Does the President really need them?

I have said it over and over and I’ll say it again and again. Ernest does not really need the superlatives and the gimmicks that a lot of people take delight in using about him. One has the impression that much of it is intended more to draw attention to the authors than to promote the President. In the midst of all their attempts at propaganda, Ernest is his own best PRO. Recently when the ECOWAS heads of state met in emergency session over the Ivory Coast crisis, three countries were selected to be the contact group on the crisis and the reason given was that they as of then had made no commends or commitments on the issue. They were Cape Verde, Benin and Sierra Leone. The President’s men immediately went into action; Ernest was chosen to lead the team because of his extra so and so. In the end when the impasse continued various options were put on the table, but eventually the ECOWAS Authority decided to take the matter to the United Nations Security Council and in the process to brief U S President Barrack Obama. Even where it was stated that the group would include the current ECOWAS chairman President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, the focus of the President’s men was on their man Ernest. “President Koroma to address the Security Council; President Koroma to meet Obama, etc.” screamed successive headlines. Something must have gone wrong because suddenly the Ivorian crisis appeared to take a back seat and the focus was on Ernest being honoured in New York; that was soon followed by Ernest to be honoured in Chicago. Mention of his three other colleagues was almost in small print. And now suddenly no one is even mentioning the mission, not even One Drop, or Sheik Sesey. There is however speculation that our heads of state did not meet with either Obama nor with U N Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon. Some have referred to the incident as a snub although I would prefer to call it bad planning, which in itself would be embarrassing. Will our friends learn any lesson from the apparent debacle? I doubt it. One must however wait to hear from the APC information guru the minister of information and communication. (Photo: Dr Sama Banya)

A number of my friend s have wondered why I have made no comments on the news that Haja Marie Turay of Kenema had declared for the ruling All Peoples Congress APC party during the recent visit of President Ernest Bai Koroma to that city. The reason is simple, from my information no one even stared at the event. Haja Marie Turay was the SLPP eastern region women’s leader up to just before the 2002 regional convention in Kenema. By that time her colleagues had become disenchanted with her leadership and voted Sia Ngongou in her place. She immediately scaled down her party activities and disappeared after a year. She surfaced once more as the 2007 Parliamentary and Presidential elections approached but most of the time she was on her own. In short no one appeared to care whether she was around or not except on one occasion when I announced her presence at a party meeting. What really is there to say? NOTHING.

I was and still remain a member of the Selection Committee appointed by the delegates conference of the opposition SLPP to vet prospective aspirants for the position of flag bearer for the party. It was under the chairmanship of Dr. Peter Tucker; at our inaugural meeting my colleagues unanimously voted me as deputy chairman. I acted as chairman on a number of occasions and attended all interview sessions for the initial 23 applicants. There was not a single aspirant among those 23 men and women who could be described as being “TAINTED.” As far as I am aware nothing has happened since to label any of the remaining 19 as being tainted.

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