Unhealthy rumours and speculation

Once again the health and welfare of our former opposition leaders, namely former President Ahmad Tejan-Kabbah and former Vice President Solomon Berewa have become headline speculations in pro APC publications. First it was reported that the former President had taken ill and was admitted as a medical emergency in a Johannesburg hospital and that the editor of the Global Times newspaper Sorie Fofana was looking after him. The fact of the matter was that the former President, accompanied by his wife Isata Kabbah was in South Africa to watch the world cup football and in good health. The poor man could not even wait for the finals and had to rush to Guinea to head the ECOWAS election observation team. While he was there the vile propagandist African Champion published that he had taken the side of the madingo candidate in the election and had been disgraced as a result.

This time it is the newspaper whose publisher is the President’s own press secretary which carried a false report in his Torchlight newspaper last Tuesday that Vice President Solomon Berewa was seriously ill and had been flown to India for urgent medical treatment. Not to be outdone the African Champion again waded in with more speculation; “Where is Solo B?” the paper asked. And true to form and notoriety it even announced that the former Vice President was indeed seriously ill, suffering from prostate cancer and had been flown to India for urgent medical treatment. According to the editor the man had not been seen around for quite some time. Then it dabbled in political speculation that the former Vice President had become disenchanted with the SLPP, had turned his back on the party and become a recluse. All of the above is a product of the editor’s fertile imagination for fabrication and mischief. Solo B was among the large crowd of sympathizers who recently joined the Kanja Sesey family in Bo for the 40^th funeral rites of their late mother. Solo and I are joint executors to the estate of a mutual friend of and met at our solicitors’ offices barely ten days ago. Where then have the editors of the Torchlight and the African Champion respectively got their stories? The lives of public figures are often of public interest especially of the media. However in other situations professionals check their stories before coming out with them, but that is not the case with the charlatans that we have for editors.

Former Vice Presidents Albert Joe Demby and Solomon Berewa along with former President Tejan-Kabbah are entitled to police escort vehicles in addition to their official ones. But because of their simplicity these people move around freely but quietly without any fanfare, often waiting patiently in Freetown’s congested traffic. Their presence is hardly ever noticed except occasionally by a few people. So how does the African Champion want to see them around? While in Accra not too long ago I saw former Ghanaian President John Rawlings’ motorcade go by; there was no mistaking it except for that of President John Atta Mills. Readers may recall that a few years back, even as I walked down Siaka Stevens street the African Champion had me wheeled into a London bound plane at Lungi airport and I was admitted promptly into the Intensive Care Unit of a London hospital. The whole thing is unhealthy, nay filthy, but will it stop with fellows like the ones we have editing newspapers?

With respect, yes with utmost respect to the Honourable Augustine Torto the chairman of the Parliamentary oversight committee on Foreign Affairs and International Relations, the entity referred to as the Soviet Union ceased to exist more than 30 years ago, following the fall of the Berlin Wall and the secession of its constituent states. In its place we have the Soviet Federation. I wonder that our ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation had not made that clear to the House.

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