Raymond Dele Awoonor-Gordon
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 20 March 2015
My God! My God! Why have you forsaken us? Why have you allowed us to be taken back into political captivity?
Why have you allowed those who play with the dark arts of politics to have their way with us and forced us to watch their macabre dance helplessly, whiles singing songs straight from the grim-reapers hymnbook?
Why Lord have you left us at the mercy of power-drunk, fifth columnists whose interests supersede our Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land? (Photo: Our new Veeeep)
Right now, like errant fireworks, the selfish, egocentric and pantomime villains, whom we selected to be the Moses, Aaron and Joshua of our deliverance, have turned round and are exploding in our faces.
Our voyage into this tedium is being completed by a political maneuvering, that is conjuring results guaranteed not to push our lives to the much-needed new plateau.
Being stuck in outrage does not even solve anything; nor does comforting ourselves with the fact that those pulling the strings of our existence are either products of our mischief industry; or pitiful ignoramus, whose shallowness is so pervasive that they have forgotten the ebb of their noses.
The message being sent out to our frustrated fraternity, demanding real and sustained change, is loud and clear – charting a fresh course is not an option. But before I even go on, may I apologise to all Sierra Leonean youths, for the failures of this generation.
“Never again”, we promised them. Yet, the dark cloud over our political terrain confirms that once more, we have sold theirs and our nation’s interests for a mess of pottage.
I wish to advise this long-suffering generation though, that they should stop wondering why the country is the way it is. It is the result of our age-long bastardisation and manipulation of the general psyche by political jackals. The ugliness they see is the reason they were born.
They were born to build the broken down walls of a nation, where the character flaws of those in power, is a testimony of why the burden now falls on these youths to put the missing flesh on the skeletal outline of the country, as well as their dreams.
They were born to bring real and positive change to Sierra Leone.
The starting point for this class of matadors, who hopefully are without the cobweb and weed that has entangled us, has got to be the analysis of where we are. They will have to then map out a clear-cut direction and recognisable democratic and social values, which would be well-rooted and not subject to manipulations; like is being done by the current perverted, deaf, obstinate, conscienceless, greedy and selfish political bunch.
Hopefully in their time, Sierra Leone will flourish again and they can hand over to their succeeding generation, a banner without stain.
Meanwhile, it is either the fabled curse of the prayer of Governor Clarkson still hover over this country, or the devil himself has assumed direct control of the nation’s seat of power – and by extension its destiny and that of the operating system that does not dare tell the truth.
From Albert Margai to Siaka Stevens, and then Joseph Momoh – the curse of power seem to overwhelm the holders. And now, Ernest Bai Koroma is going down the same route, like a sniffer dog around a smuggler’s contraband at an airport carousel. Our political leaders have gone mad again.
The current crop of toilet flies have learned nothing and forgotten nothing of the unfortunate five decades of transition to self-rule. They believe that their desperation to change the subject of the chilly wind of maladministration, invading the very marrow of the national bone, is worth more than the rumble of the tummy of hungry Sierra Leoneans or the ferocious snarl of Ebola.
Believe me, at the rate and speed they are going and judging by the latest sharp thrust of the knife into the very heart of our socio-political existence, nothing will stop them. For one, the voices that bring truth have virtually been silenced and replaced by strange incantations.
They seem to have lost all sense of reasoning. And, in a determined bid to ensure the clumsy application of their dubious moral and political graft code, it appears national interest cannot even dwarf the naked ambition, thirst for total domination and desperation to change the subject of our national reality.
So my dear compatriots, today, if events in the country have made you stand and stare with mouth agape and scarcely believing what you are reading, hearing or seeing, then you are not alone.
If you are verging on the paralytic, following the fog of propaganda by the various factions of our political class, which has made it increasingly impossible to differentiate between truth and fiction, be rest assured that you are not alone.
Neither reek of disgust because you suspect that there is something faintly sinister going on.
The shenanigan at the highest level of our governance is a fallout of the struggle for the crown, when thieves fall apart.
What is before you is a delicious cartoon-view of two gun-slingers staging a shoot-out in the smoke and mirror politics of our disease-ravaged and economically-grounded landscape.
It is the darkness and dishonesty of our past, rearing its ugly head in our present and settling down to invade our future.
Oh yes! It is the one-chance Sierra Leone ferry being steered in a hopeless journey to nowhere by a captain – President Koroma (Photo – Left), who has an irritation – his VP, like a mosquito that has dangerously perched on his scrotum. (Photo – VP – Right. And who is that at the back waiting to pick up the crumbs – our new Veeep?)
It is the rattling on-coming train of the man (Sumana), who dined with the devil and is now being forced to deal with the diarrhea, that inevitably comes with such totemic banquets.
Both gladiators forgot that even the bravest of men, fear the choices they make, because very soon it will stare them in the face. Indeed their fowls have come home to roost.
After years and months of bluff and bluster; and bamboozled by its lunatic arrogance, a segment of our political class has decided that picking cherries from the tree of treachery is neither graceless in the extreme; nor repulsive to the seamless cloud blighting the already horrific life of the majority of the poor souls still alive and dotting our landscape.
Sadly, the consciences of our leaders which have fled into the financial vaults of foreign countries, international cronies and willing collaborators is now misreading a truly hideous tussle, as a ringing mandate and licence to kill.
At the onset, the regime of Bai Koroma had the scent of immortality in its nostril; but ultimately the trail has not only gone cold, the whiff of fire is now enveloping it; while the various hands of Jacob in the regime, who have been holding the President hostage, are now hell bent on trampling on the ashes of a nation’s innocence to achieve their strategic repositioning.
Right now, any attempt at cogent explanation, simply amounts to nothing but a master class in political cynicism, and is as valuable as a building in Kroo Bay, being used as a collateral for a bank loan.
The fox is sitting at the head of the jury at the goose’s trial, and from all indications, constitutional provisions and the rule of law will be as much use as a one-armed goalkeeper. They have covered all angles and dare us to do our worst.
Sam Sumana and the rest of his supporters club, especially those who do so from the safety of social media, can shout from now till thy kingdom come. Sadly to say, it is disingenuous to ascribe linguistic and legalistic sophistication and nuance to those whose metaphors start and end with the goat and the yam. Seriously.
For one, with eyes tinted and face tainted by the colour of money, our glorious lawmakers who at the worst will be asked to unwrap the kernel of the saga, will simply leave us more confused. Why? Because, they are weaklings who have been compromised and who are in anyway, mostly from the same dance troupe, as those beating the drums.
Let’s not forget also that instead of making laws and honestly interpreting the constitution, our legislators from both sides of the divide are busy making dosh; which is why not a single executive excess has been or is ever challenged. Nor will this current laughable drama.
They cannot talk because their mouths are full of loads of protection money. They are now a member of the Mutual Trust Insurance Group of bandits. Which is why, they threaten the electorate that chose them, with powers they have fashioned out to protect their own share of the national looting spree. Remember the constituency mobilisation allowance for Ebola?
As for the third estate – the Judiciary? Wow is all you can say. Most judges have forgotten what constitute justice. They are more conversant with what it is that effectively makes for a luxuriously cushioned retirement.
So, this is another ‘thank-you’ party in the making for them. I can see them grinning in anticipation already.
They have joined the club of ‘if you can’t beat them join them’. The specie of honourable Homo sapiens of this class has disappeared under the cloak. In their place, are magicians whose legal books contain incantations from the fabled seven books of Moses.
Out of moral cowardice they lend credence to and rubberstamp impunity. It is why government mouth pieces are daring the rest of us to follow Sumana to the courts, if our tummy hurts that much.
Only deluded optimists would not realise that free speech is met with savage disdain and orchestrated political counter-terrorism; national outcry is simply ignored and the mood of national frustration at power-politics, brutally scorned at.
This government has negotiated so many junctions in our political drive, extremely dangerously.
The latest of course is this handling of what on the surface, appears an innocuous party internal affairs; but which has several national connotations. For sure, it will soon acquire the form of an ethnic, religious and political conflagration. Don’t forget that in our clime, every smoke invariably becomes fire, even if for just a while.
A dog who is bent on getting lost never listens to the shepherd’s whistle. I’m seeing a pattern of Freudian slips with President Koroma, who strenuously denied any rift with his sidekick several times prior to the last election and even thereafter. But then, I guess it’s all tied up with his psychological disposition at the present time, perhaps as a result of the Ebola crisis.
With due respect, he is a President who does not understand the meaning of the word “class” or ”honesty”, and who breaks his own word consistently, while disdainfully ignoring the very constitution he swore to defend and the very people he volunteered to lead with honesty of purpose.
Surrounded by hyenas, he appears to have lost control. And to cover his helplessness, he lashes out with a dubious sense of humility and appreciation at those who show any sign of dissent. He is fast becoming the problem we have today.
Let’s be frank with ourselves. The President appears not to have any scruples dividing the country and blaming everyone else. He enjoys the hypocritical praises of ‘benefactors’ and lickers of where-the-sun-never-shines, while they steal/milk the country dry. Not for him, those with a different music or sermon.
He just continues to sink into an abyss of moral debauchery; egged on by those with sinister motives who have turned him into a ‘god’ that can do no wrong. A president who laboured to tackle Ebola; who conveniently looked the other side through the cocaine plane saga; gave shelter to key players in the fisheries’ and timbergate tales and other klepto-induced drama going on in his domain; who despite overblown propaganda, cannot make the lives of the majority better; seven years after he conned them into singing ‘hosanna’, can suddenly beat Usain Bolt in the dash to get his pound of flesh.
Meanwhile, what do you say of the squatter who has taken over the abandoned house of a man who was busy fighting his neighbour? Not that with his antecedents, anything is surprising about the new ‘VeePee’.
Though cut from the same ideological coat as his boss, but to shamelessly accede to accept power in the midst of a potential national crisis, is gross indeed.
It is the badge of an enemy of society, who for all you know, may have been one of those behind the deeds that are still hidden to those of us outside the circle of the cabal with their snouts stuck firmly in the trough of high level immorality and corruption.
I mean if Sierra Leone is to get to that tomorrow; that lofty future we are all dreaming about, it is essential that we all remember those who not only betrayed their conscience and the people for whatever reasons, but also those who spat on us while we were down and out in hopelessness.
Let posterity record it. However, let’s not also forget that the real enemy that has emerged, is us – the ever-docile populace.
I love APC.