By Med Nabe, USA

A Gentleman

This is a very good narrative, and the writer should have done us a favor by identifying himself so that those of us that have some reservations about the experiences we get from the Limba cronyism would ascertain whether the writer was a credible story teller/defender of the Limba hegemony. I

t is a fact that the Limba tribe is the third largest tribe in Sierra Leone with its Biriwa, Sellah, Safroko and the Tonko divisions. It is true that they were a peaceful subservient people until Siaka Stevens raised them up to prominence when he proclaimed and identified himself as a Limba. The advent of their prominence in politics and political power completely changed the dynamics and political correctness in Sierra Leone. The Arrogance of power abounds,and the audacity of subsumed culture of corruption exemplified.

During the Siaka Stevens era, Edward Kargbo, a limba from Kamakwe was the longest serving minister of Transport and communications, but the cocoon like writer did not mention him in his narrative. The APC under Siaka Stevens succeded in making infra -structural development in the country… Siaka Stevens, in his final days as the doyen of politics in Sierra Leone, did a miscalculated mistake by appointing Joseph Saidu Momoh President of Sierra Leone over and at the expense of Sorie Ibrahim Koroma whose corpse would have been far effective in governance than J.S.Momoh. In his days as President, Siaka Stevens maintained a delicate balance between the tribes in the country.

However, his appointment of Momoh his Limba nephew as president was the beginning of the end of the APC party.and its leadership.The upsurge of the Limba Clan in political prominence from their mediocre status as hewers of wood and palm wine tapers escalated the arrogance of power in government. Many of them never identified themselves as Limbas in their lives until Siaka Stevens , the Doyen of politics in Sierra Leone, encouraged them to come out of their self inflicted misery .This was so especially for those adopted by the Creoles in the then colony and came to be known as Creoles themselves.

It was very true that the Limbas came into prominence with the arrogance of power during the Momoh Presidency.They had the first non-lawyer speaker of the House of Parliament. They had the infamous manipulator of the police force whose time of being Inspector General of the Police was the longest ever in the history of the police force in Sierra Leone. President Stevens never messed with the promotions of members of the Police Force and Customs Department. He always goes by the books. But when we had the acclaimed Limba clan and AKUTAY dominated APC government, the country and government quickly went to the dogs.

The arrogance of power had its toll on the complacency and reckless governance of President Momoh, when the then Minister of Trade and Industry Ben Kanu ( Limba and AKUTAY Mogul) refused to quit the position of Acting Second Vice President when the incumbent 2nd Vice president Pa A. B Kamara returned from his call of duty. This was a very embarrassing situation. At that time, seeing the incompetence of the President, every Akutay man thought he could do what he wanted and that was the case. Bambay Kamara went around seizing peoples wares just because they did not go through him. The debacle with the Isreali Businessman Skiper, the rice Shipment of Miss Aminata Kallay,to name a few.

However, among them you still have a very few of them who were modest in character and were not seen in that public display of arrogance of power, like Pa E.T. Kamara, Edward Kargbo and Sanie Sesay. The APC started to crumble down when it was Akutalized. Bambay Kamara became the most powerful Limba man in the country. If you do not go for weekend retreat at his firm in the outskirts of Freetown, your position in government was in jeopardy. This was why so many people had to join the Akutay Friendly Association because, if you failed to associate with them, you will find “san-san” in your dinner. And you obviously know what it means. That was a time if your girl friend got missing during the weekend-(their weekend starts on Thursday evening), ten chances to one, she had been kidnapped and taken to the harem of Bambay Kamara.

So to some of us the innocence the writer was trying to portray about the Limbas in government was the worst yet since we got independence. One of the gravest mistakes President Stevens regretted for was giving power to Momoh and his clan. Thank goodness, we have a better leadership in the APC now, and we will keep on fighting so that the semblance of AKUTAY in the name of ROGBANEH Descendants Association who were trying to rogbanehlize this new APC leadership will not thrive. But in certain chapters of the APC in Northern America, there is an upsurge of Limbaism presently brewing. But we are watching with fox eyes. This time around, that sycophancy will be met with the utmost resistance because this president is not a Limba and does not tolerate nonsense from any tribal stupidity. He is a Sierra Leonean and represents all Sierra Leoneans. You can see why he chooses to find his life partner from the East.