We are not trying to play Lucifer’s advocate here but we have found out that most of the vociferous and trenchant critics of the All People’s Congress (APC) in the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP)’s fold are either once-upon-a-time staunch ‘APCers’ or those who did not get the chance to penetrate that party while it was in power.
This brings us to Dr Sama S. “Puawi” Banya, the former APC stalwart now SLPP stalwart. This old man has taken upon himself to attack the APC whenever he is low on issues. He has developed a sort of Nazi-style propaganda. Like Adolf Hitler who, before the pogrom, found every genesis of Germany’s failure on the doorsteps of the Jews, so is Dr Banya who has been seeing every failure of the ruling SLPP through the telescope of the APC.
We all know how retrogressive the APC was while in power. It is no longer news that the APC was tribalistic, ‘regionalistic’ (with no apologies to northerners), corrupt and infested with all the negative ‘isms’ expected from an autocratic government. But who were the architects of such a despotic government?
Enter Dr Sama S. “Puawi” Banya. We will eat our hearts if this old man would convince us that all the mundane things he has acquired are through toil and sweat as a medical doctor. We can still remember how this man was propagating the ideals of the APC which earned him lucrative ministerial portfolios. He was so good an APC propagandist that he won the hearts of the leadership which gave him the opportunity of stepping into the shoes of the Vice Presidency on few occasions.
So we are at a loss to decipher whether the recent SLPP “Puawi” is the same Dr Sama S. Banya who was a minister in the autocratic APC government of yore? If yes, can he explain when he saw the light on his way to Damascus?
We want “Puawi” to know that we mean no harm, except that we are still confused about the personalities of the APC Dr Sama S. Banya and the SLPP “Puawi” who is one of President Tejan Kabbah’s advisers. Are they the same? We are just curious.
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