Who is Solomon Berewa?

Who is Solomon Berewa?

By Sidie Yahya Tunis

Wednesday January 25, 2006

 

Sierra Leoneans in general see Solomon Berewa as the Vice President of our beloved country and a man who helped President Kabba bring Sierra Leone to economic backwardness. There is a group of us, however, who see Solo B as the chosen leader by President Kabba to continue his legacy of corruption, intimidation, misrepresentation and total economic and developmental destruction of Sierra Leone.

 

 The most fitted description of Solomon Berewa, however, came from one of his closest allies, one time cabinet Minister in the J.S. Momoh administration and former finance minister of the ruling SLPP, Mr. J.B Dauda. JBD described Solo B as the most corrupt politician he has ever known in his entire life. I decided to follow up on this description because Solo B is now the flag bearer and leader of the SLPP and is also hoping to become the next President of Sierra Leone, a country that needs to be entirely cleaned up from the same corrupt elements.

 

JBD himself is not only corrupt, but knows pretty much what corruption is and I believe has dealt with so many corrupt people because he has served on two very corrupt administrations. First the J. S Momoh government, which had corruption written on the foreheads of every cabinet minister and government official and which was famous for the saying “USAI U TIE COW, NAR DAE E DAE EAT”, then the current Tejan Kabba administration, which recruited money hungry people like Momodu Koroma, now foreign minister and once a briefcase carrier to Charles Margai, to help him economically destabilize the country.

 

 The difference between these two governments however, is that unlike Kabba, Momoh was never ashamed to admit that he has let the country down. Kabba however, continues to claim that he has done well as president and throws anyone in jail who dares challenge his claims.

 

JBD did not need to tell us that Berewa is corrupt because just his actions are enough to let us know this. This man once wanted to have nothing to do with the SLPP, but quickly bought his way into Tejan Kabba’s good books by helping him slaughter the junta boys of AFRC. He also prevented the Anti corruption commission from doing its job through section 48 of the Anti Corruption Act.

 

 That Commission has become a failure because he obstructed all moves by the Commission to take appropriate action against all those of his bodies who were found guilty of corruption. Then came the SLPP convention, where he used Tejan to buy out the delegates so that Kabba can be set free once his tenure is over. Oh and then came Abbass Bundu, who was once convicted by the same Berewa, for selling Sierra Leone passports and converting the money to his personal use. Berewa has now embraced Bundu as he, Bundu, became a member of the SLPP.

 

With all these things happening, how can one believe Berewa and how can people still continue to think that this man will bring any developments to that country at all? The man has no agenda and every time he is out to speak to the people, all he says is how smart he was in law school and how good a student he was at CKC. What are even more frightening are the people you can expect to see in this man’s administration if God forbids he becomes president.

 

 We can’t afford to have people like passport trader, Abbass Bundu in another administration, neither do we want to see briefcase carrier now turned foreign minister, Momodu Koroma, house breaker, Bobson Sesay, J.J. Siafa, a.k.a J.J. Blood, who has talked so much for this short time he has Secretary General than all the ten years Prince Harding spent in the same position, Kanji Daramy, who was found guilty of corrupting Salpost, but was made Presidential spokesman. At the end of the day these people will continue their very activities while we continue to suffer as a country. Let us not fall for the little gestures Solo and his allies have started doing, going to these small towns and opening schools just to fool the people into voting them to power. Now, do we have options? Yes, we do.

 

 The People’s Movement for Democratic Change is born and has Charles Margai as its leader. This party is here to give our country its glory that has been taken away by corrupt leaders like Solo B. One thing that I want to bring to everyone’s attention is the fact that we have never heard anyone, not even Solo B, who hates Charles so much, refer to him as corrupt.

 

People have said that Charles is arrogant, but have never said that he is corrupt. At least Sierra Leone still has politicians that are not corrupt. SLPP hates Charles so much because of this one reason. When you have a party that is full of corrupt people that are eager to continue their agenda, there will be no room for honest people like Charles, which is why the leadership of that party has fought him over and over to make sure that he does not get the leadership. For those who think that the SLPP has been their religion or symbol of their family, think again because at the end of the day, it is not party that rules, but individuals because if it is party that rules, then people like Kabba and Berewa would not be leading the SLPP. That party was formed on moral values and principles, none of which is in existence under this leadership.

 

 You all need to really sit and ask yourselves whether you will continue your loyalty to SLPP and continue to put the wrong people into government just because of SLPP and also whether saving a party that is being crippled by corruption is more important than saving a country that is being crippled by those same people that have crippled the party? Either way you look at it, no good will come out of it because if you vote in Berewa because of SLPP, then you are only saving Berewa, but not SLPP and at the same time not the country and so all we need to do is look closely at the aspiring leaders, then make our choice and not at the parties. Making a choice between Charles Margai and Solomon Berewa should not be a difficult one at all especially if we look at their track records in terms of national interest.

 

If you think that you are okay with all that is going on in our country and would prefer things to remain the way they are or get worse, then support and vote Berewa to power, but if you, however, think that change is needed in our country in any shape or form, then support the PMDC and its leader Charles Margai, as the party was formed by Sierra Leoneans who have our country’s interest at heart and who want to see progress and prosperity in our beloved nation. Let us choose wisely come 2007 so that we can all enjoy what belongs to all of us as Sierra Leoneas and may God bless our country.