| SLPP
headquarters in Freetown was severely damaged while some supporters of
the grand old party including the recently elected chairman of the
Western Area Lansana Fadika were seriously manhandled for having the
temerity and brazen audacity to hurl stones at a peaceful APC procession
led by the Mayor of Freetown Herbert George Williams. Though unfortunate
and regrettable, what happened two weeks ago should serve as a sobering
political lesson to all SLPP unruly and ill-guided political enthusiasts
- Enough of the madness! Since the 2007
political comeback of the All People’s Congress, SLPP supporters have
embarked on a war of provocation against APC supporters with the sole
aim of creating political tension to justify another forcible takeover
by uniformed buzzards under the payroll of the SLPP. Supporters of the
party that was seriously clobbered in the last General Election have
been taunting APC supporters. The popularly elected Mayor of Freetown
has been called names that are most unflattering. He has even been
accused of pocketing a huge amount of money from the Clock Tower
project.
On several occasions, misguided elements of the
SLPP have thrown invectives at the mayor, who, on each occasion has
restrained his supporters and followers from reacting. But when SLPP
supporters went to the extent of standing in the way of the Mayor of
Freetown and throwing stones at him, APC loyalists and sympathizers
decided to put an end to the reckless bravery. They sent a clear message
to all the ubiquitous SLPP supporters; to all the political stumbling
blocks; to the saboteurs, to the enemies of progress, and to all the
subversive elements that are out to derail the meaningful steps the APC
Government has been making.
The message was indeed loud and clear: “the
gentle strides of the tiger should not in any way be perceived as a sign
of timidity.” The President of Sierra Leone under the 1991 constitution
has immense powers to protect the lives and property of all Sierra
Leoneans, regardless of their political stripes. He has the police force
to maintain law and order internally, and the military to protect the
state against any external threat. He is the commander in chief, the
fountain of honor and the dispenser of the prerogative of mercy.
The president is undoubtedly not a toothless
political bulldog; he has the devouring claws of a lion!His Excellency
Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma under the constitution of Sierra Leone can order
the arrest and detention of anyone that is out to create a situation of
lawlessness and disorder; he can declare a state of emergency if the
peace and security of the state is threatened. By the power and
authority given to him by the constitution of the Republic Sierra Leone,
he can order the arrest and detention of anyone that is out to create
unnecessary political tension, anarchy, chaos and panic in the country.
This explains why Vice President Sam Sumana
while acting as president, ordered the temporary closure of the radio
stations of both the ruling APC and the opposition SLPP for exacerbating
political tension that has the potential of plunging the country into
another round of turmoil. This brings me to a very serious issue that
has been misconstrued and distorted – The Rule of Law. Popularized by
that famous political scholar A.V. Dicey, the Rule of Law simply means
“The law is supreme.” It means that ordinary law must prevail over
discretionary or arbitrary authority; that no one should be made to
suffer in body or property except for a definite breach of the law as
established by the ordinary courts of the land. It means no man is above
the law no matter one’s status; everyone is equal in the eyes of the
law. In a nutshell, the Rule of Law is the mark of a free society.
The Rule of Law means that as citizens of Sierra
Leone, we have the right to life, the right to own property, and the
right to privacy. As peaceful and law abiding citizens, we have the
freedom to move in and out of the country, and the freedom to associate
with a political movement or party. Freedom of speech and freedom of
association are enshrined in the constitution of Sierra Leone, but there
is a limit to all this. Freedom of speech does not mean one should go
about telling lies with the intention of inflicting malicious damage.
This is why we have laws pertaining to libel and slander to guard
against the misuse of the freedom to write and to speak. Individuals
have the freedom to move in and out of the country. But if the intention
is to spread diseases, commit crimes, planning and endeavoring to
overthrow the government, then that freedom will be curtailed.
An individual can be subjected to some kind of
solitary confinement for fear of spreading diseases. Freedom to life
does not mean one is free to take away his life. If caught, the
individual can be arrested for attempting to commit suicide. One can
also be arrested and sent to prison or even executed for committing
murder or treason. Those SLPP scribes who have embarked on a campaign to
smear the image of the APC Government by painting the events of Friday
March 13 2009 in bright colors should understand that the people of
Sierra Leone – not to talk of the international community - are
politically mature to discern illusion from reality; truth from lies,
and facts from fiction. Yes, people have a right to their opinion, but
they do not have a right to be wrong in their opinion.
The opposition propaganda news outlets are not
serving the nation by their incendiary writings; their campaign of lies
and character assassination is not in the public interest. The comment
on an article written by Mohamed Aziz Nabe was not only misleading but
totally blown out of proportion. To set the record straight, Aziz Nabe
is not national chairman of the All People’s Congress in North America.
He was President of the New Jersey Chapter. As a concerned Sierra
Leonean, he was emotionally reacting to the disturbing developments in
his homeland. A deeply religious man with an impeccable character, Aziz
Nabe does not even have the gut to hurt a fly. What we see
(the opposition propaganda newsorgans skewed the article) is a wretched
farrago; a case of fourth-rate gutter journalism. These are the papers
whose editors would not publish anything critical about the SLPP, even
when the truth is glaring at them. But they take delight in publishing
anything that has the potential of putting the APC Government in an
embarrassing situation
.Let us backtrack on events leading to the 2007
presidential and parliamentary elections. The two notorious papers of
the SLPP embarked on a very negative campaign against APC presidential
candidate Ernest Koroma, and his running mate Sam Sumana. The All
People’s Congress was vilified, the leaders disparaged and the
supporters dismissed as “a bunch of illiterates.” Yet in the end, the
All People’s Congress emerged as the victor, while the SLPP the
vanquished.
The party that boasts of having more educated
people could not win a single seat in Freetown, the center of power. It
is not hard to find why the poor performance in 2007 despite the
staggering amount of money pumped into the election campaign by Berewah
and his cohorts. The party’s record during the over ten years in office
was very dismal. The country retrogressed instead of progress under the
leadership of Kabba and Berewah. Filth and squalor abound in the city
while SLPP party operatives were building gated mansions and castles.
Swollen with self-conceit, apologists and defenders of the party lack
the common sense to find out what they did that was wrong and what they
should do to win the hearts and minds of the people.
Devoid of common sense, SLPP diehards made the
biggest political blunder recently by choosing as their flag-bearer John
Benjamin, the man who presided over the economic ruin of the country and
who acquired notoriety in the last election for leading the “Gang of
Four” (Patrick Foya, John Karimu, Nyallay and John Benjamin) that was
behind all the diabolical atrocities perpetrated against APC and PMDC
supporters in Pujehun, Kailahun and Kenema. They even prevented APC
presidential candidate Ernest Koroma from campaigning in areas they
considered as their party strongholds in the East.
The people of Sierra Leone have undoubtedly not
forgotten. They have not forgotten that under SLPP rule Freetown became
the Black-Out City of Africa. They have not forgotten that under SLPP
rule Sierra Leone had the worst human rights record because of the
execution of the largest number of Sierra Leoneans. They have not
forgotten that the SLPP fueled the Rebel War that took the lives of
thousands of Sierra Leoneans, maimed and injured countless Sierra
Leoneans while almost a million were displaced and rendered homeless.
The people have not forgotten the callous
indifference to human suffering on the part of the SLPP by paying
mercenaries to forcibly restore Kabba. It was the SLPP that introduced
the public burning of people opposed to their party. They call it
neck-lacing – a tire was put around the neck of the victim, petrol
poured over and set alight. That was how the SLPP wasted the lives of
Mohamed Sakoma, Alhaji Musa Kabbia, the young and erudite Islamic
scholar Sheik Mustaba, and many other prominent northerners for publicly
opposing the use of force to restore the SLPP Government.
Those gory killings represent the worst naked
violation of human rights in the political history of Sierra Leone. And
the same SLPP rabble- rousers and nation-wreckers behind those massacres
now want to lecture us about human rights! |
