President Koroma on Corruption: Scapegoats slaughtered in place of Sacred Cows
It seems President Koroma is closely studying the play book of former President Momoh as far as corruption is concerned. When President J. S. Momoh ascended the seat at state house, he immediately declared a “New Orderâ€; the days of corrupt officials are over; he will instill discipline in Sierra Leone. At the end he is still one of the most unaccomplished presidents in Africa since independence. What J.S. Momoh did was to set up a framework to go after people from the Southeast. During that period, Southeasterners like Sawi, P.J. Kuyembeh, Shamsu Mustapha and a host of others were hounded out of office for pittance while members of the Ekutay Limba hegemony group who were neck deep in corruption continued their plunder. President Koroma is again using the same tact to go after Southeasterners and those who he thinks are not loyal APC members.
Few weeks ago, President Koroma shamefully announced that he had evidence of corruption in his government. He however did not have the guts to sack the actual culprits because they were members of the APC party. Shortly after his shameful announce of evidence President Koroma sacrificed a scapegoat at the Department of Immigration Mr. Aruna…Yes you guessed it, Mr Aruna is a Southeasterner who has been accused of being an SLPP sympathizer. Mr Aruna was sent on indefinite leave for approving the passport of a naturalized Sierra Leonean of Lebanese origin. It is clear that Mr. Aruna was an easy target even though there are mountains of evidence that the APC ambassadors in Europe are selling the country’s passport with reckless abandon. The APC government through its ambassadors is involved in huge passport rackets all over Europe and the Chief Immigration Officer Mr Kholifa Koroma is up to his eye balls in that racket. Yet the Southeasterner becomes the scapegoat even though the Lebanese was legally entitled to a passport given the documents presented.
A similar situation is unfolding presently. The Minister of Marine Resources, Haja Afasatu Kabbah was arrested and question for corrupt practices. It seems Haja Kabba is one of the most sacred cows in the APC government. When Kemoh Sesay was accused of wrong doing, he was let go. The same treatment was meted out to Alieu Sesay of NRA. Here comes Afsatu Kabbah and the president is at pains to tell us she was not arrested even though her passport was confiscated and a huge bail was slapped on her. As usual, the president is trying to deflect attention from his thieving sacred cow with another bogus announcement of evidence of corruption at NRA. Mr. President thanks but that is peanuts compared to what you sacred cows have been stealing. If the president is serious about corruption, he should first of all retrieve the one million dollar stolen by his brother Sylvanus Koroma from the people of Sierra Leone when he was given a duty free waiver. In addition, President Koroma should be making announcements about retrieving the people’s money stolen by Haja Afsatu Kaba in the Income Electrix thieving scheme. To go after lowly paid civil servants at NRA just to cover up the massive corruption scandal engulfing Haja Afsatu Kabba is cold hearted wickedness. Those civil servants are nothing but scapegoats and the action of the president to after them is cowardly to say the least. If the president wants us to respect his courage to go after crooks…ee for luk under ihn foot…Afsatu Kabba, Sylvanus Koroma, Thomas Koroma, Admire Sesay, Alpha Khan. The president should start with your family because they are members of the most corrupt group of present day Sierra Leoneans. Stop harassing poorly paid civil servants. Stop using them as scapegoats for your incompetence and lack of courage to fight corruption within your party. Sierra Leoneans are not as stupid as the president may want to believe. Sierra Leoneans should not be surprised when in the next few days a bunch of Southeasterners and/or perceived SLPP sympathizers lose their jobs. These will be the scapegoats slaughtered in place of the sacred cows in the APC.
What is even more pathetic about President Koroma’s announcement is that fact he seems to be doing the job of his police chief. It also seems that the president is one of the idlest in Africa. If the president has to call his senior civil servants to show them evidence of corruption, the he himself has a huge problem. A president who is really busy with serious state functions would have fired the police chief for not doing his job. But no, the president wastes tax payers’ money to tell us he has uncovered evidence and telling the police chief to do his job. What a waste!
Ernest B. MalamangoStay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!
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Solomon
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The writer of this article is trying to make a good point but it seems to me that the writer is a narrow minded person who is just trying to instigate hatred; the least the country needs now. My father was a strong SLPP supporter and he wasn’t a Southeasterner. so please make a sensable argument not one that is based on tribalistic ideology.
16th May 2010Ren
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I totally agreed with your assessment, my only problem with the article is that I don’t believe the firing of those guys is base ethnicity, tribe or region. If that was the case he would have not fired Alieu and Kemoh. Haftu Kaba should be fired period.
24th February 2010