BEREWA WILL MAKE AN EVEN BETTER PRESIDENT : A REJOINDER BY HASHIM DABOH
Sunday April 30, 2006
Bro Foday,
Hope by now almost every one of you may have read Foday Dabo’s paled, maimed and hallowed response to my recent piece at cocorioko regarding the glaring failed leadership of the Kabbah/Berewah led SLPP. Foday is one of those few men endowed with a bounty of intellectual charm; even in school, that lad was unique with his unmatched wit in canvassing votes for various student governments he nurtured. He has always been his own man. I hope chuku at kissy road in Freetown will think again, on how his early morning egusie senior customer has outgrown his stature.
From the outset Foday was a hero even amongst the Mandingo (Jaelibas) praise singers from whose school he had lately graduated while enroute to the Kab-Bre school of fatalistic sycophancy. Young man, you and I know that your belated simple and imaginative attempt to cut and paste white or blue over a permanent black marker is not only a failure, but also a disservice to the common person in Sierra Leone.
Well, it’s true that I’m on the other side of the fence with your debacle SLPP leaders (something quite normal and a political norm), but to say I hate Kabbah and Berewah for their disservice to the people both swore to serve is an understatement. To even imagine the level of that hate is a travesty. Unless your types who only feeds on what theses two absentee leaders feed the innocent masses. However, the situation is so horrible that even die- hard SLPP parliamentarians are weary of their chances to even pull a single sit come 2007. Foday I’ve contempt for these people because they have done nothing worthy in their stewardship.
True that I have been out for over a decade, but that does not mitigate the fact that the situation is not what you described in that ?Lolo la la’ banal argument. Furthermore, both Alpha Jalloh and ?panotic’ David Tam-Bayoh in a May 25, 2005 concord edition, tore apart you’re painful and corruption festered argument, which reek with mendacity, and the un-ignoring nonchalance cockiness our government functionaries display anytime we the people question their honesty and simple job performance. These two brilliant analyst gave a feverish and hallowing mid year report on what is generally the ?how dae go dae go nar SA Lone.’ You and I live in North America, a simple fact, but you know that that churlish argument of not being on the ground is more than irrelevant in arguing this matter. No one, even you my dear brother, needs to be in a cooking port to accept that a boiling pot at temperatures beyond 100 degrees Fahrenheit is a dangerous and unacceptable place for any life-breathing animal.
The Sierra Leone you hopelessly endeavored to paint as a semi heaven is not what those who live there seem to see. However, as usual your type can never accept what is wrong with the leadership wrecking the system. Rather all what you know and continue to painfully tell your ever-hungry citizenry is that you inherited this poor, this and that from the old APC. The people are just sick and tired with your endless APC bashing. You mean Kabbah really couldn’t bear witness to the fact that bad leadership like his brought the country to its knees. All what you and the Momodus, Kanja, Kanji, Sama Banya and the Wuries have done, and continue to do with glaring impunity is APC’s fault.
I and many others at home and abroad knows for fact that the day Kabbah and his men will accept their grand role in wrecking our nation; that will be the same day Tejan will talk about all what he knows about the Bekous Bett Commission. You see the impossibility because Tejan is never going to tell the story not because there isn’t anything to tell ,but his contempt for us his ?fellow servants’ and his old ?DC’ acclaim will not allow him to stoop down to such level . Ngor Kanji’s systematic decapitation of the postal system prior to his new office at the Pa’s lodge, and Sama Banya’s total involvement with the corrupt APC are abundant signs that Kabbah has never been serious about our governance. Remove Momodu ( the famous bag carrier who is on record to have carried bags for most prominent Sierra Leoneans, Charles and Daramy not excluded), for simply doing nothing as a foreign Minster, and I see why Solo is not comfortable with him being the Pa’s running mate choice.
Have you lately come to terms with the 2007 agenda? Everything Kabbah and Berewah didn’t do in the past decade shall be done in 2007- the year for the SLPP leadership buffoons. Even the Pa’s ?’going to bed hungry bow wow cha cha’ is 2007, the electricity promised for 2003 December will now come alight in 2007, the Freetown cleaning campaign is 2007, the youths development and employment plan is 2007, the Freetown -Kenema high way is 2007, the Lungi bridge is 2007 ,the real fight and prosecution of charismatic corrupt public officers is 2007, the Calabar town ,Wellington , Kissy, and the East End Water and Road development projects will all be in 2007, the Freetown- Kono motor way, the Kenema -Kailahun Highway ,et, etc , for 2007 .what a travesty. Hey, have you heard the News; even Bumbuna is coming out in 2007. Whoa! What a 2007 to come. Really, the 2007 jibe is getting a bit too nauseating. It smells of pure electioneering gimmick- simple and clear.
Worst still is the known fact that all those projects, and many more will only be concluded after elections. However, what is still not included on the 2007 agenda is the sacking (by the voters) of all SLPP looters, and subsequent investigation of Kabbah and his Ministers. No civil servant will be touched, but a transparent and responsible system will be adopted to inform the public who and what has been spent from our national coffers. Bro Foday, can you imagine Tj and his cabal of state looters scampering out of the lodge with your tails between your legs come 2007. What a Hollywood star-studded Emmy day at the Lodge. When will the pa. return our State office back to where it belongs- the Slater terrace State House.
Can you imagine Kabbah spending the entire Independence Day (a day on which he should have given us the Health of our State) talking about the image of a country he has decimated through his lackluster leadership. That is blaspheming to the highest degree. We need not be reminded that Kennedy spoke about this and that. Not even Kennedy’s “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country “dictum goes with our diabolical situation. The time and place for that speech was more than inappropriate. In Kennedy’s America, the government already had established a system where transparency and responsibility became the order and Kennedy like others before him played their part. In Kennedy’s America is a freedom of information act, libel is not an anachronistic political weapon used against the people. Rather it’s democratic tool, which can be employed by all, and sundry to address issues in court. Moreover, and unfortunately so, Kabbah had once lived abroad and saw at play the idea of social justice being displayed in the Kennedy’s America he belabored to highlight.
However, here is a man still trapped in the colonial effigy of his Commissioner days- I feel for you TJ, but those days shall never come again because of what Milton and others did in London resulting in the Independence Day celebration you so eloquently mis-used. Kennedy built on the concrete structures his predecessors built, and above all, he established a leadership quality that is worth emulating. In fact, Kennedy was the President who inaugurated the first live TV press conference. He did many first things for his country. He never went into hiding when the Russians amassed weapons of mass destruction in Cuba. Rather he invoked the nationalistic sentiment of his people, and firmly, but in a nationalistic way dealt with the situation. At the end, he ensured that the Russians dismantled and walked away, but Yenga is still in hands of the Guineans. So why was the Pa. quoting JFK?
In January 2000, Kennedy would have rather stayed with his troops, (as Toure did with the Portuguese invasion of Conakry) to fight off the rebels. Nevertheless, Kabbah fled Freetown on hearing the first shot leaving everything behind except his ministers, the national checque book and the withdrawing right. Bro Foday, join voices with me to request for an independent audit team to audit kabbah’s Conakry expense alone, forget about the rest of the triple R abuse. If Mr. President really cares about the Image of his country, let him do just few right things. Let him replace Momodu for playing down the Yenga issue especially at the opportune time when we had the largest UN military presence anywhere in the world. However, since the Pa. is thinking of leaving in Conakry come 2007, he had long ago admonished his bag carrier to leave the yenga matter to the next president. Fire Kanji Daramy for his disservice to the nation in wrecking the once viable postal service; reduce the number of Wuires in the government, as there are other competent and abled Sierra Leoneans that can do the same jobs now being done by a single family tree.
What about the recent decorations or say the ballooned Independence Day Honors list. Two-third of those on that list should not have been there. Where are our gallant and loyal CDF people, late Alpha Lavalie, Desmond Luke, James International, Peter Penfold, Ambassador Leigh, Norman and Co. Ben Hirsh and co. and those patriots who braved Sankoh’s gun totters and drove him to his proper place- in eternity? No memorial for them. If that was Kennedy’s America, those patriots should have been immortalized, and the very house becomes a historic monument. So just, tell Tejan to stop the mimicking and face the moment like late J.S.Momoh. I hate to even imagine Obasanjo’s third term aspiration, but his two-term presidency has not only repaired his country’s image and triumph over the chronic civil service corruption, but has considerably enhanced Nigeria’s governmental structures. He ensured that his Corruption Bureau operates without boundaries or constant sniping as Pa. kabbah has been doing with ours in Sierra Leone. He let the Federal police boss face the Anti corruption guillotine with no interference.
That is probity. Can you imagine the former APC finance, Development, Resident minister and VP Sama Banya being inducted into Sierra Leone Hall of fame? Can Kabbah just simply tell the nation what Sama Banya has really brought home to Sierra Leone as a politician besides his concerted efforts to nurture the old APC? What about his abysmal record at the Sierra Leone lottery. On the other hand, as Kabbah’s Bekus Betts, was it all just a witch-hunt. For Kabbah, all his Ministers and other political appointees are clean, hardworking Sierra Leoneans who are just hated for being ministers, nothing more. However, what amazes me, Mr., daboh is fact that all of these embezzlers built their places only while serving in their present capacities as Directors, ministers, etc, etc.
Foday. that man ( H.E ,Fountain of Honor, grand Rokel ,grand this grand that ) is my fellow Sierra Leonean, who as I now do, lived in the Diaspora for over two decades as such knew exactly what a good and productive government should look like. He knows that private businesses can only thrive in genuine business atmosphere rather than an atmosphere reeked with unfettered ring of corrupt politicians and their endless bureaucratic gimmicks.
In short, your SLPP cabal of state looters is a joke, and Kabbah think we’ll fall for his 2007 everything. It is too late and surely, the people intend to try a new hand. To remind you if I may, a bad, poor and insensitive government for even six months can wreck a nation for decades.
By the way, if you are asking me to show proof of your six star corrupt leaders, well may I challenge you to show proof that the old APC was corrupt or that the NPRC was irresponsible in handling our affairs? On the other hand, would you mind telling me under whose name did Tejan get his New Jersey home, did I hear under the guise Blake! Or the Conakry castle, or Ngor Momodu’s famous London home, Or Kanja and Wuirie’ palaces and all the rest. These people have never and will never place a dime of a home acquired through the misuse of the State coffers under their real names not even their children. Probably the NPRC commissions taught them a completely new syllabus of securing excess loots. Do you remember the Michael Abdulai, VJV mambu, Bash Conteh and others; well we never knew the extent of their actions until the NPRC boys came in.
And by the way, if Kabbah and Mr. Daboh can establish in concrete terms APC’s corrupt practices ( that is besides any information resulting for the NPRC’s commissions) I’ll definitely show them where the current SLPP guys keep their money ,under whose names some of the loot is being kept or properties acquired. But as a public ,we arrived at the conclusion that the old APC was devilishly corrupt, insensitive and diabolical from their living conditions manifested by their mansions, palaces ,the relocation of family members and immediate relatives, fleet of cars , and above all ,the despicable living conditions of the masses despite the hearings of all kinds of developmental funds for the country.
Moreover, Mr. Daboh, have you realized that this is the same way your Tejan, Berewah and co is doing things. Check who drives the best of cars in Freetown or who recently built a new house/s in Freetown, or whose relative or family members have been relocated abroad. Foday, these are all signs of ?not living within your official emoluments ?as public servants. You think the civil servants will sit by while their political bosses prepare for retirement within a five-year ministerial appointment, hell no! Civil servants mostly just tow the line of their political bosses, and honestly, there is no retirement security for them (the civil servants).
With the civil servants what can be done to address their situation and raise their hopes for a brighter future. Extend to the entire entire long existing Mortgage scheme from our Banks. Alternatively, government can create environments for the private sector to invest in Housing where civil servants can own a home on loans. Payment amount can be set based on individual incomes or more, if one can afford it. This suggestion emanates from the view that much of the financial impropriety in the public sector by civil servants is the fear of retiring without an abode- a place where you and your family can live for the rest of your time on earth. Therefore, I’m convinced that with assurance of Housing mortgage scheme, the dire need within that body to corrupt will recede, and a hopeful civil servants will better serve the country.
Foday, if you could browse through much of Tejan’s speeches, whatever had gone wrong with the country in the past was due to the cruelty of the old APC. His government is clean despite being festooned with all the red lights of corrupt practices. So when will this man take responsibility for his own acts, just when, when my dear! Tejan’s speeches are replete with the APC bashing, and actually, we just needed someone who can lead not a political toddler like Kabbah. Let him borrow a page from Ellen of Liberia. That madam president has hardly mentioned anything about Doe, because she seemingly is a leader. She believes in forging ahead with her own purposeful agenda, not blaming everyone for her failures or challenges. Foday, it’s nearly ten years now, what’s going on!
Simply kamor Tejan and Berewah voraciously squandered the political capital lavished on them by the innocent citizenry , and now they should be packing so that we can return the government back to the people- with the State House being our real seat of government, not someone else’s living room turned office. Even the religious sentiment kabbah has always invoked at his lodge to the ?jammat’ is a misplaced sentiment. Pa. shaki was a Christian, but the Mecca trip was always well organized and no one was left stranded at either lungi or somewhere in Nigeria. Under Kabbah (a prophesied Muslim), the Mecca pilgrimage has seen its worst of days. Successively, pilgrims have been stranded in both Sierra Leone and Nigeria with many returning home without reaching Mecca. So why wear this white turban every day, or is it just a ploy to assure our benevolent Arab friends that we’re on course as a God fearing Muslim nation led by one ?mehaji’. That is a bit over the mark. I don’t need a big turban to display my Islamic faith. Let your deeds manifest your true religion. So let the religious gimmick stop. Christian or Muslim, every nation and society deserves a genuine and patriotic leadership, and we lack that. Well just yesterday the renovated Connaught hospital was reopened, but at what cost. Therefore, in the name of transparency, can the Pa’s office tell us how much was spent on that banal enterprise? Did anyone tell the President that -if rumors on the $20.000.000 cost is anything to go by, then why not to have easily built a brand new hospital when $2.000.000 can do the job the pa. Inaugurated yesterday. But that is how all the Funds vanished in thin air. Dr. Blake has espoused a brilliant approach for the nation and it now remains with not only other heavy weights, but also sincere patriots to weigh in.
Do you get it! Let the orange reign. Wata wae nor to for you for run pass you, and wata wae you go dorty and dry, for flow pass you. Nor any kind kalo kalo person dae cam lead we dis time. It is our own time and we going to take it or forever remain silent. Bring it on, but please I’m warning you and TJ never to mention APC corruption without first showing us the proof. Lonta!
Ketamia- Dae mia foday
Bo- moi Hashim
