DEMOCRACY IS NOT ONLY THE RIGHT TO OPPOSE THE GOVERNMENT: IT IS ALSO THE RIGHT TO SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT . SUPPORTERS OF THE APC HAVE A CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO DEFEND OUR PRESIDENT AND GOVERNMENT
Many Sierra Leoneans are ignorant about the meaning of the concept of democracy. A country that was once the Athens of West Africa, the center of learning of the subcontinent and the Beacon of Light of Africa, has produced lettered men and women who do not understand a simple concept like democracy.
PRESIDENT ERNEST KOROMA : HE HAS THE SAME RIGHTS AS OTHER SIERRA LEONEANS
All Sierra Leoneans know is that democracy is the right to disagree with the President and the Government.To Sierra Leoneans, democracy only means the right of individuals, newspapers and radio stations to criticize the President and his Government. This is not the ridiculous side of the notion our Sierra Leonean people have.. The foolish side of it is not knowing or pretending not to know that in any democracy there is also the right to agree with and support the President and his government. The same right you think you should enjoy even to be rude to the President is the same right that the President and the government’s supporters have to support him and promote his achievements , activities and his agenda. For democracy to be genuine, the two or various spectra of public opinions must enjoy equal rights to propagate their beliefs.
Sierra Leoneans want to have the licence to post all kinds of scum about the President and the government—-lies, untruths, half-truths, slander, libel, defamation , sedition etc, but they do not want supporters of the President and the Government to defend them against these lies and defamation. They have the caveman mentality to believe that only those who oppose the government have a right to speak.
What is democracy if only one side is what is being heard ? What is democracy if the other side is not heard ? Is that the democracy that the founding fathers of our nation and political activists and journalism icons like Bankole Bright, I..T.A Wallace-Johnson, Bankole Timothy , Adelaide Casely Hayford , Sarif Easmon, Ibrahim Taqi , Hindolo Trye, and others fought for ? A democracy where only one side is heard ? Wake up from your caveman stupor, Sierra Leoneans. DEMOCRACY MEANS MY RIGHT TO BE HEARD , WHETHER FOR OR AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT.
The degree of violent attacks, verbal abuse and blackmail supporters of President Koroma are being subjected to on this social media and online forums is frightening. It is compounded by the fact that only a handful of the government’s media corps are speaking out at all. The rest have either been cowed into silence or they just do not believe that they have a CORPORATE duty to defend the government that pays them .
Another thing that is annoying me is some people taking credit for the work I am doing. I do not take anybody’s credit and so it annoys me when people who are not even there when I decide to write and put myself in the line of fire lie to people that they are part of what I do. I want it to be known that I am a lone wolf. I ALONE SIT DOWN AND DESIGN WHAT I WRITE. NOBODY PROMPTS ME. I WRITE FROM MY OWN CONVICTIONS. If you do not take my wounds with me when I am toiling to write, stop taking credit for my work. I will deal with this matter in a separate article. Back to the issue.
The latest ploy of detractors of the government is BLACKMAIL. As soon as somebody gets mad with a government media personnel for defending and promoting the Government , the next thing is to try to blackmail him or her by posting false allegations against him/her that are designed to bully you the person into silence. This is the bush man’s mentality of politics. IT IS DICTATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY.
I am ALSO by right one of the Spokesmen of this APC Government of President Ernest Bai Koroma because I was appointed not only MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY TO THE UN;but COORDINATOR OF THE GOVERNMENT MEDIA IN THE DIASPORA. Madam Zainab Bangura, who was Foreign Minister , and Mr I.B. Kargbo , who was Information Minister , sat me down and told me exactly what my duties entailed. Unlike most diplomats appointed by the Government, I am the only person working for different Ministries at the same time . I am not only working for the Sierra Leone Mission to the UN; I am working for State House and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Information. That is why my job does not end in my office. I do my job at home as well and wherever I go, I carry my job with me. I endure sleepless nights because I am on call throughout the day. The Foreign Minister , the Information Minister and State House or their operatives can call and send me assignments any hour of the day and anywhere. Even other ministers and their agents do the same .They send me work to do.
As a media operative of the Government , what I am doing is my job. I am not a sycophant . What I write about the President is true. Non-Sierra Leonean statesmen within the international community say the same tings about President Koroma. Secondly I believe that in our democracy where there are equal rights, nobody is really a sycophant. If so, then everybody is a sycophant. The journalist or political activist who tries to promote a former junta leader like Maada Bio, who has committed extrajucial killings of Sierra Leoneans, is a sycophant. Oh yes. If a government media operative is a sycophant for defending a President like Dr. Ernest Koroma, those defending and promoting the likes of Maada Bio are worse sycophants, going by the logic of ignorant Sierra Leoneans. I do not try to stop anybody from promoting and supporting a killer, so why do people bother me for defending and promoting a good leader like President Koroma ? LEAVE ME ALONE TO DO MY JOB.
The Government has the same rights that opposition parties and civil society and other political activities enjoy. President Koroma has the same rights as the opposition leaders and activists. He too has a right for his views and his achievements and agenda to be heard. He did not usurp anybody’s power . He was legally, unanimously and constitutionally elected by the people.
Please let us operate alongside each other as civilized human beings.Let democracy prevail. I mean the democracy that is written in the constitution. Not the democracy of Lembeyma Village . You blow your own beagle and I blow my own beagle. THAT IS THE ESSENCE OF DEMOCRACY. Let readers decide who is right.
This is the most democratic government Sierra Leoneans has ever had, even with the recent detention of David Tam -Baryoh . One only has to look at the headlines of our newspapers reproduced daily by the Ayoubs on Facebook to see that freedom of Speech is richly entrenched in Sierra Leone during the stewardship of President Ernest Koroma. No journalist would dare to write the same things in many African, Asian and Eastern countries. If the government is giving the media such freedom and latitude to speak out, why do Sierra Leoneans not want members of the Government press corps to speak out too ? Is there no equal rights in our country ? I think not.
Let this uncivilized and uncouth harassment of government operatives cease. It is unacceptable in a decent society . This Lembeyma Village politics must stop.
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