It is told to us in the Diaspora that Ernest Bai Koroma is well liked in Freetown (mark, I said Freetown), the capital city of Sierra Leone. The only reason for this fake affair with EBK is the spurious notion of the 24/7 electricity supply. In public, the citizenry lauds the availability of light, and in the dark when the lights go out the Freetownians are quick to point out that “we nor dai eat light en road”, a tacit and blunt reminder that in Sierra Leone proper and in general, that electricity is all good but the real need in Sierra Leone at present  is food availability and sufficiency. In Freetown, they have light agreed, but they need food to eat. They need clean streets; they need better schools. The youths need jobs, and the women need equity with their counter parts as the 50/50 notion preaches.

I am getting ahead of myself here. The Sierra Leone Peoples Party will get on the soap box and preach this to ALL Sierra Leoneans when we elect our Flag bearer.  The SLPP members are law abiding people and the party believes in peaceful co-existence. In the very recent past, SLPP women have been brutalized and raped.  The SLPP leadership has been brutalized and their property destroyed.

My purpose for this piece is to warn the President of Sierra Leone to show GRACE, MATURITY, WISDOM and CIVILITY. When Osman Boie Kamara wanted to showcase his flag-bearer candidacy, he sought permission from the Inspector-General of Police.  (I wonder if EBK has security advisors). He foolishly chose that Saturday afternoon to be bored and therefore needed a joy ride into the city from the safety of his State lodgings in Hill station, far removed from the Sani  Abacha street neighborhood where OBK and his supporters were marching lawfully. If the president of Sierra Leone was bored  and needed a joy ride at the expense of the state, why not towards the beach front? Why not play a game of tennis at the military brigade in Wilberforce?  But he deftly and dumbly chose OBK’s parade route. His unusually heavy security obstructed the joy and civility of a citizenry participating in democracy.

Long before the March 5th 2011, Sierra Leone Peoples Party primary elections, I write to suggest to EBK and his handlers to plan some play event for him during the weekend of March 4, 2011. His supporters, his security, his APC fans, and the stakeholders must warm him to stay far away from the area of the city where the delegates’ conference is going to be held.  It is bad enough that he obstructed the well planned parade route of OBK and the heavy-handed incivility that his police detail and security showed on that day.  But as usual, the SLPP supporters displayed maturity, civility and grace. In turn, I suggest to EBK to manifest, exhibit grace, maturity, wisdom and civility.