By Our News Analyst
‘’I will make Sierra Leone ungovernable if I am not elected President’’-Ernest Bai Koroma That the man who was recently calling to arms in Portugal.He was among world leaders participating in this year’s Horasis Global meeting in Caiscais Portugal.The event usually gathers leaders,heads of government ,key cabinet ministers and eminent thought leaders to advance solutions to the most critical challenges facing the world. The category under which Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma falls is under eminenet thought leaders but is he one on a global scale ?
The organisation itself seems to be one of those Talk shops created by idealisits who little or nothing to do. This does not mean that some participants would not attempt to bedn iy to achieve their selfish aims.
To claim that Dr. Ernest Koroma is a champion of peace in Africa is skwed plaudits. The initiator of peace is certainly more deserving of praise than the consolidator because without the cessation of hostilities there can be no consolidation. When a living man like Former Vice-President Solomon Berewa is left out and Dr Ernest Koroma is selected one begins to think of the role of international over meritocracy. Going forward ,how about the incumbent President Bio himself and his encounter with the horrible Foday Sankoh ? Was that an attempt by the selections of Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma to erase history ? What were the parameters by which Dr. Ernest Koroma was selected as an eminent thought leader? Why has he not won the MO Ibrahim prize? It is misleading to say that the end of our eleven-year civil war was due to his EXEMPLARY LEADERSHIP. This is inspite of UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon’s statement in 2014 that’’ Sierra Leone’s represent one of the world’s most successful cases of post-conflict recovery, peace keeping and peace building .‘’ He even unabashedly spoke of the need for genuine inclusiveness when he was in fact the father of tribal and regional divisiveness. His inane rhetoric followed. By his narrow-minded statement he demeaned the quintessence of that noble organisation of respectable elders.
A bright example of a genuine peace organisation was that of the American Peace Corps inaugurated by the Late President John F. Kennedy that really served its purpose in Africa. With the dearth of medical facilities in Africa a well-intentioned statesman would have thought of a medical Corps. He could even think of an African Agricultural Corps or an Infrastructural Corps .But to add soldiers to the equation smacks of ulterior motives well-known to political pundits.
When a man threatens to subvert a country all because he does not secure the leadership of that country he is no longer a patriot. He becomes fit for treason. The man is a nebulous character suffering from delusions of grandeur. He should be ignored as he becomes insensitive to the fate of the former Brazillian and South Korean Presidents .
Thus it was that after only a few days at State House President Koroma made an unexplained visit to Burkina Faso under Blaise Campaore known as an arsenal for arms and ammunition and mercenaries for hire as if to say : “Don’t come again. That the man on his political hobby horse again.