Saidata vs Mende Kingdom!
The deputy Minister of Information and Communication Saidata Sesey had at a news conference made a vicious attack on the Chairman of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), accusing him among other things of being a liability. Readers must be familiar with the response from this column asking the honourable deputy minister to indicate on whom John Benjamin was a liability. The editor of For di People newspaper has taken up the battle cry in his publication of Tuesday January 19. I wrote yesterday that the paper was fast losing its focus and falling from the sublime to the ridiculous. The headline on page two of the publication reads, “Saidata versus JOB and Puawui.” On page 4 the headline takes a very sinister form that doesn’t brood well for cohesiveness. It reads, “Saidata versus the Mende kingdom.” The matter thus boils down to Saidata as obviously belonging to a non Mende ethnic group, now draws the battle line with the Mende kingdom represented by John Benjamin and Sama Banya.
The newspaper prides itself with a pseudo motto that fdp answers to no one and yet the contents of its editorials while not suggesting that the paper now answers to someone, makes it obvious whom it is endeavouring to please. I see no harm in that, but to suddenly indulge in naked tribalism leaves much to be desired. Of course when it associates the SLPP with tribalism it clears any doubt in people’s mind about its tribal prejudice. What rational impartial observer would associate the SLPP with tribalism, not even from its founding some 49 years ago? Â But such is the way of the world; most people know which side of the bread is buttered. If the owner/managing editor of the For di People newspaper still has his eyes on the Chairmanship of the National Youth Commission, I’ll advise him as one who has always spoken to him with candour, to forget it. That position is for someone more youthful and energetic and who does not have to stop for breath two or three times before reaching the top floor of his office.
It amuses me to read in For di People that the SLPP government had disarmed the regular soldiers in favour of the kamajors. I thought It was plain to him and to others that as with the police the root cause of their grievance was that the government had decided on giving the service men cash instead of the bulk rice supply demanded by their superiors for obvious reasons. The rest of the contents of the article which is spread over two pages is certainly not worthy of comment.
JB Roy has reminded me with conviction that he has not been a sycophantic praise singer of this regime in the face of the continuing suffering of the people. On the contrary, writing in two papers that I don’t usually read purely because I can’t afford more than ten newspapers a day, he has drawn the attention of the government to the escalating high cost of living citing the introduction of the GST as a factor; he had even suggested a postponement, not cancellation of its operation. Well JB, it doesn’t matter now what you and I suggest or criticize GST is with us. This brings me to quotations from one of yesterday’s newspapers.
 “Papa gofment, what are you doing about the hike in the price of basic commodities in this republic things are very bad and even the Creature is feeling now feeling the pinch. Bee no longer attempts to buy some of the little things it used to buy because it cannot afford them due to the price hike” (Note: the US dollar is currently trading at Le4,001.) Next from IBM Kamara managing editor of the Standard times newspaper and a prolific columnist writes in the same edition of the newspaper. “Past events are clear testimonies that violence and complete breakdown of law and order and the sanity of a peace loving people was sliding away very slowly and ushering in what has today, as we reflect back, become the darkest period in our history. Are we to sit back and experience another darker period than the darkest one we experienced for over a decade? All was as a result indecisiveness, polarized political partisan and the wealthy becoming wealthier, while the poor becoming poorer.” It sure makes interesting reading and they are not coming from perceived anti APC government newspapers. As to the appointment of Professor Septimus Kaikai as the Chair of the new Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, my response is, “One sparrow does not a summer make.” Is it not too little coming too late? Â
Hey, readers! e look lek married go scatter befoe 2012. Read Puawui in tomorrow’s edition.  Â
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