The executive hook of President Ernest Bai Koroma has begun fishing out some of the big fishes who are allegedly behind the controversial cocaine saga, which has nearly demoralized his alleged ‘born again’ APC Government. I suppose this action would have been executed by the President Koroma before now, but he was complacently vibrating as usual from his high tower, whether he was allegedly seeking a protective strategy for his boys whose names were under the spotlight of the press.
The role of the press in any society must not be underestimated because politicians and business people have failed the people, and their only hope now is the press, which uses the might of the pen to inform and educate the masses on happenings in the state. The press also holds the Government accountable to its people.
Mr. President, I must commend you for such a move, but mind you, Kemoh Sesay is not the pebble on the beach in your Government who deserves probing, as there are many other latent personalities aligning themselves with you who are one way and the other implicated in this dubious drug deal.
You have started fighting the most vicious battle by painstakingly unearthing, unscrupulous deal and other corrupt practices which can be equated with the over decade-long rebel war in Sierra
Leone. I have deliberately focused on this angle because we have seen leaders in Sierra Leone who started a battle of this kind but could not sustain it because of factors of nepotism, regionalism, tribalism, sectionalism and the list continues. I have always said that in any adventure, one should fight from the position of strength, but if you choose to fight it lying down, then you will be heading for catastrophe. Therefore you should not fight this battle in isolation because it’s smearing to the country giving the stigma attached to drug deal among
world nations. Brima Acha Kamara, the Inspector General police, has persistently come under the spotlight as one of those aiding and abating this unholy transaction; they have even traced his affiliation with a drug baron, GK, but you have done nothing to prove him right or wrong.
I have earlier indicated in my article that for such a highly coordinated drug syndicate of such magnitude to exist in any state, there must be big guys from within the national security apparatus or even at the executive level behind it.
They might not be involved directly in most cases, but most times, guys in position of trust mongered their integrity for pittance and loyalties so as to turn blind eyes to the unscrupulous transactions executed by their benefactors. I don’t need to remind you of the dubious occupation of the Lebanese and other foreign nationals in our commercial and mining sectors, who influence those in high places with loyalties, while they continue to exploit the country’s resources with impunity.
So why spear Acha and Kellie Conteh, who initially admitted that they knew about the existence of an illegitimate narcotic trade in the country, but they were gathering intelligence. So Mr. Acha Kamara and Kellie out the reigns of SLPP in which they steadily maintained their positions, it was only after the apprehension of the cocaine plane that they succeeded in their intelligence gathering.
Conteh might want the people of this country to believe that throughout the reigns of SLPP in which they steadily maintained their positions, it was only after the apprehension of the cocaine plane that they succeeded in their intelligence gathering.
If so, what have they been doing with all the intelligence they purported to have gathered on cocaine deals for the past three to four years in office? Or do they want us to believe that, had it not been for the impromptu landing of the cocaine load of plane that has seriously dented this country’s image internationally, they would have continued holding on to their so called intelligence, while the deal continues unchecked?
In conflict management, or intelligence gathering, you either look for early warning signs or you identify conflict areas, with the aim of aborting or proffering
solution to it before it happens. This is the case because whenever you allow it to happen, it would be disastrous and you would be left with no alternative but damage control. Mind you prevention is better than cure.
Because of the negligence of these guys, Sierra Leone is now looked at internationally with suspicion; this is true to the submission of Sierra Leone’s Foreign Affairs Minister Zainab Bangura, that Sierra Leoneans are thoroughly searched these days when traveling abroad for fear of trafficking narcotics.
I am not pessimistic here; in fact, I would very
much want you to succeed in your capacity as president of this country, because in a face-to-face interview with you before the 2002 elections, you convincingly told me that people want to associate you with the old APC system, but that you are leading a born again APC party which is above corruption, violence and tribalism.
To some extent, your composition and interaction with the grand alliance turned SLPP Pious Foray, John Benjamin, JJ Saffa, Raymond Kamara and others at Stop Press during your political struggles, was highly reflective of your courage and political tolerance for which I used to admire you.
But that not withstanding, I still hold some reservations about you, because you have not lived up to your nationwide promises on clinching to power last year. The composition of your cabinet which is northern-dominated is contrary to your promised of government of national unity; secondly, the indiscriminate sacking of one particular tribe as against the others is another issue altogether; thirdly, your unfulfilled asset declaration vibes still reechoes; and fourthly, your unattained three-month assessment plan of your Ministers, are all reasons for my reservation.
But you stand to be saluted if you get to the bottom of this unholy cocaine saga.
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