Monday, 14 March 2016

CABINET RESHUFFLE: PRESIDENT KOROMA RESHAPE GOVERNMENT!!

Following the uneasy storm in the past few weeks at Ministerial level, the President Dr. Earnest Bai Koroma has deemed it fit to RESHUFFLE HIS TEAM OF CABINET MINISTERS, (and some Deputies and Ambassadors).

See Press Release below:

PRESS RELEASE

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY INFORMED THAT IN REVIEWING THE OVERALL GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE, IT HAS PLEASED HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT DR. ERNEST BAI KOROMA TO ANNOUNCE THE FOLLOWING MINISTERIAL, AMBASSADORIAL, STATUTORY AND OTHER APPOINTMENTS SUBJECT TO THE APPROVAL OF PARLIAMENT WHERE NECESSARY:

MINISTERS

1. MR. MOMODU L. KARGBO – MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

2. MR. MAYA KAIKAI – MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

3. MAJOR (RTD) ALFRED PALO CONTEH – MINISTER OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS

4. MR. MOHAMED BANGURA – MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

5. CAPT. MOMODU ALLIEU PAT-SOWE – MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

6. ALHAJI IBRAHIM KEMOH SESAY – MINISTER OF WORKS, HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE

7. MS. DIANA KONOMANYI – MINISTER OF LANDS, COUNTRY PLANNING AND THE ENVIRONMENT

8. DR. SYLVIA BLYDEN – MINISTER OF SOCIAL WELFARE, GENDER AND CHILDREN’S AFFAIRS

9. MS. ELIZABETH MANS – MINISTER OF FISHERIES AND MARINE RESOURCES

10. MR. BAI MAMOUD BANGURA – MINISTER OF YOUTH AFFAIRS

11. MR. SIDI YAHYA TUNIS – MINISTER OF TOURISM

12. MR. AHMED KHANOU – MINISTER OF SPORTS

13. MS. NANETTE THOMAS – MINISTER OF POLITICAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

DEPUTY MINISTERS

1. MR. MOMOH VANDI – DEPUTY MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

2. MAJOR (RTD) ISHMAEL SENGU KOROMA – DEPUTY MINISTER OF INTERNAL
AFFAIRS

3. MR.CORNELIUS DEVEAUX – DEPUTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

4. MR.IBRAHIM MANSARAY – DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

5. MS. CHRISTIANA THORPE – DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 1

6. MR.JAMES MORLAI KAMARA – DEPUTY MINISTER OF EDUCATION
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 11

7. MRS. ZULAINATU COOPER – DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH AND
SANITATION 11

8. CAPT (RTD) ABDUL RAHMAN KAMARA – DEPUTY MINISTER OF DEFENCE

9. MR. OSMOND HANCILES – DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENERGY 11

10. MR. M.A.JALLOH – DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND AVIATION

11. MR. BELLA FORNAH – DEPUTY MINISTER OF TOURISM

12. MR. MAMOUD TARAWALI – DEPUTY MINISTER OF LANDS, HOUSING AND THE ENVIRONMENT

13. MS. KADIJA O. SESAY – DEPUTY MINISTER OF WORKS, HOUSING AND INFRASTRUCTURE

14. MS.RUGIATU NENEH TURAY – DEPUTY MINISTER OF SOCIAL WELFARE, GENDER AND CHILDREN’S AFFAIRS

15. MR AKHMED FEMI MANSARAY – DEPUTY MINISTER OF POLITICAL AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

16. RESIDENT MINISTER MR. KARAMOH KABBA – RESIDENT MINISTER, EAST

AMBASSADORIAL APPOINTMENTS

1. MR. ALIMAMY P. KOROMA – AMBASSADOR TO THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

2. AMB.ADIKALIE FODAY SUMA – AMBASSADOR/PERMANENTREPRESENTATIVE TO THE UNITED NATIONS

3. MS. MABINTY DARAMY – AMBASSADOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF GUINEA

4. MR. ALIMAMY KAMARA – AMBASSADOR TO THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

5. MR. FELIX KOROMA – DEPUTY AMBASSADOR/ DEPUTY PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE 11 TO THE UNITED NATIONS

6. HON. ALIMAMY COULSON TURAY – DEPUTY AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

7. MS. FEREMUSU KONTE – DEPUTY AMBASSADOR TO THE REPUBLIC OF GUINEA

8. MS. ROSALINE OYA SANKOH – DEPUTY AMBASSADOR TO THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF THE GAMBIA

OTHER STATUTORY APPOINTMENTS

1. DR. KAIFALA MARAH – GOVERNOR, BANK OF SIERRA LEONE

2. MR. ADI MACAULEY – COMMISSIONER, ANTI- CORRUPTION COMMISSION

3. BRIGADIER-GENERAL – CHIEF OF DEFENCE STAFF, JOHN MILTON REPUBLIC OF SIERRA LEONE ARMED FORCES
MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS

MR. AGIBU TEJAN-JALLOH – NATIONAL PUBLICITY AND OUTREACH COORDINATOR

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT

1. ALHAJI DR.ALPHA KANU – SPECIAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT

2. MR. ABDULAI BAYRAYTAY – PRESIDENTIAL SPOKESMAN

END

STATE HOUSE
FREETOWN 13TH MARCH, 2016

🍚🍨🍚🍨🍚🍨🍚🍨🍚🍨🍚🍨🍚🍨

A CRITCAL COMMENTRY ON THE RE-SHUFFEL: {Courtesey: Andrew Keili- Facebook Post}

PONDER MY THOUGHTS

By Andrew Keili - (SLPP 2018 Presidential aspirant).

CABINET RESHUFFLE OF KERFUFFLE?

The long awaited Cabinet reshuffle has at last been realised but what does it portend for Sierra Leone? Many people lamented the fact that various Ministries had remained unfilled for a long time with many Deputies and others thrust in an Acting capacity, in most cases being forced to defer to the President on many issues.

If one were to ask what national malaise the changes should have ideally addressed, a few things would jump to mind. The economy has certainly not been doing well with dwindling exports due mainly to the poor state of the mining sector and the extreme devaluation of the Leone with concomitant increase in prices. Poverty is rife and the failings in our educational and health systems are all too apparent. Then there are the normal inefficiencies in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies that have now become legion.

Meanwhile the rumour mill was in overdrive with assertions that certain people were going to get positions. Who had not heard of Sylvia Blyden, Mohamed Bangura, Osman Yansanneh as possible Ministers? The President waited a pretty long time and when the bombshell came-or was really a bombshell?

I would like to hazard a guess as to what a President could consider in these appointments in the ideal case that political considerations did not come to the fore. Efficiency would obviously be key. It is certainly not so in this case as the changes involve recycling of some poor performers and the inclusion of some who have not been tried and tested.

It is therefore obvious that political considerations did play a large part in the Cabinet and other changes.

Here are a few pointers on what could probably have motivated the President in making the changes.

1. Loyalty to the President and his cause

One thing is for certain. Many of the new players have proved their loyalty to the President and could savage detractors at the slightest hint of criticism of his government. Some have also been known to be the main purveyors of the idea that the President may be irreplaceable and have sown seeds of more time, third term etc.

An analysis of a few of these players makes this all too obvious.

To someone like Maya Kaikai the President is the best thing since sliced bread. He has taken his message to Kailahun and the entire East and attempted to stifle dissent in "innovative" ways. Both Mohamed Bangura and Sylvia Blyden are loyalists to the core with the former having served in a fifth columnist role during his period of heading the UDM. They both bulldoze anybody that stands in the President's way-even members of his own party and owe their loyalty primarily to him. Elizabeth Mans at Fisheries is a family friend of long standing. Mustapha Bai Mamoud the new Youth Minister is one of the main proponents of the more time agenda and unashamedly makes all kinds of spurious statements bordering on blind hero worship all over the media. Nanette Thomas at Political Affairs has always been an APC loyalist to the core and is also known to be very loyal to the President. Cornelius Deveaux gives blind loyalty is bad name. He is known for his convoluted defense of the indefensible when he comes to Ernest Koroma and is a major proponent of the "more time " agenda.

ADI Macauley at Anti corruption may have earned his stripes in some way by his brilliance and brief stint as prosecutor at ACC. It does help however that his mother is a senior foreign Affairs personnel who has been an Ambassador at the behest of Ernest Koroma and that he is also a protege of Joseph Kamara, the new AG who is a Koroma loyalist.

2. Satisfying certain constituencies

The main constituencies in this case are women, youths and demographic considerations. Civil society and women's groups who have been calling for greater participation of women in governance may be buoyed by the inclusion of so many women as Ministers and Deputy Ministers -big improvement on what hitherto obtained.

Diana Konomanyi has now been joined by Dr Sylvia Blyden and Elizabeth Mans as full Ministers and there are a couple more women as Deputy Ministers and Ambassadors. Overall a considerable number of young people have ascended to Ministerial and other top positions.

Demographic considerations may also have played a part in some appointments. The questions may be asked: Is the appointment of Sidi Tunis at Tourism to compensate for Moijueh Kaikai's ouster-Pujehun for Pujehun? Is M.A. Jalloh's appointment as Deputy Works Minister to appease Koinadugu for the removal of the erstwhile Deputy Abdul Barrie or is it purely to compensate Jalloh for long years in the wilderness after leaving SLPP? Christiana Thorpe and Nanette Thomas will certainly bolster the Government's Western Area credentials.

3. Cohesiveness of team

The perennial infighting between Ministers and Deputy Ministers does not seem to have been lost on President Koroma. After the sacking of Moijueh and Atilla, Paul Kamara, Alimamy Kamara who notoriously did not get along with their Deputies have been let go. In the case of Alimamy Kamara he has not been allowed to realize his dreams of revamping the status of youths and he has been sent to far flung out Iran as Ambassador.

4. Other factors

Other factors must have certainly played their part in the changes. Consider the following:

a) The replacement of Major General S. O Williams with Brigadier John Milton as head of the RSLAF came as a bit of a surprise. There was no love lost between S.O Williams and Paolo Conteh and for a while it looked that Williams had come on top and Paolo was out in the cold. Paolo is now back in the Cabinet at Internal Affairs and Williams is out in the cold. Milton, a fierce loyalist who had served as AFRC spokesman is now at the helm. Many say he is a fine professional but is more political than S.O. Williams who talked plenty about depoliticising the army. Paolo has been replaced at Defence by Rtd. Captain Abdul Rahman Kamara who has a good relationship with the President.

b) Maya Kaikai's appointment was no big surprise. He will help keep a tight rein on local governance issues especially in the "rebellious East" where he wields considerable influence. He will be helped in the enforcement by the combative Major Sengu Koroma. Karamokoh Kabbah as Resident Minister, East will help keep the lid on Kono and any Sam Sumana dissenters and also attempt to exert control over Kailahun and Kenema. These appointments point to preparations for electioneering-plain and simple. With Paolo Conteh at Internal Affairs and John Milton as head of RSLAF and Munu as head of Police, the security apparatus could not be more loyal.

c) Christiana Thorpe's appointment as Deputy at Education came a bit as a surprise as she has held the Education Ministry before. This in essence is a demotion. She could however make a considerable difference to that Ministry if given the chance.

d) Both Alimamy Koroma and Alimamy Kamara have been sent to China and Iran respectively. They would be expected to play little part in any succession battle.

e) The ex SLPP people have not fared well. Usman Boie Kamara and J.B. Dauda have been shown the door to add to Musa Tarawalli and Moijueh Kaikai. It would seem there is little room for cross carpeters. Ex PMDC people have however fared better. Osmond Hanciles now Deputy at transport has been let out of the "Education prison" and will continue flying the Bonthe flag. Momoh Vandy is Deputy at Finance and Mohamed Bangura is at Information. Add Arrow Bockarie to this brew and voila! Charles Margai really did breed betrayers! He must be fuming. He will curse the day the Alliance with APC was born!

f) By swopping the head of the government's fiscal management team and the monetary team, the Finance Minister is now the Bank Governor and the Bank Governor our Finance Minister. What this will do for our economy is anyone's guess. It does not however bode well for Keifala Marrah's political future and certainly any leadership aspirations he may have.

In any case the new appointees will go through Parliament and as some detractor has said "the rubber stamp will be stationed at the entrance door". The future will tell how this bodes for our country. One thing is for certain. The appointments were not about efficiency. They were about loyalty primarily with an eye to the forthcoming elections or whatever political machination that may be on the way.

The long awaited reshuffle may indeed be a kerfuffle.

Ponder my thoughts

Wednesday, 27 January 2016

Malady of The S.L.P.P. – By Hilton E. Fyle

A LITTLE OVER THREE YEARS AGO, FORMER BBC BROADCASTER AND JOURNALIST IN SIERRA LEONE GAVE US THIS PIECE OF HIS PERSPECTIVES OF THE SLPP FOLLOWING THE SUCCESSFUL ELECTIONS OF THE APC IN 2012. IT MAKES INTERESTING READING........... I HAVE BEEN HOLDING BACK IN REPUBLISHING IT FOR A WHILE. READ ON!!

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Malady of The S.L.P.P. – By Hilton E. Fyle

In 1992 the APC government was overthrown. Shortly afterwards, I exposed their unsavoury actions to the world. Now that the SLPP has also been rebuked by the people in democratic elections, and a reformed and repentant APC government is making unbelievable strides with the help of God (Allah), it is time to address the SLPP and its own history. The people of Sierra Leone are praying now that no longer would God allow bad politicians to hijack their wealth, and poison their future. If this medicine of exposure can work for the APC, then, why not the SLPP?

Let us start at the beginning, and the events that led to Sierra Leone’s first ever military coup.

The year was 1967. The general election was finished. The SLPP had been defeated. The citizens had voted against the tribalization of the civil service, and against corruption in high places. Prime minister Albert Margai and his companions – R.G.O. King, Kandeh Bureh, Berthan Macauley, Mr. Decker, and Tejan Kabbah had transformed Sierra Leone from a paradise of peace, unity and consensus (crafted by his patriotic predecessor Sir Milton Margai), into a retreat of pain, poverty, and disunity.

The APC had a clear lead in this election, at least three parliamentary seats ahead of the SLPP. But the SLPP was unwilling to go. After some delay, manipulation, and conferring by the captains of the SLPP, and with the APC poised to celebrate their victory, the government-controlled Sierra Leone Broadcasting Service (SLBS) announced that the SLPP and the APC had picked up an equal number of seats, because certain paramount chiefs – an independent, non partisan group – had declared for the SLPP. The people of Freetown and APC supporters erupted with protests, against what they saw as a clear case of election fraud.

How did the SLPP government respond? The head of the army, Brigadier Lansana, went on radio to announce that the army was taking over until further notice. The election results were set aside, Martial Law was declared. Three days later Lansana was overthrown by lower ranked officers, and shot dead. A year or so after that, certain soldiers of a divided Sierra Leone army struck again, a fourth military coup, this one against Juxon Smith’s military regime; it was staged by patriotic soldiers of the lowest ranks. Their action led to a return of justice and fair play. The ousted Governor General (The head of state) Banja Tejan Sie was reinstated, and he invited the APC to form the new government.

Where was Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who had cut some of the illegal business deals for Sir Albert and company? He had fled. Unlike former Prime minister Albert Margai, he did not appear before the Commission of Inquiry to answer charges related to his activities while in office. The Tejan Kabbah was found guilty of corruption in absentia. The trial judge also ruled that Tejan Kabbah should not hold any public office in Sierra Leone in the future. Guess who set aside that order? It was Joseph Momoh, the APC president who succeeded Siaka Stevens. He told Tejan Kabbah that all was forgiven, and invited him to return to his homeland. Tejan Kabbah accepted the presidential pardon, returned to Sierra Leone, and with the help of his friend Solomon Berewa (according to inside information), bribed his way past superior contenders, to become the SLPP’s presidential candidate for the 1996 general election in Sierra Leone.

The election of 1996 was unlike any other. A civil war was raging; tens of thousands of displaced, distraught and impoverished war victims were pouring into the capital, with tearful stories of carnage by RUF rebels, or by soldiers, or by unidentifiable raiders. The NPRC military government of Valentine Strasser and Maada Bio had continued the fight against Foday Sankoh, but now they were being persuaded by the International Community and Sierra Leonean politicians, to bow out, and leave the job to an elected civilian government. Elections were the answer, their advisers told them. But who were these advisers? The National Security Council, the NPRC’s team of top advisers, was headed by Tejan Kabbah, Solomon Berewa, George Banda Thomas, and other SLPP elements; APC politicians were now in disgrace, so these men were now the trusted friends of the NPRC…or so the young NPRC leaders thought. Given the turn of events as the years unfolded, would it be untrue to say now, that the sole aim of these advisers was to see the SLPP back in power, by deceiving the NPRC, and ignoring the suffering of the nation’s war victims?

I was editor of 1-2-3, a Freetown newspaper at this time, and founder of The Peace Before Election campaign (PEBEC). Nearly every week I received a copy of an underground newsletter attacking the NPRC military leaders…their tribal composition, their pay, etc., but not their policies and actions. I asked myself, Who else could organize and profit from this campaign of disaffection, if not the SLPP?

Here is more evidence. In 2004 on several occasions, I met certain former NPRC leaders in the USA, where I now reside. They told me that President Tejan Kabbah and others had betrayed their trust; they did not realize then, that they were being deceived. Their former advisers were now ruling the land; the SLPP government was led by Tejan Kabbah ( president), and Solomon Berewa (elevated from Attorney General and Minister of Justice to Vice President), who was the power behind the throne. Now these young men knew the truth.

Did the civil war die down, once the SLPP government came to power? Not a bit. Why? Because ending the war was not their priority. The most urgent thing for them, was to do what the APC had done: clear all the obstacles, and settle down for a long stay in power.

Sam Hinga Norman, who had armed and who led the Kamajors, was appointed minister of Defence. His openly declared aim was to elevate the Kamajors to official military status ….they are the SLPP’s armed militia. Hinga Norman visited my radio station one day, and showed me a chart of the top commanders of the Sierra Leone army, and the tribal origin beside each name. He said to me, “Our people are not there. We have to change that.” At the same time, soldiers were calling on me to report off the record, that the Kamajors were running a campaign of summary executions against soldiers of the army in certain provincial areas. They were stopping buses and trucks, forcing all identifiable soldiers to disembark, and shooting them. Nobody was doing anything about it, said the soldiers, and they were running out of patience.

But what could Hilton Fyle do? My trial for Seditious Libel against the government had just finished. Solomon Berewa, Attorney General, was the prosecuting lawyer for the government; he was also minister of Justice, and paymaster of the judge taking my case. He had successfully “persuaded” my own paid lawyer to surrender my interests, and make me easy meat. Then he sent me a warning, that if I did not go to see him and apologize, he would send me to jail for three years. The messengers were VIPs, and they reminded me that in Sierra Leone the government never loses a case. Solomon Berewa held all the cards, so you can understand why I lost my dignity, and went, and apologized.

Here is the story. A famous woman, a fishing tycoon based in Freetown, spent years bribing government officials, instead of paying the government royalties for her lucrative fishing venture; it was a newspaper scandal. A few weeks after coming to power, Berewa had her in court, and he was praised as a hero of Sierra Leone taxpayers. However, a month after her trial began, Berewa told the court that he was dropping the case. The judge agreed. Case closed. I received information that the businesswoman was also now bribing newspaper editors into silence, the same prescription that Berewa had received, according to my source. I published the information, headlined, “ Ministers Were Bribed To Drop The Case.” I did not name Solomon Berewa, but he was wounded.

Have you never wondered why, for a long time, the civil war was at its fiercest in areas of SLPP domination…like Kenema District, Bo District, Bonthe, Kono, and Kailahun, etc.? Well here is the answer. Foday Sankoh was the instrument that the captains of the SLPP used to try and force Siaka Stevens and the APC out, when they refused to give way. They turned the photographer of Kenema District into a rebel leader, and sent their sons to train and fight with him.

How do I know this? In 1998 while I was a fugitive from the Tejan Kabba government, I ended up being a prisoner at the RUF headquarters in Kailahun District. Hostilities were over now, but government and rebels kept their distance, waiting for peace talks to begin. I heard a lot of stories from RUF fighters, some too ghastly to tell here. But one RUF top leader, a man called Rogers, told me privately in his room, that it was the SLPP who started it. As if to confirm it, I observed that the common language at RUF headquarters in Buedu, and at other stations, was Mende…even though this was Kisii speaking country.

When the July 1997 military coup took place, and the AFRC arrived, the world was (understandably) enraged. But I wasn’t. Why? Because I knew certain things that they did not know. The ousted SLPP government wanted to bring in bombs and jets to flush out the AFRC, no matter how many innocents would die in the process. But I saw this as a family quarrel between big brother SLPP, and another, the coup leaders. It needed care, thinking, and a peaceful solution, because every life was valuable.

But my fellow peacemakers and I were swimming against two heavy currents:

There was James Jonah, the UN ambassador of Sierra Leone, calling for the world to starve and punish the rebels (with its ripple effects on the general population).

There was Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s military leader, the so-called godfather of Tejan Kabbah, whose jet planes and gunboats, were already attacking targets in Freetown and the provinces; nobody had time to count the corpses, guilty and innocent, or those who were dying of bombs, or lack of essentials, like food and medicine.

Our peacemaking effort finally got a jolt from ECOWAS, the West African Economic Community. A peace meeting took place in Conakry, in neighbouring Guinea. An agreement was signed by representatives of the SLPP government and the AFRC, allowing for the reinstatement of President Tejan Kabbah’s government in April 1998, after the exit of the AFRC…..that was only about 3 months away now.

At the same time, however, Tejan Kabbah and his SLPP government-in-exile, with the zeal of Sani Abacha, were finalizing plans for a military invasion of Sierra Leone involving the Nigerian army and mercenaries, to restore their government; when U.S. News and World Report (a USA magazine) reported the story , which I read myself, the invasion was only days away.

How disappointing. When the Conakry Agreement was announced, there was jubilation in Freetown from all sides. Everyone was weary of the hunger, the bombings by Nigerian jet planes and gunboats, the lack of petrol (gas), Poda Poda passenger fights by suburban travellers, robberies by certain criminal elements of the Sierra Leone military, corpses being carted to the overflowing Connaught Hospital mortuary on wheelbarrows – no petrol, and no transportation vehicles available- the stench of blood, the sounds of loud weeping and mourning across Freetown, and the “Run-Run” a daily stampede by Freetown pedestrians as soon someone shouted, They are coming!....a false alarm, of course.

I saw RUF members firing into the air to celebrate the Conakry Agreement.

Then came February 10, 1998. The surprise invasion. The SLPP had done it again. What happened to the Conakry Agreement that they had signed? Two days later, while I was in hiding, I heard a radio announcement that the Sierra Leone army had been disbanded.

Where are all the leading players of that invasion, and the civil war? They are dead. Sani Abacha, Maxwell Kobi, Foday Sankoh, Sam Hinga Norman. All but two are dead. They participated in a campaign of evil, in which tens of thousands of peaceful, non combatants lost their lives. They were not working to save the citizens of Sierra Leone, they were working to help themselves, to pursue their personal interests, oblivious of the contamination that it would cause to the citizens, who own the land. So God punished them.

But why did God refuse to kill Tejan Kabbah and Solomon Berewa? Is it because they are Not Guilty? Is it because they are good? They have suffered too, having lost their wives. But that is not the point. They have not been exonerated….far from it.

God is using these two men to teach us all a lesson, as He has always done whenever He vents his fury. When you see them, when you read or hear about them, remember that there is a God, your Creator, who, though invisible, sees and records every action of yours. And if your hobby is wickedness, if Satan the devil is your master, then you can be sure that your punishment will come sooner or later ……. in this world, or the next world, or both places. Nobody can escape the judgment of God, no matter who you are, no matter what you are, no matter what you think, no matter where you run to.

God is GREAT!

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Hilton Fyle is author of the book, “The Fighter From Death Row.”

He also wrote and directed two documentary movies about the civil war in Sierra Leone: “Nightmare in Paradise”, and “Sunrise in Paradise.”

He lives in Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A.

P.S. You have the writer’s permission to circulate, publish, or broadcast the above in whole or in part, but without any distortion.

God bless Sierra Leone. God bless you. Amin, Amen.

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In 2004, Cocokrioko posted this discuss of Hilton Fyle's view of President Tejan Kabba's government:

CLICK LINK TO READ:

http://cocorioko.info/hilton-fyle-derides-kabbahs-abuse-of-power-and-justifies-his-opposition-of-the-presidents-1998-invasion-of-sierra-leone/

Thursday, 17 December 2015

A P C FLAGBEARERSHIP: WHO WILL REPLACE PRESIDENT KOROMA??

Where are the APC flag-bearer aspirants?

{Courtesey: Sierra Express Media}

By: Adeyemi Paul - SEM on December 16, 2015

The call for ‘more time’ or whatever phraseologies relating to the extension of President Ernest Bai Koroma’s tenure of office may have overtaken the struggle in the governing All People’s Congress (APC) for the flag-bearership position of the party, but many names have been coming prior to the bombshell that was dropped by the APC National Youth League at their national convention held in Makeni this year. The APC National Youth President had asked that President Ernest Bai Koroma be given ‘more time’ to continue with his exemplary development strides in the country. And it seems they are pushing forward with their infamous demand as evidenced by the clash between two youthful groups at State House this week over the ‘more time’ campaign.

Prior to the ‘more time’ campaign for President Ernest Bai Koroma, reports were doing the rounds that some stalwarts in government were to declare as flag-bearer aspirants for the APC. The names of certain Ministers came up though they did not admit openly declaring for the coveted position. The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Dr. Kalfala Marah, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Dr. Samura Kamara, Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, Alhaji Minkailu Mansaray, and Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Captain Alie Pat-Sow were some of the names that came up in party circles. The former Minister of Works, Housing and Infrastructure, Alimamy Petito Koroma, was also rumoured to be interested in declaring as flag-bearer aspirant. But all these names went into oblivion when the ‘more time’ campaign for the President was kick-started in Makeni a few months ago. Are these guys afraid of coming out public to declare their intentions for the 2018 presidential candidacy of the APC because the President may have an intention to extend his tenure of office by whatever means?

At present, there are only two stalwarts in the APC that have not minced matters when they openly declared for the flag-bearership. They are the Vice President of Shandong Steel and Iron Company that succeed the African Minerals Limited, Mr. Moseray Fadika, and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Sierra Rutile Limited, Mr. John Bonnoh Sisay. Both personalities have influence and affluence to push their way through given their opulent wealth that is very potent in persuading delegates to side with them.

Both Messrs. Moseray Fadika and John Bonnoh Sisay have already formed their movements to promote their political intentions for the APC leadership and chairmanship ahead of the 2018 presidential election provided President Ernest Bai Koroma steps down after the end of his second tenure.

While Mr. John B. Sisay is still mobilizing support in the country especially in the Northern Region where he hails from, Mr. Moseray Fadika has gone a step ahead by not only touring the length and breadth of the country to familiarize himself with the people especially the youths, but has also taken his campaign abroad to consult with APC members and supporters in the Diaspora for their total support. His overseas tour took him to the United States of America (USA), Germany and other European countries, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), before he returned home a fortnight ago. Mr. Moseray Fadika’s overseas tour was reported as very successful as even some Sierra Leoneans from the other side attended the town hall meetings that were organized for him by different branches of the APC in the Diaspora.

But following the formation of the JBS Movement which coincided with the death and burial of his beloved mother, not much has been heard of Mr. John B. Sisay in the APC except criticism from certain quarters that he is the first cousin of the President and that the APC leadership is not a dynasty to be dominated by siblings of the same family from Kamabai. Nonetheless, you cannot underestimate his ambition for what he is gunning for because Sierra Leone politics, whether you take it or leave it, is all about money, tribal and regional sentiments and John B. Sisay has the financial might to spin the heads of delegates going in for money. He is also well educated and exposed to the outside world but the only problem about him is many people have claimed that he does not speak the lingua franca fluently and the APC which comprised mainly grassroots supporters may not see one who does not speak the Krio to lead them. If that information about him is true and he is still nursing the ambition to become a flag-bearer aspirant in the APC, then my advice to him is to start taking frequent lesson in Krio to march with the true character of APC as grassroots political party; otherwise, how would he campaign to the illiterates across the country?

The profile of Mr. Moseray Fadika will qualify him as true grassroots politician capable of stooping down to conquer. Quite apart from being a wealthy Sierra Leonean with massive investment in the mining sector, the Shandong Vice President’s generosity cuts across the strata of society. Countless government officials, stalwarts in the APC, the unemployed youths and many other categories of people have benefited from his largess ceaselessly. His willingness to give freely without any string attached, his passion for assisting vulnerable and needy and his penchant for funding traditional masquerade groups during occasions has won the hearts of many supporters and members of the APC who see the young man as their next redeemer.

In fact, since Mr. Moseray Fadika declared as flag-bearer aspirant, many of the names that previously showed up for the flag-bearership suddenly subsided as though they wouldn’t want to contest against their man who has been lavishly generous to them in the buoyant years of AML. I can’t name names but there are many Members of Parliament, Government Ministers and other senior officials in the Koroma administration that benefited from the generosity of Mr. Moseray Fadika though they can’t confess that in public. Now, the one-million-dollar question is will any of these beneficiaries have the temerity to step on the toes of their financial by also declaring their interests in the APC flag-bearership? I believe something must be happening behind the scene that would force many stalwarts that had declared earlier for the coveted position to back out of the flag-bearer race if the ‘more time’ campaign does not work.

On his academic background, Mr. Moseray Fadika, who is a very successful businessman, has claimed having double Masters’ degree from an overseas University and some of his close friends have confirmed that to me. But when the time is ripe for the real flag-bearer contest, he would be bold enough to present his credentials to the general public for proper vetting. I believe that mood would be necessary on the grounds that some flag-bearers from the opposition are educationally equipped to defend their credentials in any podium with academic finesse. For instance, we have someone like Alhaji Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) whose academic credentials and eloquence is as smooth as hot knife running through butter. Any flag-bearer aspirant that is not academically equipped will have a tight tongue debating with him on national and international issues. I’m certain Mr. Moseray Fadika, who is also a University graduate and has lived abroad for several years, can prove himself worthy of challenging any flag-bearer aspirants in national debates when the time comes. So the ball is definitely in their court to prove who is who in the pre-election period ahead of 2018.

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Monday, 16 November 2015

B R E A K I N G N E W S !! U D M PARTY LEADER RESIGNS !

MOHAMED BANGURA LEADER OF THE U D M PARTY RESIGND!, (Resignation letter reproduced below)

Bangura has been the strongman of this party from inception but now feels he must strive to an alternative direction. Bangura has not indicated what path he wishes to follow or will be following!

Would he be taking his past experience to galvanise the APC which many people assumes he will be joining?

Bangura's political experiences thus far suggest he will not be crawling behind doors , putting on his slippers in his bedroom day after day to wallow away the time.

We expect Bangura will soon acquaint us of his New Political Direction (NPD) if he is not to fade away like many budding leaders, into insignificance✈️🚀

Will will wait for Mohamed Bangura's next move.✈️🚀

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Sierra Leone News: “I have an unfinished business in UDM”- Mohamed Bangura

The erstwhile Chairman and Leader of the United Democratic Movement (UDM) party, Mohamed Bangura has in an exclusive interview with Awoko stated that he has an unfinished business in the UDM party, a political outfit he championed in 2006.
“I have an unfinished business in the party which is why I am going to contest for the Chairmanship position again,” Mr. Bangura declared.
The UDM holds its second National Delegates Assembly on Saturday, 10th May instant. The assembly he said will hold in Freetown, at Calaba Town and is expected to attract 26o delegates from across the country, the erstwhile Chairman and Leader revealed.
“I want a fresh mandate from my people to steer the ship of our party for the next two years,” he declared, noting that the party needs a “robust and charismatic leader” who can position the UDM as the much clamored for Third Force Party in Sierra Leone. “I can provide that leadership for the party and my people will repose that confidence in me,” he assured.
According to Mohamed Bangura, making a party prominent is not only limited to winning elections and forming a government. He maintains that it goes beyond that as it also requires shaping the national discuss, providing more leadership space to young people, promoting the participation of women in governance issues and to serve as a bridge for the people and provide alternative.
Bangura explained that so far the party has not received or heard of any other candidate that is interested in the position of chairman.
“I will be declared unopposed come 10th May 2014,” he further assured, noting that the UDM is a democratic party and every member has the right to run for any position he or she is qualified for.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bangura has stated that he detests politicians perpetuating themselves in power endlessly without going through the due process of a democratic election. “I will continue to contest for this position for a very long time to come until a fitting member defeats me a democratic election,” Mr. Bangura stated.
By Betty Milton
Wednesday May 07, 2014

{Courtsey: AWOKO NEWSPAPER/ Tue November 17, 2015}

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The UDM Factor in Sierra Leone Politics

 8 November 2011 at 01:09 | 

{Courtesey: Patriotic Vanguard}

Opinion

By Abdulai Bayraytay in Toronto.

Since the official registration of Sierra Leone’s nascent political party, the United Democratic Movement (UDM), few weeks ago by the Political Parties Registration Commission (PRRC), its founding member and leader, Mohamed Bangura, has increasingly come under scathing attacks from a cross section of both the electronic and print media.

The attacks have been consistent: Mohamed Bangura has just not only been referred to as loquacious and a protégé doing the dirty work of the ruling All Peoples’ Congress Party (APC) , (http://www.sierraleoneview.com/news135.html), a vain, opportunistic and embattled politician on the pay roll of President Ernest B. Koroma, (http://www.thenewpeople.com/front-page/item/1296-the-embattled-udm%E2%80%99s-mohamed-bangura), but, above all, as someone bent on denigrating no other person than the Executive Representative of the United Nation Secretary General (ERSG) Michael Van der Schulenburg, and raining consistent attacks, or rather invectives (my emphasis) on the newly elected flag bearer of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Julius Maada Bio.

While the above could be political actions on the personality of Mohamed Bangura as a strategy to discourage him from actively participating in the national politics of a country that he is a legitimate stake holder, yet there is another side of Mohamed that he has not trumpeted like other “loquacious’ politicians would have done.

Undoubtedly, Mohamed Bangura has immensely contributed to the sustenance of democracy and the fight against corruption as a young reporter with the now defunct New Breed newspaper. In 1993, for instance, as a journalist cum human rights campaigner, he was along with writers like Dr. Julius Spencer and Alie Bangura (erstwhile chief electoral commissioner of the SLPP and former High Commissioner to Ghana), among others, incarcerated at the maximum Pademba road Prisons in Freetown by the NPRC. Their crime then was for knowingly publishing a false article that accused the military NPRC boss of a 43 million dollar diamond deal. Critics of Mohamed Bangura then dismissed him as a mere young, novice journalist unnecessarily risking his life, and being used by his mentors whilst scores of his fans hailed him as a young man who would sacrifice his life for the general good of the country.

In spite of this, Mohamed Bangura did not budge down the road as he consistently held on to his incontrovertible belief that a country like Sierra Leone with a fledgling democracy could only thrive if certain people were (are) willing to sacrifice their lives for that cause.

True to his resolve, up to this day, Mohamed Bangura has never reneged in his campaign for human rights and the rule of law as he continues to galvanize the youth across the country from whom he largely draws most of his grassroots support to maintain that cause.

Even when he relocated to Canada in the late 1990s, his hardnosed stance that the worst civilian government could be better than the best military government made Mohamed Bangura an icon among his peers in Toronto as he mobilized his kith and kin in drawing the attention of the Canadian Federal Government and the rest of the international community to support the restoration of the ousted elected civilian erstwhile President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and his Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party (SLPP) government to power following the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) coup of May, 1997.

So, would the theory hold water that the SLPP was using Mohamed just because his stance then clearly resonated with the interest of the latter?

Recognizing that Sierra Leoneans had fled the country to neighbouring countries including Liberia, the Gambia and Guinea and the horrendous life that was synonymous of refugees, Mohamed Bangura established the Sierra Leone-Canada Watch as a local non-governmental organization in direct response to the plight of his Sierra Leonean brothers and sisters living in the various refugee camps in the sub-region.

During that period, Mohamed would sacrifice his studies at York University in Toronto to visit Sierra Leonean refugees in Guinea, Liberia and the Gambia with largesse in both kind and cash. As if that was not enough, Mohamed Bangura was able to persuade the Canadian Federal Government to grant his organization a sponsorship agreement holder status that saw the influx of Sierra Leonean refugees from the abysmal living conditions in the camps straight to the 58 Davelayne Road residence of Mohamed Bangura in Toronto without asking a dime for any payment of rent and utility bills.

The question then is, how many Sierra Leoneans in the Diaspora, especially during those trying times, would have opened their doors, clothed and fed them without making it to the press on how generous they had been for “rescuing” their kith and kin from refugee life in Africa?

This is where I found it very nauseating that one of those who joined the bandwagon in castigating Mohamed Bangura because his political views are not in sync with his was one of the very beneficiaries of Mohamed Bangura’s largesse!

This is where one finds it very disturbing that a leading political party would buy two hours of air time and spend all of that in not selling its agenda to the people to be voted into office in the forthcoming presidential and parliamentary polls, but rather wasted that time in berating the personality of Mohamed Bangura and in the process concocted the voice of Mohamed Bangura allegedly accepting $800,000 from President Koroma. What a philanthropist President Koroma was to have financed Charles Margai and his now politically superfluous PMDC party?

Through investigative journalism, one of Sierra Leone’s leading newspapers, the Awareness Times newspaper exonerated Mohamed as it turned out to be that the original recording has been ‘butchered” in a puerile attempt to present Mohamed Bangura as a political hustler. What a ricochet effect that was? (http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_200518974.shtml).

The bottom line is, the political history of Sierra Leone in recent times cannot erase the fact that Mohamed Bangura was among the youngest to ever covet the position of national chairman of a then leading political party, the Peoples’ Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), and that he courageously challenged the dictatorial policies and Machiavellian tactics of its leader, Charles Margai, and resigned his position to the acclamation of lovers of democracy.

To criticize is human, but when such criticisms are ill-conceived to gain political points then the question that begs answers is when will critics of young enterprising leaders learn that had Mohamed Bangura been a bootlicker and a political opportunist, he would have been a yes man all the way and always at the disposal of Charles Margai just to preserve the status quo?.

Indeed, whilst politicians embark on winning votes, they should also be reminded that preposterously besmirching one’s personality for political gain is not just an anathema, but the fact that there is life after politics, and, above all, that there is indeed God overseeing man’s actions on earth be they on politics or otherwise!

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Salone News.

Mohamed Bangura Admits Making Switch to APC or SLPP.

Posted on July 23, 2015

By Ibrahim Samura,

On air, and in studios of radio 98.1, Mohamed Bangura, leader and chairman United Democratic Party, admits making switch to APC or SLPP should there be an opportunity.

He said the APC and SLPP are but the two main political parties, of course, possibly to be in governance forty years to come.

This he said is reason prompting him thinking make a switch to any of the two parties should need be.

Yesterday Wednesday 22nd, Mohamed surprisingly tendered his resignation letter, quitting the position as chairman All Political Parties Association (APPA), an institution he said he has served for over a year and months.

Mohamed’s resignation as chairman APPA, has sparked public debate, and has seen people now say it is because he has been promised ministerial appointment in the ruling APC.

It is true Mohamed was a presidential candidate in the 2012 elections, but at the eleventh hour switched loyalty to opponent President Koroma, then told his supporters not cast vote to his favour but the former (President Koroma) in his bid for second term.

Sources say Mohamed’s resignation as chairman APPA, is linked to alleged political switch to the ruling APC, where incidentally, though unconfirmed, he’s likely to be appointed minister of information.

His interview at radio 98.1 reveals clear that Mohamed is, but on his verge moving to either APC or SLPP, even though the suspicion is that he intends pitched fence with the ruling APC.