his people”. Minister Bangura also met with the World Bank Vice President for West and Central Africa, Executive Directors of both IMF and World Bank, Country team members.”
Take aways about President Bio’s leadership qualities as expressed by the IMF MD, Ms. Kristaina Georgieva are: “IMF will continue to support Sierra Leone whose President has demonstrated his commitment to reforms and has become a world leader for education. In a precise word, she said “The Country (Sierra Leone) is lucky to have a good President who means well for his people.”
So, Mr. Massally, these are the leadership qualities that separates President Dr. Julius Maada Bio from his opponent economist Dr. Samura Kamara. Smartness and hard work on governance issues in Sierra Leone. A few examples come to mind – the work of the First Lady Fatima Bio in promoting girls’ freedom and security in Sierra Leone in support of her husband Presidency. The transformational work of the President on the Free Quality Education and the Gender and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) legislation to name a few.
Therefore, it is because of these transformational achievements that the Sierra Leonean people rewarded the President and his wife with a second term in office.
Governance is not about mere statistics and macroeconomic indexes. Dr. Samura Kamara – a seasoned macroeconomist, hanged his hat on these poor macroeconomic numbers and assumed that President Bio will be voted out of office because of the poor macroeconomic numbers in Sierra Leone. His assumption was wrong. This mistake among others is why he lost the elections, and no one should hang it on boggy man Konneh, the Chief Electoral Officer of the ECSL.
The above narrative among others is why some of us support President Bio Mr. Massally, and President Bio’s Presidency is totally different from that of late President Joseph Saidu Momoh, a fine Sierra Leonean who did not possess leadership qualities for the top job of the country.
Folks, there are three types of volcanoes…active, dormant and extinct; which one exactly is our volatile Sierra Leone? Here’s your simple answer…an Active volcano, of course; See – active volcanoes have a recent history of eruptions…and they are likely to erupt again in the nearest future; Sierra Leone! How sad! A poor struggling country that was once engulfed by the scorching fires of civil war for almost 11 long years is recklessly treading on thinnest ice all over again, that could break at any moment…causing our fragile nation to sink into the abysmal depths of total anarchy and chaos; How sad! To be so abjectly wretched and beggarly and not to know it! Maada Bio….must go, he has proven himself to be totally unfit to rule our divided Sierra Leone.
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Maada Bio is now complerely arrogant and drunk with power; Funny is it not? He who was once a beggar aimlessly roaming the cold streets of the United Kingdom, asking for meagre handouts, now sits defiantly on a golden throne surrounded by disreputable individuals like Prince Harding, lahai Leema and Ali Kabbah…remorseless hoodlums with their hands dripping wet with the blood of innocent, harmless civilians? How sad! Our brightest, finest and most honest citizens have already fled Sierra Leone…and are toiling day and night for paltry salaries in icy cold unwelcoming, western countries, so very far away from their warm, loving, peaceful homes; Maada Bio must go…the time is now!
Mr Kabs Kanu,
you are absolutely right and i support every piece of argument in your excellent article. Having said that, i got to say i am coming from the merit of the points you raised and not from the pedigree and credibility of the messenger. You do not have the requisite cred in abundance to take up this fight. Did you raise similar points when your FBC buddy Ernest Koroma dismissed constructively in his first term former ACC head Abdul Tehan-Cole – a quiet, unassuming and honest guy since his FBC days? Did you say it as it was when the then Vice-President Sam Samuna (his dubious character notwithstanding) was sacked unconstitutionally by Ernest Koroma and the decision rubber-stamped by the perennially incorrigible and corrupt Sierra Leone Judiciary?
https://cocorioko.net/sacked-vice-president-sam-sumana-shot-himself-2/
https://cocorioko.net/breaking-news-president-koroma-had-powers-to-remove-sam-sumana-supreme-court-rules-3/
I know those rogue actions by the relatively peaceful and more economically successful Ernest Koroma pale significantly compared to Bio’s crime of konnehnizing/stealing the people’s votes in the floodlights-glare of party agents, credible national and internatiinal observers. A bad precedent has been set by Bio which makes going forward any other announced elections results in Sierra Leone untenable and disputable unless the Chief Electoral Commissioner is a foreigner and votes collation and announcement at every polling station across the length and breadth of Sierra Leone are streamed live to our screens in the presence of all stakeholders
I am imploring you Mr Kabs-Kanu to leave this fight to some of us and the likes of the respected Editor of Sierra Leone Telegragh – a man with integrity; a journo for all seasons, a patriot whose love for the well-being and socio-economic progress of his motherland trumps all other parochial considerations of tribe, region, religion, school, university and a job prospect As a matter of fact i will make the bold claim that anyone who has ever received a salary or who intend to receive one as a public official paid from the taxes of the long-suffering people of Sierra Leone – the 2023 3rd poorest and unhappiest country in the world- should not join this noble fight of getting rid of the country of bad politicians. A big and long-lasting fight is certainly going to be as Bio is proving to be the “baddest’ of them all nation-wreckers
Mr Massally, you are right. May I even go further as to say, this situation is a direct consequence of the ineptitude and corruption of Ernest Koroma. Firstly, he weakened state institutions, specifically for the purpose of maintaining his grip on power. He changed the role of the Speaker, who was impartial and a retired Judge leading to the Abass Bundu fiasco and removal of elected parliamentarians. He weakened the military by having at least 4 Major-General’s in 8 years. He destroyed all Keith Biddle had done. He watched Maada terrorise the south-east and did not say a word.
As for the APC, he filled it up with nonentities who were his close relatives, people like Fitzgerald Kamara et al. They were willing to ride to power on the back of the people’s disenchantment, yet none of them uttered a word of protest, contrary to Dr Dennis Bright during five years of suffering. Maada Bio has completed the process of state capture and unless Ernest and his incompetent family are kicked out; I fear Prince Harding is right and we are in for a long ride. Don’t forget that the West prefers a corrupt democracy to none at all.
Bob Massallay, Kabs Kanu is far more credible than some of you might think. I attended FBC with him . He was the champion of our aspirations and demands with his vitriolic articles that really stung the APC of Siaka Probyn Stevens and the Harry Sawyer and Eldred Jones college administrations. Kabs Kanu was our hero at Fourah Bay College. Was Kabs KANU not one of the progenitors of the famous Tablet newspaper that forced the very president Siaka to arrest him and jail him ?
I have noticed a tendency in some you to hold against him his alignment with Bai Koroma.But can you name any journalist that never aligned with past governments? Pius Foray, Frank Kposowa, Franklin Bunting Davies, Siaka Massaquoi, Keawigoko Roy Stevens, etc. aligned with the SLPP. Sam Mezger, Royston Wright aligned with the APC. Ibrahim Seaga Shaw aligned with the AFRC junta . Umaru Fofana is SLPP going by his tendency to be sparing with information at the BBC on Bio’s atrocities .Journalists who condemned Ernest are today praise-singing Maada Bio. Yet, you would like to consider them credible journalists because they support the SLPP . Even in America, media are aligned with either the Republicans or Democrats. So, if you are looking at alignments, no journalist is credible.
My take is that if what the journalist is saying is stone cold truth , he is credible. Kabs Kanu is one of the best and most credible journalists in Sierra Leone. It is only through him that we are receiving up to date scoops and information on the atrocities that might land Maada at the ICC. If I wake up in the morning and I have not read Kabs Kanu’s newspaper, COCORIOKO, I have not read anything. You want to know why ? Everything he has been saying from time immemorial about our politicians have come true. Was it not Kabs Kanu who first warned us that Maada Bio is a dangerous man to be entrusted with power ? Please do not detract us from the main issue by asking him to leave the struggle with Rashid Thomas and others who to you are more credible.
To us who have followed Kabs Kanu from his militant days at Fourah Bay College, he is perhaps the most credible journalist of the breed today . He warned us about the totalitarian designs of late Presidents Siaka Stevens and Joseph Saidu Momoh and everything he said was in place and came true with the 1992 coup and the rebel war.
Let us stick to the issues, fellas.
I agree with you, however that Abdul Rashid Thomas is a very credible preposition. I appreciate his joining the struggle to expose President Bio.
Let us appreciate the veterans as well .
Kabs-Kanu, when last did you visit Sierra Leone? What has motivated you to be the moral guarantor of our sovereign democracy? You cannot be more Catholic than the Pope. Talk to Victor Foh for preliminary evaluation for brain surgery on APC politics.