HOWEVER INCONVENIENT, THE PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION IS FINAL!

Hon. PC Bai Kurr Kanagbaro Sanka III from Tonkolili District,  "the Constitution is the supreme legal document of the state and no other document surpasses it”

Hon. Agibola Manley-Spaine NOW DEPUTY SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT

 THIS REPORT IS A LESSON TO ALL. REGARDLESS OF ONE'S PERSONAL FEELINGS OR ENTHUSIASMS PROVISIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION MUST BE OBSERVED. THIS SITUATION IS NOT LIMITED TO PARLIAMENT ALONE - IT APPLIES TO ALL ORGANISATIONS WHERE THE GOVERNING INSTRUMENTS - CONSTITUTION OR  OTHER LIKE INSTRUMENTS LAY DOWN PROCEDURES TO BE FOLLOWED. OBSERVING THESE PROVISIONS RATHER THAN CIRCUMVENTING THEM TO SATISFY A QUICK FIX OBJECTIVE SIMPLY RESULTS IN DIABOLIC AND PROBLEMATIC CONFUSION AND  PALAVA.  THE PROVISIONS OF THE CONSITUTION MUST ALWAYS REIGN SUPREME!

AWOKO REPORT 
 Thu August 23, 2012 10:30AM

Over election of Deputy Speaker… Constitution or Standing Order, which is supreme?

 

The Well of the House of Parliament was reduced to a market square during yesterday’s sitting, as Members of Parliament squabbled over which legal document, the Constitution or the Parliamentary Standing Order reigns supreme in Parliament as the issue of election of a Deputy Speaker comes up between opposition party and ruling party.
Parliament is currently without a substantive Speaker and a Deputy Speaker being that the substantive Speaker, Justice Nathaniel Abel Stronge is on annual leave and the substantive Deputy Speaker, is dead.
What became a serious bone of contention was how to reach a consensus amongst the MPs on which of the procedural methods prescribed in the national constitution of 1991 and the parliamentary standing orders to adopt for the election of a substantive Deputy Speaker.
In his introductory remarks on the matter of election of a deputy Speaker, the Clerk of Parliament, Hon. Ibrahim Sesay noted the absence of the Speaker and the Deputy and committed the general membership of the House to nominate one of themselves to fill the position as codified in Parliamentary Standing Order 93 and Section 91 (1) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone respectively.
Hon. Brima Kamanda who was earlier on nominated by members of the opposition to serve as Deputy Speaker, objected to the Clerk’s proposition on re-nominating new MPs considering the fact that the House already had members who have been nominated for the position and that they should proceed with the election forthwith rather than going through the rigours of another nominations.
The Clerk however insisted on re-nominating new members, but this was met with stiff resistance by the opposition. Opposition members uncompromising and said the Clerk’s suggestion was “a waste of time”. The Clerk of the House stood his ground and in the end, a re-nomination was done and the same old names earlier nominated by the opposition and the ruling parties re-emerged, namely Hon. Agibola Manley-Spaine (APC) and Hon. Dr. Brima Kamanda (SLPP).
But the method of voting then became another bone of contention. Opposition MPs quoted and based their arguments on Section 81 of the 1991 constitution which stipulates “secret voting” in the election of either a Speaker or a Deputy Speaker. The ruling APC party MPs based their argument on the Standing Order of Parliament, citing Section 9, sub section 3, which calls for the elections “by collection of voices.”
SLPP MPs debunked the Standing Order provision, noting that “where it comes to supremacy and a decision to be taken in the interest of the country, the Constitution of the country has no rival. What the constitution says is final,” opposition MPs maintained. The opposition MPs shouted, “Opposition MPs say, No to illegality. The APC want to muzzle the Constitution of the country to satisfy their selfish need.”
The two legal instruments were therefore put to legal ruling as to which is supreme. MPs with legal backgrounds quoted copiously from both instruments to affirm their standpoints either for or against. This melodrama marked by bickering brought Parliament to a standstill for over two hours, even as other motions and bills lay dormant waiting to be debated on by the parliamentarians.
In what has been dubbed “a traditional intervention”, Hon. PC Bai Kurr Kanagbaro Sanka III from Tonkolili District, submitted that the Constitution “is the supreme legal document of the state and no other document surpasses it”. In that vein, he moved that the procedure for the election of the Deputy Speaker be done as provided for in the 1991 Constitution.
However, members ended up accepting the secret ballot system. Preparation was made and the election went on between the two aspirants with 107 members present.
The election ended with victory for the APC nominee, Hon. Spaine polling 63 votes (sixty-three), while the SLPP nominee, Hon. Brima Kamanda polled 43 (forty-three) votes. There was 1 (one) void vote which did not [show] the name of the candidate voted for.
By Poindexter Sama

AWOKO

 

 

APC DEPUTY LEADER & DEPUTY SPEAKER OF PARLIAMENT PASSED AWAY

The Late Hon. Victor Chukuma Johmson, MP CRSL

http://www.newstimeafrica.com/archives/26851


Thee All Peoples Congress Party (APC) has been HIT wit a bit these few weeks. Following the death of the President's mother, Madam Alice Koroma- a very meaningful mother and a pilar to the APC the Party has now lost it's Duputy Leader and was also the Deputy Speake of the House of Parliament. The Honorable Victor Chukuma Johnson was  a very loyal Party man and was one of those who stood up for the resurection of the Party following the illegal Coup by the 'Borbo sojjas'
 who thought thy can run the country and the mayhem that followed lasting almost 12 yeays. The Honorable Victor Chucukma was a Member of Parliament serving his constituency in Waterloo and during the problem period served as Chairma of the Committee of Management of the Freetown City Council (performing his Civic Mayoral duties. Most recently, Hon. Johnson was recognisen publickly and was awarded one of the highest Honours  for his Public duties - the CRSL.
I have known Honorable Victor Chukuma Johnson for a fery long time. . This sefl mad man who worked his way through life's difficulties and served his people and his countr well. I know he has not been keeping very well for a while now- and this was revealed the last time we met on one of his medical exursions.The family will miss him dearly, his constituency will miss him a lot the Party will miss him badly and the country will miss him tremendiously.
I take this opportunity to entend my deepest sympathy to his family. He was a real family friend.
 May his soul REST IN PEACE

WILL THE REAL JULIUS MAADA BIO PLEASE STAND UP?

               Maada Bio -comes with EXCESS BAGGAGE

Folks this is a RE-POST of  Dr Sylvia Blyden's  Report on Sierre Leone Issues. How much more has to be uncovered and exposed? Sooner, than later we will come to know.  Please  READ ON  and note the views of some commentators below.             

Charles Taylor: Sierra Leone’s Scapegoat: Part 2:

Sylvia Olayinka Blyden

http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200520388.shtml
Paragraph 112 of the Summary Judgment against Charles Taylor as read out on April 26th 2012 by Justice Richard Lussick, the Presiding Judge states:
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
During a radio conversation with Foday Sankoh, following the attack on Sierra Rutile in 1994, the Accused [Charles Taylor] advised the RUF leader to send an External Delegation to Côte d’Ivoire. In Côte d’Ivoire, the delegates met Musa Cissé, an NPFL representative, who allowed them to use his radio for communications with Sankoh. The Accused, through contact with Musa Cissé, invited members of the External Delegation to Liberia, where he met them twice in 1995. In December 1995 the Accused met members of the External Delegation in Cote d’Ivoire on the occasion of the publication of “Footpaths to Democracy”, at which time he gave them CFA 10 million francs for their maintenance.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

SO WHO OR WHAT WAS THIS EXTERNAL DELEGATION? And what else happened in Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) in December 1995? Mrs. Agnes Deen Jalloh (nee Bio), is elder sister of Julius Maada Bio, the Presidential candidate of the main opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) which enjoys bastion of its support in South-Eastern Sierra Leone where the RUF launched its war. Currently influential SLPP members supported RUF in its initial stages. The former SLPP Leader and President, Alhaji Tejan Kabah publicly stated at the Yamoussoukro Peace Talks that in 1991, when he first heard of Sierra Leonean RUF rebels waging a war in 1991 to remove the then APC Government of General Momoh from power, he was very happy and supported the RUF; only withdrawing his support when he disagreed with their savage methods against innocent civilians. Without a doubt, Tejan Kabbah is indeed a perfect gentleman and obviously the RUF savagery did not seat well with his conscience. However, that was Ahmad Tejan Kabbah the gentleman with a conscience; Many others continued their support for the RUF despite the savagery.                                                                                                          

One such person was Mrs. Agnes Deen-Jalloh (nee Bio). She is much older than Julius Maada Bio. Agnes raised Maada Bio and put him through school. Her husband, Dr. Deen-Jalloh and her were reported to have been ‘forced’ to join the RUF in early stages of the war. Agnes and her husband were so senior in RUF rank that they became trusted to be the ones to be sent out of Sierra Leone as RUF diplomats (External Delegation) who were given posh residential houses in an Ivorian town known as Danane near the border with Liberia. Members of the ‘External Delegation’ including Agnes Deen-Jalloh (nee Bio) lived a posh lifestyle in Ivory Coast from as far back as 1994 as now stated in the judgment against Charles Taylor.

During all this time his sister was living in Danane, Ivory Coast as an RUF Diplomat, Julius Maada Bio was the Deputy Head of State in Sierra Leone and later, additionally, the Chief of Defence Staff directly supervising the war against his sister’s RUF inside Sierra Leone. He never made this known to the public.

Now, let me reveal today some facts which have been classified for a long time. In December 1995 when he was Deputy Head of State and Chief of Defence Staff, Julius Maada Bio secretly sent three of his most trusted soldiers on a secret mission to meet with his RUF sister in Danane, Ivory Coast. The soldiers all wore plain clothes and posed as civilians.

Unfortunately, they got arrested by Ivory Coast Government soldiers at the border when their identities were proven to be Sierra Leone soldiers camouflaged as civilians.

Such deception on the part of Sierra Leone soldiers crossing into Ivory Coast through Liberia had proven to be a diplomatic headache for Captain Valentine Strasser, the then Sierra Leone Head of State, whom it is reported, knew nothing of the mission of his Deputy!

Strasser, it is reported by my sources during my investigations, was furious and considering action against Julius Maada Bio, his Deputy. Few weeks later, the very next month, (January 1996) Strasser was abruptly overthrown by Bio..









These are facts which very few Sierra Leoneans know about but which a proper examination of the war (like some of us have extensively done) will produce for Historians.

There has always been a puzzle for me over the reason behind Maada Bio sending soldiers secretly into Ivory Coast in December 1995.  His reported explanation to his boss had been that he had beeninformed his sister was being held as a captive in Danane town in Ivory Coast and so he had sent those commandos to kidnap his sister and bring her back by road to Sierra Leone through Liberia.That was his explanation back then.

This is one of the issues I had personally asked Foday Sankoh about when I met him. His response was that he gave a request from the bush, for the Ivorian Government to release Maada Bio’s soldiers and that his request was promptly adhered to and the men were released. Before the men could re-enter Sierra Leone, Maada Bio had overthrown Valentine Strasser. 
                                                             
To those floating the talk of Liberia and other States having to pay us reparation, let me tell you it is going to be very interesting when the Liberians and other accused nationalities will get Agnes Deen Jalloh to be de-briefed for the international court when the SLPP’s proposed ‘President’ Julius Maada Bio files papers at THE HAGUE. The elder sister who raised him up served as diplomatic emissary for the RUF at the time they were performing horrors against their fellow Sierra Leoneans. 

Many aggrieved South Eastern Sierra Leoneans are quite right about the horrors which many of their relatives went through at the hands of the RUF but it still does not take away the fact that many other South-Easterners warmly welcomed the RUF andprovided succor for them. SamaBanya is claiming “only one Paramount Chief” willingly supported the RUF and he got forgiven by the SLPP Government.That alone, is evidence of top level collaboration of at least one South-Eastern leader. However, it was not just “only one Paramount Chief”.

As I have insisted before, my extensive investigations have proven to me beyond all reasonable doubts that there exists a supremacist mentality amongst a certain small group of persons (a clique) from the South East who believe only they are well ordained to rule. As a result, when they are not in power, they will do ANYTHING to over-turn the status quo including attacking their own people in the South East. The majority of South-Easterners are very decent, peace-loving, friendly, warm and docile people.

However, this minority, tiny clique of supremacists indoctrinates their offsprings to embrace the same supremacist mentality. So, there are various generational levels of members of this clique from the South East. It is only when we learn their true nature which has been handed down successive generational lines that we can understand a significant problem facing our country today and in the future.

Members of this clique will do ANYTHING to be the ones ruling the country. This includes suppressing and oppressing their people in the South and East. This is one of the reasons behind their dire and desperate need to always instill tribalism into our body politics.

That is the only way this clique can survive by promoting sectionalism at any slight opportunity. The SLPP for them is just a vehicle through which they attain power. The late Dr. Soyei (RIP) recognized this very well in several radio and newspaper interviews he gave.

Turning weapons and lethal blows against their own in order to get to power is not unusual for this clique. It is only when Historians really investigate the war that we will learn what happened, understand this clique and always be prepared for them at all times. Right now, we are underestimating them because we do not know the true story of the war.

We do not understand what really happened because we have been presented with a SCAPEGOAT in the form of Charles Taylor by folks like Mr. Lans Gberie who has cleverly and deceitfully distorted History to cloud the reality of the war. His theory is obviously nonsense but him and others in his clique are actively promoting it. They are helped by the fact that Taylor possesses a terrible reputation over his dealings in Liberia.

I will continue Part 3 later but meanwhile, here is the quote from an Awareness Times report which is very relevant for a better understanding of the mindset of how a certain South-Eastern clique operates. It concerns a report about the violence which was launched in the Southern Province against South-easterners who did not support Julius Maada Bio’s bid to be the SLPP Presidential Candidate.

“On the part of Mr. Jabbie, former SLPP P.R.O. for Bo District, he recounted how he was violently attacked by supporters of Mr. Maada Bio in Moyamba two weekends ago during the SLPP’s Southern Province regional elections. He said he had to be rushed to a hospital in Freetown where he was still admitted suffering from “severe abdominal and body pains” as a result of the beating he suffered from Bio supporters”.

As this quote above of a report quoting South-Easterners brutalizing their fellow South-Easterners for power, turning of weapons and lethal blows against their own in order to get to power is not unusual for this clique.

STAY TUNED FOR PART 3
© Copyright by Awareness Times Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200520388.shtmlTop of Form

Sylvia Olayinka Blyden http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200520388.shtml

M Alieu Iscandari Sylvia you have not mentioned the numerous incidences of truck loads of sierra leone military weapons that war dispatched by bio for the provinces which "MYSTERIOUSLY " was taken over by the RUF in ambushes where no one was killed and the military drivers were allowed to take their empty trucks back to Freetown after the weapons had been taken from them.

Victor Yandi wow! So amazing a history!!

Abubakarr Jalloh These are hard facts; praying the 2012 elections will be peaceful. With regards the war, is Taylor the only scape goat?

Tommy King ‎Sylvia Olayinka Blyden Are you saying former President Kabba is a gentleman and a man of conscience. The families of Late Col. A.K.Sesay and other will disagree with you.             

Is Ahmed Tejan Kabba a gentleman with a concience?
Maada Bio handing over to Kabba in March 1996

Tommy King cast doubt on this acolade pronounced by Dr. Sylvia Blyden. Such modesty would not enhance reality and must be avoided.  I do not think the families of all those arrested and executed under Kabba will agree: including all those innocent civilians (250 or so) whose names  were listed as collaborators the AFRC/RUF regim, most of whom locked up at Pademba Road Prison, some now dead from the desease and strain the picked up in prison.

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CAPTAIN STRASSER IS OUSTED FROM OFFICE

"A self-styled revolutionary had fallen foul of his comrades. Will the others learn?"

A VERY PRIVATE ‘COUP’  [16 JANUARY 1996]

http://www.focus-on-sierra-leone.co.uk/Vol2_1.htm    {Click Link -for full storry}

It followed a showdown between the Chairman and members of the NPRC and the Supreme Council of State. Ex-Chairman Strasser was physically manhandled by his colleagues and frogmarched to a waiting helicopter, his wrists restrained with handcuffs. He had fallen out with his once loyal friends. When it came to the crunch they did not show him any mercy. Strasser was thus unceremoniously and gracelessly bundled into the plane and despatched to the neighbouring Republic of Guinea - adding to the statistics in the growing list of de-stooled Heads of State of Sierra Leone. In Guinea, Strasser will be joining the man whom he overthrew - ex President Joseph Momoh and hundreds of thousands of Sierra Leoneans driven by the civil war who are living in dreadful conditions in refugee camps.

Depending on whom you talk to, the sequence of events before and on Tuesday, 16 January tends to vary from one raconteur to the next. The manner of his exit from the country is not disputed.

One version - probably the most accurate one - is that Strasser felt so aggrieved by his colleagues that he decided to sack those members of his Cabinet who opposed his bid for leadership of the National Unity Party (NUP). The ‘coup’ was therefore a preemptive strike by the refusniks who included top military men like Brigadier Maada Bio, Lt Colonel Tom Nyuma, Lt Col Komba Mondeh, Lt Col Reginald Glover, Lt Col Idriss Kamara, Lt Col Karefa-Kargbo and the Secretary-General of the NPRC, Mr John Benjamin. For his part Strasser allegedly had the support of his "loyal" ministers - mainly civilians - like Mr Hindolo Trye, Mr Sam Maligie, Mr Arnold Gooding, Mr Victor Brandon, Mr Lesley Scott, Miss Christiana Thorpe and Dr Mohammed Samura. Some say that legislation was at that very time being drafted for lowering the adopted age limit to enable Strasser to stake a claim for leadership of the NUP and the presidency.

What brought matters to a head was the alleged attempt by Captain Strasser to install himself as the leader of the NUP and thus its Presidential candidate. This, despite the fact that under the Constitution he of a mere 29 years was barred by virtue of the age limit of 40 imposed on presidential aspirants. In a confrontation with members of the NPRC- cum-NUP, Strasser was left in no doubt that he would not be allowed to carry out his plan. He was reminded that he was the first person to be asked if he had any interest in becoming the leader of their party which he turned down, saying he would be leaving office after the elections. In accordance with his expressed wish, colleges had been found for him and other military colleagues who wanted to proceed abroad for further studies. Others like Bio and Nyuma had decided to stay in the army. He was told bluntly that it would be dishonourable for him to renege on all these undertakings which would prove an embarrassment for the regime.

Strasser argued - here again the details vary - that the election of Dr John Karimu as leader of the NUP was improper. He protested that it was not right that Karimu was selected at a conclave. 

[is this what the SLPP copied in selecting Maada Bio as SLPP Presidential candidate for2012 elections?]

 The names of candidates should have been presented at the NUP’s convention, not before. His opponents countered that any one who wished to contest had been given adequate time to give notice to enter the contest after paying the stipulated fees. Strasser did not do so and therefore disqualified himself.

Strasser’s friends claim that the "coup makers" had no intention of handing power to civilians and that they were using the NUP as a smoke screen for the NPRC. They point singularly to the new Cabinet which they claim consists of the clones of Benjamin, Karimu and Bio. They say that there was a plot to deceive the country which Strasser was going to spoil. It is difficult to believe this story. Captain Strasser could have gone to the country to explain what was happening. He might have had sympathy. Why didn’t he?

Undaunted but, by now, irate and unhappy Strasser summoned Karimu - his former minister of Finance and the man preferred by the others as the Presidential candidate of the NUP - to his office. He tried to persuade him to stand down in his favour but Karimu stood his ground, arguing that the decision to select him was not his but the Party’s and could only be reversed by it.

On Tuesday, 16 January,[1996]  unknown to Strasser who had gone to take the salute at a passing out parade at Benguema, just outside Freetown, in the morning, his colleagues hatched the plan for his dethronement. Their moment came at a scheduled afternoon meeting of the Supreme Council of State at the Defence HQ at Cockerill in Freetown. Just as he entered the inner precincts his body guards were disarmed and he was put under arrest. His once "trusted" bodyguard Captain Patrick Koigor-Amara allegedly refused to let Strasser’s other security access to the store containing the personal arsenal; he was promoted for his cooperation by the new Chairman.

A scuffle ensued but this was quickly brought under control, Strasser coming off the worst for it. He was allegedly punched in the face and others had a go at him with a few body blows. Another former close friend reportedly tore off his captain’s stripes. The poor man was humiliated and manhandled. They manacled him and frog marched him into a helicopter for his banishment to Guinea. A self-styled revolutionary had fallen foul of his comrades. Will the others learn?

http://www.focus-on-sierra-leone.co.uk/Vol2_1.htm

^{Volume 2 No 1 December 95/January 1996}

Bottom of Form

Dr. SYLVIA OLAYIKA BLYDEN - TIT BITS OF THE UNTOLD - IS THE SLPP "YOYO MAN" ( THE TWO FOOT ARATA), LISTENING?

DON'T POVOKE THE LADY!!!!!

·         On Sunday 24th March 1996, a Red Cross helicopter on board which was Ivory Coast Foreign Minister Amara Essy, as safety guarantor, landed in the Eastern Sierra Leone headquarters of the rebel RUF to pick up rebel leader Foday Sankoh and fly him to Yamoussoukro for peace talks with Julius Maada Bio slated for the next day. According to numerous media reports at that time, it was “Sankoh’s first trip outside of Sierra Leone since the rebels took up arms in 1991".

FODAY SANKOH IN THE BUSH
Now, it is a FACT that since Sankoh left Kailahun, Sierra Leone on that fateful day, he never returned back to the rebel bush headquarters until he died. So, if Sankoh spent time with any man or woman “in the bush”, it would have to have been between the years 1991 and March 24th 1996.

MARIAMA, SANKOH’S MENDE WIFE
Indeed, it was sometime in 1991 that Foday Sankoh entered South-Eastern Sierra Leone by road from Liberia to a very glorious green Palm Fronds ‘torkpoi’ welcome with his then wife, a Mende woman named Mariama by his side. There was a video of that welcome ceremony available at military headquarters for many years during the nineties. The video was retrieved from Sankoh’s Southern Pujehun headquarters by gallant soldiers who had captured Pujehun back from the RUF.
In that video, both Foday and Mariama Sankoh were dressed in matching green attire and waved green palm fronds to a cheering crowd. This was few weeks after the actual invasion itself. Sankoh did not enter Sierra Leone on March 23rd 1991 but much later. Sankoh’s then wife, Mariama, a Mende woman, alongside the throng of South-Easterners who had formed the vanguard of entry all helped to convince the South Easterners that they were “freedom fighters”.
By the end of the conflict, Sankoh had long since separated from Mariama (who subsequently fled RUF held territory into exile in Ivory Coast). I extensively interviewed Mariama, Sankoh’s first wife in Abidjan in August 1999 during my extensive research into the origins and processes of the Sierra Leone war.

SANKOH’S OTHER WIVES
By the signing of the Lome Peace Accord in 1999, Sankoh had traditionally married another South-Eastern woman named Josephine Tengbeh (I also extensively interviewed Josephine). By the time he was captured in May 2000, Sankoh was now officially married to a lady of Senegalese descent, Mrs. Fatou Mbaye Sankoh. Highly educated and well groomed with a Western cultured upbringing, she was an epitome of a lady. Foday Sankoh was very proud of Fatou.

THE RUF WEBSITE
Fatou Mbaye Sankoh was the one who set up a website for RUF with absolutely no input from Sylvia Blyden, (yours truly). I first learnt of the existence of the website like everyone else - from media reports. It was created in year 2000 and could then be seen at www.rufpsl.org

THE SLBS WEBSITE
I created, alongside Gipu Felix George in December 1997, a website for the SLBS. The SLBS website which could then be seen at www.slbs.net was a means of ensuring the world could have access to information from the country during the illegal AFRC regime. My intention and the essence of my volunteer work for SLBS was to neutralise the warmongers propaganda that Peace Talks were not possible between the Government in exile and the AFRC. Here is how news of the SLBS website was announced on Peter Andersen’s Sierra Leone Web news archives for 9th December 1997:
9th December 1997: Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) officially announced the formation of its internet website on Tuesday. “The site is still very much in its infant stages,” Director-General of the Mass Media Gipu Felix-George said in a statement. “However, we are doing a test run based on the events of November 27th 1997, the date the international community sent the first fact-finding mission to Sierra Leone since the events of May 25th 1997.” The web site, which was set up by Dr. Olayinka Blyden, operates from Freetown via a server located in the United States. Word of the SLBS site, which is not yet fully operational, was circulated on the internet last week in advance of the official announcement.

MAY 25TH SIGNIFICANCE
Few people might realise it but by a remarkable co-incidence in dates, tomorrow May 25th 2012 will mark the 15th anniversary of the AFRC coup and it will also mark the 13th anniversary of the commencement of the Lome Peace Talks which were primarily nurtured by President Bill Clinton of USA and President Obasanjo of Nigeria.

FUELLING THE PEACE
Many people have spoken of role of Jesse Jackson forgetting Jackson was just an envoy. It was U.S. President, Bill Clinton who sent Jackson alongside satellite phones for use by Foday Sankoh’s delegation to Lome. It was Clinton who, through Jackson, spoke from his (Air Force 1) presidential jet in mid-air to both Sankoh and President Kabbah to gently steer them towards the path of peace to Sierra Leoneans.


SYLVIA BLYDEN MEETS FODAY SANKOH
It was in May 1999 that Revd Jesse Jackson flew over to Lome, Togo at the urging of President Bill Clinton to basically enjoin peace talks. I also flew over to Lome at that same time from America. That was my very first time of ever meeting Foday Sankoh. I went as an advocate for peace in my country. Prior to that, by divine providence, I had arranged the first phone conversation between Sankoh and President Obasanjo using a three way line from my residence in America. That my strategic placement of being at the right place at the right time, amongst others, all helped to ensured the Lome Peace Talks went underway. It fuelled the peace process like jet fuel fires up a jet.

TIMELINES & SIMPLE LOGIC
From the time Sankoh was flown out of Sierra Leone in March 1996 until he died, he never went back to the bush. I was a full time student from 1989 until late 1996 when I received my second medical degree and left for America to take my U.S. Medical Board Exams.

AN OUTSTANDING PUBLIC FIGURE
I was not an ordinary college student. As the first woman to make History in Sierra Leone as the first female University Students President, I was an outstanding female citizen even as a college student. I was quite prominent and I got to be regularly quoted in local and international media. The video clip of my speech on behalf of Female Youths of Africa at UN’s Beijing Conference for Women in 1995 was the signature clip to start SLBS TV Programme on Women’s Issues. How could I have been “in the bush” during this period?

BORN TO BE GREAT
I have said it before and I will say it again, I am very, very proud of all I have ever done for my country, Sierra Leone. I have absolutely NO REGRETS for anything I have ever done concerning Sierra Leone. I was born great with a great destiny. I will continue to remain a walking living legend. I deserve every single honour that has been bestowed upon me in this land. And knowing how faithfully I have served my country over the years, I know this is just the beginning. More honours and laurels are mine to receive by the grace of God. Mark my words.

ONLY GOD CAN SILENCE ME
Meanwhile, I will continue to inform those who do not know much about the Sierra Leone civil war about the true origins and processes of our war – it is of high importance. I will so it for as long as I have breath in me. No amount of intimidation or browbeating or nasty lies have been able to distract me thus far and by the grace of God, such will NEVER succeed. Look at how far I have come even as all kinds of lies have been manufactured about me? I will not be silenced by any scumbag – old scumbag or young. Only God can silence me and for now, I am still serving His purpose on this earth. Thank you.

© Copyright by Awareness Times Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
YOU CAN TAKE THE ABOVE FEATURED COMMENTARY TO BE A CIVILISED REJOINDER TO OLD MAN KHORYAMA'S UNCIVILISED SLUSH AGAINST SYLVIA BLYDEN AND FREETOWNIANS.
Photo is me receiving an award for Awareness Times being Best Newspaper for 2011/2012

http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200520262.shtml
Dr. Sama Banya- SLPP "Yoyo-Man"- "Two foot ARATA" - acording to Foday Sankoh

  Pa Shaki looks in wander!!

    
Foday Sankoh, Sama Banya and the Yamoussoukro Talks : A Look at Sierra Leone History which some might wish to revise for the young ones - By Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden in AWARENESS TIMES -
On Thursday 25th March 1996, Julius Maada Bio and Foday Saybana Sankoh met in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast as a continuation of the February 1996 Peace Talks between NPRC and RUF. It was ostensibly the first time Bio was meeting Sankoh. The (in)famous photo of a uniformed Maada Bio hugging Foday Sankoh with both men all in smiles, was taken on that day.

For those Peace Talks, Maada Bio took along Dr. Sama Banya as the official representative of president-elect Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. Due to protocol, Kabbah could not attend the talks as he had not been sworn in. Kabbah was sworn into office, 4 days later in Freetown on 29 March 1996.

It was on 22nd April 1996, that new President Kabbah met formally with Foday Sankoh in Yamoussoukro for the first time. Kabbah did not take Sama Banya along with him because Banya had been a public relations disaster for the SLPP during the Bio-Sankoh peace talks.

During the 25th March 1996 Yamoussoukro Peace Talks, Sankoh had tongue-lashed Banya as one of the political opportunists who sold themselves cheaply and in the process, ruined Sierra Leone.

Sankoh had publicly scorned at Banya with a question, “You again?!” as he recounted what he aptly described as Banya’s shamelessness in politics with the words ‘Day before yesterday, you were SLPP, yesterday you were APC, today you are SLPP in front of me, Tomorrow, what will you be?’. Sankoh then took his time to outline how the nefarious activities of APC’s Sama Banya and his APC cohorts had led to the RUF taking up arms to ‘rid the country of APC oppression’.

It should be noted that Sama Banya was an APC Finance Minister who also acted as an APC Vice-President. After detailing the way and manner in which the APC’s Sama Banya killed and oppressed citizens, especially from the South-East; leading to citizens taking up arms to remove APC, Foday Sankoh also revealed how Sama Banya was so cheap that with all his stolen wealth as a thieving APC Finance Minister, Sama Banya would refrain from honouring honest debts to those who served him. The phrase “two foot arata” was first used on Banya by Foday Sankoh in Yamoussoukro, long before it became popularised by famous musician Emmerson.

Foday Sankoh recounted how Sama Banya was a thief who personally owed him money for photographs which Banya had asked Foday Sankoh to take of him in Kailahun during Banya’s APC heydays. Sankoh explained how, taking advantage of his then APC powers, Banya collected the photographs from Sankoh, promised to pay Foday Sankoh later but had never paid him since Banya saw Sankoh as a lowly photographer in Segbwema whose rights, he could abuse.

In Yamoussoukro, Sama Banya was speechless as Sankoh took his time to expose him thoroughly. On Banya’s return to Freetown, he was to eventually explain that he had “forgotten” to pay Foday Sankoh and when he “remembered” he owed Foday Sankoh money, he did not know where to find Sankoh to pay him. Few believed his preposterous explanation.

Rather, as hated as Sankoh was, many preferred to believe Sankoh’s accusation that Banya took of Sankoh’s photography services and then abused him of payment because Banya was a powerful top APC operative back then.

In those days, APC operatives like Sama Banya regularly trampled on the rights of citizens. The accusation of the APC’s Sama Banya taking advantage of Foday Sankoh, was a regular story back in those days. Stories similar to Sankoh’s recollection, whilst seemingly minimal in nature as compared to other egregious APC abuses like how APC’s Sama Banya got his own people killed in Kailahun for power, are all part of what led to the nation-wide dis-satisfaction against Momoh’s APC which dis-satisfaction, by the start of the RUF War, was tremendously high in the South-East.

Clearly, a public relations disaster like Banya was kept far away from the resumed Yamoussoukro Peace Talks by the astute Tejan Kabbah. Infact, throughout the March Yamoussoukro Peace Talks, Banya could not say a single word except to hang his APC-SLPP gray-haired head in shame. So, if I reference any comment made in Yamoussoukro, clearly it was not made by Sama Banya as Banya was shamed into total silence in Yamoussoukro.

Let Banya wait for my Part 2 of Charles Taylor: Sierra Leone’s Scapegoat to know whose Yamoussoukro comment I was referencing. In the meantime, I hope Banya read and digested yesterday’s piece by retired Police Superintendent Tayyib Bah. According to Tayyib Bah, “of the 20 or so RUF combatants that accompanied Sankoh to the Yamoussoukro Peace Talks, only one, and even that was a female, was a Northerner/Temne. The rest were South easterners.”

Tayyib Bah also predicts:- “until we accept responsibility for the barbaric manner in which we treated our kith and kin and atone for our sins, God, or retribution, will bring “punishment for [our] errors upon sons and upon grandsons, upon the third generation and upon the fourth generation.” Exodus 34:7

I rest my pen for now as I prepare to release Part 2 of a Sama Banya inspired series on Charles Taylor: Sierra Leone’s Scapegoat! #end

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