Dr. Dennis Sandy Deserve A Sack

 I Rest My Case!!!

Indeed! Dennis Sandy Deserve A Sack

…For Acting Foolishly

With Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

On Friday evening, the sacking of the erstwhile Minister of Lands Country Planning and the Environment and until recently Minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs, Dr. Dennis Sandy, was sanctioned by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma.

His sacking came as no surprise, and I feel very strongly that he shot himself in the leg, thereby jeopardizing his political future by acting imprudently in the wake of his political godfather’s unfortunate utterances at the just concluded national delegates’ conference of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP).

Dr. Dennis Sandy, an opportunistic chap who emerged from the blues and made a whole cabinet minister courtesy of the short-lived marriage between the APC and the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), proved to be very productive insofar as his performance record is concerned.

Sadly though, he failed to look between the seeds of time to determine which one will grow and which will not, all because of his blind loyalty to his politically misguided godfather, Charles Francis Margai.

It could be noted that when given the opportunity to deliver a speech at the SLPP convention, Mr. Charles Francis Margai, is his capacity as Leader of the PMDC, decided rather unthinkably, to offbeat.

Rather than sticking to the point by projecting his political prowess, Mr. Margai opted instead to unveil the performance report card of the APC government.

Rather unrealistically, Mr. Margai gave the government a rating of minus zero percent (%-0), indicating that Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has thus far performed abysmally since ascending to the presidency in 2007.

I said unrealistic because even critiques like us, will not give the current government such a damning rating.

Looking at the way feasible development projects are unfolding in parts of the country, one can safely assert that while President Koroma’s performance record remains not quite impressive, he has at least demonstrated some seriousness in governance, as compared to his immediate successor, Ex President Alhaji Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.

It is on the basis of this, and giving the fact that Mr. Margai had once staked his political future on the success of President Ernest Bai Koroma in office, that I have deemed it more than fit, to drop in a few lines.

Of course I can simply state that of all journalists in the country, yours truly is better positioned to proffer an objective view of the circumstances that has warranted the final collapse of the once romantic relationship between the APC and the PMDC, which has consequently led to the well-placed sacking  of Dr. Dennis Sandy.

Mr. Margai’s controversial pronouncements at the SLPP convention have two major implications.

One is the fact that Mr. Margai rendered himself political useless by hastily coming to the conclusion that President Koroma has woefully failed the nation and therefore deserve nothing but an outright defeat in the 2012 general elections.

Two is the fact that by sending a clear signal that should the SLPP emerge with the desired leadership he stands ready consider a merger so as to implement Plans A and B geared towards giving President Koroma a bloody nose in the coming elections, Mr. Margai finally severed relationship with the APC.

Unlike Dr. Soccoh Kabia, Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Mr. Oswald Hanciles, Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation and all PMDC parliamentarians, who openly came out alongside other concerned member of the party including very senior executive members to dissociate themselves from Mr. Margai’s outburst, Dr. Dennis Sandy likewise openly backed his godfather, thereby making his continued retention in the current government as a full-fledged cabinet minister, much questionable.

Why would President Koroma, as president of the republic with a difficult task at hand, want to maintain a cabinet member whose usefulness is no longer required; or better still, a cabinet member whose continued maintenance in cabinet only equals to a debilitating political risk and sheer display of lack of human resource?

Had Dr. Soccoh Kabia and Oswald Hanciles followed Dr. Sandy’s path, the same would have been said of them. While they still remain staunch members of the PMDC giving that they have not tendered any official resignation letters from the party, it goes without saying that their wise move have earned them the president’s confidence and it will therefore be foolhardy on the part of the president to treat them in the same fashion.

This is however not to say that their positions are not shaky. I pity them because I think they have been placed in a very funny position; a position in which they have to go beyond the ordinary to prove their loyalty…of course not Margai anymore.

They have to be seen acting either for or against. The most complicating thing is that they are still members of the PMDC, with which the APC no longer has dealings with.  

It is in view of this that I feel very strongly that the sacking of Dr. Sandy was not a subject for debate, but a matter for decisive action.

The fact has to be made that Dr. Sandy will never be PMDC than the likes of Oswald Hanciles who are in fact close relations to Mr. Margai and were behind him from the unset until recently when it came out clearly that his politically recklessness has driven him to the state of oblivion wherein he can no longer make a reasonable political judgement.

This is why I believe Dr. Dennis Sandy let down the world of academia by not conducting himself in the way an educationist is expected to.

He knew what he was doing, and therefore it is he himself who placed himself in that untenable situation.

Taking the discussion forward, let me here state that the PMDC has been plunged in a further difficult situation, and I hold the view that those currently thinking alongside Margai are merely wasting their precious time and risking their political future and survival. This is so because in my view, Margai has outlived his political usefulness.

The last blow the PMDC has suffered is the suspension of its Secretary General William A. B. Tucker, Public Relations Officer Miniru Koroma and Financial Secretary Kennie Fomolu, for reasons not unconnected with their recent denouncement of Mr. Margai’s folly. Mind you, these three positions are the most crucial in any serious political party.

How can a party that was founded on democratic tenets resort to suspending people for merely expressing their democratic right? What has gone wrong with the party’s clamour for positive change? Where does Margai really want to take the PMDC? What confidence has he that he can become president by climbing on top people’s backs? Why don’t Margai allow members of the team be part and parcel of the decision making process within the party? Why does Margai think he can bankroll the PMDC after driving away all those that had the financial wherewithal and willingness to put the party on a sound financial footing necessary to face an election from a position of strength?

The recent fidgeting of the party’s constitution aimed at showering Mr. Margai with absolute powers including being the party’s ultimate Leader and Presidential Candidate for the 2012 elections, sends a worrying signal that he has the tendency of graduating from a benevolent dictator to an absolute dictator. You can therefore call him an undependable or false-face politician.

Soon, Dr. Sandy will realize that he has made a major blunder that will haunt him till death, and I wait to see him falling out with his revered godfather, Mr. Margai, in the not too distant future.

Back to the classroom and to his old Benz he goes, and I must state that his life changed completely in so short a time as government minister.

There is a wise word that says “When an educated man departs from his education he becomes far worse than the man who never touched the walls of a primary school”.

Another one says “You can’t sit on my head and say it is smelly, but feel relaxed to continue sitting there”.

Let me close by calling on Mr. Charles Francis Margai to step down immediately so as not to make himself a subject of caricature in the 2012 general elections.  What the PMDC desires right now if only to be saved from going the way of the UNPP of Late Dr. John Karefa Smart, is a unifying leader, and one whose approach differs completely from that of Mr. Margai.

I Rest My Case!!!