By Kabs Kanu
Let us face reality. If you are looking for a man who is non- violent and whose upbringing and modus operandi in life have never veered towards violence , it is Ernest Bai Koroma. It is about people like Ernest Koroma that the statement was phrased ——He is so innocent he won’t hurt even a fly.
Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma’s whole philosophy of life is built around peace, reconciliation, unity and goodwill to others . As a boarding student at the Magburaka Boys Secondary Dchool, Ernest Koroma’ character exemplified peace and bringing together students for the general good in such a manner that he was appointed Prefect. And he acquitted himself creditably in that capacity.
Everybody at Magburaka Boys Secondary knew Ernest Koroma as a man of peace. A joke is even told of him that whenever belligerent schoolmates wanted to fight him, he would use his chop box as an enticement and bargaining tool to cool off the situation. He would give away his luncheon meat, sardines and baked beans just to calm down an angry challenger from fighting him. It was never that Ernest Koroma was lazy and could not fight. Looking at his physique and size, everybody knew he was not a pushover , but peace reigned over his big bulk . Peace was his nature. He always shied away for conflicts and fights. At Fourah Bay College, where we were college mates, Ernest Koroma never got into an altercation with anybody, not to mention a physical fight. He was more harmless than a fly. He is the man that would help the lame dog over the stile. Even when he partook in students politics, his’ was always the voice of reason, reconciliation and peace. He made peace between students who wanted to fight.
Ernest Koroma brought to his professional career as an insurance mogul and his political life his impeccable image of a MAN OF PEACE. I served him for 10 years as his focal point at the UN Security Council (He appointed me Coordinator of the African Union Committee of 10 on the UN Security Council Reform negotiations of which he was Chairman of the African Group . He was not able to be in New York so I was one of those who directly represented him there and reported to him regularly. I was also Minister Plenipotentiary at the Sierra Leone UN Mission in New York) . I was his eyes and ears at the UN and New York. I am therefore better disposed to understand his character. In all my dealings with Ernest Koroma, he never portrayed himself as a man of anger, vengeance, disruption or chaos. His radiant smile, rather, was disarming. He always pursued peaceful negotiations and peaceful solutions.
So peaceful and reconciliatory was Ernest Koroma when he was President that he did not entertain gossip. When I was with him in his presidential hotel suite, where he conducted business and met with guests, I saw him wave away people who had come to him to gossip. He did not suffer them. At times, he would act very busy on them just to discourage them. Being a man of peace, he was not interested in gossip. He wanted employees and party stalwarts to resolve their misunderstanding through peaceful reconciliation. That is the Ernest Koroma I know.
It was because of Ernest Koroma’s peaceful disposition and non- vindictive character that clowns like President Maada Bio saw the light of day to even contest for the presidency. As a very powerful President , loved, supported and believed by the nation, Ernest Koroma would have jettisoned Maada Bio’s ambitions and banned him from contesting through the much- demanded Inquest on the bloody murders of Bambay Kamara and others —a horrific crime in which Maada Bio participated as a member of the NPRC military junta. Bio was one of those who brutally and extrajudically murdered Bambay Kamara and 27 others. That alone would have disqualified him from contesting the presidency. But being a man of peace, Ernest Koroma decided not to open a can of worms and discouraged the idea of the Inquest, saving Maada Bio from certain disqualification from the presidential race.
Ernest Koroma would have also ordered his security to shoot Maada Bio when he flagrantly and petulantly endangered the lives of residents and national security during a heated moment of political disagreements between the APC and SLPP by blocking the President’s motorcade in Freetown. If Bio ,with his ruthless and violent disposition , had been the president and Ernest Koroma had done this to Bio, he would have been six feet below the earth by now. The Bio I know would have accused him of trying to assassinate him and he would have had Ernest Koroma shot by his security. But the man of peace Ernest Koroma simply laughed over Bio’s impudence. That is the Ernest Koroma I know.
Throughout Ernest Koroma’s 11 years reign as President of Sierra Leone, the nation enjoyed extraordinary and unprecedented peace, ethnic unity and inclusion and stability because Koroma used his peaceful , inclusive and conciliatory character to keep our country together. He was never divisive to any ethnic group.
Ernest Koroma eschews violence and conflicts and believes in democracy as a means of achieving power. Even though the 2018 elections were fraught with multitudinous irregularities and blatant cheating by the SLPP – dominated Elections Commission headed by an underground SLPP supporter, Infa Allie Conteh, whom the APC had mistakenly appointed to replace Christiana Thorpe, President Koroma failed to use his powers of incumbency to change the results to deny Bio the presidency as Bio did to Dr. Samura Kamara in 2023. President Koroma is a Democrat par excellence.
Because his whole two terms in office were characterized by unprecedented peace and stability which proudly made Sierra Leone the UN model of successful post -conflict peaceful transformation , the African Union ( AU) and the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) courted President Koroma’s abilities by using him as an ambassador of peace to many conflict countries and an international elections observer .
During the 2023 APC Delegates Conference to elect a presidential flagbearer , President Koroma demonstrated the man he was by preaching peace, reconciliation and unity to his party when others were burning for revenge . His character grounded in peace and democracy , President Koroma made this immortal appeal to the party members :
“Next time I will only attend such gatherings if I am invited. If you invite me I will surely come. But for now, I want to concentrate on other peace projects in Africa and around the world. I would not be at peace if I were ushering peace in other countries when my own beloved APC party is not united and peaceful. That is why I am appealing to everyone to come together to unite for the betterment of the party and Sierra Leone. This is the purpose of this APC National Delegate Convention. For those who have won congratulations and for those who will win, please make sure you give out the olive branch to the losers because no one is a winner or a loser. Our APC party comes first and our country comes first. Only unity and peace would help our APC party to take power and restore dignity for everyone in Sierra Leone.
“What I am saying here is something I have experienced myself. When I was elected to lead this party, many people got annoyed at me when I decided to allow people who had taken me to the courts earlier to work with me. I did it because of unity and peace in the party and for the better good of all Sierra Leoneans. The first mission I did out of this country included the current President. Maada Bio was in that delegation, Prince Harding was in that delegation, and Charles Margai was also present. Some of my people were not happy with me. I remember some of my party members were vexed asking me why should, I include these people. I said I came to be the President of Sierra Leone. I said I did not come to be President of the APC alone.
“And I knew, we have just come out of the civil war, we needed to continue to consolidate the peace. And this is why I am very proud that by the time I left office Sierra Leone was the most peaceful country in the sub-region. Sierra Leone was the third most peaceful country in Africa. So as APC people these are records we should be proud of. These are records that can make you stand tall and not allow mere propaganda, mere propaganda to make you feel bad. So please this is a moment we should all be proud of ourselves. This is the moment we should all be proud of the APC. This is a moment we believe we have a responsibility to deliver for Sierra Leone.
“We have challenges and how can we solve them as a party? As a party, we must know that democracy and the rule of law must be foremost. As a party, we must accommodate everybody. We must accommodate the young, the women, and the old. We must accommodate the disabled, and we must accommodate all ethnic groups. We must not say APC is a Limba man party or Temne Man party or Mende man party. APC is All People’s Congress. And we should stand by that, work on it and we know that when we all commit to that we will go forward ” .
Is this the man that would sit down with coup plotters and hatch a plan to seize power by violence ? The accusations are even preposterous , ridiculous and laughable. What would he have been looking for? Before he even became President, Ernest Koroma was fabulously rich through his insurance business. He had everything : Money, power, international clout and fame, though he was no longer in power. He has always enjoyed more international clout, respect and goodwill than Bio, who calls himself the present President.
A Pan Africanist icon of peace, democracy, reconciliation and stability would allow himself to have his magnificent career and legacy messed up by adventuristic coup plotters ? EBK is not a dumb man. He would have known that the alleged coup plotters would have failed in their quest, given America’s, Britain ‘s and the AU and ECOWAS’ commitment not to endorse illegal seizures of power and to in fact seek to overturn them . Any man that would engage in such a thoughless, stupid and brainless enterprise deserves the title of the world’s greatest imbecile. Not the smart Ernest Koroma I had known since we were teenagers at FBC !!! Ernest Korom is a very cautious and circumspect individual. He would not have encouraged any of the coup plotters. We are talking about an Ernest Koroma people complain about that he does not take calls, which I learn he actually does, because he does not want to be wrongly accused of saying anything or drawn aside with workers of iniquity. Why would such a man suddenly abandon his safeguards and become reckless with his life and honor ? It is not the Ernest Koroma I know.
The suspicion that everybody has is that the tyrannical Maada Bio will steal a leaf from the deceitful playbooks of former dictators like Idi Amin, Macias Nguema, Mobutu Sese Sekou, Sadam Hussein and Mouamer Ghaddafi and bribe some of the men the police and army have arrested and put words in their mouths to implicate and tie Ernest Kroma to the coup. Who does not know that state witnesses in treason trials in Africa are often men and women remote- controlled by the government to implicate enemies ?
But God above is watching. God is good and he is a God of justice. He will not make Maada Bio and his blood hounds succeed to frame an innocent man they just hate to their guts.
