By John Leigh
“NAH YOUNGMAN WE WANT* —- popular slpp universal chant, 2009-2011 for J.M.Bio as flagbearer.
ISSUE: AGE OR PROVEN ON-THE-JOB EFFECTIVENESS?
*Such was the foolish but universal chant within SLPP when I campaigned against Bio in the 2009-11 run for the SLPP flagbearership!
Earlier on, that same chant had also been the chant of RUF rebels as they warriored for Foday Sankoh and Charles Taylor in devastating provincial Sierra Leone; stealing diamonds via forced mining by captive Sierra Leoneans; overthrowing paramount chiefs, fiti-fata, in many chiefdoms after stealing from poor villagers, mass raping, burning villages, maiming thousands via cut hand, cut foot, cutyase, etc. to show who has di power!
My last brother from Bo-Bumpeh, Gorge Moigula, was among the victims of the forced labor practiced by RUF bosses in Koidu. He was shot to death for refusing, upon his exhaustion, an order to carry loot from Koidu by foot to Boudu. His body was then left in the bush road midway to Boidu for wild animals to devour!
Those chiefs who escaped cheek, rudeness, torment, torture and death from those brutal RUF barbarians found sanctuary in Freetown.
Inside SLPP, I argued repeatedly for years that age was a fake and foolish issue and that what really matter in democratic leadership for national development are one’s record of on-the-job effectiveness, integrity and fair dealings to all — party members, non-party members and every citizen alike regardless of age, party, tribe, religion or gender.
Low and behold, I was speaking to solid, unshakable deaf ears grounded in unimaginable tribalism.
Virtually all in SLPP knew my record as the ambassador who warriored from the morning of the May 25, 1997 coup to reverse the AFRC-RUF junta and re-instate the overthrown elected SLPP of Tejan Kabbah; defeat the RUF-AFRC-NPLF combined invasion forces in January 1999; bring refugees home; obtain pacification aid – from food to zinc roofing — and laid a firm foundation for the removal, arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of Liberian President Charles Taylor in occupying Sierra Leonean territory.
For the first time in the long history of Sierra Leone, Liberia and the USA, the USA sided all the way with Sierra Leone against Liberia.
SLPP mendecrats wanted nothing to hear of my accomplishments for the SLPP and our country. They want their own tribesman regardless of his known character. And their chant of “Nah young man we want” was the euphemism they employed. But a few years earlier when I first explored contesting, I was told I was too young!
Nor did SLPPERS want to hear ‘fing’ about J.M. Bio’s and Abass Bundu’s junta role in selling SL passports and causing Sierra Leoneans to forefeet their once valuable right of unopposed free Entry to the U.K. Or their efforts in Washington supporting the AFRC, RUF, FODAY SANKOH, CHARLES TAYLOR & Taylor’s NPFL.
Hence, I politely resigned from their SLPP in late 2011 when everything material I needed to know about mendecrat in my possession.
Bio lost in 2012 but won in 2018. After just 3 years in office, summarized below is his record of defeating progress and importing backwardness as itemized by his fellow citizen in a post in My Sierra Leone, My Responsibility.
It is undeniable that Bio’s on-the-job record gives credence to racist Whites who argue that Black Africans cannot govern themselves.
Further, Bio was propelled to power by mass blind tribal loyalty voting. Mass blind tribal loyalty voting is proof positive that Black Africans cannot govern themselves and unless we revert to voting on the basis of merit, our country will remain a failed nation of suffering and backwardness.
