SLPP fooled us

Even when the war had ended in 2001, the then ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) kept telling us that it was as a result of the war that Sierra Leone is backward. This was the statement uttered by many Politicians in the then regime. The war stated in 1991 and ended in 2001, and during and after the war foreign donors and other philanthropic organizations continued to pour substantial amounts of money and aid into the country in order to alleviate the suffering of war victims. This is no lesser than the kind of money given to any post war country by the international community so that it recuperates from the wounds and underdevelopment and war ruins; and yet the country moved nowhere from the same old story of suffering and destitution that obtained during the war.

Five to six years had lapsed after the end of the war, yet still; unscrupulous politicians in the then regime of former President Kabbah continued to squander what was meant for the general good for their own self aggrandizement in the name of the war. Apparently, under the pragmatic leadership of Ernest Bai Koroma, it seems that those diabolical games and the foolery of the lay Sierra Leonean have started revealing themselves under the Bumbuna light of president Koroma. In the past government whenever we asked those in authority about the retrogressive state, they always shift the blame on the war, a friend of mine recently observed during a conversation of state issues. ‘But now that people who are development oriented are in power, we have started seeing light at the end of the tunnel,’ he added. ‘From what we are seeing and enjoying now, had the defunct SLPP judiciously made use of the foreign handouts, Sierra Leone would have been what we all dream of today?’

We as a nation today, thank God that in this current dispensation we are opportune to see sporadic street light in the city of Freetown, have to be  grateful and cooperative with the present government in order that we complement its numerous efforts to have things that had been strewn about by the war branded SLPP straightened up. True, electricity supply is not as regular as the government is depicting it to be all over the city but it is better than never; Freetown at least no longer bears the scary name of being the darkest city of the world; this in itself, is a development. In the ex-SLPP government, we never caught a glimpse of the street light not until when elections were around the corner that those at Kissy Road and Wallace Johnson Street were fixed.

At present, the reconstruction of roads around the country is no longer in white papers but on practical terms. All under the bogus SLPP regime the much promised construction of the Kenema-Kailahun highway never materialized but it is today a reality courtesy of the more pragmatic and well meaning APC; whatever it is that the APC has-call it magic, they have made the difference. We only hope that the Matotoka, Kono highway is given due consideration under this road reconstruction projects that have being brought into reality by the APC government. Now we have realized that the APC government despite having a northern based cabinet does not restrict development to regionalism or sectionalism but that development programmes are evenly distributed to places where even the present regime is said to lack support.

Besides the road reconstruction spree of the APC, there are also other development projects going on both in terms of infrastructure and institutional reforms around the country. Yesterday before press time, a friend of mine authoritatively intimated to me that the Peninsular Goderich Road is under intensive rehabilitation. These are the kind improvements every development-oriented Sierra Leonean would dream of, not the kind that was concentrated in portfolios and in purses. All these are now being accomplished in just two years and yet the SLPP spent ten years blaming things on the war, the question is why is the APC not blaming time-that we are just coming but would instead go straight to it; bring the needed development and no excuses.

I know many die-hard supporters who still venerate the erstwhile regime would not want to agree with me, but it is a lucid fact that the democracy by then was biased and unyielding to the nation. Also they might forward the argument that they did leave some land-marks to write home about, yes I agree to some extent, and that was what we expected of any responsible government that would have been given that opportunity to take Sierra Leone and its people to a safer-shore than the partial mess they created of things. It is quoted somewhere in the book of Proverbs that when “the righteous rule, the poor jubilate and when the wicked rule the poor groan in pain.” Yes, indeed the past regime subjected the people of this country to what was more of the play with words other than bringing things to fusion. My good old friend I once shared room with at Fourah Bay College remarked on the issue “Could we just imagine, in the space of two years, though the hardship is kicking hard; at least some signs of good governance are under way,”.

The SLPP foolery of the people of this country is beyond what words can express. This time around, we as concerned citizens anticipate and wish that the best would come of the APC regime before its five year term come to; and might probably be fortunate to lead us for another five years term. But if they fail us like their predecessors, we would not falter to take the necessary steps against them. 

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