BY KABS KANU
PRESIDENT ERNEST BAI KOROMA is a symbol of the head of state who will always achieve cherished results in his work—Always strong, dignified, focused and attentive on his duties, regardless of the circumstances ; despite the unnecessary noise of his detractors and the philip of the charlatans.
“Pa Koroma is really cut for the difficult job of the presidency “, Tejan Mansaray, a young man who admires the President, “”quipped the other day. “You want to tell me that with all the problems caused by Ebola and the recent mudslide disaster, coupled with the relentless propaganda and irrational attacks of partisan supporters of the opposition who cannot wait to see his back, the President remains as focused as ever on his job and continues to amaze us with results ? “
Young Mansaray may be speaking the language of objective Sierra Leoneans and even detractors of the hardest -working and the successful President our nation has ever been blessed with since Independence who may be ashamed to confess this undeniable fact in public for fear of being slammed by the desperadoes trying to distract and mar the President’s work.
While his detractors are busy at the only things they know to do best—negativity , whining and grinning , circulating fake news , abusing the social media, concocting lies and diabolical propaganda against their President and Government–President Koroma likewise had been replying in the things he knows to do best– focus, concentration on the essentials, hard work and producing results.
Though the Hajj scandal ruffled him, reminding him once again that the best of men can fail you, President Koroma has remained obdurate, resolute, resilient and resolved that the flag of success that has been proudly fluttering in the sky during his reign will not be lowered by nature-imposed adversity and the unreasonableness of his detractors.
When the going gets tough, the tough gets going. This has been President Koroma’s guiding philosophy since 2014 when circumstances and nature conspired to slow the wheels of the machine of socio-economic and political developments he set into motion when he assumed the presidency in 2007. It started with the disastrous Ebola outbreak which hit the nation at the peak of President Koroma’s glories—-when he was commissioning infrastructural and other development projects in the country every single week and Sierra Leone had climbed the ladder to have the second fastest growing economy in the world. Sierra Leone was developing at a pace unprecedented for any struggling African nation, especially one recovering from an equally catastrophic civil war. Hardly had the nation got back on its feet after the end of Ebola, when nature released its own fury with flooding and a mudslide disaster that has killed over 1, 000 people and left another colony of famished, destroyed and homeless populace.
How Sierra Leone will come out of these dire straits she finds herself would owe more to the man at the helm, and in this, President Koroma has been most impressive. A man with astute international credibility and standing, President Koroma has been successfully mobilizing relief assistance from local and international organizations, institutions and private individuals to get the nation going once again.
Not a man to lower his shoulder at adversity, President Koroma has remained bold and determined like a lion . How he must have been wishing that instead of merely sitting down and complaing and grumbling and fault-finding whole day, his countrymen and women would have emulated his relentless and never-say-die spirit and put their hands on the plough to help him water the fallow ground with the sweat of enterprise and serious work to take the nation back to its pre-Ebola heights.
Partisan politics, selfishness , perfidy and greed for power have sapped away the values and endeavours we once cherished in our nation, but for President Koroma, there is no turning back. He must cross the rubicorn . He must dig the nation out of its latest crisis and in 2018, hopefully, turn over to his successor a country that is still primed and positioned for success. That is his determination .And with God above, his dreams to bless, President Koroma will achieve it.
Regardless of whatever happens, nothing will change the narrative. . Never before in the history of the nation has one President delivered so many development projects as President Koroma has done in 10 years .
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