African Minerals Limited and the cocaine bust

Special Commentary

Could African Minerals be behind the latest cocaine bust???

With Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

A container loaded with a quantum of cocaine camouflaged in baby pampers has been intercepted by intelligence personnel at the Queen Elizabeth 11 Quay in Freetown.

There is no clue at the moment as to who the importer of the illegal substance is, given that the relevant documents are no where to be found.

Fingers have been pointed at the police officers who intercepted the said container as having done an unprofessional job, thereby making further investigation into the matter somehow difficult.

Accordingly, the police arrested the container without the slightest information regarding its ownership, destination and so on.

The suspicious container had gone through necessary checking procedures, loaded on a trailer and was just about to be taken out of the quay when intelligence from abroad caused it to be blocked.

The high levelness that surrounds the container in question including the mysterious disappearance of all relevant documents and the fact that the consignee is yet to be identified, has left tongues wagging.

The question that keeps coming to mind is how genuine are the people entrusted with the security and administration of the quay, especially giving the fact that the container section has long been privatized, with a French company called Bollore in charge.

The fact that the suspicious container was about leaving the quay when it eventually landed in the hands of security personnel courtesy of last minute foreign intelligence is an indication that this is not the first time such containers have come into the country via the quay.

Taking a closer look at the mysteries involved in the handling of the container and the sudden disappearance of the documents including a bill of laden, one can safely conclude that there is a big time conspiracy taking place at the quay. But who are the conspirators? One may ask.

One big room for conspiracy at the quay is the fact that multilateral companies operating in the country enjoy duty waivers and their consignments not subject to rigorous checking.

One such multilateral company enjoying this undue concession that is amounting to huge revenue loss for the nation, is African Minerals Limited owned by a controversial Romanian called Frank Timis.

It is no longer newsy that Frank Timis, who last year got listed in the Forbes list of billionaires, is on record as having been convicted on three separate drugs related charges.

One can only therefore refer to him as an expert in the business and given how powerful his company has become, it is almost likely that he would want to take advantage of the situation.

The amount of so-called expatriates that have been flown into the country by African Minerals Limited and other companies like Sierra Rutile Company Limited over the past years is huge, and the possibility cannot be overruled that most of them if not all, are directly linked to cocaine and other harmful drugs.   

Go to Makeni and Sierra Rutile where the two companies are active and see for yourself how our poor sisters are being sexually exploited by these so-called expatriates in exchange of a few leones.

Rumours have been doing the rounds that the excitement over the jobs being provided by especially African Minerals Limited and the purpose-based reintroduction of the train will soon be things to openly cry about rather than celebrate.

There is a big game plan for the taking over of the country. By making companies like African Minerals Limited become too powerful, it will warrant a situation wherein good people who otherwise cannot easily depart from their sense of patriotism and nationality losing grips of their integrity and becoming corrupt.

African Minerals Limited has enough money to throw around and what many people including some colleagues in the media don’t know is the fact that the monies the company is spending by way of operational cost are subject to specific deduction from revenues that should go into the national coffers.

This is a complete rip-off when one takes into account how much profit the country is getting as compared to what the company is taking away.

Because the company has enough money, whether clean or dirty, coupled with the fact that people are desperate to have a share of the loot, anything is possible.

It will reach a time when companies like African Minerals will be the ones determining who the next president of the republic will be and which political party should be in governance.

It’s all designed and mind you, African Minerals for instance has secured a 99 years infrastructural lease agreement that has a stability clause attached to it. The question is, has African Minerals become a part owner of Sierra Leone?

    

SLAJ boss threatens court action

Special Commentary

SLAJ boss threatens libel suit over thought provoking piece

By Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

The Regional Chairman North of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Stanley Bangura, who now officially doubles as Media Consultant for Addax Bioenergy Limited, has threatened to warrant a libel suit in respect of an article published under the byline above, in which a gentle call was made for him to resign his position in SLAJ and concentrate on his new found $600 corporate job.

In the said thought provoking piece, mention was made of the fact that many observers including journalists and civil society activists in Makeni and beyond consider Mr. Stanley Bangura´s new role with the controversial Addax Bioenergy Limited as a clear conflict of interest and sheer disgrace to the media profession, while he remains the duly elected SLAJ chairman responsible for the entire northern region.

The article in question mentioned further that in view of this, concerned journalists in Makeni have started putting modalities in place to force Mr. Bangura to resign from his position in SLAJ ahead of the organization’s 2013 biennial conference and that the said journalists have sounded the view that they no longer trust him to lead them.

All this came after Mr. Bangura who has been using the SLAJ Regional Secretariat in Makeni as a meeting/take-off point for journalists enlisted to go on Addax engagements, broke the ice after a long period of concealment, that he is Media Consultant for the company.

In line with official duties, Mr. Bangura has been publishing a couple of praise-signing and misleading articles in favour of the company, while at the same time launching media attacks on civil society organizations deemed to be critical of the short and long term adverse socio/economic and cultural impacts of the operations of the company on the people directly affected.

In one of the pro-Addax articles published under the byline of ‘Stanley Bangura’, it was stated rather erroneously that the presence of the company in the locality is a blessing in disguise as hundreds of jobs have been created and that the company has made possible an unprecedented rice harvest across its operational area.

An independent study conducted by experts from Ghana indicate that the livelihood of the communities affected by the operations of Addax has been placed under serious threat as evident by the illegal drying up of swamp lands, the pollution of traditional drinking water sources and the deprivation of indigenes from utilizing the land for their usual agricultural purposes, among others.

This makes rubbish the pro-Addax trashes circulated by the SLAJ regional chairman, who seems unconcerned about the overwhelming negative impacts of the Addax project on the communities affected.

The fact that Mr. Stanley Bangura who happens to be a major beneficiary of SLAJ is threatening court action involving a libel suit, is in itself a good reason to conclude that those who are actually suppose to be mounting pressure on government for the repeal of the seditious libel laws, are the very ones undermining the process.

As stated earlier, the Addax issue is a completely controversial one, and therefore the company’s move to kind of silence the media in that part of the country by capturing the head, could not only be seen as a crafty one, but one aimed at accelerating efforts by corporate entities to dominate or render impotent the local media.

Sierra Leone is currently experiencing what could best be referred to as a ‘media take-over’, a situation wherein the local media will be reduced to dancing the corporate dance, rather than dealing with the real issues at stake.

Deeply involved in the uncivilized act is African Minerals Limited (AML), a company owned by a controversial figure with three certificates of conviction in drugs dealing.

So far, the company has covertly established two newspapers namely the African Young Voices (AYV) and the so-called Ariogbo Newspaper, edited by Theo Nicol and Abdul Karim Kabia (Fonti), respectively.

Plans are also underway to establish a powerful radio station and a television network to compete directly with the crumbling state-owned Sierra Leone Broadcasting Cooperation (SLBC).

Already, AML has succeeded in weakening the local media by filling up limited newspaper pages with unending bogus commercial advertisements.

Except for a handful of local newspapers including Concord Times and Global Times, you can hardly see published anything critical of AML in all the other newspapers around. Just take a look at them.

It is estimated that AML is spending roughly Le 360,000,000 (Three Hundred and Sixty Million Leones) weekly on newspaper advertisements alone, with all ‘commissions’ (about %20) reportedly going directly to Anthony Navo Jr., also known as AML media front-man.

Bear in mind that these amounts are all calculated in the end and branded as operational costs, and therefore subject to specific deduction from revenues that should come to the state. The company loses nothing in actual terms.

Let me make haste to mention that it doesn’t mean that Concord Times and Global Times are not getting overflowing advertisements from AML. It’s just that they have the courage to risk not getting more.

The good thing worthy of celebration is the fact that the President of SLAJ, Umuru Fofanah, has thus far refused to be pocketed as most outstanding senior colleagues have. Take Theo Nicol for instance.

Another strategy employed by AML is to threaten nonconformist media houses with litigation, as was the case recently with Radio Democracy FM 98.1.

A dedicated reporter there, Fatima Sesay, did a reportage on an opinion pool she conducted in the AML operational area in Bumbuna, in which the company was accused of engaging in criminal activities and making life difficult for the vast majority of the indigenes.

Embarrassed by the reportage, lawyers acting for and on behalf of AML threatened the management of Radio Democracy with court action.

Rather humbly, Radio Democracy’s Farrie Kargbo with the full backing of management, few days later did a contrary reportage in which premium was given to questionable positive views about the company. There and then, the matter came to an end.

Currently, pro-AML journalists are busying themselves launching spiteful media attacks on civil society organizations and colleague journalists deemed to be critical of the operations of the company.

Taking the lead in this is the Ariogbo Newspaper which is shadowing as the property of Anthony Navo Jr., who cannot afford to toy with his unprecedented personal cash flow from the company. If AML is ordered closed today, he’ll be one of the most shattered…no doubt.

Another strategy the company might bring to bear is to reinstitute the thuggish ‘Highway’ tactic employed by the All People’s Congress (APC) under Siaka Stevens, to suppress opposing political views.

It goes without saying that AML has grown too powerful to tame. Imagine the possibility that the company has paid its royalties to government four years in advance to enable the latter balance its budget.

When one takes into perspective what the country is losing granting undue tax breaks to corporate entities and reminiscing the fact that mining activities have taken place in the country over the past 80 years with nothing to show in practical terms, it points out clearly that there is nothing to celebrate insofar as the continued exploitation of our precious mineral wealth is concerned.

Imagine a country that has produced trillions and trillions of dollars worth of qualitative and quantitative minerals still languishing at the very bottom of the human development index and even classified in a recent report as the worst place on earth to die.

This brings me back to SLAJ Northern Chairman, Stanley Bangura, who has been misleading the public into believing that Addax Bioenergy is God-sent.

Is the coming of companies like Addax to occupy vast hectares of our arable lands for periods exceeding five decades to establish massive plantations to produce products like ethanol for exclusive export to the European market, the reintroduction of slavery? This question should be of concern to all well meaning Sierra Leoneans.

The fact remains that such huge plantations have no space in Europe for instance and therefore attention is turned to countries like Sierra Leone where companies such as Addax Bioenergy are given the leverage to take advantage of weak laws, cheap labour, conducive weather condition and untapped international business treaties including the free trade agreement.

Stanley should be mindful of the fact that in those days, our brothers and sisters were taken overseas to work the plantations as unpaid slaves. Now the same plantations are being brought right to our doorsteps and shortsighted guys like him think we should blanketly celebrate.

I refuse to celebrate.

SLAJ boss turns Addax consultant

SLAJ Regional Chairman turns Addax Media Consultant

By Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

The Northern Region Chairman of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), Stanley Bangura, has taken a job with Addax Bioenergy Limited as Media Consultant, with roughly $600 as his monthly pay package.

Rumours about Stanley Bangura´s new job have been going round for a long time but there had been no independent confirmation until recently when the man himself broke the ice while participating in a pro-Addax radio talk show on Radio Mankneh in Makeni.

During the said radio broadcast, Mr. Bangura, after introducing himself as media consultant for Addax, went on to shower praises on the company and referred to it as God-sent.

Many observers including journalists and civil society activists in Makeni and beyond consider Mr. Bangura´s new role with Addax as a conflict of interest and sheer disgrace to the profession, while he continues to serve as SLAJ regional chairman.

In view of this, concerned journalists in Makeni have started putting modalities in place to force Mr. Bangura to resign from his position in SLAJ ahead of the organization´s 2013 biennial conference. The said journalists have sounded the view that they no longer trust him to lead them.

Mr. Stanley Bangura as SLAJ regional chairman has been promoting the operations of Addax Bioenergy and even coordinating and chairing press conferences and other media/community engagements organized by the company in addition to circulating pro-Addax articles to newspapers and radio stations on commission.

Reports indicate that Mr. Bangura has been misusing his office as SLAJ regional chairman in his poise to promote the interest of Addax by using the SLAJ regional office as an assemble point for journalists going on Addax engagements.

Mr. Stanley Bangura in an article defending Addax and published worldwide with his byline, attempted to discredit the Makeni based Sierra Leone Right to Food Network (SiLNoRF) and its international partners over an independent study report in which very serious revelations were made regarding the adverse economic, social and cultural effects of the Addax project on the lives of the people directly affected.

Mr. Bangura is also part of a group called Civil Society Organizations for Peace and Development (CSOPAD), a group wildly believed to be an appendage of Addax. He is also said to have openly declared for the ruling All People´s Congress (APC), with plans to run for a political office. 

This unprofessional conduct by the SLAJ northern region chairman has been complained to the SLAJ headquarters in Freetown on a number of occasions without any action taken. Some reports indicate that Mr. Stanley Bangura is a blue eye boy of SLAJ President Umuru Fofanah, and is therefore well protected.

Meanwhile, Radio Mankneh FM 95.1, a renowned community broadcasting network, has been dubbed as a pro-Addax establishment and accused of suppressing radical views about the company.

There have reportedly been cases wherein ongoing radio talk shows by civil society organizations critical of Addax have been stopped halfway and also cases wherein panelists have been strictly warned not to touch on Addax.

The Addax project is currently a controversial issue in the Makeni general area as apart from the fact that the persons directly affected are yet to be fully convinced that it will contribute positively to their socio/economic salvation, the negative effects of the operations of the company have already started inflicting wounds in the minds of the people.

“The role of the media and civil society is crucial if only to get Addax to behave responsibly”, said Emmanuel Conteh (Pa Massim), who happens to be the Chiefdom Speaker of Bombali Shebora Chiefdom.   

ACC gives Julius Spencer a sacred cow treatment

I Rest My Case!!!

Giving Julius Spencer a sacred cow treatment

With Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

After a couple of months since the 50^th Year Anniversary Organizing Committee experienced a major shake-up following claims of corruption and the ensuing investigation into the matter by the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC), legal proceedings have finally been instituted against the prime suspects Dr. William Conteh, the former Executive Chairman of the committee, Yeniva Sesay-Sogbeh, former Executive Secretary and a little known about businessman, Victor Cole.

Though a right step in the right direction, yet the ACC move has been dismissed by many observers as inconclusive, given that Dr. Julius Spencer, a former member of the committee widely believed to have been involved in a conflict of interest scam, was spared.

It could be noted that when the $25 million dollars projected budget for the 50th Year Anniversary Committee came under the spotlight, it was Dr. Julius Spencer who went on air to launch a fierce defence.

While the rest of the public felt that given the country’s weak financial standing such an amount was enormous, Dr. Spencer spoke otherwise, referring to the $25 million dollars as being quite reasonable.

According to Dr. Spencer, the amount in question was just enough for the kind of activities lined up for the celebrations and even went off his way to state rather irresponsibly that “That amount is what some men take from their back pockets and give to their girlfriends”.

Barely two weeks afterwards, rumours started going round that officials of the committee were busy strategising plans to chop the monies entrusted to them for the jubilee.

One such rumour that remains unchallenged even now was that Dr. Spencer lobbied his colleagues at the committee to grant his consultancy firm a whopping $800,000 (eight hundred thousand dollars) fireworks contract.

Following widespread media bashing, Dr. Spencer resigned from the committee. This was immediately followed by an ACC summoning of Dr. Spencer who as a result of the investigation, was reportedly ordered to surrender his national passport until further notice.

It therefore came as a big surprise that despite the evidence of a conflict of interest against Dr. Spencer, the ACC labelled him guiltless.

Some critics have referred to the ACC indictment of the trio as a clear show of selective justice amidst public rancour, and some people have even concluded that the matter has consequently lost its taste.

There is yet no clue as to why the ACC couldn’t see a reason to indict Dr. Spencer, but rumours indicate that he might be used as a prosecution witness against his former colleagues that are now standing trail.

Whatever testimony Dr. Spencer will give in the trail remains to be heard, although it is clear that he will apply much craftiness inorder to free his entangled head. But whether such craftiness will be enough to change public perception against him, is another issue altogether.

$800,000 is by no means a small amount considering the fact that less than 10 per cent of Sierra Leoneans witnessed the fireworks if at all, and besides, many people feel very strongly that the event was of no value and therefore a mere waste of state funds.

The fact that Dr. Spencer could not be held liable for his irrational comment regarding the $25 million dollars, only leaves a room for people placed in positions of trust to make irresponsible statements in the face of suspicious or difficult situations and walk away free.

Looking at Dr. Spencer, it is obvious that he doesn’t worth $25 million dollars at all. For him therefore to have suggested that it is that very amount that some foolish men give as love gift to their girlfriends only implies that he was out of his mind when he made that unfortunate remark.

When a man of such a stature makes such a remark, he gives the impression that he himself has what it takes to give $25 million dollars to his girlfriend…just like that. I believe not even his wife was pleased with such a flimsy statement.

At the end of the day what happened? He masterminded the granting of a huge contract to himself, and was going to device other strategies to chop more money from the $25 million dollars budget, had what was clearly a deep secret not leaked out.

It’s hard for anyone to believe that Dr. Spencer hasn’t a serious case to answer given the proven fact that his firm secured a contract from the committee of which he himself was a member and in fact I’m told that at the time of granting that particular contract, Dr. Spencer was acting chairman of the committee.

It’s now up to the ACC to really prove to the people of this country and the world at large that indeed Dr. Spencer is not in any way guilty of an offence under the Anti Corruption Act.

Take for example the matter against the former Minister of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sheku Koroma, who was roped by the ACC on charges relating to abuse of office and procurement malpractice. The former minister is said to have influenced the awarding of a contract to a close associate, for which he was not only sacked but exposed to public shame and even made to pay a huge fine to the state.

Given that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, it goes without saying that Dr. Spencer was serving in a government appointment at the time he influenced the awarding of the fireworks contract to his private firm, and therefore should likewise not go scotch free.

Putting the foregoing into perspective, it is clearly not just enough for the ACC to say that it doesn’t have a case to prove against Dr. Spencer. What are the relevant portions in the ACC act that exonerate Dr. Spencer from being prosecuted and made to return to the state the amount involved in the flawed contract?

If the ACC cannot defend the fact that the contract in question wouldn’t have been granted to Dr. Spencer’s firm hadn’t him been a member of the jubilee committee, then it has no excuse for failing to equally institute legal action against him.

As mentioned earlier, it is hard for anyone to believe that Dr. Spencer has no case to answer, and because of that, many people are now waiting to see what role he will play in the prosecution of those indicted in relation to the misappropriation of funds meant for the much drummed about 50^th year anniversary festivities.

The question that remains unanswered is how could the ACC indict businessman Victor Cole who secured a $ 60,000 USD contract for the supply of Toyota Land cruisers to the committee, and not indict Dr. Spencer who being a member of the very committee influenced a bigger contract involving the sum of 800,000 USD?

For me personally, this in itself is an indictment on the ACC and like many other well meaning Sierra Leoneans, I’m beginning to lose faith in the leadership of that all-important commission.

I ‘m very confident that if a perception survey is conducted today on the matter under review, neither the ACC nor Dr. Spencer will come out clean. No surprises therefore that calls have been made for the ACC boss to step down. I add my voice to those calls, and do here want to take a step further by calling for the reversal of the ACC indictment of the trio so as to give way for fresh investigation into the matter which as it stands, has already been seriously jeopardized by the non indictment of Dr. Spencer, for whom I have no malice.

I rest my case!!!   

Ishmael Beah doles out scholarships

Ishmael Beah Foundation doles out 100 scholarships

By Theophilus S. Gbenda

The Ishmael Beah Foundation (IBF), a private charity dedicated towards helping children and youth affected by war reintegrate into society and improve their lives through education, has awarded 100 scholarships to primary, secondary, tech voc and university students across the country.

The IBF which seeks to create financing, educational and vocational opportunities for children and youths so that they can be empowered and choose a life free of conflict, hopes to achieve its objective through providing scholarships, creating literacy and study corners to beneficiaries as a way of enabling them take charge of their lives and become self-reliant in the future.

The IBF scholarship scheme was introduced in 2009 with 50 students across the country targeted. The total number of beneficiaries for the 2011/2012 academic year is 100.

The IBF is managed by the Tides Foundation in the United States of America (USA), with the Community Advocacy and Development Movement (CADEM) being its focal and local partner in Sierra Leone.

At a press conference organized to kick-start the cash payment of the scholarships to grantees, the Executive Director of CADEM, Leslie Nestor Mboka, said “This is a continuation of what we have been doing over the past two academic years”. 

Giving a brief background of the IBF, Mr. Leslie Mboka explained that it all boils around a Sierra Leonean former child soldier named Ishmael Beah, who following the publication of a book titled ‘A long way gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier’, cataloguing the experiences gained and the pains suffered during the years or war and instability, attracted an unprecedented fame and attention worldwide.

Mindful of the fact that his country is still haunted by the scars of a bloody civil war that left thousands maimed and killed, and thousands more rendered either physically or psychologically displaced, Ishmael Beah now based in the United Stated of America and serving as a distinguished UINCEF goodwill ambassador, deemed it fit to establish the scholarship scheme to provide educational and training assistance to less fortunate young Sierra Leoneans who, one way or the other, may have been affected by the 11 year- old armed insurgency.

Mr. Mboka said the scheme is catering for limited target beneficiaries because the intention is to ensure that the grants awarded are sufficient enough to take care of the greater part of the educational needs of grantees such as the complete payment of tuition fees, books, uniform and so on.

 On this note, he said 30 primary school pupils each receiving Le 600,000 (Six Hundred Thousand Leones, 30 secondary school pupils each receiving Le 900,000 (Nine Hundred Thousand Leones), 20 tech-voc students each receiving Le 1,800,000 (One Million Eight Hundred Thousand Leones) and 20 university students each receiving Le 3,000,000 (Three Million Leones), will be targeted in the current grant awards.

According to Mr. Mboka, the beneficiaries of the scheme were selected by an independent panel comprising of various stakeholders, adding that those selected will benefit from the scheme as long as they continue to excel in their skills trainings and academic work.

“Four beneficiaries of the scheme, two from the Njala University, Brima Swarray and Michael Bassie and two Women from two tech- voc institutions in the southern region of the country, are graduating this year”, Mr. Mboka said with pride, stressing that “Who knows, some of our graduating beneficiaries will one day become possible donors of this grant scheme”.

Mr. Mboka went on to state that CADEM is working in partnership with other local civil society organizations like the Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in the eastern province, the Coordination of Active Peace and Endowment (CAPE-SL) in the southern province and the Centre for Democracy and Human Rights in the northern province to implement the awards scheme.

 

    

  

  

 

Steve Gaojia's appointment is strategic indeed

I Rest My Case!!!

Steve Gaojia’s appointment

… A strategic one indeed!

With Theophilus Sahr Gbenda

When I first heard about the appointment of Steve Gaojia to the position of Minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs, replacing the sacked Dr. Dennis Sandy, I wasted no time coming to the conclusion that President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has made yet another strategic appointment, insofar as putting together a formidable team is concerned.

The question is, ‘Why Steve Gaojia? Another question would be, ‘Why from the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC)’?

As far as I am concerned, the PMDC has severed its relationship with the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) long ago, and currently, a very bad blood exists between the two onetime bed fellows, to an extent that the latter is no longer under any obligation to include members of the former in its cabinet.

When Dr. Dennis Sandy, former Minister of Social Welfare Gender and Children’s Affairs was axed from the cabinet, I referred to the move as being well placed, given the implications attached to the minus zero per cent rating of the performance of President Ernest Bai Koroma since assuming office by no less a person than PMDC’s Charles Francis Margai, his onetime strongest ally, and also given that Dr. Sandy did not join other PMDC appointed ministers serving in government and PMDC parliamentarians to dissociate themselves from what in my honest view was an ill-thought statement all together.

The appointment therefore of another PMDC man, be it Steve Gaojia or whoever to fill in the vacant position, makes clear the reason for the earlier decision to sack Dr. Dennis Sandy, whose crime was because he failed to distant himself from Margai’s unfortunate outburst, and not as a result of incompetence.

Given the foregoing, one can simply state that Steve Gaojia’s appointment is nothing short of a suspicious move aimed at deepening the current infighting in the ranks of the PMDC.

The simple point I am trying to make is that while Dr. Sandy was sacked because he was deemed to have endorsed Charles Margai’s utterance at the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) national convention in Freetown, Steve Gaojia was appointment in his replacement because he is currently the sole arch rival of Charles Margai.

The appointment of Steve Gaojia comes at a time when the PMDC is effectively split into two factions, one headed by Charles Margai and the other headed by Steve Gaojia himself. Both factions are currently battling in court over the suspension of certain prominent executive members of the party.

As a matter of fact, President Ernest Koroma worked directly with the suspended Acting Chairman of the PMDC, Bai Sama Sankoh and his gang including William Tucker, the suspended Secretary General, Miniru Koroma, the suspended Public Relations Officer and Kenie Fomolu, the suspended Financial Secretary, to seek some semblance of legitimacy for Steve Gaojia’s appointment.

Little wonder why when Steve Gaojia in a press interview stated that his appointment was sanctioned or endorsed by the PMDC leadership, the Charles Margai-led faction responded in the contrary, arguing that Steve Gaojia will be representing himself as a Sierra Leonean in the cabinet, and not the PMDC as an autonomous political party.

President Koroma’s appointment of Steve Gaojia, could therefore be likened to the United States of America (USA), France, United Kingdom and the United Nations (UN) backing of rebels against the former Libyan Leader Colonel Ghaddafi, who was subsequently murdered in a fashion the foreign backers had designed.

President Koroma wouldn’t have thought of appointing Steve Gaojia to that sensitive position, without first weighing in and out the impact such an appointment will have on the current impasse in the PMDC and of course on his much desired re-election bid.

Because Steve Gaojia is the sole challenger of Charles Margai for the leadership of the party that has clearly lost its unprecedented 2007 momentum, all those rightfully rebelling against Margai have thrown their weights behind him.

With this, President Koroma no doubt has a lot to gain from the appointment of Steve Gaojia. The emphasis therefore is not in any way on performance, but on making a political gain.

Steve Gaojia, in my humble estimation, is a promising upcoming politician; not a shrewd one at this point. Call him a space finder, if you like. If he is anything on the contrary, then I see no reason why he should accept what I will dismiss as a distractive appointment, when he has a big fight at hand.

Three weeks before his surprised appointment, I had an engagement with him for a couple of hours, here in Freetown. During our discussion, he told me his vision is to revolutionalize the PMDC so as to regain its lost momentum and subsequently make a good showing in the 2012 general elections.

I wonder whether with this short-cut and thought provoking appointment, Steve will stay focused, now that he clearly has a divided attention. I pumped into him a couple of hours ago, and I said congratulation to him, rather disingenuously. His response was, “Oh thank you Theo, and God bless you”. That tells it all.

Steve Gaojia first came into the political lime line when in 2008 he vested interest in becoming the leader and presidential candidate of the PMDC.  Although he wasn’t properly placed at the time to clinch victory, he was however considered a force to reckon with.

Much to the surprise of many observers, Steve Gaojia stepped out of the race, after having vowed against doing such, and as a result making it easier for Charles Margai to steal the show.

Accordingly, it was President Koroma himself who prevailed on Steve Gaojia to step down, and his stepping down is directly linked to the problems the party is facing today.

Now again, Steve Gaojia has accepted an inducing ministerial offer, which by all indications is skewed towards protracting the problems affecting the PMDC. You can call it a move aimed at further weakening the PMDC, in outright retaliation for the minus zero per cent rating earlier mentioned.

It might also be that President Koroma’s choice of Steve Gaojia is a way of rendering a hand of support to the legitimate rebels so as to enable them triumph over Margai, in appreciation to the party for his 2007 presidential victory.

While the Margai faction sees the appointment in question as a move aimed at adding salt to an injury, the legitimate rebels see it as a major boost to their unrelenting bid of subjecting the former to an irresistible humiliation.

To this note, the legitimate rebels no doubt will use the occasion of the parliamentary approval of Steve Gaojia as an opportunity to demonstrate their strength, by ensuring that they come out in their numbers, and of course in their PMDC party colours.

Steve Gaojia has a chance of clinching the PMDC leadership from Charles Margai. This is so because Margai has lost grips of the party, and his current dealing with the SLPP seen as an indication that he cannot be relied upon or underestimated insofar as the politics of Sierra Leone is concerned.

For Margai to have given a minus zero rating to President Koroma and at the same time practically selling out to the SLPP, the party he helped defeat, only means that his move to join forces with the APC has landed him in deep regret.

Concerned that allowing Margai to take away all his PMDC followers to the SLPP in an event of a run-off in the 2012 elections will be a major political risk, was the reason why President Koroma thought it more than fit to hook up with the rebel faction, by appointing its kingpin, Steve Gaojia, into his cabinet.

Meanwhile, the PMDC is clearly in a difficult situation, having lost most of its prominent members including the likes of Honourable Dauda Tombo Bangura, Femi Hebron, Chief Mohamed Benson Suwu, Chief Lamin Vonjo, Emmanuel Grant, Ansu Lansana, Pa Momo-Fofana, Moijue Kai-Kai, Arrow Bockarie, Teddy Foday Musa, Sidi Yayah Tunis, Sylvester Swarray, Dr. Baimba Kamara to name a few.

There is also the United Democratic Movement (UDM) of the expelled former chairman of the PMDC, Mohamed Bangura, who has so far succeeded in emptying the party of a substantial number of its youth membership in particular.

It is however hoped that with the exit of Margai, the outright dictator, certain members of the party who have left, will see reason to return so as to keep the party’s dream of positive change alive.

 I rest my case!!!