By Kabs Kanu
The whole nation is waiting with anticipation today as the presidential candidates in the forthcoming elections lock horns in a massive presidential debate at Bintumani Hotel in Freetown.
Famous BBC journalist, Hassan Arouni, has been brought in to moderate the debate.
For a post-conflict country, our electioneering campaign is democratic, lawful, peaceful and fascinating . Apart from this presidential debate, various political parties have been holding rallies all over the country freely and peacefully, without any hindrance whatsoever.
But you won’t hear it on the BBC or read it in U.S. and Western newspapers. Is it that this is not what they want to see or hear ? Are they only interested in perpetrating negative images of war, ethnocentric conflicts, starvation, disease, war, misgovernance , etc about us ?
Well, Africa is metamorphosing. Sierra Leone is now a democratic giant. We bash one another, but really, we as a nation are doing a marvelous job with democracy but oh ya, will you read it or hear it in the Western media ? Do monitoring institutions give us appropriate credit ?
Mehn, praise us and give us awards for our democratic dispensation. We are the best.
SIERRA LEONE’S POLICE AND GOVERNANCE INSTITUTIONS DO FAR BETTER IN PROTECTING THE RIGHTS AND LIVES OF MINORITIES, RACES AND WOMEN THAN SO-CALLED INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRIES
By Kabs Kanu
When has anybody been shot to death in Sierra Leone because he is black, white, arab, Lebanese or what-have-you ? When has any Sierra Leone police officer been caught on tape saying : “As long as he is a black man , shoot him ! ! ” ? When has Sierra Leone police officer pulled over a driver and told her : “Oh, do not be afraid. You are white. You know we only shoot black people ! ! ! “
Our women do not walk around with pepper sprays, or in morbid fear of parking lots, elevators, lonely corners , lanes and highways or even public bathrooms because they would be raped or sexually molested.
Lebanese, Asians, Syrians, Turks, Palestinians, Americans, Britons, Russians etc. roam around our country enjoying themselves , in many cases, even better than bonafide Sierra Leoneans. They enjoy our cassava lif and fufu and bitter lif , our beaches, our night clubs ,our beautiful women , our natural resources and glorious weather, without any let or hindrance. In fact, we love them and extend more courtesies to them than our own people.
This APC Government, under President Ernest Koroma has done far more to protect the rights and lives of women and minorities than Western and european countries. Some Sierra Leoneans just hate their country when it is not being ruled by their political parties or tribes and so hate to see their country praised, but it is a fact that we are doing far better in promoting fundamental human rights. Under a Dr. Samura Kamara government , it will be the same.
Yet all the Western media and puppet monitoring institutions do whole day is look for opportunities to stigmatize, stereotype or label us . I am sick and tired of my country and continent being wrongly labelled.
Sierra Leone should be given international awards for the great job she is doing in protecting the rights and lives of minorities and women in our midst.
