The All People’s Congress – APC is broke at a time when cash is seriously needed. The party has been out of power for over five years. Some would say the party needs a rescue.

Along came Sheik Mohamed Omodu Kamara alias Money Jagaban to save the day. The young business tycoon has been splashing huge sums of money around the city and beyond. He is well known for showing up unexpectedly at a certain location known for, say, having a large number of homeless and other vulnerable people and dishing out wads of cash to them.

When the party desperately needed a rescue, Jagaban was there. He has been there on several key moments in the course of his bailing the party out.

While the party’s leaders have been grateful for this manna from heaven, other partisans are a bit uncomfortable with Jagaban’s largesse to the party. They say he appears to be buying his way into the hearts and ranks of the party. No sooner had Jagaban made a name for himself among the poor and desperately needy, some businesspeople, the sick and students, his name became synonymous with charity. His home at Malta Street is always packed with people hoping to seek some kind of assistance, mainly financial, from the kind hearted young man.

We think that Jagaban is trying to buy his way into the ranks of the party. No sooner did he step onto the scene his name got shot right up there alongside the party’s flagbearer as a potential running mate. His financial wealth should not negate experience and other qualities of a leader. His meteoric rise through the rank and file of a party does not guarantee that he will be successful as a politician.

We want Jagaban to slow his roll. We want him to focus his energy on building relationships with the different interest groups within the party. He has already won the admiration hence the hearts and minds of the people. He has already shown himself as caring and willing to do what it takes to meet the people’s urgent needs. We are sure that he will not be coming into politics to get rich. The young man is already being touted based on his assumed wealth as the richest Sierra Leonean. Complementing his riches is his outward demonstration of a very religious man leading us not having to ever worry that he would fall prey to the menace of corruption that soon traps valiant political upstarts.

The lure and allure of riches is a very serious threat to the ethics, morals and other values of men and women who swore to execute the finances of their offices on their intended purposes. Many a promising political careers have been wrecked by the twin vice of corruption and financial leakages.

Jagaban should know that many people have put in time and resources into the party throughout the years. These people have been consistent in their support and loyalty to the party and have become household names. Many of them are responsible for delivering votes from a whole province or district to the APC party government. These people are now poised to reap the benefits of their loyalty. They deserve a chance in the party’s hierarchy.

We want Jagaban to get to know the people of Sierra Leone. Instead of splashing his wealth around, we want him to focus his charity into a structured organisation that will take him out of the picture. Access to him has led to him being reportedly duped by clever conmen who allegedly swindled him of hundreds of millions of Leones. One such case was recently scheduled in the magistrate’s court.

Instead of trying to buy his way into the party’s executive by making out huge donations to meet the party’s urgent and most pressing current needs that almost always has to do with the absence of cash, Jagaban must invest his time, energy and money on creating jobs and training opportunities for the youth.

Such assistance would parallel the Chinese saying that it would be better to teach a man to fish instead of giving him fish all the time. By giving him fish whenever he craves it, Jagaban would not be helping the individual in the long run because if and when he is not around this man would suffer and die. But if he teaches him how to fish and he learns and starts catching his own fish then you can assure the future survival of this individual and ensuring the perpetuity of his progeny.

By investing in creating businesses and helping the youth start-up businesses and getting involved in school, sports, arts and cultural and other career paths, Jagaban’s money and charity would have gone a long way to address the issue of lack of entrepreneurial ambition in our young people. By providing and empowering the youth with the tools of success, they will only have themselves to blame if they end up otherwise.

The APC is an old party. It has seen many a rich individuals calling the party home over the decades. Jagaban will be one such party luminary should he channel his focus to improving the lot of the party’s grassroots, coming up with programmes for the young ladies and women in the party, the with getting to know the people in his constituency well enough to be assured of entering either the House, the town and or city councils and making an impact on the nation’s body politic. This way he will be more than an asset to the party and people of ‘Salone’.

If Jagaban chooses to enter the party through buying his way in, then he would have wasted the hope the people have in his potential to make a difference in the future political and economic direction of Sierra Leone.

So, slow your roll, bro! You have a long way to go and the nation and party need you for the long haul, not as a fly by night politician with lot of cash to burn.

Lonta!

 By FORUM Staff Writer