Thursday March 9 , 2006
Hard-hitting former Sierra Leone Ambassador to the U.S, Mr. John Ernest Leigh, has responded stoutly to those individuals who criticised his recent views about Prospective Presidential aspirant , Charles Margai and his political party , the People’s Movement for Democratic Change ( PMDC) .
Talking about all the views so far expressed by his critics , Mr. Leigh complained that :”It seems from such writings that with some people, everything Sierra Leonean is said, written or done with an evil, ulterior motive. This is not necessarily the true situation in every case at all. ” .In fact, it is now learnt from the former diplomat that the letter that has brought all the furor was leaked to the public.
READ THE FULL LETTER
STOP THE HYSTERICAL OVERREACTION. I DISRESPECTED NO ONE
� John E. Leigh
This reply is in response to positions articulated by Messrs. Ekundayo Cole, Dr. Baimba Kamara, Mundo Tombo and S. I. Kamara in yesterday’s edition of Cocorioko.
In reading responses in opposition to my rebuttal to a Freetown newspaper report (claiming that three so-called born-again Kammajors have disclosed a plot to assassinate the leader of a newly formed political party in Sierra Leone), it is clear that the proper comprehension of written statements in ordinary English Language has suffered significant degradation, probably hand-in-hand, much less with the general degradation of Sierra Leone’s once vaulted pre-independence educational standards, but more so with the desperate state of politics in Sierra Leone.
It seems from such writings that with some people, everything Sierra Leonean is said, written or done with an evil, ulterior motive. This is not necessarily the true situation in every case at all. Some Sierra Leoneans do things, argue a position or defend a situation honestly, merely because they believe that such is the right, proper and correct thing to say, write or do and for no other reason whatsoever.
MR. EKUNDAYO COLE OF THE UK
Thus, my rebuttal to the born-again Kammajor disclosure in the Evening Scoop, does not mean I am out to lick Kabbah or Berewa or any other individual as Mr. Ekundayo Cole incorrectly concluded in his e-mail to Cocorioko. How can I be said to be licking government boots when I wrote matter-of-factly in the same e-mail that:
“Today, our country is a very peaceful place, even
amidst fantastic poverty, unsatisfied want, vast
inconveniences, hardship and very poor national leadership..”?
If certain people are burdened with guilty consciences based on chronic ulterior intentions in their daily dealings with others, they may wish to understand that it is not proper to automatically extrapolate their guilty ulterior ways to others as Mr. Cole seems to be doing in his attack on me.
Throughout most of my tenure in Washington, I encountered Sierra Leone officials who automatically ascribed their own ulterior motives on to me, believing I would behave like them in like or similar circumstances when, low and behold, my culture of service is diametrically opposed to theirs. People like Mr. Cole should begin to learn to understand that some of our people may have an upbringing, a belief system and service standard totally different from his. Thank you very much.
For the information of PDMC supporters and sympathizers, I have never limited PMDC’s support ONLY to san san boys, etc., nor do I disrespect such people. I used the word ?MOSTLY’ to describe those who make a lot of noise on our streets on behalf of PMDC and at non-political functions such as at CKC’s last November and in only four specific towns – Freetown, Bo, Kenema and Koidu but who are nevertheless powerless to make Mr. Margai important enough politically for anyone of his political rivals to warrant the assassination attempt that was reported in the Evening Scoop last Wednesday.
Again, I am not saying here that Mr. Margai is not important. I am only saying that his political importance, based on my experience in Sierra Leone, does not rise to a level wherein anyone of his rivals would want to kill him as reported by the Evening Scoop.
PMDC has, of course, other supporters other that those I identified but those more ?powerful’ ones are silent and few and far between in comparison to those of the other parties. Some are silent out of prudence because of legitimate fears of possible retaliation and victimization – conduct known to have happened in Sierra Leone.
Others are silent because, in my experience, they appear to prefer others to do the job of electing their party candidates or tend to limit their support merely to letters, biased articles and commentaries on the World Wide Web or do the usual ?lip service’.
I can tell you that those in Sierra Leone who look to the PMDC for positive change are not entirely happy with the state of affairs in their party or the way the heralded ?Third Force’ has been distorted. But such supporters still have time to work and make a difference for a better Sierra Leone via their new party.
DR. BAIMBA KAMARA OF HOUSTON, TX
I now turn to Dr. Baimba Kamara’s slashing broadside against my reference to San-san boys, etc. But in attacking me, Dr. Kamara appears not to fully understand from whence I was coming in making my case against the likelihood of any assassination plot in Sierra Leone.
My reference to noisemakers has nothing to do with denigrating anyone or disrespecting any soul – not least of whom are those honest laboring people struggling to make a living against man-made difficulties. My reference to San-san boys, etc. was thus solely to explain the political powerlessness of much of PMDC’S visible support base in the scheme of things in our country for the sole purpose of establishing that the said assassination plot is a mere fiction as the said target of the plot does not appear to me as a significant political threat warranting anyone of his rivals to kill him.
Further, I never made any reference to market men or women, nor called any one “hoodlums” as Dr. Kamara incorrectly ascribed to me. And I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Kamara that people earning their living honestly are good people, who are important to the success of our society but who our government has badly let down – a situation that I have repeatedly railed against in writing and in speech and will continue to do so.
I also answer in the affirmative Dr. Kamara’s proposition that such people deserved and ought to be helped by our government. I truly respect these people and empathize with them. Nevertheless, these hardworking people are not powerful enough for their groups to have been able to elevate Mr. Margai to a position where he becomes a political threat sufficiently threatening to any of his rivals so that one of them might have plotted his assassination as reported by the Evening Scoop last Wednesday.
Moreover, I would like Dr. Kamara & Co. to understand that in our country, market men and women, traders, farmers and many people are influenced more by authority figures with power, patronage and resources to distribute, than by those I have identified as powerless to help their communities. Such is the plain fact whether one likes it or not.
The above are the points I was trying to make in my leaked e-mail to establish the fact that there is no likelihood whatsoever that the Evening Scoop assassination plot report is accurate.
Saying the truth does not mean that I am disrespecting any one or saying that Mr. Margai is not important or of zero political threat, etc.
In addition, the fact that I sought to prove that the Evening Scoop report is untrue does not mean that I “have suddenly diverted my good cause of fighting for the rights of our people or that Sierra Leone has two John Leighs” as Dr. Kamara asked. I am merely stating that the Evening Scoop assassination plot story is pure fiction for the reasons stated in my leaked e-mail.
For your information, I am the sole John Leigh in Sierra Leone who will forever remain true to my record as an unyielding fighter for the legitimate rights of all the people of Sierra Leone.
As for Dr. Kamara’s interpretation that I concluded that Mr. Margai is not a political factor in Sierra Leone, Dr. Kamara ought to understand that my statements cannot be interpreted in isolation but should be read in the context in which my private e-mail was written. My considered conclusion was that Mr. Margai ?is not a political factor in Sierra Leone sufficient enough to warrant any of his political rivals arranging his assassination as reported by the ?Evening Scoop’ last Wednesday.
Of course, Mr. Margai is a political factor in his own right but not a political factor with a stature warranting an assassination plot as reported by the Evening Scoop.
With regard to Dr. Kamara’s inquiry as to whom, as between Mr. Margai and I, is a bigger political factor in Sierra Leone today, I can say that Mr. Margai is certainly the bigger political factor. This is because he is currently a presidential candidate and leader of his own party while I merely ran for my party’s leadership position nearly six months ago and, poor me, I am now merely on the sidelines evaluating other opportunities in and out of politics.
But who is or is not the bigger political factor is not the real issue. In fact, I care nothing about such comparisons. The point I stated was that based on the knowledge I gained during my month-long nationwide visit to Sierra Leone last month, Mr. Margai is not a sufficient political factor to warrant any one of his rivals attempting to assassinate him as reported by the Evening Scoop.
As for the Makeni ConBention, Dr. Kamara was not the only one bruised by the crooked happenings there and the treatment inflicted upon me. I have already written an extensive report on the farce that was Makeni. Please feel free to review my view of the Makeni ConBention in www.changesierraleone.org. I stand squarely behind that writing.
In the meantime, I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Kamara for his concerns about my then plight during the ConBention. I am grateful. You were not alone.
In reading my ConBention report, Dr. Kamara, will no doubt discover that I was not double crossed by the SLPP in Makeni at all. Rather, the contest for the leadership was nothing but crooked politrics at its worse that damaged the party and its leadership across our land and internationally. For about a month or so after the ConBention, the atmosphere in the SLPP heartland and most of the country was one of sorrow, consternation and anger.
As we all know, the Makeni crookedness was partly responsible for the establishment of the PMDC. I chose to remain in the SLPP and fight it out rather than run away like some people. So far, my culture is never to cut and run like Mobutu’s soldiers. My culture is to stay and fight regardless of personal benefits or losses because I am after what is right and proper for society at large rather than for personal profits. No one knows what the future holds.
In response to Dr. Kamara’s remaining questions, there is no doubt that Mr. Margai is a true Sierra Leonean and that every Sierra Leonean has the right to contest for the presidency – and I never implied otherwise. All I said in my private e-message was that the Evening Scoop’s article about a purported assassination plot against Mr. Margai can not based on facts for the reasons I enumerated.
MR. MUNDA TOMBO OF BO
This brings me to Mr. Munda Tombo’s attack piece glorifying personalities who helped ruin the APC, and who then crossed over with their dirty tricks to damage the SLPP members at the Makeni ConBention. Those are the same politricsters who orchestrated the Makeni affair after illegally staying in office for four years instead of two and not once calling a meeting of the party’s National Executive Council during the entire period. But who suddenly in August organized the ConBention to improperly accelerate the election date of the Party Leader position by 18 months ahead of the regular convention time. These facts are all set forth inwww.changesierraleone.org
Undiplomatic Diplomat
As for Mr. Tombo’s gratuitous reference to the late Mrs. Kabbah, I have dealt decisively with a similar ignorant statement before in the Sierra Leone press. But some ignorant people still remain steep in their darkness, unable to learn or get educated on this issue.
The ?undiplomatic diplomat’ issue that some detractors still proclaim in their emptiness clearly fits the truism that “where ignorance is bliss, it is funny to be wise”. Here is the full story. You will understand the ignorance.
AS the last Century was approaching its end, disinterested or “dull” observers of international affairs failed to recognize the need for changes in the then existing diplomatic practice among nations that was once associated with a time period when only legitimate practices by law-abiding sovereign states were the norm. Fortunately for the suffering, abused people in Sierra Leone, their ambassador in Washington was quick to see the need to change certain established diplomatic practices then common to all nations.
With the advent of rogue criminal states towards the end of the last Century, I believed that newer diplomatic norms had to be invented to deal effectively with the criminalization of state power for adventures abroad, especially against innocent civilians in our country, by certain criminal heads of state hiding under the then all important cloak of state sovereign immunity.
I am very proud to say that I was one of the very first individuals holding a diplomatic position anywhere in the world – if not the very first – who implemented the need for changes in diplomatic practice to put a check to the criminalized powers of rogue heads of states doing mischief abroad for personal commercial profit by orchestrating insurgencies abroad. Such insurgencies included instigating crimes against humanity, as was the case in our country, in other to plunder our natural resources, chiefly diamond gemstones.
At the time, I was very upset at the mindless, unjust punishment inflicted against innocent people and I became desperate to end the unprovoked suffering of our abused people.
I did so by deliberating identifying by name, the rogue sovereign leaders engaged in criminal activities badly damaging to our people and who cowardly acted under the cover of state sovereign immunity and the anonymity provided under the obsolete diplomatic practice of avoiding referring to evil leaders and their countries by their name. But the crimes they had committed in our country were egregious.
Since I was convinced that the world was changing because of the wholesale abuse of sovereign immunity by the emerging criminalized states and the obvious obsolescence of the existing diplomatic usages at the time designed to protect legitimate state affairs, I became convinced that the rest of the world would eventually embrace my initiative.
Accordingly, I disclosed the names of those heads of states who I knew from diplomatic intelligence sources were busy inflicting damage and suffering on our people.
At the time, disinterested or non-thinking political types, needlessly criticized as undiplomatic, my highly effective tactic in naming the names of the three culprits then inflicting savage sufferings and ruination on our people. Those dull people failed to realize that identifying by name those criminals then operating under cover of sovereign immunity, helped pushed the world to take notice of state criminality as a threat to international peace and security and soon thereafter, commenced framing policies to stop the violence in Sierra Leone as the first act in the chain of action to stamp out natural resources wars.
The British military intervention in Sierra Leone, the $2.8 billion UN Peace efforts in Sierra Leone and the Kimberly Process Agreement governing the international trade in raw diamonds were direct outcomes of my defining the Sierra Leone war as a war of plunder orchestrated by criminalized states for base commercial profits on one part and the export of revolution to African countries, on the other part and then identifying the sovereign criminals involved.
The whole ignorant “undiplomatic” name-calling began in Conakry when a top government official I visited there incorrectly told me that it was “undiplomatic” to identify a North African Strongman by name. But he was the boss and I knew he was isolated in Guinea so chose not to debate the issue.
The North African strongman had trained and backed RUF’s Foday Sankoh’s war in Sierra Leone via a neighboring collaborator he was guiding to establish another brutal, rogue regime in Sierra Leone. Those dull people in Conakry around that official I visited then began parroting “undiplomatic diplomat” in their gathering campaign to isolate me because they had become fearful of the prominence I had garnered in initiating and waging an eventually successful campaign against the AFRC/RUF coupligan regime.
Nowadays, the practice I initiated in Washington is quite common place among states and international organizations in dealing with rogue criminal leaders attempting to cowardly hide under the cloak of sovereign immunity while orchestrating the committing of violent crimes against humanity. No more anonymity or protection for those criminal types.
If Mr. Tombo is still ignorant of this small Sierra Leone contribution to world civilization, he is free to remain ignorant and ungrateful but he must cease to drag Mrs. Kabbah’s name into his wall of darkness.
Never Blamed Any Tribe
Mr. Tombo’s other lie falsely claimed that I blamed a whole tribe for the AFRC coup of May 25, 1997. I never blamed an entire tribe. I merely identified the hometown tribal link of the brutal coupligan ringleaders who were hell bent on keeping illicit power by any barbaric means. And I did so only well into the life of that coup regime and only when the suffering in Sierra Leone became unbearable with no relief in sight and during a period when the town’s mates, tribal associates and relatives of the perpetrators not only did nothing to check the excesses of their coupligan brethren, but only when some of them appeared ready to exploit their illicit advantages and profits from the unlawful seizure of power by their compatriots and fellow tribesmen.
In identifying the hometown heritage of the coupligans’ ringleaders, my objective was to nudge their people and their uninvolved elders to talk to their brutal brethren so they may negotiate a settlement to end their violence against civilians as well as terminate their unacceptable seizure and occupation of civilian constitutional offices.
Failing that, my secondary objective in identifying the main coupligans’ hometown was to isolate and thus weaken them so they could be defeated and thus free our suffering people from intolerable bondage. As it were, every individual I identified as a top coupligan was charged with at least one serious criminal offence following their eviction by ECOMOG. To now falsely claim that I blamed a whole tribe many, many years after he enjoyed the fruits of my labor is ungrateful and dumb.
To me, identifying by name and location of both the foreign and internal aggressors against our people during the catastrophic war of plunder against innocent civilians, was the surest way to help to bring closure to one of the most painful and sorriest chapters in the post-slave trade history of Sierra Leone.
If Mr. Munda Tombo still does not understand these issues and tactics, if he is still ignorant of the facts, he ought to try to have a conversation with me, possibly over poyo in his village, during my next visit to his area. I will be honored by his invitation.
Nigeria
After exposing his ?undiplomatic diplomat’ ignorance, Mr. Tombo then seeks to make issue with his claim that the Leighs are flourishing in Nigeria. If that’s true, but why must it be so? Has he ever tried to operate a business in Sierra Leone or in Nigeria or in Ghana? Is Mr. Munda Tombo flourishing in Bo? If not, why not?
I would definitely like to bring lots of business investments into Sierra Leone but why should I when the government is willfully holding my $90,000 for no just cause for several years now? How can I honestly tell investors with a straight face that our government is manned by decent people who truly understand the sanctity of contracts as well as the true nature of business obligations? Regrettably, I can’t at this point in time because the facts speak for themselves and should I misstate the facts, my declarations will be countered by Transparency International, the International Crisis group and a host of other NGOs concerned about the state of mankind in Sierra Leone.
And guess who the investors would believe: me or Transparency International?
Again, I would very much like to invest in Sierra Leone but here is what happened when I first tried to do so years back.
In 1979, I lost approximately $100,000 in Sierra Leone trying to establish a branch business in my homeland because bookshops (including Fourah Bay College Bookshop) were too poor to pay their debts and because of some employee shenanigans. During the interregnum, I invested over $150,000 of my family’s hard earned money to fight the coupligans via obtaining international support to put the duly elected government back in its rightful place in our country.
Many people now know the payback I received from those who benefited the most for the genuine sacrifice I made to restore peace and constitutionality in Sierra Leone.
Investment Preconditions
Mr. Tombo should understand that business flows to countries where there are markets, productive capacity and civilized standards of governance and leadership.
If the market base is very narrow or the infrastructure non-existent or primitive as in Sierra Leone and if darkness is constant; if there are Himalayas of garbage constantly piled up on city streets; if teachers, nurses and other public officials are compelled to work without pay for long periods of months; if there exists a large underclass of unemployed or insufficiently gainfully employed; if the population lacks sufficient food; if salaries are meager; if the exchange value of the national currency is constantly in a state of degradation; if the ports are corruptly and inefficiently managed; if diseased dogs are allowed to freely roam the streets; if dorty-box chickens perambulate at will in most garbage heaps; if the justice system keeps poor people in horrific jails for long periods of time without trial or bail and if bail imposed is frequently unreasonable or excessive; if court cases are frequently postponed until witnesses and/or the participants die; if law reports of actual cases are not regularly published; if lawyers are allowed to swindle their clients fiti fata; if the top leaders spend a disproportionate amount of public resources on themselves and their close associates, relatives and friends; if international watchdog organizations such as Transparency International, International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, Global Witness, Amnesty International, etc. constantly turn out well-researched but unfavorable reports on that country; if productive people are marginalized and marginal people rewarded, promoted and pampered; if nepotism and favoritism determines public decisions; if a country appears to distance itself from secular, civilized nations governed on the basis of democracy, the rule of law, science, technology and innovations but seems to embrace rogue states and/or unprogressive theocratic nations; if political parties are corruptly led and opt for ConBentions rather than genuine democratic conventions, etc., etc., then in many of such circumstances, that nation is unlikely to attract long term capital in sufficient quantities to fuel sustainable economic growth.
In the absence of clean, long term capital, backwardness spreads nationwide and becomes the predominant feature of the country. Short term, fly-by-night capital then steps in to fill the vacuum and rip off the people, bribing public officials as a matter of course. Hardship continues and when the time is ripe, another Foday Sankoh or a new set of coupligans emerges. Mr. Tombo should be aware that long term capital insists on genuine stability based on good governance. Such is yet to emerge in our country.
Even so, Mr. Tombo would be pleased to know that, recently, I begun inquiries to establish businesses in Sierra Leone but I am first experimenting with a number of minor investments in an attempt to gauge the mentality of our people towards work and the assumption of responsibility. When the time and conditions are ripe and proper, Mr. Tombo can count on my continued commercial intervention in Sierra Leone.
Phony San-San Boys Issue
I have already addressed most of the other points Mr. Tombo mentioned regarding San San boys, Honda riders, RUF ex-combatants, etc., in responding to the issues raised by Dr. Kamara. Those who know me understand fully that I believe that our hardworking and poverty-stricken underclass needs government assistance more than any other group.
During my campaign for the SLPP leadership position I articulated my plans to address the plight of all poor people in Sierra Leone but instead of a genuine party convention in Makeni, an unholy ConBention was thrust upon us. Supporters asked me to take legal action but I cannot invest in the courts because I am not sure that our country possesses an independent judiciary at all.
Next, I agree with Mr. Tombo that there are many evil opportunists in politics like some of those he named but Rome was not built in a day. Reforms will take time, patience and skillful hard work. Therefore, it is incumbent on the progressive party members to remain in the SLPP and strive to cleanse it rather than take the low road and run way to join others in a one-man show, some of whose top aides are known to me as just as evil and opportunistic as those who they are running away from.
SLPP is an institution that has survived the test of times. PMDC is a one-man show based on the announced benevolent dictatorship. I believe that long after the demise of PMDC, I will continue to help working to strengthen the SLPP to its genuine democratic greatness
At the Bo 2002 Convention, I truthfully tried to explain that a bribe-giving future SLPP MP was not the genuine leader of SLPP North America. What then happened during the Convention when two now-discredited SLPP ex-APC officials rudely ordered me to ?sit down, shut up and go back to America’ after I had helped pay for the party to be elected in 1996 and then helped exiles out of the Conakry mudflats in 1998, is clearly a precursor to the 2005 ConBention in Makeni and the creation of splinter parties. When good people like Mr. Tombo sit down and do nothing in the face of egregious wrongdoing, wrongdoings will escalate and innocent people may be swallowed up in its wake. Party splits will emerge.
No Legitimate Political Polls Taken
Lastly, I never took a poll while in Sierra Leone and certainly I did nothing under the influence of poyo or mampama as Mr. Tombo is asserting. I am a man of moderation and fairness. Throughout my travels in Sierra Leone, I merely had friendly informal conversations with some refreshments with farmers, traders, youths, students, teachers, miners, nurses, paramount chiefs, Regent Chiefs, Section Chiefs, Honda riders, travelers, taxi drivers, diners, villagers, workers and pedestrians across our land. Most people had no idea what my identity was. But whatever happened cannot be inflated into a genuine political poll.
S. I. KAMARA
I now conclude this report by addressing those issues raised by S. I. Kamara but not addressed above.
But again, the published report was a private e-mail not meant for publication and was intended solely to demonstrate that a purported assassination plot against Mr. Margai of the PMDC could not have been based on facts for the reasons started in my e-mail.
References to certain classes of people were never intended to insult anyone but merely to show that known supporters of Mr. Margai were not sufficiently powerful to position their man politically in such a way as to invite assassination attempts from his rivals. That’s all to it. My respect for our very poor people is unshakable and second to none and I will do all I can to help as much as I can, those of my fellow citizens who strive to forge ahead lawfully.
For your information, I never asked Mr. Margai to cede leadership to me at any time for any reason including age. It is Margai who came to me repeatedly asking me to join PMDC under his lightweight leadership. I only reacted to numerous annoying attempts by Mr. Margai and his people to recruit me by making clear that under no circumstances will I serve under any one with lesser achievements than I. That never meant I wanted Mr. Margai to cede any type of leadership to me. I am not interested in hijacking the Third Force much talked about last year and I have no interest in becoming part of it as long as reforms within SLPP are possible.
The claim that I am full of hyperbole or cannot speak Krio is pure rubbish. My political stance is well known and consistent. I never bend with the prevailing political wind. I stay and fight it out until victory is won!
Moreover, I speak perfect Krio. People leave Kankan and Futa to live in Freetown and within six months or less speak perfect Krio. I grew up in Freetown in my Creole father’s home from age six months onwards, schooled in Freetown in Krio schools, taught by Krio teachers, attended Krio Churches until my “A” Levels before coming to the USA.
Moreover, many of the crooks who ruined Sierra Leone spoke or speak excellent Krio. Siaka Stevens, Momoh, Foday Sankoh and all the crooks mentioned by Mr. Tombo and others, etc. all spoke perfect Krio. Yet their Krio-speaking skills produced little to uplift the lives of our people. This shows that shallow minded people do not fully understand the criteria for effective leadership. Foolish people place premium on nonsensical factors that have nothing to do with improving the lives of our people and encouraging the planting of civilizing standards in Sierra Leone.
I have already explained my attitude regarding san-san boys, etc. and the context in which reference was made to those groups of people in my leaked e-mail. I need not repeat it here. Suffice it to say that I have abused no one nor denigrate any one at any time.
I pray that S. I. Kamara’s comprehension of the English Language will improve to the level where he can comfortably read my essays and fully comprehend every one of the meaning truly intended as written. I pray that S. I. Kamara never again rushes to conclusion without a thorough understanding of the writing he is attacking.
I am not involved in any so-called diatribe against any one. I am stating the plain facts as I understood them to be based on first hand experience. S. I Kamara should please re-read his own writing and compare it with mine and then judge for himself who is writing an ineffective diatribe out of the miscomprehension of plain written English.
CONCLUSION
In sum, my reference to low grade noise makers in my private e-mail has nothing to do with abusing or denigrating any one. In fact, I truly respect all our struggling people and wish they are more powerful. My reference to some of the type of people who are apparent PMDC supporters merely shows that part of Mr. Margai’s support base lacks the power necessary to propel him to the point where he is a political threat sufficient to warrant a rival plotting to assassinate him as claimed by Evening Scoop, a Freetown newspaper last Wednesday.
Lastly, it seems that some PMDC supporters are shocked to learn from me that I do not share their optimism regarding their view of the purported political threat which their leader poses to his opponents. These PMDC supporters must not get hysterical and rush to write allegations lacking any factual basis. Instead, they ought to be patient for there is yet time to build a democratic institution that will survive into the long term and be a Force to reckon with, come May 2007.
I agree with S. I. Kamara that Sierra Leone is my motherland and fatherland. I would like to assure him that I am committed to help our country develop economically, socially and politically. My instrumentation is through the SLPP. Others are through the APC or the PMDC. As citizens we are each free to make our individual choices without offending the other.
Thank you for your attention. March 7, 2006
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