By Abdul Bero Kamara-078852595
Ironically, it was just last month, the horn of the Hon. Minister Logus Koroma was being trumpeted as a result-oriented minister all over social and print media- which seemingly made the hardworking Minister a super star on the political stage. Sadly, for the past weeks he has been under constant barrage of superfluous attacks from different quarters.
Undoubtedly, Mr Koroma is not one of those deadwood ministers, but a performing one who was on top of things and has pointers to show that complement’s President Koroma’s Agenda for Prosperity. Therefore, it was certain that he was sailing smoothly on top of the list of best performing ministers
For example, despite the difficult times the country is undergoing as a result of the EVD, Minister Logus Koroma was able to persuade Westminster Ferry to come and invest, hence the ushering of the new ferry service which will now provide additional safety and comfort for passengers to and from the airport.
Moreover, he was able to persuade Air France, Kenya Airways, and Air Cote d’voire to return , consequently their coming back will not only help to stimulate the economy, but will build the confidence of investors to continue investing into the Sierra Leone economy.
Furthermore, one cannot overemphasize the amount of innocent lives that have perished during the past years while traveling on sea due to lack of rescue boats and life jackets, fortunately under the leadership of Minister Logus Koroma, Maritime Administration can now boast of five state of the art rescue boats which is now protecting our sea.
Thus, it was evident that the shortage of transportation within Freetown was making life very difficult for school going children, and vulnerable people- a social problem that has the inclination to undermine the Agenda for Prosperity. Suddenly, this issue caught the attention of His Excellency Dr President Ernest Bai Koroma, who then directed the hard working minister to address the issue immediately.
Against that backdrop, the hardworking Minister Logus Koroma worked tirelessly to get these100 buses on time, and today the people are enjoying them. Guess what? The long queues that were visible all over the city, and the wait time for transportation have reduced drastically.
Equally, Minister Logus Koroma has been working assiduously to fulfill President Koroma’s vision for a standard international airport on the mainland of the country; hence the commissioning of the Mamamah International airport project that is a flagship project for President Koroma is on the verge of becoming reality very soon.
By and large, the crux of this piece is to provoke the thinking faculty of readers, to understand that the current spate of attacks on Minister Logus Koroma is far beyond the procurement of the 100 buses.
However, before I continue, let me digress for a moment in order to highlight the fact that Minister Logus Koroma is a public figure, and I will be naive to question the public rights to ask him pertinent questions, and the public right to know about what is going on in his ministry. However, I believe as citizens we have the moral obligation to ask objective and genuine questions devoid of malice, hatred and personal vendetta, so at the end of the day there will be a healthy debate across the political spectrum.
FACTs
The President was concerned about the transportation problem in the city, hence issuing of an Executive Clearance. Next MOFED issue a no objection letter, and the contract was drafted and sent to the Law Officers’ Department where it was vetted and recommendations were made. Unquestionably, one of the approvals was that the Chinese state-owned company poly Group should be the contractor.
Besides, a committee was set up that comprised different stakeholders of which Minister Logus Koroma was not a member, and clearly, one of the responsibility of the committee was to serve as an oversight body over the entire process. Moreover, NPPA the agency that is responsible for all government procurements in the country was aware of the process, and gave their advice without any reservation.
This mirror the question that many concerned Sierra Leoneans are asking this million dollar question -what has this hard -working Minister done wrong?
Nevertheless, another mind bugling question is- why would some people want to bring down someone like Minister Koroma who is dubbed as a workaholic minister and has no life for himself and family? A man who is passionate to see President Koroma succeed in transforming our beloved nation.
In that light, in trying to get answers to the above questions, I did an investigation into the issue, and my focus was –to know where was the attack coming from, and on what basis?
After a thoughtful assessment of the issue from a broader picture, and coupled with my findings, I can deduce that these attacks on Minister Koroma are premeditated witch-hunt to bring him down.
Evidently, this witch-hunt crusade is coming from different quarters with different reasons, but the same mission- bringing down LOGUS at all cost, and by all means necessary. The execution of the witch-hunt crusade started to unleash after the show case parade of the buses.
First, came the Chairman of the new ADM party, he complained that some of the buses are coloured red, next he vexed that the Minister wore a hat that has the APC insignia during the bus parade, next they lied that the buses had old engines, and next, and next, and next the Minister flaunted the procurement procedures.
By the time the people could start showing gratitude for the coming of these buses, the ADM leader was all over the radio stations across the city trying to make a case against Minister Koroma; unfortunately for the ADM leader, he was ignorantly and overzealously trying to make a case in the court of public opinion based on false documents he had in his possession. Guess what? This overzealous young man ended up apologizing to the nation for propagating liars, and big fat liars against Minister Logus Koroma.
Also, it is noteworthy that the ADM leader Mr. Kambaramba Mansaray is a bosom friend of Mr Sam Sumana, and by extension a family friend.
Similarly, a week later the front page of the Global Times Newspaper of 27th July edition ‘captioned: Logus Koroma, Sylvia Blyden exposed as blinking Liars’. In this story the author asserted that the Director of Public Debt at MOFED Mr Sahr Jusu has contradicted the statement given earlier by Minister Logus Koroma in parliament stating that the Minister of Finance, and the Director of Public debt were part of the negotiating team for the award of the contract to the Chinese company.
Amusingly, what the Publisher of the Global Times, Mr Sorie Fofana didn’t know, nor Mr Jusu was-there is pictorial evidence to prove that Mr Jusu, and his boss, Dr Kaifala Marrah were both at the negotiating table.
It also important to highpoint that Mr Sorie Fofana is a family friend to the Samsuna family since their childhood days in Kono, and it was Mr Fofana who published the photo of him and Sam on Facebook when news broke out that Sam had fled his house and was at the American Embassy.
Also, it is very important to also mention that the SLPP never like Hon. Koroma because he had been a political tormentor against their party, and they love to hate him because of the leading role he played during the 2012 elections to give APC a victory without a runoff.
Finally, it’s noteworthy to highlight that during Mr Sumana narrative, Minister Koroma was a key prosecution witness for the APC Executive Committee during a disciplinary hearing against Mr. Sumana. Consequently, Mr Sumana was sacked as VP, and subsequently expelled from the party. Since that day when Mr Sumana was expelled, his operatives had been on the move to target people whom they perceived played leading role in the demise of Mr Sumana.
Interestingly, during my investigation I made an intriguing observation that the key players at the forefront to bring down Minister Logus Koroma are cronies of Sam Sumana. BANG!!!!!!! Could this be a coincidence? Well, that will be for the jury to read between the lines and make a logical conclusion. Let us not lose sight of the fact that Mr Sumana had made friends from all walks during his days in power
Let me humbly conclude by quoting the poet and playwright Michael Bassey Johnson “Protect your good image from the eyes of negative viewers, who may look at your good appearance with an ugly fiendish eye, and ruin your positive qualities with their chemical infested tongues.” In that regard, Mr Minister continues the good work you are doing and do not budge an inch to those distractors, hereafter posterity will judge us.
