Political Parties Chairmen on Thursday 25th October unanimously accepted that the Bo Paddle was not to come out as traditionally set to come out after every Eidul Adha celebrations every year. This was agreed at a meeting organized by the Political Parties Registration Commission in their conference room in Bo in trying to bring together political parties so as to sort out some points of disagreement in the District.
At the meeting, the lesser parties’ chairmen accused the ruling All Peoples Congress and the opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party of such wrongs as to having their members out on the street in their party colours even though it was not their own day of campaigning.
Coming to the issue of paddle dance, almost all of the other party chairmen accused the APC of having aired on the Local Radio Stations that this year’s Bo paddle was to be a “Red paddle” and that all and anybody wanting to join the paddle procession was to be in red. This, most of the lesser parties complained was against the tradition of the masquerade which they said symbolizes our national culture in Sierra Leone. They cried that the mask devil belongs to every Sierra Leonean and not one political party.
The Convention Peoples Party chairman was the first to vent his anger. The APC he expressed wants to use devil to campaign in the town. “The APC wants to use the paddle to campaign on a day set for us CDP” and this he said will be counter-productive.
Rev Tucker of the Peoples Movement for Democratic Change contributed with a short lesson learnt when the same thing happened in 2007. He explained that even though the SLPP asked people to join in the paddle dance only in their party’s colour, “we still have our supporters in the dance and this was showed up when paddle procession reached our office. All our supporters took out their orange colour out of their pockets and started waving it at us. And problem was about to set in right from that point.”
Albert Saidu the Revolutionary United Front Party Chairman even took the chance to accuse the APC to have “high jacked” Thursday 25th October from the RUFP. Very irately, he cried to the APC chairman “why should you have your supporters out today which is our own day to campaign.” This he opined was only done by the APC so as “to perpetrate violent behavior where in they will put the blame on the RUFP.”
The SLPP chairman Kanja Sesay in his opinion stated that these days were trying days for Sierra Leone and for which every Sierra Leonean has to sacrifice. Political parties he explained have to sensitize their supporters to sacrifice “just one day for the peace of every Sierra Leonean.” He bragged that Sierra Leoneans were “reasonable people” that will do things on good reasoning.
With such angry ranting against the APC, Mr Hanciles of the All People Congress therefore suggested that the “we have no paddle dance on Saturday.” To the joy of almost everybody, an immediate accentance was given the proposition.
By Jenkins Bawoh
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