We are again taking the same route

The incident took place before the most destructive rebel war in this country’s history. A group of Peace Corps volunteers stationed in Bo summoned the police to their residence because their Land Rover which was parked in their garage had been burgled. On arrival, the police began to ask for the registration number of the stationery vehicle, whether it was licensed and whoever was the driver and did he have a valid driving license etc. By now readers may have concluded, like those poor fellows did Â that all the questions being asked were totally irrelevant to the issue of burglary and an unnecessary waste of time.

As I continue to read some of the comments on chairman John Benjamin’s very forthright but relevant letter to his Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma, I could not help but recall that story of the Peace corps and the Bo police. I have been asking myself yet again and again whether those people were helping the President or the country.

Of what relevance is John Benjamin having been a coup plotter, or a man doing funny business deals with the SLPP government got to do with the subject matter of his letter? Of the comments made so far those by the self styled Bee and the managing editor of the Standard Times newspaper will be hard to beat in public deception and hypocrisy. What is wrong with the timing of John Benjamin’s letter? And why should the points raised have been better asked in Parliament? Do these people appreciate the position of the leader of an opposition political party with 46 members of Parliament compared with the government party’s 57?

What is unpatriotic about raising those issues with the President for clarification? Should the flattering opinions of those praise singers constitute government’s response? One would have thought that those who assume the mantle of influencing public opinion would be the first to seek answers to the opposition leader’s questions and perhaps expose the latter to ridicule.

What does the author in the Standard Times newspaper mean by “How could people be so callous to a country and people we all say is our home? I simply refuse to understand that any Sierra Leonean can decide to put a political party or self before mama Salone?” The prose makes good reason but the contents in my view only expose a lack of sincerity on his part? That anyone should consider the issues raised by John Benjamin as frivolous and self-seeking beats my imagination. Rather than applauding the opposition leader for his forthrightness and efforts to put the interest of the country above all else as the National Pledge demands, he is being portrayed as a non-patriot. To these people, rather than rock the boat, we should gloss over such destructive rumours until they become crisis and then take us back to 1991-2002. We did it way back then for “the Pa” and for Joseph Saidu Momoh and look at where it landed us.

If I was Mr. President I would address the issues one by one and if it is established that John Benjamin fell for cheap political propaganda, why, he would do a retraction accompanied by an apology. Proponents of the APC and “the President-does-no-wrong brigade may even then decide to crucify him. BUT FOR GOODNESS, STOP THE HYPOCRISY.

“LEARNT NOTHING, FORGOT NOTHING.”

Puawui would like to bow to the discussion team of Makuta, Abibatu, Olu and their old uncle Joe in For di People newspaper for the contents of the discussion under the above heading. For the first time in many years Paul and his team have taken an impartial and objective position on a subject of national interest which they have treated very seriously. This is in sharp contrast to much of the hypocrisy that is being peddled in sections o the press. I hope and pray that we are witnessing a genuine and positive attitudinal change.

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