Noorudin Kaikai
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 20 October 2014
The Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone would have been a great script for a television series – aptly named a “Comedy of Errors”, had the situation not been so serious.
What is certain is that this government of Ernest Bai Koroma, has already left a legacy that is going to make the name of our country synonymous with the dirty word -EBOLA.
Already, Sierra Leoneans living abroad have started experiencing the stigma of this disease, as far removed as we are from the epicentre.
There are several reports of Sierra Leoneans around the globe, experiencing acts of discrimination or going through demeaning treatments, simply because of the government’s inability to provide basic amenities for its own people and uplift them from filth and poverty.
And, the less said about the management of this Ebola Virus in our country the better.
Almost everyone now, agrees that had it not been for the incompetence of this APC government, our people would not have been dying in their thousands.
What is worth noting is the sleight of hand being employed by the president, in order to continue to make himself look good to the International Community and his following of gullible tribesmen and lackeys.
It puzzles me though, and makes me want to ask why the President has to be in charge of the National Ebola Emergency Response, and also chairman of other committees, whilst there is a pool of competent Sierra Leoneans who are willing to help.
Is it because he wants to keep an eye on his percentages?
And what is the role now of his Vice President – Sam Sumana (Photo)?
Talking about the vice President, I hear if you want to have a snooze and do not want to be interrupted, his office is quite ideal.
In case you miss the point of his most recent shenanigan, the President is moving very quickly to stifle any dissent that might be simmering among the ranks of the military, by appointing himself as the Minister of Defense.
His golden boy – the errant Defense Minister, is now free to report any rumblings that he might hear through his ‘at- large’ Ebola appointment to his Excellency.
It is now time for all Sierra Leoneans to take their blinders off and face this unholy cabal we call government.
We should raise our voices and demand that this President do the honourable thing, which is to step down or step aside, for someone who can lead our country effectively through this crisis.
An incompetent President, whose shilly-shally attitude has resulted in the death of many of his fellow citizens, deserves no respect or adulation. Enough is Enough.
The irony, and the fact of the matter, is that the discrimination and stigmatisation Sierra Leoneans suffer abroad because of the Ebola disease even happen at home.
Community members stigmatise disharged Ebola patients, nurses and burial teams are shunned in their neighbourhoods and in some cases lose their tenancy!
It is obvious that the Presidency is all at sea when it comes to dealing with the Ebola crisis.
Right from the outset, by the criminal failure to contain it in that tiny rural village (Sakoma) in Kailahun district, up to the present time there is a worrying lack of leadership being demonstrated.
This is clearly seen, for instance, in the game of musical chair(s) for the head of the National Ebola Response Structure.
It is pathetic, on the part of the Government, that after fifty years of independence our colonial master has to return to take command and control of a health and safety issue.
I need not say a lot, you have said the MOST honest thing that Ernest should do now – step down for failing his people.
” WHAT A SHAME MR PRESIDENT”, you need to show your back. This ebola thing should have been a thing of the past should he, Ernest had acted swiftly , when some months back , before this escalation of ebola, some well meaning journalists said that a Guinean boy as young as 14 with ebola had crossed into Sierra Leone.
Now we are all being discriminated all around the world. Even in Guinea where we always underestimate their mentality, have seriously controlled the ebola epidemic and there are no dead bodies abandoned on the streets.