By Kabs Kanu
When I read some of the rubbish posts about Dr. Samura Kamara, one of the ideas that assail my mind is that PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND HIM IN TRUTH –And there are many surprises in store for a lot of people, because the Samura Kamara at State House would be very different from the one being portrayed by the SLPP and his detractors.
First of all, Dr. Samura Kamara is the most difficult, hard-nosed and uncompromising person you will find anywhere when it comes to issues of integrity, probity and rectitude. He might have an easy-looking and placeable, amiable and obliging personality on the surface but those who have worked with him would confess to you that he is a man with a very strong self-will and his NO is No. He is not a pliable man and he can take a stand for causes, especially where issues of rectitude and accountability are involved.
Samura Kamara demonstrated it during the last Commissions of Inquiry when he showed that he is a man who does not know how to lie. Samura Kamara is a human being and is subject to human flaws that we all have but he will not knowingly lie or try to deceive.
The first set of people waiting to be surprised are those who served in the President Ernest Koroma government and who think that by virtue of that, they will have an easy ride into the next APC Government headed by Dr. Samura Kamara. Anybody nursing such hopes does not really understand Samura Kamara. Sierra Leone’s President-In-Waiting is not a man that is easily moved by sentiments. He is influenced more by what he believes to be right. If you did not do well at your post during the last APC Government and you were one of those who contributed to the downfall of the APC in 2018, it will be very difficult to convince a President Samura Kamara to give you another chance.
As for those accusing him of being tribalistic because of the statement he once made in which he mocked President Bio for being very tribalistic and appointing only Mendes, they also do not understand Samura Kamara. What I learnt working under Dr. Samura Kamara when he was Minister of Foreign Affairs was that he considered qualifications, qualty inputs and experience over tribal sentiments. If only Sierra Leoneans were honest people, many Southeasterners in the Foreign Ministry would have been first to come out and declare in public that Samura Kamara is not tribalistic or regionalistic by any sketch of the imagination.
I can name SIX Foreign Ministry officials on whose behalf Dr. Samura Kamara acted when it came to postings and recalls where he did not allow any tribal or regional sentiments to guard his decisions. Rather, he looked at what was right, and he did what was right. There were cases when some officials were snug in the belief that because they were Northerners, Samura Kamara would bend protocol to spare them recalls and help them remain on post. They did not know how things unfolded and their replacements showed up on posts. To Samura Kamara, their tours of duty, according to Foreign Ministry regulations, had ended and the others needed to come abroad since it was their time to be posted. He made the changes without batting an eyelid. He did what he thought was right and shoved sentiments or impending recriminations out of the door. I wish it had been possible, professional and in line with protocol for me to have called names. But I am bound by Foreign Ministry principles.
Two foreign ministers who impressed me in this aspect of never allowing tribal or regional considerations to determine their decisions were Dr. Samura Kamara and Mrs. Zainab Bangura. They were very fair to employees in those two aspects. Zainab too did not care for your tribe or region. If she thought you were the best person for the job, she would give you a chance, regardless of what others may think. Many Foreign Affairs personnel from the Southeast and Western Area flourishing in the diplomatic field today owe it to Dr. Samura Kamara and Mrs. Zainab Bangura. Any of them who fears God would agree with me, without question.
I know of a man who thought that because of his rank within the APC and ties with former President Ernest Koroma, he would have browbeaten Dr. Samura Kamara to give him a job for which he was not qualified. Dr. Kamara wasted no time to turn him down and he stuck to his guns, despite further pressures., while remaining very friendly with the individual.
I was also marvelled by Samura Kamara’s proclivity not to listen to gossip or allow gossip to govern his decisions. If an employee is very sick, even if he lived in another state in the U.S, Dr. Samura Kamara would drive miles and miles to go visit him, regardless of what the lead ambassador or one or two top diplomats would say about the employee. Dr. Samura Kamara would go to see the employee personally and sympathize with him. And it would not be a once-in-a lifetime occurrence. If it involved going to see the sick man or woman again and again until he got well, whenever Samura Kamara came abroad, he would go visit the employee. He is a very caring leader.
Dr. Samura Kamara is also not corrupt. Anybody accusing him of corruption is doing so out of ill-will or a witch hunt. Members of the international community who worked with him know him for being an honest individual and are aware that all allegations against him are trumped up and false accusations.
It is because of these qualities that anyone who understands Dr. Samura Kamara would tell you that he will be the best man to fix the mess President Bio has created in Sierra Leone. Samura Kamara can be trusted to take the right decisions in the supreme interest of the nation. If when he was a Minister, he was not guided by sentiments, he will not do so as president. Unlike Bio, Samura Kamara would put the national interest over tribal and regional sentiments. Given the opportunity to choose between the interest of the country and less important sentiments, Dr. Samura Kamara would choose the former.
Another character trait of Dr. Samura Kamara is that he is not vindictive. I want to assure all Sierra Leoneans that when Dr. Samura Kamara becomes President, he will not be vengeful. Anybody who would be expecting him to go on a mission of revenge will be disappointed. It is not his nature. That was the point he was trying to make the last time that was taken out of context. Samura Kamara did not say that he will not set up commissions of inquiry to probe acts of corruption. What he said was that he will not leave urgent national matters and spend his time on a witch hunt. If he finds that commissions of inquiry are necessary, he will set them up, but he will not do so to frame anybody or revenge on anyone or go on a tribal and regional or political witch hunt. If you have not involved in corruption, you have nothing to fear under President Samura Kamara. He is coming to rebuild Sierra Leone, not to pay back old scores.
Sierra Leone will see her wholesome days again when Dr. Samura Kamara becomes President.
