I had known about and observed the Honourable Vice President Victor Foh (pictured) for over 30 years since my days as a young university student and as a journalist in Freetown, Sierra Leone. And now as an online newspaper publisher in Canada with a global readership and reputation.
The man has always been attacked and hated by some people, mostly because of his affiliation with the ruling APC from the days of the founder of the party, the late Dr. Siaka Stevens to the current dispensation.
If you investigate why Foh is hated so much by some of his brothers in the south and east of the country, it’s mainly because of politics. If Foh had been a strong SLPP activist, there would have been not hatred for him; he will be a hero in the south and east of the country. I must hasten to point out that not everybody in the south and east hate him. He comes from a huge well known family in the south (Jimmy Bagbor) and has more relatives and friends in the SLPP than the APC although he is at the same time very popular in the north. His wife is from the north and many northerners see him as one of them, a tried and tested APC man despite his origins.
Another reason he is hated by some southerners and easterners in the SLPP is because he has offered effective advice to the ruling government on how to bring into the APC fold people from the south and east, thus creating what now looks like a government of national unity. We now have lots of ministers, deputy ministers, and all sorts of public servants including army and police personnel from the south and east serving their country in very prominent positions. Victor Foh has a lot to do with that. It’s therefore not surprising that many SLPP activists want to bring him down. He is a threat to their party and a boon to the APC which is gaining support in SLPP strongholds not just through development projects but also by actively involving their brothers and sisters in the south and east in the business of governance. As it should be in any country that wants to move forward. All hands should be on deck.
Given Victor Foh’s role in garnering support for his beloved APC, I was not surprised when filthy and unholy attacks were recently directed towards him on social media through obnoxious photo-shopping and other practices.
But the people that did that seem to underestimate Victor Foh’s strength of character. The man has survived worse attacks, the most memorable being when he was saved from the jaws of death, while awaiting execution, from a death sentence ordered by the former SLPP government, some members of which are now his closest friends.
Victor Foh is the quintessential survivor in Sierra Leone politics, guys.
