By Abu Shaw
*Sierra Leone public is hungrier, angrier than they were four and half years ago*
The majority of Sierra Leoneans are today hungrier and angrier than they were four-and-half years ago, the latest information in Sierra Leone says.The dictatorial tendencies always shown by the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) on issues that border on the wellbeing and soul of the nation have now reached a stage of public disgust, no doubt about that.
In fact, that revulsion is slowly fermenting into something toxic. And that toxic fermentation might, in the near future, brew a juice that would taste like the local “Bitter Kola” even in the mouths of the ruling elite. Sierra Leone currently, as I noted in one of my One Dropian droppings early this year, could be likened to a drunken man sitting on a keg of dynamite, sleeping, while unguarded children are carelessly playing with matches and a jerry can of petrol around the disrepair wooden house. And when a Chief sits in the “court baray” and proclaims that he is more comfortable with the work ethics of his clan; then his toadies should not be angered, or frightened, if lesser villagers start talking casually about, or making sarcastic references to, those “work ethics”. (Photo: President Bio has failed the nation).
I have always held the view that if President Julius Maada Bio, with his SLPP, promised a “New Direction” in 2018; that “new” should not be looking older than the old. If they had promised to “plug the leakages” in Government’s spending; they should not be seen indiscriminately opening financial “Samba Gutters” like drunken sailors trying to woo the only harlot in a brothel.
And if they had promised to do things differently than the erstwhile All People’s Congress (APC) government; they should not be seen doing the same things they had accused the APC of. Each time our Commander-in-Chief and his hangers-on make references to the APC to justify what they had done, or still doing; what comes to mind are those Pastors who claim to have formed their churches based on the New Testament but frequently remind their congregations about Leviticus 27:30-34, in the Old Testament, which talk about tithing!
As I always note, the majority of Sierra Leoneans are today hungrier and angrier than they were four-and-half years ago. They have faced the most blatant human rights violations than they faced four-and-half years ago. They have seen more naked attacks on the tenets of Democracy and the Rule of Law than they saw four-and-half years ago. They are now spectators to the seeming fusion of the Executive and Judiciary into a sort of conspiratorial camaraderie that appears to be making a mockery of either Montesquieu (“Espirit De Lois” translated as “the spirit of laws” in the English language) or John Locke’s theory of “Separation of Powers”! And the majority of Sierra Leoneans are now witnessing the arrogant display of political power with crude uncouthness!
Yet, the “Drunkardnomists” and “Paopagandists” are cunningly trying to frighten us into a blazing silence by ramming down our throats the ramifications of any future political conflagration. They are quick to make references to the pre-Paul Kagame Rwanda but always shy away from honestly discussing the compositions of the Bio-administration and those of the Government’s Agencies and Departments. My point is: if the Chief and his Council of Elders do not want lesser villagers to discuss the contours of the Chief’s body; he should not appear naked in the “court baray”. The funny thing about these ‘down-throats-rammers’ (another One Dropian word) is that they have been, desperately, trying to rewrite the past with ink of deceit on a paper of chauvinistic arrogance!
And it is that chauvinistic arrogance that is insultingly insulting to the collective memory of sober-minded Sierra Leoneans. Six years ago, when the erstwhile APC government of Ernest Bai Koroma tried to interpret the “austerity measures”, taken at the time by his administration, through the telescope of “global shocks”; the SLPP “Drunkardnomists” made fun of it and promised that if their party was given the chance in 2018 they would fix the country’s economy within six months. But now, due to reckless and headless spending coupled with a heavily pregnant Wage Bill, the “Paopagandists” want to convince us that “external factors” are solely responsible for the crippling of Sierra Leone’s economy.
Funnily, if the SLPP convinced its supporters six years ago that “global shocks” had nothing to do with the local economic state of affairs then; then why would they want us to now swallow hook, line, and sinker their argument that “external factors” are responsible for the pretty mess in which Sierra Leone is currently in. How can the “Drunkardnomists” and “Paopagandists” reference “external factors” which are not reflected in their own lifestyles, salaries, and other perks that go with presidential appointments? They cannot be having all the creature comforts, or live in clover, and want us the lesser mortals to mutely accept the “external factors” like sheep being led to the slaughter.
And what is certainly certain in Sierra Leone is the uncertainty of what tomorrow holds for ordinary Sierra Leoneans if the SLPP is still at the rudder. Now, both the Middle and Working Classes are feeling the consequences of the half-assed policies of the Bio-led administration. They are feeling the pinch of a directionless “New Direction” each time they buy a litre of fuel; every time they go to the markets; each time they pay their rents, and every time they buy top-ups for their electricity meters. Sierra Leone’s future, under the watchful watch of the SLPP, is bleakly bleak like the murky gutters at Kroo Bay in central Freetown.
But thankfully, Sierra Leone is not a nation of sheep that will allow itself to be led again to the abattoir by wolves in sheep’s wools. Once bitten in 2018; they would be twice shy in 2023. And the toxic fermentation, which the SLPP is now brewing, would taste like stale “Bitter Kola” in their mouths. It is on that note that I will end today’s One Dropian dropping with a quote by Abraham Lincoln from a speech he delivered in Clinton, Illinois, in 1858. He had stated that: “You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” I know the SLPP “Drunkardnomists” and “Paopagandists” are not dead to language.
