The recent demonstrations by power-hungry opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) elements against President Ernest Koroma in the UK and USA will yield no dividend for the organizers. This will be more so because of the penchant of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) to behave like crybabies and twist facts until their own lies start militating against them . It is one of the reasons that, tried as they have done, the opposition has not been able change the mind of the international community towards President Koroma .
The SLPP have no credibility. Their stocks-in-trade are lies and dirty propaganda.
PRESIDENT KOROMA : DEMONSTRATIONS WILL NOT AFFECT THE INTERNATIONAL GOODWILL HE IS ENJOYING
The International community in general and our international donor and development partners in particular do not trust the SLPP to give them an unbiased and accurate picture of what is really going on in Sierra Leone. The one-time U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Mrs. June Carter-Perry , was caught by Wiki Leaks describing them as an immature opposition.
The SLPP’s credibility problem reduced their demonstrators in the UK and the U.S. to nothing but clanging , clattering and annoying cymbals and the international community will ignore their appeals for international aid to be cut to the country, unpatriotic as their demand. The signs are there to see. So far, there has been no response from the international community and international monitoring organizations about the allegations levied against President Koroma by the demonstrators. The international media failed to cover the demonstrations, as well.
How does the SLPP expect the international community to take them seriously when they do not have the integrity and capacity to ever call things by their real names ? How does the SLPP expect the international community to treat their remonstrations as something to act upon when what they say always contradicts what the international community knows to be happening in Sierra Leone ?
Nothing has lately undermined the SLPP’s integrity and credibility than their insistence to describe President Ernest Koroma as a dictator when the international community , including the U.S, UK and the UN, know that President Koroma in fact has one of the best democratic records in Africa .
A President who is ruling a country with over 50 critical newspapers , most of them belonging to the opposition cannot be a dictator. A President who allows very vibrant opposition parties, civil society, women’s groups and Youth organizations, who routinely criticize the government, to operate freely in his country , cannot be a dictator. A President who has never jailed journalists for criticizing his government when the SLPP Government before him murdered them, cannot be a dictator. A President who has never had a prisoner of conscience cannot be a dictator. A President who has never shed innocent blood or executed his political opponents cannot be a dictator.
Even as critical as the Freetown cables from the U.S. Embassy in Sierra Leone were, as exposed by Wiki Leaks many years back, the then U.S. Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Madam June Carter-Perry , would afford to inform her principals in Washington DC that : “Post will reinforce that Sierra Leone must remember that they are considered a model for democracy and governance in the region and elsewhere, and will continue spreading this message in all appropriate venues. The Embassy released a press statement to this effect on March 17. End Comment. PERRY”. (FREETOWN CABLES 0freetown99. ) Mrs Perry made this report at time when the SLPP was busy getting her and former SRSG Michael Shullenburg to blacklist President Koroma and help cut aid to his country. A President who relieved his VP of his duties for abandoning his job , but is making no attempts to interfere with the case and has even allowed the case to be submitted to the Supreme Court–The highest court in the land- – for adjudication, cannot be a dictator. President Koroma has done nothing to suggest that he is a dictator.
The world has become a global village and the international community , through their agents on the ground, effectively monitor Sierra Leone and they know that a President who has created such a democratic and transparent society in his country cannot be a dictator.
The United Nations also famously regard Sierra Leone as a model for postwar reconciliation, political tolerance and national development . They came to these conclusions through reports submitted to them by the erstwhile UN Peacebuilding Commission’s Country Specific Sierra Leone Configuration whose experts lived in Sierra Leone under the post-war arrangements by the UN .
Given these facts, international donor and development partners and stakeholders will not be moved by SLPP allegations that President Koroma is a dictator or that he is not governing the nation well . Their officials on the ground in Sierra Leone would brief them that it was in fact President Koroma who ordered the audit into the ebola funds in the spirit of transparency and accountability and is an opponent of those found culpable of pilfering the ebola funds. President Koroma himself was never linked to the embezzlement and the auditor-general’s office even commended him for calling for the audit.
Therefore, all these demonstrations being staged by the SLPP will only serve as another unfortunate footnote to indicate once again the naivety, immaturity and the Cry-wolf tendencies of the Sierra Leone opposition.
International donor and development partners and stakeholders will continue dealing with President Koroma and the Sierra Leone Government and helping Sierra Leone’s post-ebola recovery. They will not cut aid to Sierra Leone as the SLPP wants.
The demonstrations will not accomplish their purpose to create economy hardship on our people and trigger chaos in Sierra Leone, because those demanding such an unfortunate happenstance lack credibility.
