By: Winstanley. R. Bankole Johnson
Ordinarily by his recent appearance on Radio Democracy FM98.1 last Wednesday APC Party National Publicity Secretary Hon. Sidi Yayah Tunis would have been on home turf, delivering yet another stellar performance to the delight of Sierra Leoneans. But it wasn’t long before that encounter degenerated into the ridicule and ubiquity when his hosts attempted demanded his direct reactions to alleged inflammatory and incendiary statements as fallaciously attributed to Dr. Samura Kamara that a second term victory for President Bio would signal the continued wreckage and destruction of this country.
The clearly discernible intentions of the station as we wind down to the next elections was to finally sully the reputation and character of Dr. Samura Kamara as an “insurrectionist” and a “threat to state security” (courtesy SLPP/Mahawa Alie), in the vain hope that they would finally succeed in achieving what the Political Parties Regulations Commission (PPRC), the Judiciary and the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone (ECSL) have all jointly and severally failed to have achieved all along. But for my “seasonal” regard for Radio Democracy FM 98.1 station (It is never permanent) I would have classified that encounter as “Yellow” or “gutter” journalism at its lowest, because in that enterprise the Radio station failed miserably.
Disservice
A Radio station that prides themselves in upholding and practicing true democratic values and virtues of impartiality should have carried out their threats to play the clips indicting Dr. Samura Kamara, but they didn’t up to the end of the programme. opportunity to have proved a point of national interest to its logical conclusion and beyond the reasonable doubts, and to have exposed Dr. Samura Kamara as unsuitable for the political leadership of this country was frittered away, leaving the station emerging thereafter as “agents of dark democracy”. That to me was the not only the height of national disservice, but also of incontrovertible evidences that Radio Democracy FM 98.1 are hand in glove with this government for another (God Forbid!!) five (5) years in power.
As we strive to redefine the trajectory of Sierra Leone along the visions of Dr. Samura Kamara, the very last thing we would accept are compromises – of integrity and standards. So in the interest of fair play and of course a demonstration of impartiality, Radio Democracy must ensure that they restrict themselves only to questions and topics the answers to which they already know and are willing to pursue to their logical conclusions and have sufficient grasps of, instead of attempting to hoodwink or intimidate their guests in the hope of smearing characters to the advantage of a government they seem to be supporting.
Rhetoric
For starters there is an abundance of not only hateful, incendiary and inflammatory rhetoric and speeches originating from the SLPP over time, but also adverse developments affecting society at large during the past five years of SLPP political leadership that are in public domain to which Radio Democracy are certainly privy, but have not dared to raise up in any of their road shows, such as:
- Popularizing mob justice and severance of male genitals
- Destruction of ballot boxes by a sitting government minister on polling day in the presence of (or with assistance of police officers) with impunity.
- Open hateful, incendiary and divisive admonitions of the SLPP leadership not to allow the APC as a political Party to even campaign within their South-Eastern strongholds, clear evidences of compliances with those admonitions by die-hard SLPP stalwarts through destruction and physical damage to properties and lives of APC supporters within those regions that the Police have allegedly refused to investigate and prosecute. This in a country that prides itself in practicing “Multi-Party Democracy”.
- The significance of genuflexions depicting the “slitting off of throats” among some SLPP memberships whenever they are in excitable dance modes
- Proliferation and abuses of hard drugs and other harmfully toxic substances among our unemployed youths. Uses of Kush amongst youths are now so prevalent that is has been allegedly associated with the recent dismantling of the Police hierarchy and the production of a BBC World service Documentary specifically on Sierra Leone on that.
- An uncontrolled inflation rate now exceeding 50% and a Debt to GDP Ratio of over 80%
- Intolerable and unaffordable hikes in prices affecting our general well-being (cost of living) to wit: Prices of our staple foods of Rice and other associated costs of living such as Housing and accommodation rents, condiments, provisions, costs of transportation, medicines, energy and taxes
Impediments
For the benefit of readers Dr. Samura Kamara’s statement that and I quote: “If you want this country to be destroyed vote Bio” –Unquote – are as clear and as unambiguous as they are unequivocal and predicated on experiences over the last five uninterrupted years of a Bio administration, and during which period we have witnessed the worst forms of legal, constitutional and administrative impediments and human rights abuses (including uninvestigated extra-judicial killings) ever in the post-independence history of this country that has elicited the most caustic of commentaries and reactions almost simultaneously from our International partners. A range of these include but are not limited to:
- Unconstitutional and un-procedural recruitment, termination and or replacements of State Officers such as Judges, the Auditor General, Speaker of Parliament and ten (10) Parliamentarians
- Unconstitutional and un-procedural removal of the Death Penalty from our Statutes and the replacement of our extant laws for parliamentary representation with Proportional Representation (PR) voting system – even when the Speaker had cautioned the government (and the world) that to do so without the requisite referendum was a treasonable violation of the Constitution
- Refusal of both the Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL) and Electoral Commission Sierra Leone (ECSL) to have published disaggregated figures for the last Mid-Term Census and Voter Registration Data according to areas, towns, districts and regions as are required by law and in the interest of transparency and accountability to avoid accusations of gerrymandering and elections rigging
- Refusal by the ECSL to encourage partnerships and dialogues through information sharing and acceptance of constructive criticisms from, by and with opposition parties in the same way the APC took opposition political parties aboard from planning, ordering, clearing, storage and distribution stages of voting materials and voters’ ID Cards in 2018 in the interest of transparency and accountability to avoid suspicions of or actual gerrymandering and elections rigging.
- The unacceptably high turnover of Finance Ministers in post independent Sierra Leone ever, translated as one for every year. Add to that the fact that it is under this regime that:
- Our Central Bank has gone the longest without a substantive Governor on seat. Prof. Kelfalla Kallon whose term expires in August has not been officially fired, but even though he is on full salaries and allowances/benefits to the end of his tenure, he has not worked since March.
- Our country is using two separate but valid currencies. This has been going on for over a year with no cut-off date in sight, even as counterfeits of the highest denomination (the NLe20) continues to flood the market unchecked
- Evidence of fiscal indiscipline in the last five (5) years has been so rife that possibly as a means of concealing corruption or containing profligacy, there were threats and insinuations of removing the Offices of the Presidency (and all appendages thereto) and that of the Vice President from the scope of the Auditor General.
Sanitized
These and more are some of the malaises affecting our country over the last five (5) years that are required to be checkmated and “sanitized” and a failure to achieve which would definitely accelerate this country’s decline to chaos and destruction. And that was exactly what Dr. Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara meant, that a vote or re-election of Julius Maada Bio as President would signal our ultimate destruction as a country. Radio Democracy 98.1 FM would do their listeners a huge favour by playing out clips of the debate between Dr. Samura Kamara and Dr. Bio in 2018, during which the latter strenuously articulated why and I quote him: “……the people of this country Sierra Leone needed change”- Unquote. The situation is worse off now than in 2018 and justifies why a continuation of this Bio dispensation beyond a day on borrowed time is untenable.
This is not the very first time that Dr. Samura Kamara is putting this country on guard to choose our leaders wisely. He did in 2018 but was pooh-pooed. He has done it again pro-bono. Those that have ears…………..Let them hear.
Lonta!!