WHY SOME DEFEATED SLPP FLAGBEARER CANDIDATES CANNOT RESIST APC JOBS

By Josephine Koroma (Iron Lady)

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To be in opposition is always challenging especially in a country where President Koroma knows the greatest weakness of few of the senior opposition members is his exorbitant generosity and their desperation to be associated with power even if it means wearing a RED t.shirt and a white cap or Red hat and white gown.

And because President Koroma knows this weakness of few opposition members, for some he gives them the choice either to be constant recipients of generosity in brown envelops or give them appointment to use them as political window dressing to give the impression that he is using opposition politicians in the interest of national development.

In this article I will concentrate on some of the DEFEATED SLPP Flagbearer candidates in 2011 elections who either have joined the APC for greener pasture or have taken appointments with the very APC government they campaigned was the worst government in history and that they wanted to lead the SLPP so the APC can be booted out of office.10513294_1492485354301974_2786443900412029568_n[1]

Take the case of Usu Boie. In the run up to the SLPP FB convention in 2011 Usu Boie was asked by the New People “How would you assess the Ernest Bai Koroma’s government?” Usu Boie responded “Sierra Leone is at the crossroads. I say so because all we are seeing being done by this particular government is the ills of society that took us to war. We are experiencing the re-emergence of tribalism, sectionalism, thuggery, injustice, police brutalisation, marginalisation, rape and most of all rise of corruption since 2007”

Yet with all what Usu Boie said about the APC in less than one year he was wearing his red hat and white gown at the APC Headquaters at Old Railway Line declaring for APC saying Pres. Koroma is the best for country. But as we now know many of his supporters who did not go with him to APC said Usu Boie wanted to recoup the thousands of dollars he spent throughout the SLPP FB election and he could only do that by cross carpeting to APC for ministerial position. What a Shame!

Then take the case of Ishmael Sengu Koroma who has been recently appointed as Deputy Minister of Energy 1 for Distribution and Supply and another defeated SLPP Flagbearer candidate who secured only one vote in the 2011 convention. Understandably Ishmael knew he neither had the support nor the base to secure even two votes yet during the campaigning period for the SLPP FB election in 2011, he spent all his time blasting for the APC government and President Koroma. All the few savings and pensions he collected from the US Army, he spent all in vain so after the SLPP FB convention he became BROKE. So when Usu Boie was making his political transfer in June 2012, Ishmael also declared for APC to recoup all his savings and US Military Pension he had spent on the SLPP FB election.

In fact on Saturday, 23rd July 2012 when he officially declared at the Kenema Youth Center in his red and white t.shirt, Ishmael Sengu Koroma told his few APC supporters that he was declaring for APC not to be rewarded with political appointment. Today he has got that appointment using the SLPP to add political value on him – a man who could not even win more than one vote.

The case of Ishmael Sengu Koroma is the same as Kadie Johnson-Cole. Another defeated SLPP Flagbearer candidate who secured only one vote at the SLPP FB convention only to use the SLPP to add a bit of political value to cross carpet to APC. And as usual when Usu Boie was declaring Kadie Johnson Cole was at Old Railway Line swimming in RED.

Then take the sad case of John Leigh. His situation has been the most pathetic but he is a good example of how APC can misuse politician who has no credibility and moral foundation. After the 2011 Convention he only secured two votes but like the others he went BROKE and he became desperate to recoup all he spent during the elections so he went for the RED cap and RED t.shirt. He has spent more than two years now writing rubbish on facebook about the SLPP party which gave him the chance to live a decent life as US Ambassador. But in the usual APC way of misusing worthless politician, I learnt Pres. Koroma does not even pick up his calls now.How pathetic! 

And now to the issue of Andrew Keilie’s appointment as board member to the newly established Electricity and Energy Commission or Electricity and Water Commission whichever is the name. As another defeated SLPP Flagbearer candidate in 2011, let me make few clarifications. Firstly, that Andrew Keilie has already appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Appointments and Public Services this past Friday, 11th July 2014 and this committee is chaired by the APC Majority Leader. Secondly, Andrew Keilie has already been interviewed by the Appointments Committee and on Tuesday he will only be Approved by the House for his new appointment.Thirdly, Andrew Keilie has only been appointed as a Board member and NOT a Board Chairman (I am not sure Pres. Koroma would have been that generous to his friend). Fourthly, Andrew Keilie and then Ernest Koroma had been friends for long time working closely in the board of NASSIT during the SLPP days.

But the idea that any SLPP member is opposed to Andrew Keilie to accept a job that his friend, Pres. Koroma offered him is ridiculously absurd. After all, for over many years Andrew Keilie’s company has been awarded huge contracts by APC Government and he is unashamed of those APC contracts which he has immensely benefitted from.. Even majority of SLPP members know it has always been part of the reason why the “Ponder My Thoughts” will never ponder on the failures of this APC government.

For few also who think that Andrew Keilie’s acceptance of his appointment is about patriotism, well there are many ways to show your patriotism other than to be used as a Political Window Dressing in an incompetent government which have kept us in perpetual darkness for seven years.

For few supporters of ODAK (the Keilie Drafting Machine) who also think that because Andrew Keilie is an engineer so President Koroma wanted to use his expertise to generate electricity for Sierra Leone then they must be living in Planet Jupiter. The fact of the matter is, if Pres. Koroma has so much faith in Andrew Keilie as an engineer to generate electricity in Sierra Leone then he would have appointed Andrew Keilie as Deputy Minister of Energy just as nothing stopped the late Pres Kabbah when he believed in the ability of now APC’s Hafsatu Kabba and appointed her as deputy minister of works, energy and power or as Minister of Lands, Housing and Country Planning.

So it is not about this RED patriotism or Pres. Koroma believing in Andrew’s engineering knowledge, this appointment is just part of Pres. Koroma’s political window dressing and manipulation to use Andrew Keilie to get the newspaper headline to portray a government of national inclusion. But if Pres. Koroma thinks that having a government where 75% of the people come from the North or belong to two particular northern ethnic groups and just by given an ordinary board membership to his friend, Andrew Keilie, will change anything, he must be thinking people are stupid. But at least for the next three years Andrew Keilie will receive his financial entitlement and other kick-backs as a board member and probably that will assist in his flagbearership campaign. Like one of Keilie’s notorious supporters said on facebook after being bombarded on the appointment: “Bo mek Andrew Keilie sef eat the APC money na so Ernest Koroma eat SLPP money na dem parastatal board dem”. Well, if Keilie’s supporters think this is about “money eating” then they don’t understand anything about credibility.10445582_1492485387635304_6029795896246887138_n[1]

For many of the SLPP members who have expressed their disappointment over Andrew Keilie’s acceptance of the APC appointment, you should not be disappointed. If Andrew Keilie is willing to serve the APC we have to allow him to do so. If for almost 7 years in government, Sierra Leone is still one of the darkest countries in the world under Pres. Koroma’s watch despite we have received millions of dollars for the Energy Sector. Pres Koroma knows there is not much hope in the last three years so cleverly he has decided to put a senior SLPP member in that board to share the blame for the electricity failure at the end of his second term.

And for the SLPP members there are still a lot of people who contested and lost the 2011 SLPP flagbearership election and have decided to uphold their credibility rather than joining the APC “money eating” race such as the Kadie Sesays, Alpha Timbos, Alpha Wuries etc.
Lastly, for the defeated SLPP FB candidates who had joined APC, this is not about RED patriotism rather it is about self-enrichment (Geda Geda). For Keilie who has accepted the APC appointment, this is not about RED patriotism or using his engineering knowledge rather it is just a CHEAP political window dressing by President Koroma. After all, if Pres. Koroma did not use Andrew Keilie’s knowledge for 7 years in government what difference will 3 years make as an ordinary board member when our people are tired with the exhausting lies about electricity including the 24 hours for Freetown. And if Pres. Koroma seriously believes in that engineering knowledge, like he did for Usu Boie and Ishmael Sengu Koroma, he should have appointed the engineer, Andrew Keilie, as Deputy Minister of Energy 3 to be in charge of “OVER-DUE 24 hour, NON-STOP AND UNINTERRUPTED ELECTRICITY” because what is the point of appointing a Retired U.S Major, Ishmael Sengu Koroma, as Deputy Minister 1 for “Distribution and Supply”. Yawn! Like my Abacha Street friend said on hearing Andrew Keilie’s board member appointment “Ar tire sef wit dem SLPP defeated flagbearer candidate yah”

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