What the opposition APC party has almost succeeded in achieving is to have the gullible public believe that the SLPP government only one year in office stands accused of all the troubles and evils that the APC government under former president Ernest Bai Koroma had caused this country for ten years in power.
And the glaring hypocrisy and barefaced opportunism on the part of some of the so-called civil society and human rights organisations defeat every cause of their very existence.
The erstwhile APC party government under Koroma institutionalised tribalism, ethnicity and regionalism with south-easterners becoming the butt of such unthinking divisiveness. Thousands of south-easterners were kicked out of their jobs without ceremony or prior notification. It is only today under the SLPP government that similar action has become a threat to peace and national unity, thanks to our so-called civil society and human rights advocates.
Under former President Koroma the APC party thugs severally stormed the SLPP headquarters, on the orders of ex-president Koroma himself, comprehensively vandalised the place and raped our mothers and sister who were found there. Today a drop of a hat under the Bio government is being roundly condemned by some misguided public including some of the so-called civil society and human rights entities. No one wants to talk about the evil things that Koroma had done to this country because of the false and unthinking blackmailing pretext that President Bio had promised a new direction when he shall have won the election.
Christiana Thorpe as Chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in her callous and devilish demeanour conspired with ex-president Koroma and cancelled 477 polling stations in Kailahun district, SLPP’s stronghold amid the heat of that 2012 elections. They went on and robbed Lawyer Ansu Batilo Lansana of his votes for parliament who had earlier got over 10,000 votes in parliamentary election in constituency 005 in Kailahun district, in favour of APC party member Regina Songa who had far less votes. Today the APC party is shouting all over the place claiming to be cheated in a recent ward election in Kambia, and demanding that Nf’a Allie, the present NEC Chairman must resign. Did Christiana Thorpe resign after stealing SLPP votes for the APC party? And unfortunately some of the civil society and human rights organisations are shouting along with them. Bullshit.
What moral ground do the APC party stand on to cast aspersion on the SLPP on constitutional decency? Did ex-president Koroma not play tricks with the very APC party constitution to become leader, and thereafter as president conspired with high court judges to sack a sitting vice president? And now you have some dollar-influenced so-called civil society and human rights organisations shouting along with them and challenging the constitutional probity of the SLPP government. What a consummated hypocrisy!
The combined wealth in cash and kind of former APC party government officials including ex-president Koroma far exceeds that which they left in the national coffers. They stole all the money and have turned round to cry “the ground dry” blaming the raging economic hardship on the Bio government that is only one year old in office. And the gullible public along with some of the rabble- rousing civil society and human rights organisations have been bought over to do the bidding of the APC party. The grand plan of the opposition APC party is to cause chaos in the country so that the Commissions of Enquiry set to probe their financial and economic probity will fail. But God with President Bio and the SLPP government, APC party will fail and the COI will go on.
The APC party was borne out of violence, indiscipline and lawlessness. And with their return to power from 2007 to 2012 under ex-president Koroma, the culture only heightened to a breaking point. Who in his/her right mind will blame President Bio and his government for the present spate of violence and crime in the country today when the APC party had made it a political weapon before now? Each time that party comes to power Sierra Leone becomes a screwball sort of place for the people to live. There is either war or national calamities. Today the civil society and human rights organisations cannot remember all that but to blame SLPP because Bio had promised a new direction for the country. A new direction at the detriment of those that had for ten years suffered under the uncanny rule of ex-president Koroma?
Did the APC party women supporters in the excitement of their criminal victory in 2007 not urinate in empty milk and sardine cans and splashed the rubbish on SLPP supporters at State House? Did the APC government police not identify SLPP supporters wholly and solely for arrest, trial, brutal treatment and detention for over ten years on end of their rule? Did they not kill innocent people all over the country? Where were these so-called civil society and human rights organisations who have now joined the opposition APC party to portray the SLPP government under President Bio as bad government when the people had become such objects of inhuman treatments under the APC party government?
Did the APC party thugs not stone and wound His Excellency President Bio in Bo city and nothing came out of the crime? Did one APC party member not refer to the Mendes as “stupid” people at one of their party meetings and ex-president Koroma laughed his side out in appreciation of the vulgarity. Did some former Temne and Limba APC party government officials not tell to the face of south-easterners that they do not like the Mende tribe and therefore could not work with them and as a result they were fired from their jobs indeed?
Where were these so-called agents of morality and conduct parading in the guise of civil society and human rights activists who do not want to make reference to such impunities because of the promise of new direction under President Bio? Is it because some of the so-called activists have razor blade sharp mouth, the Bio government therefore should swallow any morsel of deceit that falls from their lips?
So because of the promise of new direction President Bio should not have replaced any former APC party official/employee with his own people that he can trust to work with in the offices? In essence SLPP party supporters would continue to suffer because of fear of government being accused of tribalism? What a blatant hypocrisy and outright unrighteousness?
The APC party 99 tactic is working and gradually eating into the fabric of the SLPP government given the fact that there are still a lot of APC party moles occupying sensitive places in government, while others are being recruited during the recent cabinet reshuffle.
It appears that President Bio and his party/government are succumbing to the APC party venomous ranting and diabolical propaganda as to bend backward too much at the future detriment of the party. Let me remind His Excellency President Bio and his government that in politics like in war, there is no scruple about benevolence; one cannot afford the luxury of one’s conscience even when it is justified. And the APC party is good at that given its communist background.
Let the APC party swallow their pride and apologise to the people of this country for all the trouble they have caused this once peaceful and stable nation. Then and only then there will be peace.
