With the visit of ECOWAS President Umaro Sissoco Embalรณ, who happens to be President of Guinea Bissau. The dialogue that President Embalรณ tried to initiate was a request from government quarters to meet with the former President โ in his statement; when the ECOWAS President referred to him having a phone conversation with Former President Koroma, who is in Kenya to oversee Kenya’s elections, categorically stated that the former president agreed upon request from the office of the President at State House that President Bio would want to meet with the former president, to which the former President Koroma consented.
But it is immature from a blog post carrying the face and name of the SLPP chairmanโDr. Alex Prince Harding, such a post is entirely out of touch with reality to make a fool of themselves disseminate such lies thatย Former President Ernest Bai Koroma beseeched to meet with President Bio.
How can these people be so ignorant even to understand that such a request did not come from EBK, and they are aware of the fact that when the ECOWAS President, Embalรณ, sounded off that โFormer President Koroma has agreed’ โ โhe didn’t say that former President Koroma has asked to meet with Bioโ…โ it means someone requested to which President Koroma ‘agreed.’
Such a statement from a Facebook account of Dr. Prince Alex Harding indicates that as a party in governance, they have not shown good faith in the reconciliation process. Such bald-faced lies have no place in a civilized society. They tend to crumble the bilateral conversation the ECOWAS chair has initiated between the two leaders for a stable country.
This consensus initiative might be heading for the rocks with this kind of childish tantrum from a chairperson of the governing SLPP. We donโt know where all of that is coming from. But as a party in government, they need to be very careful with such diatribes, which tend to create mistrust and hesitation about the genuineness of an open dialogue with the former president.
I ask that the SLPP chairman and their government should not return our country to the dark era of politics of bitterness and antagonisms. We must work for a peaceful Sierra Leone, and the SLPP cannot do it alone. As elections are around the corner, we must be peaceful in our conduct before, during, and after the elections. Sierra Leone’s democracy has come of age.
It is no longer the carry-go democracy of yesteryears. Now, the people of this country want to exercise their right to choose leaders of their choice. They cannot do so except we create an atmosphere where ideas can freely flourish.
So please, let peace reign and stop being mischievous with words, which can be character misrepresentation and have the propensity to slow down peaceful political dialogue.
