By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Some time ago when Dr Edward Nahim, the only psychiatrist in Sierra Leone, said that there were about 600,000 Sierra Leoneans in the country with different mental issues; I was one of those who frowned and did try to make mincemeat of his informed opinion despite me being ignorant of psychiatry.
And my ignorance was informed (no apologies for the irony here) by the fact that there were very little mad people roaming the streets of Freetown and all the provincial cities. But little did I realize that there could be people who appear to be sane yet mad. And the Chairman and Leader of the Alliance Democratic Party (ADP), Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray, seems to be one of such Sierra Leoneans who could qualify for a visit to Dr Edward Nahim’s clinic.
KAMARAINBA BEING WALKED OUT OF THE PRINCINTS OF PARLIAMENT YESTERDAY BY SECURITY OFFICERS AFTER HE WENT THERE WITH A GROUP OF UNEMPLOYED YOUTHS TO CAUSE TROUBLE DURING THE CONFIRMATION HEARINGS
Though he might look sane, but the recent utterances and actions of Mr Kamarainba Mansaray are showing some of the signs of the initial stages of full-blown madness. Just like mad people, he has developed the habit of fighting imaginary demons and talking unnecessarily in situations in which silence could have been very wise and golden.
And he has also developed another pattern of criticizing anything and everything the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) does or what he assumes the Koroma-led administration has done or would do. And in most—if not all—cases, he comes out like someone who is chasing shadows at the PZ Roundabout! This is because while he puts up the pretentiousness of someone who should be taken seriously; he usually comes out as someone who could better eke out a living in a circus than being a politician.
And because he likes to hear his own voice on radio and thinks he is ‘Cameragenic’ (is that another One Dropian dropped word?), that’s why he has never missed an opportunity to embarrass himself on radio and television. He started off with his challenge of the by-election results that catapulted Ibrahim Ben Kargbo from being an Adviser at State House to Parliament. When he realised the foolishness of his court action, he started crying about snakes where there were only worms. He even showed his ignorance of the country’s constitution on the Mohamed Bangura appointment issue. And when he was schooled, on national television by a lawyer on the provisions in the constitution that give Mr Bangura a sort of clean bill of eligibility, he blabla-ed like a sheepish student caught peeping on a professor’s notebook.
And now he has taken his madness to Dr Christiana Thorpe, the deputy minister-designate for the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology. In this case what Kamarainba Mansaray doesn’t know, or he knows but is feigning ignorance of, is the fact that the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) of the late Ahmad Tejan Kabba had set a precedent. By arguing that Parliament should not approve the nomination of Dr Thorpe on the ground that she was “…the Chief Returning Officer of the country’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) that conducted the elections which President Dr Ernest Koroma won in 2007 and 2012…” (according to his letter of 24th March 2016 to the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments), means that he is deliberately forgetting about the circumstances in which Dr James Jonah was appointed Minister of Finance by the late Tejan Kabbah.
Kamarainba Mansaray cannot pretend that he doesn’t know that Dr James Jonah was the Chief Returning Officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that conducted the 1996 elections which the late Tejan Kabbah won. If Parliament approves the nomination of Dr Thorpe and Kamarainba decides to again take his madness to the Supreme Court; I will like him to know that in courts of law, arguments are most of the time proffered and judgments delivered based on precedents or case studies. If the SLPP had their Dr Jonah why can’t the APC get their Dr Thorpe?
And Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray keeps talking about “the principles of good governance and true democracy” and parroting about “morality and uprightness…” in his letter under review. Though some might find such statements, coming from him, comical; I find them tragic.
I find them tragic because how could Mr Kamarainba Mansaray talk about “good governance and true democracy” when he is his party’s Chairman and Leader, Treasurer, Public Relations Officer (PRO) and Secretary General all rolled into one. From the manner in which he runs his party’s national headquarters, he has shown and still showing dictatorial tendencies. And as a rejoinder to his parroting about “morality and uprightness”; I will be scriptural here by asking that: “He who without sin cast the first stone”. And I don’t think Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray will pick up any stone let alone hurl one.
But the rejuvenating thing about Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray’s madness is that it is still in its embryonic stage. So, just a visit to Dr Edward Nahim’s clinic might save him the trouble of running half-naked around the Cotton Tree. Or that visit might also save Sierra Leone the spectacle of seeing a pretentious young handsome man always fighting imaginary demons on radio and chasing shadows on television.
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