By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
What concerns the selfishness of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) with right-thinking Sierra Leoneans’ indifference? I would have gloated more if the Sierra Leone Police had beaten members of the NGC mercilessly, last Friday, before dispersing them like “okuru” dogs from their No.14 Naimbana Street headquarters in Freetown.
If Sierra Lone is currently in a pretty mess; it is partly due to the selfish “Alliance” which the NGC entered into with the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). If it wasn’t for pure selfishness; the NGC wouldn’t have allied itself with the SLPP due to the manner in which President Julius Maada Bio had steered the Ship of State prior to the run-up to the 2023 general elections.
Now that President Bio is treating members of the NGC like “okuru” dogs that should be un-love and thrown into the bush; the bunch of selfish unpatriotic Sierra Leoneans wants to bring down the heavens for their collective selfish-stupidity!
Methinks if members of the NGC want to be peeved at being treated like “okuru” dogs, that anger should be directed at their former Chairman and Leader, Dr Kandeh Yumkella. As my Krio relatives would say: “If ose nor sell you; tret nor go buy you”. If Dr Yumkella had not sold his so-called political birthright for a would-be presidential “coco ebeh” appointment; President Bio and his SLPP would not be treating NGC members like “okuru” dogs today. Now, in hindsight, it appears as if Dr Yumkella only went into that alliance purely for selfish reasons not for the benefit of his once-upon-a-time party faithful.
As I stated earlier in this One Dropian dropping, I would have gloated more if the Sierra Leone Police had beaten members of the NGC mercilessly, last Friday, before dispersing them like “okuru” dogs from their Freetown headquarters. If the Bio-led administration is today being accused of strangling citizens’ fundamental rights such as Freedom of Assembly and Freedom of Association; the NGC, as a political party, should be held partly responsible for that simply because its alliance with the SLPP rejuvenated such strangulations. By calling on the Sierra Leone Police to deny the NGC the enjoyment of Freedom of Assembly; the NGC is being given a taste of its own prescribed medicine!
I gloated, gleefully like an overexcited lark, on what happened last Friday at the NGC Freetown headquarters. And I will continue to gloat on their existing predicament simply because the current SLPP government is the NGC’s Frankenstein monster. So, let the NGC put up with its Frankenstein monster. It is none of the business of right-thinking Sierra Leoneans.
When this monster was accused of sending the police to the House of Parliament, at Tower Hill in central Freetown many moons ago, to beat up and drag Members of Parliament from the All People’s Congress (APC) out from the well of Parliament; the NGC leadership was indifferently indifferent. When the police were sent to the APC Old Railway Line Brookfields headquarters in Freetown and allegedly fired live ammunition with what appeared like the intention to shoot and kill out of sight; the NGC thought it was a Hollywood movie and enjoyed the enjoyment. Now that the police have downgraded that Hollywood movie to a Nollywood film at their No.14 Naimbana Street headquarters; the NGC wants the rest of humankind to sympathize with them.
What is actually giving me enjoyment is the crybaby status which the NGC is now creating for itself. The portion in its recent undated press release that gives me pleasurable pleasure is where it states that, “During our National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, police intervention halted our proceedings, obstructing the voting process and expelling our delegates from the venue, citing “orders from above”. What is laughably laughable is the fact that that “orders from above” appeared to have come from above the NGC’s “orders”!
And like a whimpering child who is seeking the attention of her mother to change her soiled pampers and gives her milk; the NGC continues its whimpers: “…certain [NGC] members purportedly affiliated with the ruling SLPP attempted to prevent the meeting in favour of maintaining our alliance status with the SLPP. In a matter of minutes… an excessive force arrived with five truckloads of armed police and OSD officers… this time to evacuate all delegates without clear justification.”
But the Sierra Leone Police fires back, in a press release dated 8 March 2024, with a beautiful ironic twist: “As the [NGC] meeting progressed, physical and verbal confrontations ensued which turned out to be disorderly and riotous. The police then had to intervene and peacefully dispersed the opposing parties. No arrests were made.”
Looking at the two press releases, one thread that threads through the entire hullabaloo is the fact that the Sierra Leone Police, this time to give them their undue dues, did not intervene because of “orders from above”. According to the police, prior to last Friday’s meeting, the NGC leadership had had a premonition that “certain Party members and persons are planning to disrupt the [would-be] meeting by using violence and therefore requested the assistance of the Police”. This fact is undisputed in the NGC undated press release where it notes that, “…following initial resistance from one deputy chairman, police involvement was required to escort him out of the premises.”
And if the NGC acknowledges that during the meeting, “certain [NGC] members attempted to prevent the meeting [from taking place]” and that one deputy chairman, particularly, was putting riotous conduct which prompted the chairman of the meeting to call in the police “to escort him out of the premises”; then it is logical that the police rightly had “to intervene and peacefully disperse the opposing parties.”
Whether the dispersing of the NGC faithful by the police was heavy-handed or showed “excessive policing… [which raises] questions about the intent behind such a display of power” (according to the NGC’s undated press release), the fact remains that it was the NGC that initially asked the police to be present outside its Freetown headquarters. And it was they who also asked the police to go inside the premises to escort members who were putting up disorderly and riotous behaviours. It is like the Krio saying of “Bod wan fly; you go shake tik.”
What I particularly like about the whole NGC whimpering is the fact that people who think they are smart being conned like stark illiterates. Dr Yumkella seems to have conned his “well educated” party faithful to form an “Alliance” with the SLPP that will only benefit him. And President Bio appears to have conned Dr Yumkella with the worthless appointment of Chairman of the Presidential Initiative on Climate Change, Renewable Energy, and Food Security. Now, a situation seems to have arisen where the conmen are conning the conmen and some conmen are peeved at being conned by other conmen!
And finally, what I will advise those so-called NGC faithful members who are considering “a motion to reassess our party’s stance in the past election alliance with the ruling party, reflecting the majority’s desire to withdraw” is to put up with the Frankenstein monster they created. After all, what concerns a vulture with an Afro comb? Nothing!
