This Leader: Flying on the wings of luck

Life has taught some to believe that luck is tied around age. When an air craft takes a deadly crash and a two-year old hapless boy survives, some would say his sheer innocence and age, have found favour with the goddess of survival; while the survival of an 86 year old under same circumstances might bring forth ordinary smiles and feigned thanks from well wishers. And yet, experiences have confirmed that certain people at particular times in their enduring assignments on earth, have had shown to them, divine favours for the good of many. In Sierra Leone, Valentine Strasser and Maada Bio were lucky, that at political tender ages of 24 and 27 respectively, they became the unelected leaders of Sierra Leone, while Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, even after 61, had his name inscribed into the political books of the nation as the democratically chosen king of a lovely country like ours.

Prior to these had been lucky men such as the Margais; Sir Milton and Albert. There was also Juxon Smith, Siaka Probyn Stevens and the occupant of the remorse land politics Johnny Paul Koroma. In the leadership schemes of all these persons have been players some of whom are still alive and command influence (and respect in some cases). For bad or best, some of such persons have contributed to the destruction of this country, while others, within this same group, have given off their strength and energy to see the country develop. In all of this, the indeterminate logic and reality of luck, has had its soothing hands at play. In the cases of Strasser, Maada Bio and Johnny Paul Koroma, luck went to sleep earlier than the arrival of dawn; these trio, respectively represented the West, South and North of the country’s regio-political divide. But because theirs were unrecognised ‘democracies’, their impacts, influences and roles in the wider society of Sierra Leone became subdued and relegated to unmemorable pages of the petty chapter of the country’s political history. Little wonder then, that Maada Bio yet again is eager to come back for a re-correction by becoming the presidential flag bearer of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party, come 2012 elections.
In this mirage of a political heat-wave came Ernest Bai Koroma, luckier than many.

That without Ernest Bai Koroma the All People’s Congress, APC party of Sierra Leone would not have won the 2007 presidential and majority votes in the parliamentary elections is a redundant reality. If finer candidates can win elections, then Ernest was fine. But if the unexplained influence and impact of luck over the stars of men can enhance success, then Ernest was luckier to have been at the right place at the right time, while his political fate was decided by a people whose mood at the time had shown a determined wish for a new era. This is what those who halfly blame Tejan Kabbah for acting against the political will of his party during the 2007 elections by allowing Ernest to win, do not wish to understand.

Like President Abdulai Wadd of Senegal, Ernest had some struggles to do before sitting comfortably at the helm of the state’s affairs today. The only difference between the two, despite their ages and tangential lucks, is that every time Abdulai Wadd lost elections, he went back to jail and for Ernest, every time he lost elections, he went back to court, as his leadership of his party, the APC continued to be questioned by certain of his colleagues.

For Ernest, his luck began when his party became acrimoniously antagonistic against him, thereby pitching camps of lucky stars toward him; lucky stars that were not even party card carrying members of the APC. And thence came the musicians. They sang for and on behalf of the people, but the leaders ignored the calls and threats of change. While the crescendo of hate messages of ill political feelings were yet to be reached, the Kabbah said he was tired and needed to have the country run by the man, Solomon Berewa, who was much busier to campaign than to rule. And to enhance the luck of the Bai came the Libyan rice scandal of impropriety. As drums of ‘change’ beat and the media, as often happens in some bad African governments, were hardly friendly, so even the system-press could not weather the media frenzy over issues of corruption and incompetence in higher quarters.

In the stead of defence came several un identical messages from the same government sources, creating doubts, confusion while inadvertently mandating the citizens’ approval of their bad leaders in mooting: “we have been cheated…therefore you must be changed”. As this scenario was unfolding, the Libra in the lunar told the anti Bai Koroma faction within the APC to show signs of fatigue in their quest to stop his stars from taking control of the country’s leadership. Thus the court cases adjourned without the judges saying so, and the whistle to enter the political ring for the two-round bout at the polls had been blown by the umpire, Dr. Christiana Thorpe of the National Electoral Commission, NEC. One and a half rounds to finish, the incumbent vice president who determined to win cried: “I am devastated” and behold, the roads to courts began to be busy as the Green guys rushed to have a court order to stop the Chief Commissioner from announcing the results the way she was doing. The Kabbah, who had by now negotiated his undisturbed peaceful retirement and the International community would have none of this.

The results were heard before they were announced, so the red guys took to the empty streets with a new assurance that the quit-notice given to our leaders had been endorsed by a majority of the country’s less than two million voters.
Hurray! A new age was born. Ernest Bai Koroma had been declared winner of the country’s 2007 presidential elections. Koroma’s stars had shone and the firmament was brighter as the smiles on the faces of those defeated changed to doubts and bewilderment: How did this happen…and when did we become devastated?
And because of these doubts and the lunar positions of the lucky stars of Ernest Bai Koroma, even two years into the play of a new team packed with commoners from the drivers’ club, those defeated have refused to accept that they were actually bailed out of the leadership house by a people’s court emanating from a general notice to get out of power and allow a new era to bring electricity, good roads, fight corruption and God knows what next?

And now, the Koroma has been assigned the extraordinary luck of organising a donors’ conference in far away Europe. The British are good for hospitality, but slow to give without conditions, so EBK has been prepared to ask his would be business partners to come invest in Sierra Leone. This happened in November; 18 and 19, 2009. Every patriotic Sierra Leonean, safe for those who love power just for power sake and would like a failed conference, had wished the President well. Like Tejan Kabbah, who was liked by many Sierra Leoneans who had not even known him properly, Ernest, this home-base political player, seems to have been liked even by enemies who would loathe his success. And in my quest to let outsiders understand how my country’s media react to all of this, my topic will be: How Not to Run an opposition Media in Africa…a case study of Sierra Leone.

David Tam-Baryoh is the Director of Citizen Radio, Sierra Leone and Chief Editorial Consultant at Newstime Africa

© 2009, Newstime Africa. All rights reserved.

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