The canker worm in the flesh of APC
When one Kai Sessie Tambawa, in a recently published article in “The New People” aptly described Vice President Alhaji Samuel Sam Sumana as “a growing tyrant”, many of his sycophantic underlines perceived it as an unfair comment, unlike some of us who know him very well and the people of Kono, his native homeland who continue to bear the brunt of his tyranny. Since his assumption of office in 2007, the honourable Vice President has on more than one occasion manifested his inherent inclination to clandestinely mastermind and carry out nefarious acts through his surrogates and thugs, calculated to hurt those he perceives as unlikely bed fellows. It is rather unfortunate that he capitalises on apparently legitimate reasons to accomplish his schemes, though the end results usually turn out to be anathema to the decorum of civilised behaviour, at least for a man of his status in our body politic. If it is not orchestrating the disruption of meetings of political opponents, it is lewd and obscene attacks on fellow party members or violent attacks on traditional rulers. (Photo: Samuel Saquee, author)
Quite recently, it was revealed that the Honourable Vice President was the hidden hand behind the outrageous attacks on the incumbent Chair Person of the Kono District Council, Diana Konomanyi, an individual that is more popular and respected by the Kono people than the Vice President, and subsequent anonymous, obscene and threatening phone calls made to the likes of Mr Aiah M’briwa, Mr Gbondo Penneh Panny and Mr George Pessima, for their alleged siding with the Chair Person’s omission of his name and that of the First Lady, Mrs. Sia Nyama Koroma from the list of invited dignitaries for the induction into office of Diana Konomanyi. And on Tuesday past, the Paramount Chief of Tankoro in the Kono District, P.C. Sahr Paul Ngaba Saquee V got the dose of the VP’s medicine when the latter incited a handful of Kono students and affected property owners in the ongoing resettlement venture in the chiefdom, who mobbed the Chief and damaged his vehicle on the precincts of the Youyi building in Brook Fields after a successful meeting for the purpose of briefing the public about the expansion of the resettlement program. The VP betrayed himself into culpability because no sooner had the Paramount Chief been give the go ahead by the President, His Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma to institute legal proceedings against the suspected hooligans, then the VP embarked on making calls to the chief, asking him not to take any actions against the perpetrators of the attack on this vehicle. It should be noted that the Paramount Chief wasted no time in lodging a formal complaint with His Excellency about the VP’s complicity in the unsavoury episode at Youyi Building.
It is an indisputable fact that the actions and machinations of VP Sam Sumana are not only uncalled for, but it is the case that they are not in the interest of neither the All Peoples Congress (APC) nor the President. If anything, they are undermining the decisions taken by the very government he is serving. As a matter of fact, there had been earlier incidents concerning the mining policies in the district that culminated in a very nasty incident that claimed the life of an individual. This resulted in the setting up of a commission of enquiry that came up with its findings and made recommendations that form the basis of the present mining policies in place. Also the expansion process in question has the blessings of the present government, so one would doubt the wisdom of the Vice President’s clandestine machinations if he is truly loyal to his boss, as expected. It should be noted, besides, that what is expected of any well meaning politician or student activist at this point in time is to continue to agitate for the speedy resettlement of the affected people, the majority of whom are still habiting burnt out houses with tarpaulin roofs, left behind by the ten year senseless war. As a native of Kono who was born and bred in Saquee Town, not Yormandu, as in the case of the Vice President, my greatest happiness is to see our people resettled even more than 500 metres away from the blast zone. Those of us who grew up in the blast zone knew what we went through as a result of the Kimberlite blasting. So our watch ward is to see our houses built as far away as possible from the mining concession. In this respect I am very grateful to Koidu Holdings for building solid concrete houses for us, unlike the mud houses that made up more than half of the previous ones there. I doubt whether the Vice President as contributed a single cent towards the rehabilitation of our people since he came to power, so let him and his misguided student activists leave us alone. All our people need are the rebuilding of their houses and I implore Koidu Holdings to speed up the process before some dubious political buffoon messes up the process in the quest of settling political scores with his perceived opponents.
By all indications, President Ernest Bai Koroma is very much serious about consolidating the hold on Kono, an SLPP stronghold, come 2012 Parliamentary and Presidential elections, a desire which has seen him embarking on various developmental undertakings in the district of late. It should be noted however that for him to accomplish this goal, he needs a very strong and trusted team in the district. As would be expected, the VP who happens to come from Kono,should spear head this venture, but it is rather unfortunate that he is doing the contrary and his actions are doing more to hinder the progress of the Party than helping it. It is my belief that the president’s decision to select the honourable Sam Sumana as a running mate in 2007 was to give the people of Kono the confidence that they matter to him and should stick with him. However, it is sad to say that VP Sam Sumana is not a true representative of the Kono people and if the President is serious about convincing the people of Kono about him taking them seriously as I do believe, it is hard time he considers getting rid of Sam Sumana as his running mate come 2012. There are well meaning and trusted Politicians from Kono including the likes of Ambassador John Yambasu, Diana Konomanyi, George Pessima, Aiah M’briwa, to name but a few, in the APC who are more sincere to themselves and the cause of the party and are trusted and respected by the Kono people. The choice of Sam Sumana will surely do little or nothing to galvanize the Kono people towards the APC. So it is left with the President to choose between loosing a single insincere individual to loosing a whole district as crucial as Kono.I will not hesitate to assert that the V.P. is more of a liability than an asset to the party in terms of selling it to the Kono people. It will be welcome news to the SLPP in Kono to see Sam Sumana as the Presidential running mate come 2012.
The honourable Vice President is nothing but a canker worm in the flesh of the APC.
By Samuel Tamba Musa Saquee, USA
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