COCORIOKO wants to take this opportunity to thank members of the international community for their principled and determined stand against the irredeemably corrupt, despotic, uncivilized and illegitimate SLPP Government of Sierra Leone.
U.S. Ambassador David Dale Reimer, British High Commissioner Lisa Chesney, the European Union , the UN Resident Representative in Sierra Leone and international Elections Observers( Minus the wickedly corrupt and compromised AU and Ecowas Observers ) , have all kept faith with democracy, the Rule of Law and constitutional adherence and Sierra Leoneans have nothing but profound respect for all of them. They have given the tyrannical and uncivilized Bio government a reality check that the world is not that little village in Mendeland where the chief and his subjects do what they want.
U.S. AMBASSADOR DAVID REIMER
Ambassador David Reimer stunned them with truth spoken uncompromisingly to power.
This is what an ambassador of the United States does. He does not compromise with coconut head tin pots and bullies.
I join Sierra Leoneans in congratulating Ambassador Reimer. That was a very strong and uncompromising rebuke for a despicable tyrant and his dishonest, green tinted glasses-blinded supporters . It is also productive and progressive preventive diplomacy.
BRITISH HIGH COMMISSIONER LISA CHESNEY
SLPP have not learned anything. But this is one thing they must know : America may have her own faults but she has enduring values she cherishes that she will never compromise. In fact, as James M. McCormick postulates in his treasure trove of a book, AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY AND PROCESS ( Fifth Edition, 2010), America’s foreign policy is built around the axis of enduring values like doing the right thing ,especially in governance and dealing with people in a free and democratic world.
THE EU REPRESENTATIVE TO SIERRA LEONE, MANUEL MULLER
SLPP never wants to do the right thing and so they will always be at odds with stakeholders and moral guarantors of good governance, human rights and democracy. SLPP had believed wrongheadedly that they would have stolen the June 24, elections and got away with it. But the wiser ones among their mobs of unreasoning and blind supporters will now see that the world can no longer countenance dictators, tyrants and election thieves like illegitimate President Maada Bio.
THE UN REPRESENTATIVE IN SIERRA LEONE, BABATUNDE AHONSI
The reaction of the world has shocked them to the reality that they are not living in an exclusive world and that the world is not LEYMBEMA VILLAGE where they do what they want. SLPP has to learn to be inclusive and walk step-by-step with the civilized world in an era of globalization of everything that matters.
I have been briefed by diplomatic colleagues that it was the same message that the British High Commissioner, Lisa Chesney, went to deliver to the new Foreign Minister, Timothy Kabbah , but the SLPP media put out the most misleading rendition of the meeting. That was the only mistake High Commissioner Chesney made . Unlike Ambassador Reimer, she allowed the SLPP to control the process of publicly reporting the meeting to the people. She should have known that SLPP cannot be trusted with truth.
Lisa Chesney ‘s meeting with Timothy Kabbah was held behind closed doors and we now know that she too delivered poignant truths to the SLPP that the Greens will never report to the public . She told the SLPP the same things David Reimer did. Ambassador Chesney should have however let the British High Commission release their own version through a statement, instead of allowing the SLPP to do so and report only on the parts that sugared their ego. But after the facts have been known that she too delivered the SLPP a very strong and uncompromising message, we want to hail het too.
Bio has got away with all kinds of crimes in Sierra Leone, including killings and maiming of innocent youths and adults, human rights abuses ,deceit, corruption etc ( Or that is what he thinks . The ICC might be waiting on his coat tails until he vacates power). But it is now clear to him that he won’t get away with stealing the June 23 elections.
Ambassador Reimer had to bite his tongue to deliver SLPP that strong, unalloyed, unbending, unequivocal and decisive message. Diplomats, by training and orientation, are very economical with words and they use euphemisms but there are times that they need to come out and make their intentions very clear so that their messages and intentions are not misrepresented by a deceitful government like the SLPP. This Ambassador Reimer did.The EU and UN ambassadors in Sierra Leone also understand the deceitfulness of African politicians so when they speak, they do not equivocate.
In Africa, deceitful politicians and supporters do not read through statements. Imagine SLPP acolytes contending that the Ambassador acknowledged that Bio won the elections. What the man said was satiric, but oh, ya, SLPP do not read between the lines. He said yes, Bio is the president but we did not congratulate him. Did that convey any message that he acknowledged Bio’s presidency ? The reason the amnbassador had to come out swinging was that SLPP were becoming too bull-headed in their impunity and beating their chests that they had robbed the world of democracy in broad daylight and they had got away with it. That was why Ambassador Reimer had to give them a reality check for them to know that it is not over yet.
Those disaggregated polling stations results being asked for must be produced and that independent investigation must be conducted by an outside body , otherwise, American government-to-government programs with the corrupt and undemocratic Bio government, including the MCC Compact, will have to be put on hold. Rabid SLPP supporters can downplay it all they want or infuse false hopes into their confused and corrupt minds. Bio will not get away with it and this may signal his downfall, eventually. Let us watch the drama unfold. You don’t trifle with America.
We are thankful to all the foreign diplomats and the international elections observers for the uncompromising stand they are taking against Maada Bio’s dictatorship, tyranny, violence, illegitimacy, illicit government and criminal methods of conducting governance. If Sierra Leoneans had lost hope, Ambassadors Lisa Chesney and David Reimer breathed it back into them with their heavy-handed rebuke of the SLPP Government for rigging the elections.
May democracy and civilized governance be restored in our country.
Long live the United States, UK , EU, UN and the international community .
Long live democracy.
