The week just past
There may have been other important events occurring during the past week but for us in the opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party SLPP, THE EVENT was the reopening of our rehabilitated and refurbished party headquarters on Wallace Johnson street which as everyone knows was brutally attacked, looted and vandalized on three separate occasions by hoodlums of the ruling APC. The last vicious attack was led by the President’s own security detail, an ex army man by the unenviable num de plume of Lederboot. (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)
Like I stated last Friday the funds for the rehabilitation were provided by the Executive Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations ERSG. Seeing Michael Von Schulenburg on Friday I felt remorse that some of his own staff had compared him with the notorious Nazis leader and murderer Adolf Hitler. Incidentally I was to learn later that Schulenburg’s own father had been a victim of Nazis atrocity; perhaps that was why the poor man may have felt the sting of a Hitler label. Although the ceremony started late, yet it was brief and interesting, thanks to the speakers and the able chairmanship of Tonkolili strongman Alfred Bobson Sesey. In his opening remarks, Bobson reminded us of the virtues of the founding fathers of our party and the legacy that they left behind. The mainly Green and White party colours brightened the Unity hall which was packed to capacity; that was in addition to the large crowd that waited outside the building. I was most impressed by the earlier statement of Alhajie UNS Jah, immediate past chairman of the party. The main thrust of his message which was received with thunderous applause during the Ecumenical Service was that the SLPP was not up for sale to any highest bidder. We were looking for a Presidential candidate, not just a party leader. The very eloquent and no-nonsense academic Mayor of Bo city Dr. Wusu Sannoh sent a strong message to the APC, a message which by the applause that followed appeared to express the sentiments of the gathering. He said the APC must understand that henceforth we the members of the SLPP would not sit by with folded arms in any future physical attack by the APC; that we were capable of and we would defend ourselves. UNS Jah’s point was buttressed by the current chairman and leader John Oponjo Benjamin. A festive atmosphere of confidence for 2012 prevailed throughout the proceedings which culminated in the formal handing over of the keys of the building by the ERSG to chairman Benjamin.
Most of those who have declared their intention to contest the Flag bearer position were present, but it was remarkable though not surprising, that there was neither tension nor sign of animosity among them.
Shall I call it a gaffe or blissful ignorance? Earlier in the week, on the SLBC’s tea break programme on Tuesday morning the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation honourable Augustine Torto constantly referred to the “Soviet Union.” That was in connection with the appearance before his committee of the minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation to throw light on the recent shameful affair of two of our Ambassadors being recalled at the request of the host governments. For the education of the honourable committee chairman and any others, what was once the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics USSR or the Soviet Union ceased to exist shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall which had separated East and West Germany, with East Germany firmly in the grip of the Soviet bloc. After the end of the Second World War, Winston Churchill then Prime Minister of Great Britain referred to those countries which were firmly in the grip of totalitarian Soviet communist rule and or influence as being behind the Iron Curtain. Today nearly all of them are not only completely free and independent, but some have experienced further disintegration into separate states. What is now left in the place of the former Soviet Union is THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.
I often quote a favourite statement of the late former President Siaka Stevens. “It is better to keep your mouth shut and let people assume that you are a fool than to open it and clear all doubts.” So it is with the columnist in the standard times newspaper who refers to himself as the bee. For the second time he has taken a wild but ineffective swipe at me. In his latest attack he holds me responsible because the road leading to my Sumaila town residence is not paved with gold. Am I responsible for road maintenance and assuming I was in government was it my responsibility to prioritize road maintenance, especially a road that was constructed to serve the government quarters that are back of the Pademba Road prisons and commonly referred to as “PWD compound.?” I may be 80, but if the teenage columnist deludes himself that I can’t take on insolent chaps like him, he has another think coming. LONTA.
A splinter group of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists SLAJ announced its formation and called itself a third force. Their interim secretary or convener said that they were opposed the way in which the association was being run. Instead of mounting a campaign to vote out the said executive they have chosen to secede and thus take the association back to the old days of everyone for themselves. What a great pity and an error of judgment. A krio proverb says, “Vex Kerr go, nor vex lef behen waitin nar u yone.” A split organization would be weak and incapable of wielding any real influence. May be the members of the group would reconsider their decision.
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2010, https:. All rights reserved.
