The APCs misfortunes
President Ernest Bai Koroma had set out on a goodwill visit to the Kailahun district, the only area that he had not visited since assuming office as President of our Republic. It is on record that Kailahun district had voted enblock for the Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party SLPP in the 20o07 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. Kenema district, the gateway to the Eastern Province had also voted solidly for the SLPP, although the APC had won a seat in the local council elections of 2008.
The President was on a goodwill mission to win the hearts and minds of the people of the east in general and of Kailahun district in particular. Like the crafty politician and former business executive that he is, his Excellency believed in a qui pro quo. And what could be better as a carrot than the Kenema to Koindu Road project which has continued to be the main concern of the people, beginning in Kenema, right through to Koindu which is situated on the border with the Republics of Guinea and Liberia respectively. Dangle the commencement of this project before the eyes of the inhabitants in the two districts and before you say “Kenema-Koindu,†they will be eating out of your hands, or so the APC strategists believed.
Therefore, the road show commenced from the Kenema airfield, through Hangha, Talia, and Bendu Junction in Kenema district, onto Tondola in Kailahun district, thenceforth through Segbwema, Daru, Mobai junction, Pendembu and into Kailahun at nearly ten o’clock in the evening. It continued on to Kangama in the Kissi Teng chiefdom.
The APC was development oriented and here they were with the most vital development initiative. Unfortunately, for the ruling party’s strategists, the history of the project, from the feasibility studies to the donor conference which had pledged US $63 million Leon was well known to the inhabitants and therefore, as far as they were concerned, nobody was fooling them by telling them what they already knew. President Koroma received a tumultuous welcome in the two districts, but that was as it should be; he was and still is our President.
Then followed the local council bye-election in Tongofield. With the kind of warm reception that his Excellency had received in Kenema the previous week, retaining the Tongo seat by the ruling party was a foregone conclusion. In spite of that arrogant confidence, they were taking no chances. Adamu and other thugs had to be imported from Kono while the police were well aware as to whom they should arrest if there was any ‘gbungbusuru’ (any violent eruption) plus of course the APC’s penchant for violence. The rest as they say is history; the SLPP snatched the council seat with a wide margin. Violence erupted the following day, Adamu received police protection while scores of SLPP supporters were arrested and taken down to Kenema where, as I write this piece, they are languishing in filthy cells without food.
Managing editor and regular columnist of the Standard Times newspaper opined in March 2009 and repeated it late in the year, that since assuming office as head of state, President Koroma had transformed the lives of the people of this country. They were eating better, living in great affluence enjoying unprecedented health, in full and gainful employment and so forth. (Italics my paraphrasing). However, the ordinary citizens especially the women and the unemployed youth know better. The cost of everything has become prohibitive particularly for them. AND NOW!!! Seven hundred Leone has been added to the price of a gallon of fuel including kerosene which now sells at 15,500 leones per gallon. The first to be affected is the cost of transportation on which all else depends. But then, that is life under the Red Sun
To compound it all, the famous Bumbuna Hydro Power, the propaganda showpiece of the APC which at no time in its four month history supplied full, never mind clean electricity to Freetown. As far as I could recollect, this is the first time that a whole hydroelectric generating machinery has been completely shut down and this only after four months of chequered operation. The Akosombo dam in Ghana that generates over one thousand twelve hundred megawatts has as never completely shut down. Diminished output, yes, but shut down, never. Those who had been deceived into getting rid of their Kabbah Tigers must be cursing themselves at this moment, although the more thoughtful who held on to theirs must be agonizing over the fuel price hike.
With the fuel price increase and the effect of GST on the cost of living, that is food, transportation, you name it. Ar sorry for Paul Kamara’s “Mama Salone en Pikin.†Any comments Makuta, Abibatu, Uncle Joe and the rest of the fambul dem?  Â
Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
© 2010, https:. All rights reserved.
