By Yusif Moiguah
The blame game must end and our lost leaders pay keen attentions to state governance works to deliver on the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP)’s party presidential campaign promises as enshrined in the 2018 manifesto, if we are to actualize our avowed dreams of fulfilling goals of human capital development commitments pledged by President Julius Maada Bio before we keep giving COVID19 excuses for our collective failures in the first two years.
Rather we continue to be shouting all over the place apportioning blames on the last All People’s Congress (APC) Party for allegedly leaving a “broken economy” and that the main opposition party members and supporters are all “war mongers” and do not want to give chance to the ruling SLPP to govern, wants to declare a war against the government of president Bio are all mere figments of Farla Barbu’s imaginations, whereas the ruling party has all what it takes to run the country effectively how they want things to be done.
And to set the record straight, the APC has never declared a war against the SLPP regime and president Bio, neither making threats of war, irrespective of the socioeconomic and political depression they are going through in the hands of the Bio led SLPP. Therefore the piece titled, “APC Warmongers Beware!”, is not appropriate and must not even have been published in the nightwatch newspaper in the first place, for it does not speak peace but to a large extent exposes the warlike tendencies of your SLPP party.
Never again we revert to the dark days of the early 90s, as this generation of APC members and their followers are not war mongers as you wrongly perceived because none of the main opposition party’s leaders have called for war. And to correct your ranting, former president Ernest Bai Koroma presided over the most peaceful state of affairs than any other leader Sierra Leone has ever produced. Hence nobody is rendering the ruling SLPP ungovernable.
Moreover, based on the foundation inherited by the SLPP and president Bio, there is no need to be crying wolf day in day out as they were expected to have capitalized on the steady progress of development trajectory they inherited from the last administration than derailing it all over to start anew, only to land the country on ticking socioeconomic and political bomb, waiting to explode if we are not too swift enough to consolidate our democratic gains and hard earned peace.
The new APC is a reformed political party that has ruled Sierra Leone in the last ten years peacefully. In fact, its leader and Chairman, former president Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, himself is a man of peace and left us a very peaceful country as promised on several occasions. Thus the piece by Farla Barbu sounds war, the likeness of the author himself and the party he is trying to protect.
So the accusations that the APC is bent on rendering the present administration uncontrollable is not true and the SLPP media operatives must stop using those flimsy excuses and focus on the people’s jobs to fulfill the five years mandate they owe the country.
Two wasteful years have already been spent with no mark of achievement by the SLPP Bio led administration for which the APC is not responsible at all but the ruling party, with the changing narratives and excuses that APC wants to make the SLPP ungovernable as in Falar Barbu’s “APC Warmongers Beware,” which is not anything to go by. So don’t blame the APC for your massive failures.
The APC has not done anything to disturb the peace of Sierra Leoneans, the country and your SLPP government. Check yourself, your working environment and the people you have been placing on jobs they could hardly deliver on like Farla Barbu him/herself for the common enemy militating against the progress and achievement of the Bio led SLPP administration. Check among the lot at ministries, agencies as well as national secretariat on Wallace Johnson Street for the War Mongers you must find them there, rather departments and pointing accusing fingers at law abiding and peaceful APC.
If I may ask in this rejoinder, has Farla Barbu forgotten that his party has times without numbers used armed Sierra Leone Police Operational Support Division personnel to attack the national headquarters of the main opposition APC party, wounded a good number of supporters and members arrested and detained some at the Criminal Investigations Department as part of fulfilment of their revenge plans? So who is the real war mongers, Farla Barbu, who has been beating the drums of war since 4th April, 2018 to date?
Besides, these accusations by the SLPP that APC are warmongers does not hold as claims that the opposition party is bent on making the state anarchic, are not valid and that is why I want to encourage Farla Barbu to do more research on recent violent incidents in the last two years in Sierra Leone, instead of just attacking the main opposition APC Party falsely, tagging them “war mongers”. That in itself is not good for the peace and stability of Sierra Leone.
Farla Barbu, with his biased article, should also bear in mind that throughout the last ten years of former president Koroma’s regime the country has been very peaceful with tolerance at its best across the board. And these are the people and the political organization Farla Barbu call “war mongers”, when in fact they don’t even tolerate war veterans at their party secretariat like the ruling party still does even when they are well armed with happy trigger Police.
So again look around yourself and find the real war mongers from within your SLPP party. The “war monger” title belongs to certain sets of people within the SLPP. For instance, the man that led armed OSD personnel to the headquarters of APC party and shot live bullets at defenceless members and supporters. Such characters are the ones you should be naming as war mongers; a trend that emanated from the storming of the well of Parliament also by armed OSD personnel and dragged the then majority APC Members of Parliament from the well and elected their minority candidate as the Speaker of the House.
All of these behaviours are that of war mongers, which the APC never attempt while in governance. These among several other forms of political intimidations against APC Party members and followers under the watchful eyes of president Bio, except if Farla Barbu wants to tell us that he is not aware about several attacks on APC party members in the south, east, north and in the western areas-rural and urban-Freetown. Be honest to yourself writer Farla Barbu.
You know your party, the SLPP since last April 4th2018 to date, has been fanning the flames of war by way of harassing and intimidating opposition APC members and supporters with impunity, but your piece titled, “APC Warmongers Beware!” deliberately refused to highlight those flaws. Instead, you portrayed exactly what you intend doing to the opposition party as a ruling class, using the powers that be against your opponents should they attempt any challenge.
To that end, the APC will tell you that it is a new APC that does not believe in political intimidations and violence. So, your claims are not true and you must stop associating the APC Party and its members with the unfortunate riotous situations at Lunsar, Correctional Centre and Tombo because the party has no hands in those incidents neither any of its members.
For the present generation of membership and followers of the new APC Party are not savages. So give them their deserve respites.
However, going forward, the indomitable APC Party you are alleging to be “war mongers” has over the years conducted itself as a reputable political organization with sound proven records of constructive nationalism, unity, cohesion and nation building during the last ten years under the Chairman and leadership of former president Koroma.
These are the records. Farla Barbu wants to dent with his funny hate article against the APC Party, its leader and Chairman and the rest of its membership to secure political points. This is unfortunate, in that, as a government, the ruling SLPP should not be using paid up writers to attack the vulnerable opposition APC, but focus on delivering the goods for the benefits of Sierra Leoneans.