Is war the only vehicle to power for the SLPP? … a rejoinder

I read a piece from the SLPP Propaganda Online tabloid – “The New People Online Newspaper” written by one of their regular contributors, the great Umaru Sitta Turay of NY, USA, which is titled “War Signals In Sierra Leone … Where is the International Community!? (Photo: Brima M. Turay)

I am tempted to offer my perspective on the issues about which he was very critical of the APC government and the leadership of President Koroma. I appreciate and I share Umaru’s concerns about not letting our nation slip back into our ugly past. However, his argument that, by going after those who have committed crimes against humanity, the APC party is inviting another war to this fragile nation stands totally misplaced and conceptually flawed.

Yes, indeed, the war did cost our nation loss of life and material wealth, as Mr. Sitta Turay so painstakingly stated. What I do not appreciate about Mr. Turay is his use of isolated situations to characterize the APC government as one that is infested with former rebels, when he stated thus:

 “A UN military team was put together by the United Nations to save us Sierra Leoneans from the hands of the rebels some of whom are presently bodyguards of President Ernest Bai Koroma. Some of whom are persuading President Ernest Bai Koroma to pursue the former NPRC people”.

I can see that Mr. Umaru Sitta Turay is trying to tilt the table the other way, because he knows, as much as the majority of Sierra Leoneans do, that most of the forefront leaders in the SLPP today, served in the NPRC regime of Valentine Strasser and Julius Marda Bio. Consequently, if anyone must protect members of the NPRC, it would be the supporters of the SLPP because they seem to look alike in terms of using war or the barrel of the gun as the only means of stealing power.

No, Mr. Sitta Turay, there would be no war if the APC regime should go after those whose hands are tainted with the blood of innocent Sierra Leoneans because there was no war when the same International Community that you quoted above went after people like General Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia; General Manuel Noriega of Panama; General Augusto Pinochet of Chile; Charles Gbangbay Taylor of Liberia; General Al-Bashir of Sudan and Theoneste Bagosora of Rwanda for crimes that they had committed against humanity. 

There was also no war when the SLPP regime butchered people like the great Army Chief, Max Kanga; Chief of Defense Staff, Hassan Conteh; the charming and result-oriented Major Kula Samba; the great warrior Col. PF Foday; the sage, fun and loving, Col. SFY Koroma and many others.

So, why would you even bring yourself to suggest that by investigating Julius Marda Bio and others for the deaths of people like the late Chief of police, James Bambay Kamara, Col. Yayah Kanu, Col. Kahota Dumbuya and many others, the APC government is simply inviting another war?

This is like saying that for the sake of protecting the perpetrators, we should never find out why those wonderful men and women were untimely wiped off the face the earth. No, Mr. Turay, it would “Jungle Justice” if we shy away from pursuing this matter because of some conjectured consequences of war that you insinuated in your article.

Mr. Umaru Turay also stated thus:

“About two years after the APC have been controversially imposed on Sierra Leoneans, this bunch of violently oriented people have started to open up old wounds that is obviously going to be met with the stiffest resistance”.

Mr. Umaru Turay describes the APC’s clear win in 2007 as a controversial imposition of power in Sierra Leone and calls our supporters a “bunch of violently oriented people”. Get a grip on yourself Mr. Turay, because this is the most outrageous statement that anyone could ever make about the conduct of our 2007 elections. Unlike you, the International community highly acclaimed those elections and credited the success to the peaceful and hard working people of Sierra Leone who decided to change power by simply utilizing the basic democratic means instead of the barrel.

Umaru Sitta Turay also stated thus:

“I really sympathize with the APC for not being able to put a real team together that will deliver their campaign promises”.

I was wondering what campaign promises Mr. Turay is referring to. What happened to our road networks like the Bo, Pujehun, Kailahun, Port Loko/Kambia road projects; including the Peninsular of Freetown? What about the bilateral and multilateral relationships that we have maintained and created with the International community within the last three years? What about the gradual but positive improvement on health and sanitation? What about the most chronic disease in the country, electricity, which the Koroma government continues to improve around the country? 

Mr. Umaru Sitta Turay, I hope you are with us in this great planet, Earth, and not some alien waking up from another planet where, except yours, other lives seem not to exist!

There Will be No War, Sitta Turay – Not anymore! The rule of law must prevail and unlike your SLPP regime, we will make sure everyone is given a fair trial through a very transparent system of jurisprudence.

By: Brima M. Turay, PRO, APC-NA

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