By Ezekiel Nabieu
It is most natural for the efforts of people to be recognised by awards or pats on the back. What everyone dislikes is to be treated with scorn and contempt. This brings me to the recent award to our President and Head of States by authorities of the United States-based The African Leadership Magazine for his "pioneering leadership. Public spiritedness, integrity, love and support for the common man and woman of Sierra Leone, etc.
In his opening remarks at the opening ceremony the Chief Executive of African Leadership Magazine, Dr Ken Giami, welcomed guests and said, inter alia, that the “careful decision to award President Ernest Bai Koroma and five others this year was reached by the Executive Board of Trustees and panel of judges after a series of deliberations without any contrary view. In passing I just wonder if any dissident would not have been regarded as enemy No1 of Sierra Leone or the man himself.
Perception of personalities by African Leadership magazine is like beauty which depends on the eyes of the beholder. Ambassador Bockarie Kortu Stevens who stood in for the President in Washington DC said all what was said by the organisers about the development of Sierra Leone was true. What do you expect?
It is natural for people to hold their own opinions in a democracy. It is also perfectly normal for an individual to think of himself more highly than they ought to think. Which is why it should not be surprising for Ernest Bai Koroma to brag that he has achieved in six years far more than any previous leader of Sierra Leone even disregarding the ending of the war that provides the right environment for his braggadocio. There will always be a war of ideas as long as human beings are not robots for now. What is this pomp of power all about?
Just in case certain sterling attributes of Ernest Bai Koroma eluded the awarders I am delighted to oblige them with ten as stated below:
- When it comes to self-adulation none could compare with Ernest Koroma.
- He typifies the Sierra Leonean who toils hard from humble beginnings to succeed.
- Under his watch the goals of Millennium Challenge Corporation have been a mirage causing the country to lose upwards of $300 million to be “substituted” by nature’s gratuitous find of a diamond worth $6 million tax from which was incomprehensibly slashed by 12%.
- Awarding a dubious contract for the construction of the most expensive road per kilometre in the world.
- Awarding a contract to brother man to purchase the “rottenest” ferry in Africa.
- Travelling abroad with the largest number (per capita) of delegates in Africa.
- Encouraging the whole gamut of idle senior government officials to attend his multifarious engagements thereby seriously hampering state production.
- Presiding over one of the hungriest nation in the whole wide world which is ironically said to be one of the fastest growing.
- Presiding over a nation where Le 82 billion can varnish without trace according to the Auditor-General’s Report.
- Mesmerising and hoodwinking the whole populace into thinking that there is good governance even as the world’s most trusted airlines avoided Sierra Leone for awhile.
A.B.C., D.E.F. Secretariat
Five years on where are we with this Vuvuzela of an Attitudinal and Behavioural Change (ABC)? By now we should have been moving to D.E.F. until we arrive at X.Y.Z. Curiously enough we have stalled. The first set of attitude changers set the example of “usai u tie cows” leaving a crawling case in court and one dead. To recapitulate, the damnable excrescence was set up virtually by the sycophants around De Pa when he breathed in passing that Sierra Leoneans should have a change of attitude; a phenomenon that is necessary for good governance everywhere. But you cannot easily beat the Sierra Leonean for sycophancy. They went on to suggest that a whole Secretariat was necessary for that purpose. And the grandeur-seeking President Koroma avidly accepted not weighing the consequences. Even though the Secretariat has made no impact on the status quo of the country the President doggedly fails to disband it.
The Secretariat has failed to tackle the endemic ills of society as long as they are bureaucratic which demotes a bad attitude coming from a correctional Secretariat. Running out of ideas for success they have embarked on what they termed as a Pilot Project for Schools to “catch them young”. Even at that they have made little or no progress. Their so-called progress is not tangible.
The penchant of the incumbent government for superfluous holidays cannot be easily fathomed. Is it not the same government that exhorts the people on the other side of their mouths to work hard? The ABC should not forget that this is not Utopia. They would even wish that we had holidays every week relying on the fact that we have mineral and natural resources and donors. In businesslike states when holidays fall on Sundays or their holy days they are absorbed on those days and not shifted to other days. But this is Sierra Leone where our own misery land is fast developing in the North to be resorted to at the slightest opportunity or more. Where is the Press Release from the ABC Secretariat against this national malaise? Den get mind?
Where are the Press Releases against funeral processions especially at the weekends or Sundays blocking traffic when they can be controlled to use one lane of the road? More on ABC, DEF.
(C) Politico 25/03/14
