By Dr Columba Blango
Let us have a microscopic look at how the Paopas have managed to wreck SLPP and the impact of their avarice, corruption and fanaticism on our party’s reputation. Let us critically examine the cost of paoparism to the party and other aspirants over the last five years. Let us also try to understand for once that, When Corruption, Greed and Fundamentalism converge, it means Unquantifiable Chaos in SLPP. Let us as well bring into the fore the cost of the mayhem and loss of life the Paopas have caused over the past five years. How they have shattered our dreams and aspirations for a better Salone. How they have eroded the party’s integrity by shamefully dampening our core values and how again, for five years, they continuously inflicted pain, sorrow molestation and murder on party members.
Dr. Columba Blango
HOW THEY MANAGE TO DO IT
1. The Paopas agenda was enshrined in August 2011 when the party, under coercion and threats at Miata conference center, imposed Maada Bio as flagbearer of the party, though 62% of delegates voted against him. JOB’s was blinded by deep tribal fundamentalism and he succumbed to the Paopa spell, a treachery which he paid dearly for a few months and years later.
2. Then after the elections the infamous Resolution 3 in early 2013 was passed by a NEC meeting to make Maada Bio continue as leader of the SLPP (instead of serving as an ex-officio member as Solomon Berewa graciously did). This sowed the seeds of a paopa controlled NEC and The emergence of Bios exaggerated and delusional imperial domination of our party.
3. By late 2013 Prince Harding and Tamba Sam developed the plan to purge the party of their opponents, starting with the Minority Leader and JOB. We witnessed vandalization and intimidation. The Benghazi Brigade was set up at the party office. JOB and IJ Kabba and others vehicles were vandalized, and other opponents were manhandled anywhere and everywhere the Paopas could find them. The first court injunction was filed to protect the Minority Leader in that year.
4. Next came the fateful Bo convention and the whole Alie-Bangura versus Karpen Suprem Court Saga, which dominated the party from late 2013 up to late 2015. We also witnessed suspensions, expulsions and more intimidation in the party. The Paopas led by Prince Harding and Tamba Sam dismissed the Chairman and Leader and the Secretary General by fiat, only for the latter to be saved by The All Political Party Association, which mobilized in protest of this wanton disregard for constitutional order. But the same coup was repeated in December 2017.
5. In 2014 Chairman Jones of the West Rural district was bitten up at the party office and was in a coma for one week. No one protested. John Karimu, Kolleh Dumbuya and others were attacked at the court house and no one complained. JOB’s house was attacked and it was also “buff case”. So Paoparism metamorphosed into murder when Daddy George was killed in Kenema in 2016. I have no doubt that his spirit will hunt the Paopas and if JOB betrays him may JOB’s soul forever be damned.
6. Then the day of reckoning approached on August 24, 2015 when the juggernaut of the kKY Movement entered the scene. The Paopas amassed 300 thugs to molest their leader KKY, his mother, and his supporters. They spat at them, abused them, humiliated them all in the presence of the National Officers, NEC Memebers and the Paopa leadership. Many flagbearer opponents cheered in their private offices for they assumed that the Paopas would obliterate the KKYM so they could emerge as front runners. All cheered as for 4 months up to December 2015 press conferences and TV shows were organized to humiliate KKY over registration (all of this while APC was working on the new population census). But alas, the KKY Movement endured and they learnt that the only way to fight evil is to stand up to it, and to have faith in the power of the Almighty Allah/God.
7. In January 2016, the Paopas rolled out their coronation agenda. They quickly formulated new rules and regulations drafted by crooked Abbas AFRC Bundu the legal bombast, and called for snap lower level elections. They printed over 300 thousand fake membership cards for their supporters while denying all flagbearer supporters membership. Those aspirants who were vehemently opposed to the KKYM suddenly realized that the narcissist agenda of Paoparism had no bounds for they were also now targets for disenfranchisement.
8. So 2016 was dominated by trench war fare for delegates from ward, section, constituency levels all the way up the chain. PPRC became the new theater of combat. Sometimes PPRC was the arbiter and the perpetrator of illegality. Paoparism made a pact with the APC to run and rerun constituencies they had Lost. So Kenema district was rerun 2 times, Kono 2 times, parts of the Northern Province and Western area 2 times. All of this costing aspirants billions of Leones. Meanwhile, the cost to the party’s image, reputation, and integrity cannot even be quantified.
9. In 2017 we are now in the courts because what the reruns of lower level elections could not achieve for Paopas, Prince Harding decided to accomplish by “Parallel Lists” and Fake Lists”. But more pain will come when we go to the Supreme Court and when more cases are filed for continuous fraudulent acts affecting the additional delegates from NGOs and UK&I. Prince Harding has now disenfranchised those lot in order to defeat Manyeh (Paopa on Paopa canibalism).
10. In the months of May and June 2017 under the misleading interpretation of the law by Lord of the laws Dr Abass Bundu and the misguided management of the incompetent and inept Paopa NEC executive , the Paopas lost significant court cases, causing major setbacks for the party at different levels. Setbacks that could have been avoided if they were not locked in their bunker mentality of “Democracy by Force”.
11. In the last couple of weeks, we have witnessed Paopa operatives from within different paopa fundamentalist camps brutally tearing each other apart for the position of chairman and leader, further wrecking the party. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. We wait to see how they begin to suck their own blood when push comes to shove.
It is however not too late. Repent and you shall be forgiven. Seek Truth and Honesty and you shall achieve deliverance. May the Almighty guide your leaders to see that the only way is GENUINE PEACE. May the Almighty cleanse your hearts, guide your steps to march towards peace, and open your arms to embrace change and the rule of law.
Leh We Dae Go Normor….
