Sierra Leone : A Pan-African Brother from Ghana reacts to latest developments…
Cornelius Hamelberg
After exercising considerable self-restraint, I’m finally writing this as an aggrieved Temne man, because, temperamentally, I’m 100% Temne, like the Great Bai Bureh, and like O’Bai, I too, I’m never going to take it lying down.
We noh go gree!
Pros and con - con here meaning conman,
are equally divided between the APC and the SLPP
the North ( APC) and the South (SLPP)
to some extent like Nigeria which is also on the North-South axis
compounded by the East-West divide as in Kipling’s
In context, to some extent too Dr Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara is the suffering servant (but not of Isaiah 53) nor is he shuffering and Shmiling - absolutely not, but he has paid his dues to be singing the blues that he's singing today and he is not idly crying victimhood, bravely and with considerable self-restraint, suffering martyrdom, wearing his crown of thorns
On the other side - and I don't call it “the axis of evil,” we have Brer Bio alias the paopa lion king of the SLPP accused of rigging unto himself a landslide victory.and that's the lesson to be learned by the APC, when you do something like rigging an election, it's best to do it ON A LARGE SCALE, that way you don’t win “ narrowly” ,scraping past the finishing line by the skin of your teeth; the essence of being a megalomaniac like Brer Bio is that in the name of self-preservation you do things on a great scale - that, after all is the essence of greatness, so, if you're going to steal, e.g.an election, and as a good Roman Catholic although you know that the eighth commandment is DO NOT STEAL, you go ahead anyway and you make sure that you do it - STEAL - in a big way, after all as far as you’re concerned , as a Mr.President of Sierra Leone you know that in your case commandments are made to be broken if possible with impunity, aren't they that's what you mean by “ executive privilege” which - as first citizen entitles you to break all the laws of the country ,WITH IMPUNITY - and furthermore as a former Brigadier- General your code of ethics has always been quite clear : “ All's fair in love and war”, hasn’t it, and when it comes to elections and any Samurai warrior that has the audacity, and wants to take your bread and butter from you, well, that's a declaration of war, isn’t it, and first of all he ought to know what and who he’s up against, after all, you’ve got the national treasury as your campaign war chest, and on top of that you’ve also got the military, the police, and the Chief Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Konneh by your side, haven’t you? What other tools does an incumbent need to win any election?
The pre-election fever has been followed by even greater tensions but up to now it cannot be said that the thermometer has gone berserk and that the tempers still flaring are running over and now spilling blood on the streets. Thank God that even at the very brink of the abyss up to now we are avoiding the ultimate catastrophe that could befall a nation, namely civil war, back to the bush, and guerrilla warfare, time for Ibrahim Abdullah’s second edition / Volume 2 of Bush-Path to Destruction
As for the lost sheep of the house of Israeleone , after reading some of the heavily worded editorials and opinion pieces in Cocorioko -not least of all, penned by man of God, the Rt Hon Rev. Leeroy Wilfred Kabs Kanu
I can only maintain that I don’t think it’s such a good idea that the APC , currently Sierra Leone's main opposition party, should continue with their policy of non-participation and non-cooperation with the ruling SLPP, at any level of government whatsoever. My best argument in support of such a position is what happened in Israel this afternoon when the opposition walked out of the Knesset, refusing to take part in voting down the controversial judicial bill which thereby passed by 64 votes to Zero. If the opposition had stayed they could have perhaps argued,delayed ,the passing of the bill, since they were outnumbered, or maybe thrown in a filibuster or two
In Sierra Leone, if the opposition boycotts parliament, the country could de facto and de jure become a one-party state, the SLPP could pass any laws they please, even change the country’s constitution and enact new legislation that Brer Bio should be president forever...
Up to now, I haven’t talked to my radical Pan-African Brother ( from Ghana) about the Sierra Leone elections, but as a way of an introduction to this very sensitive subject ( sensitive, because - all of 53 years later, I intend to visit Sierra Leone as soon as the spectre of the looming battle/dust of battle dies down) so I sent him this item (you judge for yourself) :
GREG COPLEY AND DAVID FLINT ON DEMOCRATIC ISSUES IN AFRICA
My radical Ghanaian Pan-African Bro replied :
“ This arrogant, empty-headed man would be better advised to keep his mouth shut (hålla truten) on Africa.”
Slightly taken aback I sent him this tweet from the US Embassy in Freetown
Radical Black Pan-African wasn't going to be deterred or comforted, he replied :
“ Yes, he gives a very good description of the disorders, the apparent absence of any sense of direction, mismanagement, widespread unrest, etc., etc in Africa under its current, corrupt leadership. He should have stopped there. Yes, there is all this and much more tumult going on in Africa, as he rightly observes. My question is: And so what? Is that his business?”
I tried to answer his rhetorical question:
” He is probably following this Biblical injunction: Brother's Keeper”
Radical Black: “ His attempt to co-relate developments in Africa negatively with the Chinese presence there and nostalgically/directly/inversely with what he calls Western retreat from Africa is outrageous falsification.”
I tried to soothe him: “ Absolutely on the ball! That's how they usually, surreptitiously slip in a big fat lie”
Black Radical Pan-African :
“ As a Westerner with several centuries' presence in Africa, he has no moral right to judge the value or otherwise of the Chinese presence in Africa. He should talk about his own legacies and deeds (past, present, and ongoing) in Africa.
The claim that the West has left/abandoned Africa is most certainly not true! Even in war-ravaged countries in Africa today there are Western companies and adventurers plundering (directly and or indirectly) resources (Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central Africa, Guinea, Niger, Tchad, Eastern Congo, and many more). And let's not forget not so few of the over 800 American overseas military bases are in Africa. Mainstream media is ominously silent about them!
So much noise is made about the Wagner Group in Africa! Most of Africa and the world is unaware that there are significant contingents of Western/NATO combat forces (including from Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Eastern Europe, etc) deployed to the Sahel region of West Africa! In addition to direct intervention a host of Western private contractors are active all over Africa. In other cases, the United Nations under its current Portuguese arch-colonialist Secretary-General is very easily used as a Trojan horse (Eastern Congo, South Sudan, l believe, and elsewhere in Africa). In the Horn of Africa, the United States is very actively involved in the fighting, hiding its filthy designs under the guise of assisting African forces.
I don't want to bore you any further.”
And then in reply to my earlier comment, ” He is probably following this Biblical injunction: Brother's Keeper” - his Parthian shot :
“They have been doing that for centuries. We know the results.
Good evening!”
Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, when I spoke to Baba Kadiri this evening, he was not radically different, and there was no radical departure from the “ hålla truten!”
I hope ( and pray ) that Hon. William Bangura will help me out in this Salone matter
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