Letter to HE President Ernest Bai Koroma
Your Excellency President Ernest Koroma,
Re: Your final term and the concern about your legacy in our country
Once again, I want to wish you well, continued health, strength and the energy to enable you to march forward with your agenda and leave behind you a legacy which every Sierra Leonean and even children yet unborn will remember and talk about for generations to come. (Photo: Anthony Kamara, Sr. author)
I listened to your talk about not arresting or imprisoning any journalist throughout your first term. I commend you for that, otherwise even some of the journalists you have today as advisers in State House should have been in Pademba given all the things this nation remembers about their negative provocations and utterances.
You are no vindictive leader and on the contrary a forgiving leader who is ready to forgive thy brother (the sister 70 times 7 which is interpreted to mean always forgive. God will fight your enemies for you. Journalists are the same; they are hustlers: they fabricate stories, try to smear one’s character because most of them want your attention and something from you. What we see today no Sierra Leonean expects it. But it is so because of your forgiving nature. Keep forgiving your enemies, for they know not what they are doing.
Let no one give you negative and counterproductive advice on adopting high handed measures to clamp down on journalists. They may continue because this is part of the nature of their work. All the journalists in a country cannot go on praise-singing the leader all the time; some will be on the criticisms side to attract attention. If you listen to their negativity, they’ll distract and divert you from the good work you’re doing. Stay focussed on your agenda and you’ll accomplish the goals you dream of.
In the similar vein, I want to talk about your legacy which is now your main concern. Congratulations for being so ambitious. Work towards it and imprint your mark on the political landscape of this country. Let me also congratulate you for giving this nation a modern international airport at Lungi. It is during your administration that this nation can now bluff and speak for the first time loud and clear about a modern airport by African standards. The modern airport you have given us can be counted as your Llgacy number one. Nobody can undo that. You have a vision for this country. We in the Diaspora can now talk loud about our Lungi International Airport. Not only have you given us a new modern airport, but you have also juxtaposed a modern heliport to it. Thank you very immeasurably. You have done it just as God did it by giving you a second term. We are all proud of you. I recently returned after a two month visit home and I was amazed with the airport infrastructure I saw. I had the privilege of touring the entire facility including the VIP lounge; in fact I spent my two hours of wait in the VIP lounge. Thanks again. You make us feel proud of your presidency and your accomplishments.
Meanwhile here is a piece of brotherly advice I wish to pass on to you. Do not spread your hands in too many projects only to exit the stage without accomplishing them all. No leader can do everything for the people even if allowed to rule for twenty years. Just do what is accomplishable during your tenure. Your successors will take care of the rest. You don’t build castles in the air. We saw how your two predecessors talked of building a bridge to link Lungi and Freetown. Do not pronounce any project you know to be impossible to do. Tell the nation what you think is do-able and accomplishable. At the end of the day you will be remembered not by bogus pronouncements but by what you did and did commendably. First impressions are always remembered for years to come. The country’s airport is the first impression to the international visitor.
Now the two outstanding projects you have mentioned for your final term are relocation of the Pademba Road Central prisons and the construction of a new International Airport after Okroh Hill. Bravo! A correction centre is a dangerous institution to be located in the heart of the city. Unfortunately our former colonial masters sacrificed the security of the people for their own convenience and did what was administratively convenient for them. Yes you are also doing a great job on roads rehabilitation and new roads construction. I also congratulate you for these projects. But the roads construction should be at the bottom of these three projects. The reason is that whether they are old or new roads they start to wear out three or four years after construction and therefore need constant re-touch every four years if the country has the means. Otherwise pot holes will take control of the roads in no time. I’m not saying that you abandon roads’ construction or repairs, but that you focus more on the other two.
Already we saw on SLBC Television the Minister of Lands, Musa Tarawally visiting the new airport site and advising land grabbers to remove their structures in readiness for construction. If you can start and complete the relocation of the Pademba prisons and the new airport before your term expires Mr. President your performance will surely be outstanding legacies. These three or four, the Lungi airport and heliport, the new central prison and new international airport, you can raise your hand and ask “who can beat my performance?” Focus on what you can start and complete not what will remain unfinished.
Leaders are remembered and commended for their accomplishments, not what they start and cannot complete. Even historians immortalise leaders who start and complete outstanding projects, otherwise they write a leader off the pages of history. Your remaining four years should be enough to start and complete these projects. You will be criticised for starting and failing to complete. Remember the former SLPP was heavily criticised for road projects which were funded and yet left unfinished or undone or not even started even though the funds were made available for the work. Don’t fall in the same category. Be remembered for starting and completing projects. President Koroma you can do it, and if it means reducing your foreign trips to ensure presidential supervision, that would be great.
You have at State House an army of advisers to offer you advice on matters of state governance. But none would take responsibility to initiate an idea. Instead most of them spend their time bluffing of their status at State House. They are mostly a do-nothing team of inactive advisers. The president has no monopoly of ideas. He needs input from as many brains as there are available not merely input on what the president puts before a group for advice. That is not what they are selected to be at State House for. The President needs suggestions from all well-intentioned and well-meaning personnel. State House has a large reserve of human resources, a pool of supposedly experts the president can turn to for advice. But to outsiders, they seem to be a team of no performance just waiting for the next pay cheque. Stop the bluff talk about working at the president’s office and focus on giving the ideas the leader needs. He needs suggestions, and stop being jittery in talking to a friend.
You will permit me your Excellency to comment on the performance of one of your ministries in your first term. I mean the Ministry of Information. This ministry has seen the worst underperformance in the last fifteen years including the SLPP administration of former President Tejan Kabba. Under the SLPP, it was headed by a Professor Septimus Kaikai. Nothing to write about this ministry. During your first term we thought that appointing a seasoned journalist like Ibrahim Ben Kargbo would reverse the trend of the underperformance the nation witnessed under Septimus Kai Kai. B ut what did the nation see? Another serious underperformance in the Ministry.
The new SLBC TV is a shame, unable to broadcast the day’s news without apologies for either blackout, inability to insert a clip, color change from coloured to white like snow. The SLBC TV freezes anytime a clip is about to be inserted. How long? The people are tired of apologies. We cannot put the blame on the CEO Gbanabom Hallowell; he cannot pressurise his boss the minister for improved performance. I know him to be a well determined CEO and wants to take the SLBCTV to a new level, but his hands are tied. For five years this TV station is still a matter of concern. Perhaps I was lucky to watch the SLPP/APC debate involving Ben Kargbo himself and Abass Bundu and Mohamed Bangura. Many viewers commented that was the first time the SLBCTV lived to popular expectation. No blackout, the entire debate went uninterrupted and no cause for apologies.
I know the President was watching that debate, and so the technicians did their best to avoid any criticisms from the president. In short the SLBCTV needs the right doctor to cure it of apologies. My hope is and I believe the whole nation that Hon. Alpha Khanu the current Minister of Information and Communications will make a great difference. The Ministry of Information is too important a mouth piece of government to keep underperforming all the time with never ending excuses. The people are tired of excuses for poor performance. I wonder how Ben Kargbo used to feel when he watches the station struggling to present the day’s news to the nation. The same national news is read four days in a row for lack of the latest. The people are tired of seeing the same stuff every day. Hon Alpha Khanu please you are the last hope to change the SLBCTV and Radio. If you fail again, then we can frankly say the APC administration under President Ernest Koroma has failed this nation in the performance of the Ministry of Information. We want to have something to write about in the future, not the same deja vu. These things must be said otherwise those concerned may feel its all well with their performance.
The most disappointing time which people look forward to on a weekly basis is WE YUS when Dan Mos and Sally Ann Ganda are ready to bring the news to the people is when the SLBC TV begins to stutter, freeze and the colour changes to snow colour. I call on Mr Alpha Khanu to do his utmost to arrest the situation. Alpha Khanu is an all round performer. As far as we are aware he has never underperformed in all the ministries he headed and I trust the SLBC TV will move forward this time around.
Your Excellency, thank you once again for modernising the Lungi Airport and thank you in anticipation for starting and completing the new Pademba Prison and the New International Airport. The pending projects must kick off ASAP to ensure completion in the remaining four years. Please also note the concerns about the Ministry of Information and Communication. With these tasks completed, you’re going to be a great and proud retiring statesman in this nation. These areas will surely earn you exemplary legacies a maxima cum laude for which you and all will remember you when out of office.
From Anthony K. Kamara, Sr. of Canada.
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