Stop pushing Ernest

Of  late, sections of the Press have been pushing forward two items for the consideration of his Excellency President Ernest Bai Koroma. The one that has been direct and persistent has to do with an impending cabinet reshuffle; many think it is now overdue and there have been suggestions as to who will fall victim to the President’s guillotine. They have had as their authority “unusually reliable or impeccable sources in state house” who leaked the President’s secret on condition of remaining anonymous. (Photo:  Dr. Sama Banya)

Well, their readers have waited week after week, now running into months and State House has not as much as whispered about a reshuffle. The nearest thing to that is the President being quoted as saying that his reshuffle would be sprung as a surprise. Surely to continue with such speculation is an exercise in futility. Why not simply sit quietly and wait especially as his Excellency had his reason for appointing any individual to his cabinet.

The other matter has to do with the performance of the current Deputy Minister of Health; we all agree that he is doing an excellent job and yet still it has not pleased the President to promote the young man. It may well be that Sheku Koroma’s removal as the substantive minister is temporary and that as both he and a deputy minister of Internal Affairs have boasted, the President may well be thinking of reinstating him or redeploying him. After all reports say he still uses his former official vehicle and has a police security attached to him. I don’t think it is in Mohamed Koroma’s interest that his boss would appear to be under pressure to promote him.

By the time you digest this peace the versatile deputy minister will be the recipient of a well deserved award from some of his former colleagues. I would admonish him not to lose patience because even the nonagenarian Puawui believes he is a better minister than he was as a managing pro APC editor.

The leader of the opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party, (SLPP) had written a letter to President Ernest Koroma raising certain issues with him. He has also sent a very well thought out and well meaning New Year message to the party faithful and to all others interested in maintaining the democratic process. He gave his view and a matured one at that, on what has turned out to be a controversial GST. The opposition leader endorses the system but stated that he had problems with its implementation and why.

UN radio’s Claudia Anthony interviewed him very exhaustively on that position and most listeners believe that he was very lucid in his answers to that and to other issues raised in that message. There was no prevarication on his part. Prior to that interview the For di People newspaper had referred to John Benjamin and Sama Banya as people who constantly lied to their people. The newspaper may disagree with our views but to refer to them as lies is rather farfetched. It would be useful if the editor would point out such instances of lying so that the reading public may decide for themselves.

Now if in the present economic climate, which has been aggravated by the ruling APC’s inability to deal with it effectively, one were to say, and indeed it has been said that President Koroma had transformed the lives of Sierra Leoneans who have never had it so good, then it would be tantamount to lying to the people. Again I wonder whether such people listened to UN radio as its correspondent spoke to people on Sani Abacher Street and elsewhere, not only on the negative effects of the GST but on the downturn economic situation. The women interviewed gave the price of a tie of potatoes and other essential food stuffs. But then people with empty stomachs have danced to the tune of “gee dem chance, tiday betteh pass yesterday.”        

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