WHEN SOMEDOBY SUFFERS FROM ?BUCCERITIS’ : REPLY TO JJ SAFFA
S I Kamara
Monday March 20, 2006
I apologize to those scholars of English out there who may want to feel offended by my use of the word ?bucceritis’. I am sorry I could not contact the most ?educated’ Sierra Leonean of our time, John Leigh for the appropriate word or hyperbole.
I have coined this word to mean diarrhea of the mouth and making it a title would have raised eyebrows.
Since JJ Saffa became the Secretary General of the SLPP, he has spoken out more times than all the years Prince Harding spent as Secretary General of that party. At times, I really wonder whether he thinks before he opens his mouth or vice versa. He had described the young guys of the PMDC as ?raray’ boys something that provoked ferocious attacks from every where. JJ Saffa has spoken so much that he misspeaks much to the annoyance of even the SLPP.
JJ Saffa says that the SLPP brought peace and is consolidating the gains. JJ Saffa stopped short of explaining how the SLPP and by that he means Kabba, brought peace to Sierra Leone. The SLPP could not defend the people of Sierra Leone. In 1997 when Kabba was informed about the coup did he make any efforts to stop or avert it as Siaka Stevens would have? No, but he ran away leaving the poor people at the hands and mercy of the brutal AFRC then admitted over the BBC Focus on Africa magazine that he knew three weeks ahead of the coup . This has been confirmed by former British High Commissioner Peter Penfold. Every body knows the havoc that the AFRC wrecked on that nation.
I do not know whether JJ Saffa was a student at FBC or any of the institutions in the country when on 18th August 1997 the students stood up against a brutal regime like the AFRC all to bring back democracy. Students were killed as they spilled their blood to bring back this SLPP. What did the SLPP do? It abandoned the students and turned against them, and never even considered, to this day, to build a monument in honour of those students. This was and is real ungratefulness to Sierra Leoneans who lost their lives to bring back the SLPP as it was democratically elected. JJ do you remember that lady who brutally killed in Kissy for attempting to listen to listen to 98.1
In December 1998, when a reporter reported that he saw rebels coming down the hills of Hastings and Waterloo like manna’s from heaven, the SLPP threw him in Pademba Road prisons for sensationalism. Didn’t the rebels land in Freetown by 3 am on Wednesday January 6, 1999? Where was Saffa? Who was there to save the people of Sierra Leone – the ECOMOG. Did the SLPP/Kabba have anything to do with that – sweet nothing as I was at the lodge with Kabba and Demby looking down at Freetown, burning. Saffa was probably in hiding like many other Sierra Leoneans. Could it have been averted, of course it could have. But the SLPP took the rest of Sierra Leoneans to be southeasterners who support the SLPP whether it wrecks the nation or not. Well, the SLPP is not a religion for the other Sierra Leoneans, get that.
The SLPP/Kabba made grandiose promises to the people of Wellington and Calaba towns after the massive needless destruction of their properties that the SLPP government would bring about all what it took to help rebuild their houses. Was that done? Let JJ Saffa answer because it is one of a series of lies and deceptions that have characterized this SLPP government.
Where was the SLPP in Operation Barras? To remind JJ Saffa operation Barras was lunched by the British SAS to clear Okra Hill of the West Side Boys. Was the SLPP able to clear Okra Hill, hell no. The British came in by allowing one of their own to ?stray’ into West Side Boys territory to lure them to capture one of them (the British). Once that was done they used a Global Positioning System to locate them. The British moved into action before informing Kabba and his SLPP. This thus cleared the way for goods and services to reach the people in the provinces. This was how they trusted the SLPP/Kabba.
What about the role of ECOMOG, Saffa? It is not only to sit in your office and talk big because you are Secretary General but say the facts for there are intellectuals who can challenge you any time any where without violence, of course. SLPP is a failed party. It has squandered the good will of the people, abused the integrity of Sierra Leoneans, messed up our Foreign policy, and rendered the people poor, institutionalized corruption as the very ministers who keep quiet today have been fleecing the people using the people’s mandate to fry them and when they grumble you lock them up. Had it not been for ECOMOG and General Maxwell Khobe where would the country be today? The SLPP antagonized the very Army that is maintaining the peace today and had it not been for the late General Maxwell Khobe, there would not have been any army that Sierra Leone would have called its own. So in the place of the SLA the ECOMOG put up a robust defence of Sierra Leoneans, not the SLPP. The mistrust of the army continues till date with all the sackings of young able bodied men with education just to make way later for Berewa should there be any obstacle to make him President. Remember 1967?
JJ Saffa, do you remember slogans like ?avancez, bombardez’? Of course you will not because you are just there to disinform and misinform those gullible Sierra Leoneans. Those were the battle words of General Lansan Conte of Guinea when rebels moved into Guinea at Fourecareah and attacked and killed people in order to make Guinea a base to take over West Africa. Lansana Conte had an army and he was the Commander-in-Chief so he took the bull by the horn and led his forces to ?avancez, bombardez’ right into Kambia and its environs thereby killing and eventually breaking the back of the rebels. They never recovered again. What was the role of the SLPP in all of that? Nothing. That was the time your party leader made a statement on his way back to Freetown at Conakry that the people at the border were all rebels. Was that bringing peace to the nation? Man you really have ?bucceritis’. Think before you dabble into historical facts. Your party the SLPP has failed and it has failed in every sphere of governance. You should be bowing your head in shame for having let the people down.
I just wonder where JJ Saffa was when Foday Sankoh infiltrated Freetown with his RUF boys and were about to take over Freetown. It was Johnny Paul Koroma instead the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Sierra Leone, Alhaji Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who made the clarion call to fellow soldiers to go after the RUF. It was on a Sunday, and that averted a complete take-over of the government by Foday Sankoh and his RUF.
Where was good governance all these years? In 2002, didn’t the SLPP side step the Constitution section 76 and appointed Dr James Caesar Boima using its majority in Parliament. The guy came straight from the Hospital to becoming a minister. Is that respect for the Constitution? What about the arbitrary use of the 1965 Public Order Act that has been used to lock up opponents of the SLPP. Interference in the judiciary was the hallmark of the APC that was one of the reasons why I never became a member. But what the SLPP was no different from what the APC did. The APC killed Minah under trumped charges just as they are doing to Omrey Golley today taking advantage then of Minah’s bad standing with his people. Omrey Golley is a bad guy every Sierra Leonean knows that through his attachment and defence of the then RUF. But does making an attempt on the Vice President’s life constitute treason? What about Harry Yansaneh? He will wait for the Day of Judgment to get the justice he could not get on with the SLPP.
The people of Sierra Leone are not just the vambois and the ormen in the villages that you can talk down to but they are many now in the large towns of Bo, Kenema, Makeni, Port Loko and Freetown.
The SLPP is disintegrating because it is now a Party of lies and deception, corruption abuse of power and neglect of the very poor people of especially the south east who came out to give the SLPP over 90% of their votes in 2002. You have betrayed them. They were poor when the SLPP came to power and are poorer as the SLPP is going out of power and by this shameless display of arrogance it is quite clear to every right thinking Sierra Leonean that the only way the SLPP can win any election now is by rigging. I would want to see how the people of Sierra Leone will allow you to abuse their efforts. For ten years you could not do any thing except for your ministers and top civil servants to be building at times two houses at a time while workers go without pay. Oh God save Sierra Leoneans from this wretchedness. JJ explain what the SLPP has done with the bulk of the donor money and the money from sales of our diamonds. Why has the SLPP hidden the Auditor General’s report which was supposed to be made public? This time round Sierra Leoneans are not the fools you take us to be. Come 2007 we are going to massively vote you and your Berewa and Kabba ooooooouuuuuuttttttt of power so that Sierra Leoneans will have respite.
If you want to attack me I will give you leads: ask Tejan Kabba or Berewa; or go to 4th Floor Youyi Building. You will meet people there who will give you all you need to fight back, OK?
So JJ Saffa, think before you open your mouth and stop all this ‘bucceritis ‘
