By Ralph Sesay
As Civil Society and opposition parties continue to observe the increasing involvement of the Chinese Government and its nationals in Sierra Leone into our local politics, a prominent Sierra Leonean based in New York, John Emmanuel Ngegba, has officially alerted the United Nations over what he referred to as ‘The interference of China in the National Politics of Sierra Leone ’.
John quoted sections 19 of our country’s Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) Act, which states that ‘no political party should receive funds whether in cash or in kind from external sources to carry out its activities,’ but according to him he has evidence that the Communist party of China has provided funds for the ruling APC to build their regional office in Freetown.
He informed the United Nations Chief that we, as a people, view this as a deliberate attempt by China to undermine fledgling democracy and give the APC an undue advantage over the other political parties in the March 7th polls.
Mr. John Ngegba furthered that he is worried that the PPRC has been silent over this violation and called on the UN to look into this matter with the utmost urgency it deserves.
It could be recalled that quite recently Chinese nationals have been spotted wearing the ruling party’s colours and also carrying their Chinese national flag during their party rallies. This has been condemned and has remained a topical debate on social media. But, why should the Chinese alone interfere into our body polity? This question remains in the lips of every concerned Sierra Leonean.
A Civil Society draft report into the road sector in Sierra Leone has recently stated that Chinese companies have dominated the sector, doing almost over 60% of all the roads under construction and enjoying huge tax holidays in the mining, fishing and tourism sectors. They have been increasingly creeping into every sector of our economy, which justifiably begs the question as to why they should be worried about which party is at State House.