Questions have been raised from different quarters on the declaration of assets by President Julius Maada Bio to the controversially approved Anti-corruption commissioner, Francis Ben Kaifala Esq.
Several accusations of unprosecuted cases of corruption were highlighted by the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government, to corroborate the incompetence of the former Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) commissioner, Ady Maculey Esq. He was blamed for rearing sacred cows in the anti-corruption’s abattoir with much concentration on the “minas,” leaving the “Cowrehs,” “Ku’tas” in the corruption pond mummified with prosecutorial immunity.
The alleged handling of corruption cases against some officials in the former regime of President Ernest Bai Koroma did not go down well with the current government. The contentions probably might have necessitated the breach in the legitimate contract, as way of gaining public sympathy for his urgent replacement, reiterated a member of the SLPP old guard.
But whether the accusations were done to justify unlawful evasion of the legitimate agreement signed between the government of Sierra Leone and the erstwhile commissioner, or a fulfillment of premeditation to “SLPPinise” the all important office, remain the trillion Leones question asked by experts in constitutional and contractual law.
The appointment of the current ACC commissioner allegedly marred with fraudulent approval by SLPP law makers, which warranted the walk out of opposition APC and NGC Members of Parliament respectively. According to an elderly citizen (name withheld for security reason), the rush to approve commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala by the SLPP is built on the foundation of protectionism, feat of premeditation to; embarrass, silent the APC, and at the same time to swing the awareness of the people from failed promises and bogus accentuations on the New Direction. He continued that, if the Bio led government were to be evaluated on their hundred days in office, it should not be a surprise to award them 0.005% as compensation for the hundred days in governance, and 99.05% for; deafening the air with parroted impracticable intensions, sacking, intimidation, contractual breach, fraudulent parliamentary procedures, excessive use of executive order and constitutional disregard to concretize pa-o-paism, the apparent synonym for despotism.
But why did the President not declare his assets at the time of Ady Macaulay as commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission? Don’t ask why now? “This was done primarily in the fear of protection and best political interest,” intimated a retired civil servant. He also alleged that the President’s assets declaration could best be protected by a true SLPP breed, which was why the rush to flout parliamentary measures to approve the blue-eyed boy of the SLPP government, Commissioner Francis Ben Kaifala Esq.
A show starts of patriotism, or browbeat that President Bio has declared all his assets including those he acquired in the glowing days of the NPRC regime?!!! Emphatically no!!!! But one is interested to know the content of the declaration, if we were to continue on the lane of transparency and accountability. But as to whether it includes the eighteen Million United States dollar allegedly stolen from state coffers alarmed the other day by Dr. Samura Kamara, or contains list of assets in Ghana, monies in the off-shore accounts, proceeds from the alleged passport deal, monies of the yet to deliver spare parts of the gunship of which his elder brother Steve Bio was the contractor awaits verification to determine the importance, sincerity of President Bio’s declaration, lamented a civil right activist.
If the said declaration is deficient of the aforesaid entities, then it is vague, a slap in the face of political transparency and downward accountability, and a big shame to his democratic credential. The tea kettle should stop calling the pot black black, as both are soothed by the same smoke, or “ogiree dae cuss kain-da for smell?” stop the intimidation! Take up the truth in the adage that, “he who pelts others with pebbles should ask for rock in return.”
If transparency and accountability are the ingredients to good governance, then the nation is patiently waiting to know which and what assets have been declared and the ones that are left out by the President. Thus in future will help the nation to track records of any other assets accumulated genuinely or falsely by the president while in office.
The records are there in indelible ink from coup d’état to palace coup. Praise God! Former Vice President and SLPP’s presidential candidate in the 2007 elections Solomon Ekuma Berewa is alive, and hopefully has the alleged evidence of the squandering that took place in the defunct NPRC government of which President Bio was a key architect, narrated a 63 year old Solomon Vandi.
Records of the late Pa Kasbah’s speech the other day when he was commissioning the Gun-boats at Government Warf highlighted the obnoxious deal on spares for the helicopter gun-ship that was not owned by the government of Sierra Leone. Evidences are spick and span in the archives for the purpose of posterity.
The ECOWAS court also have the evidence leading to the payment of spare parts incurred by the defunct NPRC regime of Julius Maada Bio, paid by the then Ernest Koroma led APC government on the judicial orders of the ECOWAS court.
Hypothetically, the “Mr. Clean” are in rush with orchestrated government white paper, charges and convictions ahead of the proposed Commission of Enquiry as enshrined in the Government Transition Report. The “Pre-government white paper” has already criminalized the accused persons before proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. The verdict has already been passed, and any pretense to uphold the rule of law in the mask of a commission of enquiry will be totally rejected in the name of Unity, Peace and Justice. But again! Whether the proposed Commission of Enquiry is an extra mock session on the rule of law remains the pending debate.
If squirrels and cane rats (cutting grasses) were to be prevented from watching over groundnut stores and farms for economic safety, so also mechanisms should be put in place to sustain economic security, free from the likes of squirrels and cutting grasses.
The desperate guys are all around wanting to become rich after ten years of political hibernation in the wilderness of darkness. All concocted lies are manufactured to crave sympathy and divert attention from their evil intension. “You can fool some people sometime, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time,” quoted an elderly woman from the words of Abraham Lincoln of blessed memory.
As President Bio completed the declaration of his assets, members of his government are so requested to do same; publish for public consumption. Hyenas cannot shepherd the sheep! Ten years of economic starvation and political hibernation do not warrant gluttonous activities to starve the rest of the nation. The eagle eyes are everywhere watching to prosecute the political “rotten-bellehs” (gluttons) that would want to eat the flesh, suck the blood and marrow of Mama Salone, and leaving other siblings to emaciate, counterpane in abject poverty.
