The week just gone
It was an interesting, even if not exciting week in many respects. The ruling APC were still railing from their failure to wrest Constituency 04 in the Kailahun district from the opposition SLPP in the Parliamentary bye-election of May 28. They had put considerable energy and resources into the effort but came away disappointed. (Photo: Dr. Sama Banya)
Although the party had retained Constituency 97 in the east end of Freetown with a very comfortable margin, there was no marked jubilation along Old Railway line because it was not their prime target.
I am certain that they would easily have traded results in the two bye-elections as long as the Kissi Tongi contest allowed them a foothold in the Kailahun district.
The victorious SLPP candidate honourable Sahr Fatorma, (and that is how we are already addressing him although he has not yet been sworn in.) After the formality, a date would be fixed for appropriate celebrations in the constituency.
Sadly I would be missing that because of the death last Sunday of my younger brother Eddie formerly of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank and recently of Media Tech. Eddie was very popular and well liked in the community. We’re going to miss him and his peculiar sense of humour coupled with his infectious laughter.
The Awareness Times
On the front page of last Friday’s Awareness Times newspaper was a piece by the newspaper’s publisher Sylvia Blyden in which she stated that I had unwittingly mislead readers about the popularity of the SLPP in Constituency 03 in the Kailahun district. She then produced the voting results in that constituency in which the victorious SLPP candidate was honourable Tamba Musa-Sam and those in Constituency 04 where the winner was honourable Tamba Bobor-Sawyer. She then concluded that the SLPP was not as popular in Constituency 03 where it secured only 40% of the votes as compared with Constituency 04.
I do not see the connection or the purpose of Ms. Blyden’s comments. What I wrote was about the APC’s desperate efforts to set foot in the Kailahun district and how they had intended to woo either Alice Mamei Foyah of Constituency 1 or Musa-Sam of Constituency 03. It was in that context that I described Musa-Sam as a fiery politician; the APC then settled on the weak and inept Bobor-Sawyer who had already begun to send overtures to the ruling party shortly after it assumed power.
The figures quoted by Ms. Blyden refer to our system and that of Britain in which the winner is the ‘first past the post’ and does not necessarily mean that the winner or his party secured an overall majority. One would have appreciated Ms. Blydens arguments if the figures quoted referred to the candidate who won with 50% plus 1. In any case my articles were not about popularity but about the character of the person who suited the APC’s purpose. I misled no one either wittingly or unwittingly.
I am not sure whether Ms. Blyden’s objective is to pick up a fight; if it is then she will be disappointed as she won’t find in me a willingly combatant. I had a lot of respect and sympathy for her forthrightness especially in calling things by their proper names. This was often demonstrated in my Puawui column.
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