This AWOKO story of 9th February is a pointer as to just how seriously the mantra of food production and feeding the nation should be studied to understand the deceit that has left productive areas fallow while basic agricultural inputs were denied to those who needed such because they either are not in the right area of the country or more bluntly because they do not carry the required party card!!! Sierra Leone has witnessed party leader after party leader promising to make an El Dorado out of the country's huge agricultural potentials with slogans like Green Revolution thrown in for good measure. In the end, it all came to nought as governments and policy makers dove-tailed and made fools of the people's desire for food and more especially the staple rice.....a business that gave Sierra Leone such cynical rice "varieties and cultivars" like Ben Kanu. Ventures that were aimed at discouraging national production while the vultures made millions out of the suffering of Sierra Leoneans. Ernest Bai Koroma still has to explain to the nation the links between his brother the rice merchant, his Foreign minister Zainab Bangura and that India rice deal as well as the waiver of duties on that rice from India running into millions of dollars.

The story of the Chinese combined harvester abandoned in rural Sierra Leone.

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March 12, 2010 - Sixteen years ago today, a tragic event occurred that shook the very foundation of trust in the army when it came to the vital question of securing the lives and property of civilians within the borders of Sierra Leone. On this day sixteen years ago on a Saturday, rogue elements of the army masquerading as rebels attacked the logging town of Panguma in Kenema, eastern Sierra Leone. By the time it was over Fr. Felim McAllister, a Holy Ghost Missionary priest from Donabate, County Dublin, Dr. Elco Krijn and his wife Karen van Goudoever, their four year old daughter Zita were dead. The Sierra Herald is happy to report that from the ashes has now arisen a band of committed workers and the good determined to make Panguma Hospital live again.

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Oh Haiti - The number of dead still to be determined as desperate survivors riot over anything that keeps life moving on.

The Haiti disaster once more brings into focus the challenges that face humanitarian agencies. How do you get vital supplies to a desperate people without food or water, without any form of protection from the elements and nursing wounds that threaten life and limb....and to make matters even worse, where the infrastructure is not just there to receive and co-ordinate aid? It has not been easy and despite good news as the trapped are brought out still alive after days trapped in the rubble, there's no running away from the fact that figures for the dead and dying are increasing. One ray of hope though is that no further tremors have been predicted and things are beginning to settle as the aggrieved come to terms with their losses. This photo from the pages of the London Times says it all - the end of man as bodies are moved into trucks by bulldozers. Oh Haiti.....the Sierra Herald wishes you all the best.

Thur Jan14 - As the people of Haiti come to terms with the quake disaster, in the mother country another disaster waiting to happen. Still no life jackets for boat passengers.

On September 8 last year, news began to trickle in of a major disaster at sea in which up to two hundred, if not more, were reported to have lost their lives. These included school children getting ready for the new term, parents, carers, traders and a host of Sierra Leoneans trying to make the best out of wretched conditions created by uncaring governments and local administrations. In the aftermath of this disaster, His Excellency, the one and only Chief of the vultures at State House declared a day of national mourning while using the photo opportunity which this offered. In tow were members of his AFRC Mk II administration. More than 3 months after this disaster, the smoke and mirrors President has done nothing, absolutely nothing that would prevent another disaster. In Haiti, there was nothing that could be done against the quake while in Sierra Leone the authorities sit on their hands doing nothing in a matter that can be prevented. At least two outlets have raised concerns with the most recent from the AWOKO newspaper while Christopher Koker of Peep had earlier warned about the dangers of another disaster waiting to happen. It is to be noted that even the other uncaring opposition party, the SLPP, not wanting to be left out did issue a statement. Any follow-up from them? Nothing, absolutely nothing!!!

The Ernest Bai Koroma government introduced a tax regime that became operational as from the 1st of January 2010. The Goods and Services Tax, GST was, according to the government meant to harmonise all taxes levied on the business community and to provide home-grown revenue. Whether such monies raised were for development programmes or for the ever-hungry vultures at State House remains to be seen, but what was clearly evident on the ground was that business ground to a halt for 48 hours as business houses protested against the new tax. The AFRC MK II journalists, like they did in the past under their master Johnny Paul Koroma never saw this protest move, just as they "forgot" there was ever a January 6, 1999 murderous assault on Freetown. New directives from Ibrahim Ben Kargbo or from the Pa himself at State House? The Sierra Herald got these two reports. One from AWOKO and the other from Cotton Tree News (CTN). A new era of censorship? We think not. It's laybelleh-ism being taken to new heights!!!!!

Jan 09- Togo in mourning - Oh Togo - not again. The national team withdraws from 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola as three die in machine gun ambush

The Togolese government is reported to have ordered the withdrawal of the national team from the 2010 African flagship football tournament after three people died in the aftermath of an ambush. The team's captain Emmanuel Adebayor also a striker for the English Premiership team Manchester City told the BBC's Matthew Kenyon that they had to pray for dear life as they came under sustained machine gun fire from rebels believed to be fighting for the independence of an enclave of Angola - Cabinda. Despite efforts by the organisers including representatives from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) as well as from FIFA President Sepp Blatter, the Togo team is pulling out with BBC reporter Ebow Godwin reporting that the government will be sending a Presidential jet to take them home. It will be recalled that another tragedy hit the Togo team, this time involving their officials, when the helicopter in which they were travelling from Freetown to the airport at Lungi was involved in a crash after it lost its main rotor blades in 2007. 22 officials died then. AWOKO had these details.

Fri Jan 15 - As time runs out for those trapped beneath the rubble a sign of hope today as 2-year old boy is rescued. According to The Times Redjeson Hausteen Claude looked stunned and bewildered as he was pulled free but broke into a broad smile of recognition as he was reunited with his ecstatic mother, Daphnee Plaisin, and father, Reginald Claude. Meanwhile as frustration grows among survivors in desperate need of food, water and shelter, there are reports of looting wherever and whenever the opportunity arises. The challenges are enormous with bodies still unburied littering the affected areas and one report says at one stage some of the bodies were stacked to form roadblocks aimed at bringing to the attention of the international community the desperation of survivors. The BBC's Matt Frei paints this picture from Port-au-Prince, the capital

No-one is in charge. The president is sleeping at the airport with quite a few journalists and aid workers. Earlier this morning, I stood on top of the rubble of the Supreme Court, the Foreign Ministry, the Interior Ministry and the Senate - where a few senators had been killed when the quake hit. Their bodies have been dragged out and put in body bags. The representatives of state are literally lying on the pavement slowly rotting away. This is a citizenry left to its own extremely meagre resources. You've got ordinary people trying to administer IV drips to their family members who are slowly dying, but not a single doctor or nurse at the general hospital.

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The Proverb from Libya - Whoever you think is Moses you'll later discover is a Pharaoh meaning - Don't go by your first feeling when you meet somebody. Be careful when you judge people.

Moses is credited with leading his people out of Egypt and from the clutches of the Pharaoh, the despotic, cruel, unrepentant and cruel leader. This movement is generally known as The Exodus.

Is this a piece of advice to the praise singers who see no wrong in President Ernest Bai Koroma - the praise singers who want others to believe that the history of Sierra Leone after independence in 1961 began in 1996?

February 9, 2010 - ...and that was how it all started. The failure to hold governments to account in Sierra Leone...unbridled corruption...disrespect for the rule of law....and the terrible war which engulfed and consumed the nation.

In 2002, then President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's government was confident enough to declare that the war which had ravaged and savaged the country since its inception in 1991 was now over. And this after many thousands had been killed, millions traumatised (through rapes, amputations, cruel and degrading treatment etc)  and with even greater numbers displaced. Even though it is no longer a secret as to why a section of the community took up arms against what they saw as an ogre passing for a government that brooked no opposition, there are signs that Ernest Bai Koroma, like his predecessors, Stevens and Momoh is again beginning to plant the seeds and nurture the  vile weeds that almost choked the mother country to death. Praise singers have even taken upon themselves to attempt to re-write history, to wit there was never a country called Sierra Leone and ruled by Sierra Leoneans before 1996!!!!! 

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Wed Feb 24, 2010 - Former Liberian warlord George Boley of the Liberian Peace Council, LPC, to appear before US judge today

George Boley the head of the Liberian Peace Council during that country's brutal civil war is to appear before a US judge on immigration charges. He is alleged to have lied to get entry into the country. He also faces more serious allegations that he, as a warlord in troubled Liberia was engaged in human rights abuses which included the killing and torture of opponents, the use of drug-infused child soldiers and a host of others. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) states that "various  organizations have reported that the LPC engaged in serious human rights abuses against the civilian population of the West African country during its more than decade-long civil war" adding that "it will not allow the United States to be a safe haven for those trying to evade prosecution and punishment for crimes committed in their homelands" Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch has stated that "Boley’s forces were implicated in rape, torture, and killings during Liberia’s wars. Whether in the United States or Liberia, he should be criminally investigated for these horrific offenses"
This thing called justice. The wheels always get there, no matter how slowly they turn.

Voice of America report

The strange case of President Ernest Bai Koroma's claim to fight corruption - another theatrical performance by smoke and mirrors exponent.

From his seat on the opposition, then leader of the opposition and now President Ernest Bai Koroma had impressed upon all those who care to listen that he would have zero tolerance for corruption. It was on this ticket, some would say, that wooed voters to his side with many thinking that he would clean the Aegean stables of corruption so embedded in the Sierra Leonean psyche. More than two years on, it would seem it's all business as usual, never mind the victimisation of one Lebanese trader whose head was dashed against the wall to show just how serious the President was about tackling corruption leaving many questions asked about others with strong ties to State House. And could it be a strange or rather disturbing coincidence that Ernest Bai Koroma only gets into a self-righteous mode when inquiring visitors are in town? Witness the World Bank team and now Tony Blair. How about starting within the bowels of State House itself and for his staff accounting for containers brought in under his banner. Or his staff who though civil servants or being paid from the Consolidated Fund continue to engage in money-making enterprises or more to the point - is Ernest Koroma going over the top in ordering who should be sacked on allegations of corruption thereby usurping the powers of the Anti Corruption Commission in the process? Or better still how about starting with his siblings and relations who are thought to have corruptly enriched themselves using his position. What a President, oh what a trickster.....Sierra Leoneans have seen all this before. Remember the Barthes-Wilson Commission under Siaka Stevens? This former Education minister was asked to look into the rising cost of cars and spare parts. You cannot fool Sierra Leoneans Mr President.

What a man. Try saying that to Museveni of Uganda, Ghaddafi of Libya, Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso, Cameroon's Paul Biya, Mugabe of Zimbabwe or Egypt's Mubarak and their kind who believe that without them in power, there will be no country to call their very own!!

Here was a man who had suffered at the hands of the apartheid regime, who should have claimed that he, arguably quite rightly, deserved to be another "pass ar die" and hold on to the  Presidency for life!!!

No, he did not for he knew that he was a part of a wider movement within and without the country that fought for a truly independent South Africa.

And when he came out, he did not start a campaign of revenge against the white man. No - for he knew that within the white community there were men and women who supported the struggles of black South Africans.

On this day, the Sierra Herald salutes Africa's Grand Old Man, Sage and selfless man of and for the people and a true beacon to all of what leadership is all about.

Floreat Madiba. You are truly an exemplary African leader. A beacon of what good governance is all about.

Open campaigning ended on Friday. Saturday was regarded a rest day and today Sunday sees the beginning of a three day historic process which, at least in theory, gives all Sudanese voters the opportunity to decide on who should be their next President....and this even as opposition parties boycott the polls in certain areas because of fears that the electoral body is weighted in favour of incumbent President Bashir. As today's poll loomed there have been many events ranging from a boycott by major parties not connected to the ruling party to doubts over the much-anticipated referendum next year that would allow a vote on whether South Sudan should become a separate state - something the people of South Sudan look forward to with great anticipation but which could not be the favourite dish of President Bashir who had threatened that any delay in today's polls would affect the referendum's date. It had all been so confusing, so twisting and so unpredictable that it had been difficult to get a grasp of Sudan and it's politics. The BBC website provides some answers.

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PRESIDENT AHMAD TEJAN KABBAH'S HANDING OVER SPEECH

Sudan Elections - Come April 11 and Sudan goes to the polls with all set for the historic event despite calls from some section of the opposition that they be delayed. President Bashir has already indicated that he would not encourage any postponement nor was he in any mood for his well-laid plans to seize the hour, the minute and the second to declare himself or be declared President of Sudan yet again. At one stage he  hinted that the much-anticipated referendum that would allow the South to become an independent state would be affected should there be any delay in the forthcoming polls. And despite his rallying calls and photo-shoot opportunities at rallies to garner support for him and his party, the NCP, President Bashir is very much aware that a kind of sword (not the one his government uses to amputate and behead criminal) hangs over him as he's wanted by the International Criminal Court, the ICC.Human Rights Watch Senior Counsel Elise Keppler of the organisation's International Justice Programme has sent these posers on a President who's accused of genocide and war crimes.

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South Africa - death of a racist - Some call him the gadfly of the rainbow nation. Others see him as a buffoon who refuses to wake up from his slumber in which apartheid still reigned supreme in South Africa. Whatever the case, South Africa has lost a citizen who was as colourful as he was unrepentant about what the supremacist Boer did to South Africans who were fighting for the country's liberation from apartheid and minority white rule. Eugene Terreblanche, leader of the paramilitary Afrikaner Resistance Movement, the AWB is no more as he was found dead at his farm on Saturday. And statements vowing revenge for his killing have been withdrawn by the AWB who say they have heeded the words of President Zuma calling for understanding and patience as investigations continue into his death. On Tuesday April 6th a 15-year old and a 28 year old man appeared in court charged with his murder. Here's the BBC's account.

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Transitional justice - holding the machete wielders to account as ICC given the go-ahead in Kenya. Human rights activists have been celebrating in Kenya after judges at the International Criminal Court gave Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo the green light for him to conduct investigations into the post-election violence that had left more than a thousand Kenyans dead, tens if not hundreds of thousands displaced and even greater number traumatised. A preliminary investigation implicated politicians belonging to the President Mwai Kibaki party as well as his coalition partner Prime Minister Raila Odinga. And like the Special Court in Sierra Leone, when all the investigations, arrests and trials as well as confirmed sentencing are over, it is the big fish, those thought to be more responsible who will face the music leaving the real killers, rapists and abusers free to roam Kenya waiting, like in Sierra Leone, for another "big man" to hire them and give them the opportunity once more to exercise their instinct for murder, rape and deprivation.

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