In love with my President, in love with Sam

If I were to advise some of my friends in the media regarding the Aljazeera/Sam Sumana media outburst I would say to them, we should not allow our emotions to take us away from been rational and demonstrate love for our country. We could have our hate for a particular person in government, but at the same time as admirers of President Koroma, we should do our best to be mindful of what we write and say. A whole lot of us have great admiration for President Koroma to the extent that when people see us those of us in love with President Koroma’s government tearing apart government Ministers or the Vice President t will not tell well. We cannot claim to like President Koroma’s governance style and at the same time show  great hate and disgust for his able Vice or any government Ministers.

It is very disheartening for anyone to claim to like the President but at the same time use the pages of newspapers to discredit his Ministers and his Vice President.  I hope someone is reading me well.

The recent Aljazeera corrupt media outburst should not be used to bring about divisions and hate speech from within admirers of the President and his government. President Koroma and his government have done so much that it would only take a foolish mind to think that he can be undermined just overnight by whatever media propaganda, especially from the viewpoint of international news items. The government of President Koroma is determined, it has continued to live up to the expectation of the masses of this country, it has brought about transformation in the lives of the ordinary man, even that of the poor and once ignored Lamin Vandi in Kailahun. Because of these and many positive strides being undertaken by government, people would at the same time do all they could to discredit the good efforts of the government. We should be aware of that. Am I being read? I think yes.

Aljazeera has done all it could. Inasmuch as I appreciate the fact that they have done something that is part of President Koroma agenda-i.e. exposing corruption, I am however disappointed at the corrupt practice they used to unearth corrupt practice. Sorious Samura’s love forSierra Leonehas come under serious scrutiny .He has left many unanswered questions and to a very serious degree, the credibility of Aljazeera is about to diminish.

Sam Sumana has been literally ‘hanged’ in the gallows by certain sections of the media. He has been found guilty by the court of public opinion, even when it has become apparent that the whole Aljazeera media outburst was a hoax, a complete setup, aimed at not only discrediting the efforts of the government in the fight against corruption, but also aimed at presenting the Vice President as someone that is against the President’s visions for a better Sierra Leone through the fight against corruption.

The Vice President, for some section of the media, is guilty and such, should be sacked. That is completely the prerogative of His Excellency the President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma and no amount of media campaign will influence the President’s decision. That said, it will also be good for government, including Ministers not to allow people to divide them, as they now have a Herculean task of returning President Koroma to State House come 2012. They should remain as a united front.  You cannot claim to like President Koroma and continue to show total disregard for his Vice President and his Ministers. No way!  That is all I can say to a particular friend who has taken upon himself to vilify, especially the Vice President.

President Koroma is determined to fight corruption at all levels

I have patiently taken a look at the video documentary done by Sierra Leonean born Serious Samura and my analysis of the whole documentary could  go beyond saying,  it was aimed at embarrassing the government and the Vice President and that the documentary itself as ‘doctored’ just to meet the needs of the producer and his Bosses at Aljazeera. When the documentary someone called to say ‘the veep dae solicit bribe…’ little did he realize that there was nowhere in the documentary where Sam Sumana actually received physical dollar rom anyone.

The fact that Sorious and team could bribe people to do their investigative work shows how corrupt these journalists are and as such they have no moral ground to talk about corruption. The impression that was given by the documentary was that the said bribery scam took place right in the office of the President and in the presence of the Vice President. This is one of the most unethical aspects of the documentary. They almost succeeded in deceiving people, thus making the gullible public believe that corruption occurred right under the watchful eyes of Sam Sumana when that was never the case.

Granted that it was a great thing that the documentary attempted to expose corruption in the country since this is one area the President has given the greatest attention, it was however wrong for the Aljazeera team to have deceived the public. I have had the chance of meeting  someone close to the    Vice President Sumana the Veep had no idea of any money transaction that took place between people purporting to be acting on his behalf and the two undercover reporters from Aljazeera in the pretext of ‘Abdul Seyram’ and ‘Bilal Ahmed’.  Sam Sumana is a politician and one common fact with politicians is that they always have people around them.  This was the case with Sam Sumana with these two people who had always been around the Vice Presidency.

Indeed, Alex Mansaray presented himself as Chief Security Officer of the Vice President and at another point as Advisor to the VP .This was enough justification for the Aljazeera to have suspected that the two men were fake and were not working in the interest of the country and government. But because of the nefarious plans of the Aljazeera team they ignored that and went on to discredit the government’s efforts in the fight against graft .But one thing is certain- this government can’t be challenged by any other government in terms of its commitment to fight corruption. The fact that President Koroma took a political decision to allow the ACC   gain prosecutorial powers is indicative of government’s determination to curb corruption. The fact that government Ministers have been charged to court by the ACC without government’s interference demonstrates government’s determination to tackle a cancer in society. Why did the Aljazeera team fail to even question the sincerity of Momoh Konte who had allegedly told them that he was the Campaign Manager for the Vice President, even when it is clear that Sam Sumana is not the flag bearer for the APC and as such there is no need for him to have a Campaign Manager?

In fact the Vice President, am told only became aware of the whole issue when Aljazeera wrote him a letter ,requesting his reaction to a number of allegations they  raised in the said letter, including claims that two of his aides or friends had solicited bribes on his behalf. When the exchange of money between the two set of people had occurred, the undercover reporters on Monday October 31^st met with the Vice President in his office, unknown to the Vice President that money had crossed hands in a location unknown to the Veep and that there were efforts to tarnish his reputation and character. It has been made clear that, both men have never been government. At no time did the Vice President send any of them to represent him in any business deal. The dialogue that occurred between the undercover reporters and the purported government functionaries’ has nothing to do with VP nor did he know about it until he received a letter from Aljazeera.

I am therefore impressed  with government position that they will not be rushed into action, as according to the Deputy Information Minister Sheka Tarawallie ‘We are thoroughly going to look at the issue, if the VP is culpable then action will be taken that will be in the best interest of government.’ The government will indeed not condone corruption, because top government Ministers could be charged to court on corruption related offences, it shows there are no sacred cows in government.  There has never been a time that this government has encouraged corruption. The ACC has been very instrumental and supportive of President Koroma. And being part of government, Sam Sumana has also always tried to impress on the citizenry of this country that he has all reasons to be supportive of the President. The last time I had an interview with Sam Sumana, he stated categorically that he looks up to ‘God and President Koroma…’ for whatever awaits him in future.

It was even also unpardonable for Sorious to state in the documentary that it would take days for someone to register a business inSierra Leone. This is complete falsehood that I can challenge him on.  He failed to take into account the fact that there is now what we call a one-stop-shop at Roxy building wherein, within hours you should be able to register a business without giving bribe to anyone. This is one positive stride of this government. He must have also heard of the World Bank doing business ranking of Sierra Leone .No one is disputing the fact that more still has to be done in the fight against corruption but again, we should be seen commending government for its effort in tackling this challenge which was never the case under the Kabba (h) administration when corruption was free for all.

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