With the elections long gone and a democratically elected government in place, one would only envisage a quiet political environment with the defeated political party and their supporters putting aside partisanship, supporting the democratically elected government headed by His Excellency President Maada Bio, stopping the fanning of the flames of hatred, and respecting the rule of law with the realization that there is only one government in the Republic of Sierra Leone which at present is the SLPP.
The Bio government is only six months old with a lot to brag about when it comes to progress, yet the defeated APC Party and their stooges do nothing but engage themselves in negative, potty, and smearing propagandas aimed at demonizing the ruling party thereby turning all what it has so far achieved into bad. The Free Education made possible by His Excellency Bio that makes it possible for every struggling family to send their children to school pro bono is enough for every well-meaning Sierra Leonean to cruise around with a smile, thanking God that at last a messiah is on the horizon; one that should be regarded as a manna from God. Those who refuse to accept this must count themselves as enemies of the progress that is geared to help the haves not. If the APC continues on this path of partisanship, they will soon anger the awoken masses that are now very smart enough to tell good apart from evil.
When an incumbent party is voted out of power, the leadership must get themselves analytical mirrors to find out where they went wrong, and not engage in cheap propaganda while blaming everything on external factors as the APC is currently doing. A quick lesson they must have learnt is the veritable fact that parading paddle, buying votes by making alcohol available to voters, and dishing out money to bump up the numbers of red jerseys in political rallies is no longer enough to win votes, neither is ballot rigging. The world being afloat with Medias, is no longer a place for cosmetic politics. You can fool some people sometime, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.
As it stands, I find it hard to believe that the APC leadership and their supporters try to politicize everything that the government does even when it is legal, and something that they could have treated likewise. An example is the recent raid in the province where people were caught with large quantities of Marijuana. It is clearly the duty of all governments to keep illegal drugs at bay by all means. Force is to be used when those in possession of illegal drugs refuse to hand them over peacefully. Such was the case in this raid, where a young man purportedly lost his life. My heartfelt condolences to the young man’s family as every life counts. Nevertheless, to consider this as tribalism is baseless, unfounded, and partisan. The police had nothing to gain from willfully taking away the life of a young man simply because he hails from a different tribe. That propaganda is low class propaganda reserved for the mentally deformed. The APC leadership and their supporters have not even stopped short of criticizing the free education program of His Excellency Bio, yet they cannot come up with any alternatives of theirs. The only reason for this criticism is the fear that the introduction of the free education program is going to keep them out of power forever because the thankful masses will always reward SLPP for it. This shows that the APC Party is a selfish party that cares very little about the welfare of the masses. One thing they must stop is the rebellious attitude they have been portraying since they got voted out of power. That their leaders take it upon themselves to go from one community to the other clandestinely inciting the masses is a mark of civil disobedience. It is enough for them to grow up, concede, and respect the legally elected government. The belief they harbor that the APC Party should be the only ruling party is far-fetched, and must be laid to rest. The SLPP being a civilized party will never engage in such unlawful behaviors. It is interesting that many APC supporters still continue to say that the SLPP was elected by Britain. Even a knucklehead should know that it was the Sierra Leonean citizens that voted in the elections, and not the British people. Again, wake up from your nightmares, accept the fact that your party failed Sierra Leoneans for eleven years and so was voted out, and hibernate to oblivion. Finely put, it will be worthy to accept your political oblivion.
An abled President like His Excellency Bio with a very intelligent, vibrant, and hardworking wife in the person of Fatima Jabbie is all it takes for a country to progress. This is the first time in the history of our country to have a first lady of her like. She seems to be doing many things at one time to help the helpless. She has all the qualities of a woman from a respectable background: beautiful, well posed, easy going, respectful, religious, and kind hearted. I ask all well-meaning Sierra Leoneans to join me in praying for her and her husband, for they seem to be a winning team that will lead us in scoring the many goals that we failed to score for the past eleven years. I will soon embark on a trip from Riyadh to the Holy City of Makkah to offer special prayers for this team, and our country. As a citizen that loves his country I see that as an appanage, and pray that Allah answers my prayers and help guide and protect the duo.
I went through a thoughtless article in the media that was titled “FREE SCHOOL FEES PROGRAM-NOT FREE QUALITY EDUCATION PROGRAM.” After reading it, I wondered if the writer has suddenly forgotten the past eleven years of APC rule. It was a decade when Sierra Leone plunged back into the dark ages with education completely at a standstill. The Ernest Koroma government had the most worthless minister of education that did more to destroy than promote academia. Yet he kept him there for eleven years for personal reasons that had nothing to do with the progress of our children. Those were the days when poor parents paid school fees for their children, and got nothing in return. Education during Ernest’s tenure was the worst Sierra Leone has ever had. What is worse than children graduating out of high school without being able to read? Yet this APC supporter has the guts to discredit an education program that has not even begun. That I consider as an example of cheap and baseless propaganda. It would have been best for him to go back and look at education during the eleven-year tenure of the APC for him to be able to make a critical analysis. Criticism when done rightly will go to benefit everyone, not when done with malice and envy. Could it be again that this barrage of negative criticism, and lawlessness coming from APC is to deflect the present government from investigating their mass lootings as many are pointing out? It is the ardent hope of all Sierra Leoneans that the government will leave no stone unturned to recover all that was plundered by the past government of Ernest Bai Koroma.
I will end my article with a word or two for all well-meaning Sierra Leoneans. Please ignore all negative postings coming from APC and their supporters in the Medias. They have done well in what they are good at, which is planting spies in all the forums to attack and belittle well-wishers they quite well know are fitter than them in all aspects. Responding to them means going down to their levels. Stay focused and on target. Our duty is to help President Bio achieve his goals by taking our country out of the woods it has been in for eleven years. This can only be achieved by staying on-task. The other side has still not come to grips with the fact that they have been rejected by the masses, and they so much miss the Brown Envelopes that they can do anything to disrupt the New Direction even if it means spreading hate and provoking a civil war. Let us help our able President and his team to make our country free of tribalism and hatred. Remember that there is no west, east north, and western Sierra Leone. There is the Republic of Sierra Leone. God bless the Republic of Sierra Leone.
Dr. Sorie Gassama, you are on track, many many thanks! I’ll go a little further to encourage the progressives in the APC, in the likes of the Kaloko Movement and NRM to some up courage and put the APC Party on the tracks of democratic principles govern by the rule of law and flavoured with a sweet taste of accountability. Should incase they find out that the APC is only for EBK and his immediate Friends, then I’ll suggest for the good of the country to switch over to the NGC. The Party with the best coordinated development Intentions for our beloved COUNTRY.