By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Whenever I want to read a good newspaper (or social media) article with “excellent grammatical prose…” (in the words of Dr Sama Banya aka “Puawui”) by a Sierra Leonean journalist; I write one. But there are few Sierra Leonean journalists or writers whose write-ups never fail to catch my attention. They are Andrew Keili; Dr Sama Banya; Dr Sylvia Olayinka Blyden; Umaru Fofana, and Sorie Fofana. The reason is that these people write with distinctive styles that even if they write without inserting their bylines; I will still see their fingerprints on any write-up or op-eds.
And of those five, Umaru Fofana and Sorie Fofana are like brothers to me. And of the two, Sorie at times is more of a brother to me than any of my three blood brothers. But on occasions, a brother has to respectfully disagree with his brother for the family good. But in this case, for the national good!
This brings me to Sorie Fofana’s “Manjoroka” of last week titled: “Cost-Of-Living Crisis…Don’t Blame President Bio!” In that article Sorie, who is known to have a stoic persona, shows the pain he is now feeling of seeing the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) he helps to bring to power now being hijacked by “some shameless sycophants who did not even believe in Maada Bio’s leadership and chances of becoming President in 2018.” What infuriates him the more is the fact that “those people who used to handle the party’s public relations in opposition have been pushed aside.”
If those have been the only issues addressed in that “Manjoroka”, I would have consoled Sorie, by telling him that those who always start struggles are not always reapers of the struggles they started. But where I respectfully disagree with him is when he states that, “President Bio has risen to the occasion in managing the affairs of the state” and that he is “putting in place the right measures to help suffering families hard-pressed by this global crisis to continue to live their normal lifestyle[s]”. And for those reasons, he says, we should “not blame the President for the high cost-of-living crisis [in Sierra Leone because] “it is a global issue.”
Now, if it is a truism that “uneasy is the head that wears a crown” (to quote from Shakespeare’s “Henry IV Part 2”), then it is logical to blame President Bio for the chronic economic hardship which majority of Sierra Leoneans are now facing through the half-assed economic policies of his administration. It is my humble submission that the over-bloated Wage Bill; the fruitless overseas travels by President Bio; the massive corruption in the corridors of power as highlighted by the 2019 and 2020 Audit Reports, and the ostentatious displays of ill-gotten wealth by the ruling elite have nothing to do with “a global issue”. It’s just plain heartless stupidity or what my Krio relatives would colloquially phrase as “moni en pawa mis road”!
When a country is in an economic crisis, or crises, such a situation, or situations, should be seen in the sagacious manner in which its leaders spend the scanty revenue in the treasury. But in the case of President Bio and his “drunkardnomists”, despite there is “a global issue” which warrants the wise implementation of the national budget, they are still spending public funds like “drunken sailors” who are trying to woo prostitutes in a brothel! It is ironical that the SLPP government wants to manage the country’s shoestring resources by being a spendthrift. That’s one of the reasons why the country is now in a pretty pickle (“difficult situation”, for those who are not au fait with English idioms).
Mr Fofana writes that “President Bio has risen to the occasion in managing the affairs of the state”. Here, again, I respectfully disagree with him. Albeit there is “a global issue”, yet President Bio could still afford to mock our mendicancy and economic hardship by pledging two billion Leones; twenty tons of iron rods, and even poke fun at the 2018 presidential candidate for the All People’s Congress (APC), Dr Samura Kamara, by pledging one hundred million Leones on his behalf to rebuild a Catholic church at Wilberforce in Freetown. This mockery comes, months, after a video went viral on social media in which the President’s stepson is seen brandishing hundreds of thousands of United States’ dollars and British Pounds as if to show-off their family’s nouveau-riche-ness and insult the poverty-stricken masses! As Patience Jonathan, wife of ex-Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, would say: “There is a God oooo”!
Also in the midst of “a global issue” the SLPP organised an ostentatious display of ill-gotten wealth, last week at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown, in which a portrait of President Bio was on auction. As if they were competing to buy the Mona Lisa inside the Louvre Museum in Paris; Daniel Kaitibi of NATCOM reportedly paid Le55 million, the Minister of Trade Dr Hinga Sandy purportedly paid Le80 million, and other political appointees at the event were said to have showed interest in parting with Le1.5 billion in total for a portrait that is miles away from being called a masterpiece!
Even as the bulk of Sierra Leoneans are being weighed down by economic hardship because of the half-assed economic policies implemented by the SLPP government; the ruling elite could still afford to engage in what my Krio relatives would call “o be joyful ladida!” It’s like a bereaved wife throwing a birthday party in their home whilst her husband is still lying in the morgue awaiting an overdue burial. And in most instances, our Commander-in-Chief is also a participant in some of these “o be joyful ladida!” So, I find it hard to swallow hook, line, and sinker the notion that President Bio is a caring Head of State. And I can bet my eleven-year-old Toyota Camry that the “direct cash transfers…made to vulnerable families living in rural and even urban communities”, according to Sorie, might have been made only to the “true Sierra Leoneans” (courtesy of our revered First Lady Madam Fatima Bio) who are SLPP supporters.
In a nutshell, Sorie Fofana has always been an unapologetic, unadulterated, and unashamed SLPP supporter. He has always been trying to ram down our throats the notion that it is only the SLPP that is “good for Sierra Leone.” But I want him to know that there is an African proverb that says, “No matter how beautiful and well crafted a coffin might look, it will not make anyone wish for death.”
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