If Mandela were a Sierra Leonean politician!
The world has been in mourning since president Jacob Zuma of South Africa went on radio and television and announced the death of Nelson Mandela. To be honest, the announcement didn't come as much of a surprise because the great man had been very ill for some time and it's almost as if everybody was just waiting for the message Zuma delivered last Thursday night. South Africa and the world will never be the same.
We applaud the fact that Sierra Leone has joined other nations to mourn the death of Madiba and our president - De Pa - and his own man Chief Sidikie have signed a book of condolence in the late man's memory.
We want our government to go even further by naming a prominent place in Freetown after Mandela. His memory must remain in the African conscience forever.
Amidst all this however, a lot of contributors to our Twitter column are asking how the great Madiba would have performed, if he were the average Sierra Leonean politician we have come to know since independence in 1961. Madiba is a very hard act to follow and the circumstances are not the same but we are talking about politicians. So let's try and flesh out that provocative question from our readers.
1. Would a Sierra Leone Madiba have stood by his party - the ANC - through thick and thin?
Madiba spent 27 years in jail for organising armed resistance against the apartheid government in his country. While in jail he refused to denounce Umkontho Ee Sizwe the underground military wing of the ANC that embarked on a campaign of sabotage to force the stupid apartheid regime to negotiate and bring an end to minority rule.
We can say without any doubt that no politician in this country, faced with the force of the apartheid regime, would have even tried to challenge that government let alone spent 27 years believing that victory would eventually come their way. They would have proposed a compromise deal to land them a good bargain with all the sweets of office. They would even now become the most zealous advocates of apartheid and help persecute their former colleagues.
The examples of such politicians are many in this country. They are always on the move in the interest of their pockets. In the morning they are with one party and by nightfall they move to another one claiming they only returned to their ancestral home or claiming it is all in a bid to "heal the divide". RUBBISH!
One of them once told us, he couldn't spend the next ten years of his life in opposition because at 60 years, he could die before his party returned to power. Why did a man like that share the same planet with Madiba? As a Sierra Leonean, living in Sierra Leone, we accept he is living on borrowed time. But under pressure or not, the Madiba in Sierra Leone would strike a self-serving deal and leave his people to rot. That's it.
2. It's on record that the Apartheid Regime made mouth-watering offers to Madiba personally to abandon the struggle, would he have resisted them?
The Sierra Leone Madiba would have named his price - One Cherokee Jeep, $10, 000 and, a Le 50 million contract for his wife's phony company to serve food and drinks at one of our many state banquets. Some politicians here have abandoned their parties and gone on a smear campaign against their former leaders just after losing an election for a small time party post.
When we reckon what many of our politicians can do without being bribed, we wonder what they would do should offers like the ones secretly made to Madiba be laid before them.
Imagine the case of one politician whose party lost power after ten years in governance. In all those years he held senior posts in the government. At that party's convention following their defeat, he ran for the highest office in the party and lost woefully. A few weeks later, he appeared at the convention of the now ruling party and announced that he was only part of a sleeper cell in the former ruling party and was very pleased to now return to his REAL party. We are told the guy had a very sound sleep that night. Isn't that incredible?
3. Would he have handed over power after just one term and refused to openly meddle with governance?
We believe that by now you have some idea what the answer to this question is. The Sierra Leone Madiba would even describe his late South African counterpart as a mad man. How dare he quit power when he could have easily won the next election, and then changed the constitution to make himself president for life like Kamuzu Banda of Malawi and our own Bandalay who was widely quoted as saying PASS A DIE (until I die).
This country has moved away from such strong man leadership and we don't believe any leader should dream of a day when he managed by using money and threat to extend his stay in power beyond the constitutional mandate.
Recently, we heard a lot of noise from Logus Koroma about De Pa being a visionary leader and there was thus nothing wrong in him seeking a third term in office. To be fair, State House issued a press release denying De Pa had any such agenda but that statement was largely non-committal about the finality of that non-denial, denial. Doubts increased when the man who apparently caused De Pa such embarrassment was surprisingly appointed to a big ministerial job. It's as if De Pa was saying to him, WELL DONE BOY, THAT WAS A KITE WELL FLOWN. LET THE DEBATE BEGIN.
The real Madiba left no doubt he would leave office at the end of one term. But in all honesty, a cloud of doubt hangs over Sierra Leone on the question of whether the third term agenda mooted by Logus, is still not firmly in place.
4. Would he have forgiven his enemies so honestly after all his suffering at their hands?
Our politicians talk a lot about how they are always ready to genuinely forgive their political adversaries in the interest of peace and national cohesion. Their track record shows a very different picture. Many people still remember all those unnecessary treason trials and executions of soldiers and civilians by Bandalay, Strasser and Kabbah. In Kabbah's case the process of selecting the "good and bad enemies" ended up being terribly corrupted making the whole criminal justice situation a complete farce and a cover for revenge.
In recent times, allegations of people being sacked from their jobs because of their political convictions are all over the place. In one instance De Pa was forced to defend his government against those allegations in a BBC interview. Of course he denied people were being sacked for political reasons. He even held out the former head of the Roads Authority Munda Rogers, a southerner as an example of the fairness of the famous Friday Mathorma Purge. On the face of it, that was a smart example. Now the poster boy has himself been sacked. What's the new name sir - Moijueh - conqueror of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia? Whatever happened to equal opportunities for all Sierra Leoneans!
5. How would he have handled the provocation and violence unleashed by Managasuthu Buthelesi just after he came to power?
All those army generals and security people who enforced apartheid worked peacefully under Mandela including famous, or infamous, politician Pik Botha who continued as foreign minister. The real Madiba's master stroke came in his dealing with Chief Buthelezi who went all out to provoke a civil war among the black people of that great country. Madiba made him internal affairs minister and today we have a Zulu in power, Jacob Zuma. Let our politicians try to imbibe even the basest of what Mandela stood for, not just talk about him bla bla bla.
Long live Nelson Mandela. AMANDLA NGAWETHU!
(C) Politico 10/12/13
