Published on January 24, 2011 by Cocorioko News   ·   No Comments

State House officials this evening disclosed that President Ernest Bai Koroma remains focussed on his valiant determination to continue turning the nation around socio-economically and politically  and is not moved by all the lies being formented against him by a desperate opposition craving notoriety and cheap attention.

“In three years, President Koroma has transformed Sierra Leone from a stone age country to a modern nation with electricity , pipe-borne water and a magnificent road network and infrastructure. In addition, the President has brought Sierra Leone close to the attainment of food security while also improving health care delivery and removing Sierra Leone’s once dishonorable stigma of being the country with the highest infant and maternal mortality rate “, the  officials  bragged , and  went on : “ These and other goals are the things paramount on the President’s mind presently and he will not be satisfied until he has made Sierra Leone one of the most developed nations in Africa “. President Koroma , the officials further noted, has brought financial discipline and accountability to the Sierra Leone economy, which has been rewarded by the goodwill and support the government continues to enjoy from its donor and development partners and the international community.

The officials went on to say that President Koroma understands that his  internationally-acclaimed achievements would naturally get the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP )  jealous , especially  when their 11 years of  disastrous governance in Sierra Leone shamefully lies in stark contrast to the productive and progress three years he has given the grateful people of Sierra Leone .The President expects the SLPP to fabricate and distort stories about him and his government and is not moved.

While the President is flying high and focussed on his Agenda For Change and other development initiatives , including the  promotion of national cohesion and national reconciliation, many Sierra Leoneans are not happy with the demonic attempts being made by the opposition to spread lies and disaffection and in some cases incite the people of Sierra Leone.  The evidence of lies being  concocted by the opposition clearly demonstrate that the SLPP is not interested in seeing Sierra Leone developed or in peace, once they are not in power.

One classic example of a wicked lie appeared in the SLPP online opposition newspaper , the New People, to the effect that President Koroma  has bought a hotel in Las Palmas. State House officials not only ridiculed the fabrication but they taunted the SLPP to try hard to be more creative with their lies. “Why does President Koroma need a hotel in Las Palmas ? ”  Another official mocked the New People  . “Before he became President, Dr. Koroma was already a well-established  and prosperous business man , owning one of West Africa’s best revenue-earning insurance companies in Sierra Leone, The President does not need a hotel. His insurance company is flourishing enough and he is content with what he has achieved through his  personal enterprise and sweat. After completing his second and final term, the President has a floushing insurance business to retire to . Why would go to buy a hotel in Las Palmas ? ”

 Despicable and concocted stories with fake photos are not the only arsenal the opposition is using. More seriously, the SLPP is trying to incite chaos in Sierra Leone. Since law and order broke down in Tunisia, leading to a change of government that is slowly driving that country into a bloody civil war, some pro-SLPP  newspapers have been  wishing  the same for  Sierra Leone.

In an article in his SIERRA HERALD online newspaper , titled : “THE  LESSONS FROM TUNISIA – THERE’S A LIMIT TO HUMAN ENDURANCE” , SLPP Propagandist and SLBS and BBC stringer , Victor Sylver ,  tried to draw parallels between the Tunisian and the Sierra Leonean situation, though both cannot be compared because Sierra Leone has one of the cleanest records in  Africa in the areas of  respect for  human rights, the Rule of Law and freedom of speech and of the press . Another SLPP propaganda newspaper , the New People Online, ended their concocted story of President Koroma buying a hotel in Las Palmas with this apocalyptic statement :  “One passer-by in anger said that unless Tunisia is replayed in Sierra Leone the APC government will eventually sell the whole country. ”

It is a pity that some Sierra Leoneans are so unpatriotic because their party is not in power that they are wishing evil for their country. The very SLPP who were very livid and beside themselves in 1997 when the AFRC illegally overthrew their government and were gratified by the massive support given to them by the Sierra Leonean people for the reversal of the  unconstititional coup , are the very ones now wishing for the APC to be overthrown. This clearly demonstrates the  truth in the opinion  held by Sierra Leoneans that if the Johnny Paul Koroma coup had been perpetuated against an APC Government, nothing would have stopped the SLPP from supporting it.  They would have gone out of their way to take up arms to support the AFRC/RUF. The SLPP is a very selfish party that thinks only about itself and not about the welfare of the nation.

Another thought exercising the minds of Sierra Leoneans is that with elections coming the SLPP will intensify its lies and concoction of stories against the government, knowing that they stand no chance of avoiding a comprehensive defeat in 2012. The Las Palmas Hotel ruse is just one of these lies . the State House officials agreed.