Setting the record straight

I must crave the indulgence of my readers that I have not concluded yesterday’s article on “HOW THE WEST WAS WON”  My attention has been called to an article in the Global Times newspaper of Friday 16^th April, the day after I travelled out of the country, with the heading, “My favourite Uncle” with Professor Septimus Kaikai “At Large.”  I have no intention of engaging in a battle of words with my favourite nephew, but merely to set the record straight with salient facts. Let me begin by stating here categorically that the late Pa Maya Kaikai was at no point in time Paramount chief or even Regent Chief of Luawa, never mind for ten years. When he attempted to contest the Paramount Chieftaincy election in 1982, it was neither the Banya nor the Ngobeh family who objected to his candidacy, but by Brima Combey a representative of the Fabundeh house that he aspired to represent and who declared in open court that the man was not a member of their family; he advised him to go to Pujehun and make his claim there. Paramount chief Mohamed Jajua Kutubu replaced him as chairman of the Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board SLPMB less than two weeks after my return from the United Kingdom where I had travelled for treatment for gun-shot wounds to my head and face. I was not even a Member of Parliament at the time and can’t see how I could have engineered his removal as chairman.

The Luawa Chiefdom committee had laid down guidelines for the burial of citizens within the township and unfortunately Pa Kaikai did not qualify under them. When former President Tejan-Kabbah appealed for my intervention, all I asked my nephew was whether he had recognized Mohamed Sama Kailondo Banya since the latter’s election as Paramount Chief. Septimus then cited the cases of Aljie Vandy Banya and Mr. Ibrahim Jalloh who were buried within the township. I had to remind my nephew that the decision for that was taken by the chiefdom committee before Chief Banya’s election and that while the Professor lived comfortably in the United States, the two people were leading Kamajors during the rebel war. He then went on radio to announced postponement of the burial ceremony because Chief Banya had refused permission. When I countered the announcement, SLBS suppressed it. My nephew was then Minister of Information and Broadcasting. A popular Chinese proverb says, “What you are speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what you say.”  From my writings and the boldness and candour with which I address issues who would describe me as a schemer? I am very proud of the high regard in which I have continued to be held within Kailahun district since I entered public life. For several years I headed the district descendants and development organizations. Would it have been be so if I were the back-stabbing or backbiting type? I recall an interview with a former editor of the Concord Times newspaper after I had criticized the former NPRC and John Benjamin over the Strasser affair; the editor asked whether I liked controversy and I replied truthfully that I do not run away from it and would therefore always speak my mind. Where did my nephew get all his “It is alleged from?”Does my nephew recall the near catastrophe that threatened the SLPP over the manner in which as district party chairman he awarded symbols for the local government elections in 2004? I hope he recalls the mood of the affected candidates at the meeting with President Tejan-Kabbah at the Kenema Presidential Lodge.

When I learnt that the Professor was vying for the chairmanship of the Kailahun district western area SLPP, did I not advise him that it was not a constitutionally recognized position and that we had created it only as an emergency to liaise with the district? In the same breath I advised that those who wanted him to use the position as a stepping stone to his political ambition were fooling him he still went ahead and spent a lot of money conveying and feeding internally displaced Kailahun residents to the Stadium swimming pool, did anyone else show any interest? Did the committee function after that? And what about my nephew’s Running mate ambition leading to a formal complaint from former Vice President Joe Demby, necessitating an emergency meeting of stakeholders at the Presidential Lodge in Freetown? On one occasion as Foreign Minister I flew to Kenema to open a Fawe workshop. I met a line-up of local dignitaries at the airport; they had gone to receive The Presidential Spokesman. Why was that necessary? Neither Paramount chief Kutubu nor his brother the former Chief Justice is alive and therefore I will not make comment on our relationship after I had been kicked out of President Steven’s cabinet. But it was well known in the Law courts building that the chambers of the then Chief Justice had been the strategic planning centre for my opponent’s campaign in 1986.

One could go on and on but what’s the point? I thank my God that I am still around to tell it as it happened. Where are the opponents? Mine is a Miracle working God indeed and I don’t encourage any “It is alleged.”

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