Abdulai Brima
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 17 January 2016
Where are you SLPP, when assertive leadership is in such high demand in Sierra Leone, to stand up to the vagaries and excesses of the inept and corrupt Koroma regime? Where are you?
The APC party has been allowed to rape the country’s constitution and produce an illegitimate caricature of a vice president, who is a record holder in the dirtiest annals of our national corruption history. Yet, the opposition SLPP quietly acquiesced.
The government allowed a dangerous laboratory to carry out research and manufacture strange diseases – never heard of on our serene shores, since Adam walked our earth with Eve. How much did ministers get out of this killer deal, we may never know.
What we do know for sure is that long after the Koroma government’s approval to set up an Ebola lab inside a general hospital in a densely populated area, came the Ebola virus, killing thousands and destroying the lives of millions of people.
On the eve of the Ebola outbreak, government hastily closed the Ebola lab, and “the Ebola experts” quietly melted from our shores, leaving us to bury our dead in detached industrial manner.
Then the cheques, (“blood money”) millions of dollars, came flying into State House from far and near, in every shape and colour. Watch the pictures again. You can touch the smiles that lighted State House as the president receives the fat cheques, in person.
In the absence of safe protective wear and regular payment of fair salaries, grave diggers saw it necessary to use fly-festering Ebola corpses as ‘bargaining tools’ to demand their overdue salaries.
And then came a brave Auditor General (Photo: Lara Taylor – Pearce), risking the backlash from a rogue regime, to reveal that even as we were mourning our dead, some FAVOURED goons were busy playing the fine art of magical DISAPPEARANCE with the fat Ebola cheques received by State House.
We complained! Then our government slapped us with a new retort. This time, instead of “GO POLICE” (when they stole our votes), they went for “GO PARLIAMENT”, if we thought we had a case.
Well, we knew the reason for that mocking response: it is called 63 million “set-mot” Leones, “for Ebola sensitisation”, with secret State House pictures to prove the take.
And we were reminded that there is a picture for every “visitor” – our SLPP leaders went dead quiet.
To further cement the already-sealed-lips, the president has now, “in his supreme wisdom”, appointed the man who was supposed to chase the thieves away, to an even more “lucrative” position.
Joseph Kamara (Photo), the “smooth operator” and former head of the “Anti Corruption” Pretence, is made Attorney General and Minister of JUSTICE. BAM!
Line up all your cases and grievances now! They will be honestly and earnestly heard!
Who just coughed? …Not SLPP, I hear you say!
Then came the $12 million BUSES to grace the comedy circus! Carefully Choreographed by a convicted con-man called Logus Koroma, with millions of dollars flying out to accounts unknown. $12 million dollar mountains, in all, we are told.
Even the 50 old tired RED looking scrap metals (buses) were not happy to be used as accomplices in this state-siphoned racketeering show. Many of the buses simply refused to move, on the very first day – stuttering and leaking the thickest of black oils, in unsmiling protest!
And where was the opposition voice? You can ask that again.
Okay, let us be fair. Some did speak – even non-SLPP members. There was a mighty roar across the oceans.
Opposition leader -ALIE KABBA (Photo) was one of the very few voices that rose way above the clattering ding of the crowded echo chamber, registering a strong unmistakable call for the restoration of sanity and probity in Sierra Leone.
His is a voice that has been clear, constant and consistent, with every out-of-order antic of this failing government.
This is the voice that is now at risk of being silenced by those who would prefer us to be led by “Silent Saints”, who are either not interested or not inclined to speak out for the voiceless.
At one critical moment, it took an APC member to remind the world about how utterly ROTTEN our system has become in the choking grip of a heartless APC led government.
As our nation plods along, under the heavy heartless hammer of this APC cabal, the nation misses the voice of Alie Kabba.
And we pray for his quick return to the very frontline of the struggle to redeem a nation in such peril, for he has proven his unbendable mettle, far beyond the shred of a doubt.
Where art thou SLPP – where art thou!?
About the author:
Abdulai Brima is the Secretary General of the Alie Kabba Campaign Group (UK & Ireland).
It is quite damning that ordinary people – non-politicians – have become the de facto official opposition in Sierra Leone. It glaringly testifies to the ineptitude, impotence and incompetence of S.L.P.P., who have essentially become welfare recipients of APC cash.
The trouble with any one who receives welfare is that she/he loses the incentive to work and make a contribution to society. It is a dismal psychological state of mind and, if not checked, will produce generations of dependents from the cradle to the grave.
Indeed where are the S.L.P.P leaders, such as Bernadette Lahai? Their silence is deafening. Why is that it is the ordinary people that are asking pertinent questions about issues – be it about Ebola funds, bent application of the constitution, misappropriation of funds, etc?
It may well be that S.L.P.P. are sending a subtle message to A.P.C. that when and if the ever the former gains power in the country, the latter should become as quite as a grave yard. Let us don’t forget, foreign donors contributed much to the demise of S.L.P.P. at the hands of Earnest Koroma in 2007, as was the defection of Charles Margai from the SLPP.
It is Charles Margai’s P.M.D.C. that I would like to see in power. A.P.C. and S.L.P.P. are one and the same. Wake up fellow Sierra Leoneans. Charles Margai is bold and does not suffer fools gladly.
We do not have any opposition party but cooperation party. Equally so, the media houses are also part of the deal. Few women opposition party parliamentarians were very vocal years back, but have all been bought in cash or in-kind reward.
The worst side of it is that the people’s mouth piece – Civil society organisations, have been dreaming about what they can bite from the EVD response and now the recovery funds. We no longer have civil society but Connive or Deceive society.
None of them have made any statement about the Ebola-gate and waste-gate scandals. They have been silent on all issues, especially when they too had a big bite of the EVD fund. They are also silence on the news circulating about the ‘more time’ campaign.
The international media houses and their reporters always report on evil happenings, but those things that will gradually lead to those evil happenings are left uncovered.
The spiritual leaders too, hardly preach the causes of the evil happenings in our society. But many have become praise singers.
The issue of APC’s bad governance in the last analysis is organized opinion.
Where there is little or no public opinion, there is likely to be a one party state or bad government.
However the media houses, SLPP, civil society and the people of Sierra Leone have to say something.
The SLPP hopefully believes they are a government in waiting. So, why bother themselves with challenging APC government’s mismanagement. Sierra Leone people are already disgusted with Ernest Koroma government and have no other choice
but SLPP, if they are to give APC the boot in 2018.
SLPP is waiting for their turn to make a field day so, no tension may set back their hopes. SLPP is a dumb party. We shouldn’t expect much from them other than their internal vendettas. Just as much the APC are making a killing of the nation’s resources, SLPP are patiently waiting for their turn.
Alie Kabba is brave and outspoken, but can he discipline the SLPP to make it different and accept his governance approach, where accountability, checks and balances can work? I am doubtful about this. He may have to dance to the same beat as usual.
These two traditional parties are twins from the same womb, no difference in appearance and attitude. Until a strong political force emerge – there is no hope for a better Sierra Leone.
Francis, the court injunction placed on SLPP only prevented the party executives from conducting elections. It did not stop the NEC along with the party’s members of parliament from strongly protesting and resisting the illegal and unconstitutional action of APC.
In fact on several ocassions it was clearly evident that not only was the NEC divided but had no control or authority over the SLPP parliamentarians.
So of course president koroma and his goons exploited this weakness and are still doing so today.
I agree with Nonpartisan. Sierra Leone is now effectively a one party state with an impotent opposition sat with its tail between its legs tearing itself apart.
Abdulai is right to ask where is SLPP.
Abdulai your analysis of events under APC has been well documented. The big question was/is where is SLPP when all these things were happening? Some will say the Party had a court case and a ban which was only lifted in mid December 2015. But that does not exempt flag bearer aspirants from venting their ‘disgust’ at the ruling APC for mismanaging our beloved country. Little did any of them take control to lambast the inefficient Koroma led government. Then came POLITICAL BOMBER’ Alie Sanjan Kabba who said Sierra Leone has a broken system which does not neen patching but to be thrown in the Atlantic ocean and we start from scratch. I agree. The only true hero and voice of our deprived countyr. I hope SLPP make a sensible decision to have him as the flag bearer and ultimately the President of our country.
Sierra Leone is already a one party system. The only thing the opposition opposes in that country is each other. Unborn generations will suffer because of the leaders today.