In response to ‘In Pursuit of Fairness, Mr. President’

Please allow me to respond to the opinion of Alimamy Jaiah Kaikai of Houston, Texas, USA. The article titled “In Pursuit Of Fairness, Mr. President” dated Sept. 11, 2010 called Mr. Francis Munu, who is recently appointed by the president as the new Inspector General of the police force, “a junior northerner” to AIG Oliver Somassa. Mr. Kaikai needs some correction. He has treaded into a terrain of which he has little idea of. He states that Alfred Oliver Somassa, a police school training mate of Francis A. B. Munu, who passed out the same year from Hastings, was being “skipped over” by the current president for the Inspector General position, for which the commentator and analyst accuses the APC government of an instance of tribalism. The commentator also decorates his southern brother “with a wealth of experience under his belt and capable enough to head the police force” while he opines and dismisses the new IG as merely a “junior northerner.”  Is this fairness?  (Photo: Idriss Munu, author)

Writing from the stand point of someone who knows the two gentlemen, I was physically present in the country when the two folks Somassa and Munu had completed not only their university educations (the former from Njala and the latter from FBC) but also, their police training. I must refresh “NGOR” that in true “fairness” and honesty, the two folks are well suited for the highest position in the police but, it is one Inspector General  and one person at a time.

Ngor Kaikai, just in case you did not know or maybe you would like to know the two young officers were in fact good “buddies” back in the days when they were is Kissy. They were both degree holders and very brilliant cops seen in full regalia and action. While I sympathize with Alfred Oliver Somassa and wish him well, I simply cannot accept the reference to the new IG which puts him beneath him. The gentlemen had both enjoyed the same rank for years until the coming of the SLPP government under PA abba, who catapulted AIG Somassa next to Brima Acha Kamara IG leaving the equally qualify AIG Munu a step behind. No one in the entire country had called it “southernization” or cried patronage.

As much as the analyst pretends to know all the instances of tribalism associated with presidential appointments, when it is the APC party in power this time around, I am sure that when AIG Munu was skipped over by ex-president Kabba for the second in command position in the police force during the SLPP tenure, then Mr. Munu was AIG in charge of operations and he had a office at state house, the Analyst was nowhere in the world to be heard through his penmanship to tag the instance as tribalism or foul play. I am certain that the commentator was breathing God’s air somewhere in Texas very content and looking the other way.

I fervently acquiesce with the brother that tribalism and its practice is sickening to the core and too much emphasis on tribal loyalties does not augur well for nation building.  A word for the wise though: as patriotic and peace loving citizens we must not be half way fair. We must be fair all the way if we are to keep the peace and our fledgling democracy.

By Idrissa Munu, Washington, DC, USA

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