I am delighted to make a contribution to Bintu today regarding matters arising from my December 2011 resignation from the SLPP as my late March 2012 enrollment in the New APC of President Ernest Koroma.  I trust you'll find it readable.

Some young, inexperienced and poorly informed supporters and relatives of SLPP’s sorry presidential candidate, Juntaman Bio, are totally ignorant of my background.  Yet they are foolish enough to attack me needlessly.  To me, a cheeky attack is usually a great opportunity to teach empty-headed kiddies and other ignoramuses a thing or two about Salone as well as teach real politics to the foolumunkus among their elders.   Here is a current case in point from one Mr. Solomon Bio who jumped into the fray against me yesterday in cyberspace without the appropriate knowledge of my background.  Lumping everybody older than them into one erroneous dragnet is their typical reckless attitude.  So, Mr. Bio got an earful from me.  Now, please read my message to Bio and Co.  Thank you.

"Mr. Solomon Bio, I was never involved in the bastardization of SL politics, as you have erroneously alleged.  I got involved in SL politics only upon the UK's re- imposition of multi-party democracy upon the Bio junta in 1994, a year or so after the mass summary torture and executions of fellow citizens.  Prior to that, I was busy gaining an education, obtaining professional experience and finding my way in business and lawyer's worlds in the USA and elsewhere. 

"I hated the one-party system and stayed out of Sierra Leone for its entire duration. Later, I criticized it resolutely and I am still doing it today.  You might even have noticed that I frequently refer to it as the "Old APC of President Momoh, Minister Bundu and Vice President Banya."  Two of fake brigadier Bio's closest advisers were senior cabinet officials of the Old APC one-party Administrations.  Dr. Sama Banya was Vice President and Dr. Abass Bundu was a cabinet Minister in the Old APC.  And the way the NPRC junta boys conducted junta business, including Bio's pa-o-pa, overnight, highly unconscionable series of bogus military promotions and the accompanying salaries for which none of them was qualified, is precisely typical of the capriciousness that characterized the Old APC’s long mal-administration. 

"You and the cuss-cuss kiddie crew insulting conscientious debaters in cyberspace on behalf of your no-visa, no-USA-visit candidate, must have grown up under that horrible one-party state.  Hence, your bankrupt culture of rudeness, cuss-cuss, your nasty attitudes and your everyday good-for-nothing values are completely at variance with mine.  I grew up in Sierra Leone when she was at her prime as the Athens of West Africa.  You did not.

"You all grew up when Sierra Leone had been ruined or was on the verge of ruination during the ruinous days of the one-party, nation-wrecking governments and brutal boy juntas.  Not everybody fell into that dysfunctional abyss.  EBK did not.  But Bio, his henchmen and supporters did.  If Bio is elected president, Sierra Leone will definitely regress to the backward days of the Old APC and the violent juntas of those kapu-kapu, little killer brutes.  Drs. Abass Bundu and Sama Banya and the surrounding others around your candidate are already at hand to guide young impressionable little Bio how best to land us in hell once again. 

"SLPP's internal governance practice is simply to rely superficially on procedural democratic due process to render a nation-wrecking tribal culture and its preferences far superior to modern substantive democratic due process principles and standards.  Their hidden objective is to guarantee regional tribal hegemony for the elite’s benefit while the people continue with their endless daily struggles.  I know from experience that the party’s elite cares less about you and me.  I will never, ever reconcile with such a dastardly ruse. 

"As I see things, EBK’s New APC has deliberately embarked on the high road to recapture the greatness of the original Athens of West Africa.  It is not going to be easy.  We should all thus change our old-fashioned attitudes, recognize his leadership and give him our support, regardless of age, tribe, gender, region or religion or sexual orientation.

"On the issue of my resignation from your party and my New APC enrollment, one does not need to be a Rhodes scholar to understand and respect my decisions. Simply put, SLPP wanted me but only under Bio and a host of other nation wreckers.  Such was an absolutely no-no for me then, and will be, even for as much as a trillion years or more, everlasting.  The SLPP elite had no idea that after what I had gone through with them, I finally wanted absolutely ‘dondo’ to do with their party.   So I quit, giving my reasons in writing.  The event was well publicized.  You’ve never once responded in any way that I was aware of, nor contacted me except only now via face book but only with a truckload of unnecessary insults. 

"After quitting, I studied the political situation in our extremely unfortunate and hardship country for three full months.  I eventually coldly concluded that EBK's leadership, based on actual achievements in the face of massive difficulties, was a thousand times more superior to Bio's and anything Bio or SLPP can ever offer – unless that party’s elite changes its obsolete mentality and unchain its membership from its stranglehold of nefarious practices.

"On the issue of Senator Kassabaum's seeming appreciation of Bio's most reluctant junta surrender of power to the winner of the 1996 elections, if such an appreciation had been substantively genuine, as you have indicated, rather than normal diplomatic courtesies, how come Bio was unable to use his supposed good name to reach the USA last month after all the fanfare and expense, and even though he had reached as close to the USA as near-by Canada and where he lingered on for days? 

Candidate Bio should now make it plain whether or not he would travel to the USA prior to November 17, 2012 and, if not, why not.  With all good wishes, Mr. Bio!"

Yellow Bata, did I do any wrong by providing my neighbor's phone number and asking for my invitation to the SLPP wake keeping?

Ok bra, I will attend the funeral, and leave you to enjoy the all night peper soup and black boy instead.

But frankly fellas, who can take John Leigh seriously? The ol man is a political dinosaur. He is politically extinct.

This ol clown is a megalomaniac who does not even know his political left from his right. He is always after the honeypot. The man cannot even convince 2 people nationwide to vote for him but still believes he has a chance to become President. President of what Granpa Leigh? A Nursing Home Social Club in bloston perhaps.

This undiplomatic diplomat spent the good part of the last 3 years trading mammy cusses with Sylvia Blyden who he errorneously believes cost him the 2005 primaries where the fool could not even get a single soul to nominate him. Show me anyone dumb enough to spalsh well ove $20,000 on a flawed campiagn and not even get nominated by his campaign manager and 'friends'? can you call this smart? The ol fool spent an inordinate amount of time trading mammy cusses with Sylvia and other kiddos who dared speak the truth to him. He hops on a plane on the eve of the primaries and even his campaign manger did not know his full name.

Now he has switched to the nation wrecking APC prostrating for an appoinment which he will probably never get - because noone trusts this uncouth diplomat who habitually mammy cusses in public.

Here is news for you Paa Leigh - you are probably exactly where you belong - amongst the thieving and cocaine tracking gang called APC. But your goose is cooked because, unlike the tolerant SLPP, ther APC will; not even allow you to run for office in their gang.

Happy retirement - ol fool!

Dear Friends, many thanks for your overall interest in my posting.  I am flattered by your overall interest.  At this point, I will respond to the critiques of Fan of EBK and salone.  Later, I will respond to the more recent ones as time permits.

1.   @Fan of EBK

Herewith are my answers inn chronological sequence to your misguided attacks.

1. Bio was democratically elected by the overwhelming majority of the party's membership - like it or lump it

REBUTTAL. The democracy at the convention was merely procedural, not substantive.  The procedueal part of the voting including the list of voters, the casting of votes, the transparent counting of votes and the announcement of the results, were ok.  Buthow and why delegates decided to vote or not to vote for any particular aspirant was solely on the basis of tribal cultural values rather than according to the rules and standards implicit in substantive democracy.  Below is an e-mail response to a Southern slpp friend agreeing that SLPP select presidential candidates on the basis of African cultural values/native customs rather than applying real democratic principles/standards:

"My Dear Ngor XXXX:

"I agree with you that the choice of baggage-laden, lightweight, killer-kleptocrat Bio as your party's 2012 FB is the product of your tribe's values/native customs.  Your party's delegates merely 'aligned' (i.e. degraded) their western education to harmonize with native standards.  In my view, such preference for antiquated ways is a very foolish approach in the 21st. Century.  The multi-party democracy that we are today enjoying, our national economy, the civil service, passports, our diplomatic service, the military, the police, our educational system, our medical system, jet travel, Mercedes Benz, penicillin, the air conditioner,  etc. did not emanate from native origins; and applying native values in their management will take us way back.  In my view, as long as SLPP elite decides to govern their party on the basis of what you've described below as your "African cultural values and civic ways", (i.e. native traditions), that party will end up with someone just as offensive as your present FB and may not be able to ever govern Sierra Leone again. Your people should change their old-fashioned agrarian village values and ways. That value system is obsolete. It cannot even conceive of ways to provide sufficient food and decent shelter for its practitioners.  Thus, rather than "align" modern ways to "fit" the traditional values of any particular tribe, yours included, you ought to do and advocate the exact opposite: upgrade native ways to modern international value-standards that have been accepted by once-backward nations that are today among the progressive nations of the world. "African values and civic ways" as applied in Bio's case are not the way forward, as you have unfortunately argued. JL”

2. Papay Leigh only managed to poll 2 votes

REBUTTAL: You are quite correct – only two miserable votes after all my love and labors over many, many years.  But you know what happened?  African values/civic ways such as tribal loyalty, family connections, komanehism, deymeaism,  schoolmateism,  circumcision and other secret societies memberships, the sharing of booty, transactional loyalty such as “he paid my school fees” or “he gave me money for food when things were hard for my family”;  Regionalism, threats, intimidation, friendships, favoritism, nepotism, bribes, voodoo-juju are some of the considerations that give vitality to African values voting.  I am poorly qualified to go against any tribesman or boy even if he is a torturer, a sadistic killer, killer, voodooist, thief, human rights abuser, etc.

3. The Party Political Registration Commission did not find anything mysterious or nefarious about Bio's leadership victory

REBUTTAL:  The PPR does not interfere in intra-party elections until a complaint is filed.  No one filed to complain about the FB election.  The PPRC had no need to make any findings.

4. Papay Leigh was in good terms with, and more over spoke very highly of Bio, prior to Bio's clinching of the majority vote.

REBUTTAL:  I was never in good terms with Bio at anytime throughout my entire life, not even for one minute.  Never once have I ever spoken highly of Bio. I despised his sadistic and kleptocratic records and I wrote frequently to castigate his horrific record.   Bio repeatedly made Babu Yey at me public meetings in Washington, DC area when I was ambassador because AFRC was deemed entrenched and I was fighting hard to evict the AFRC junta while Bio was supporting Johnny Paul Koroma and Foday Sankoh.

2.   @Salone 

My past pronouncements against APC and EBK are not the reasons for their criticisms of me at all.  My resignation and enrollment in APC hurt the SLPP very badly and they were caught off guard – and they know it.  The use of my anti-APC pronouncements as the basis of their complaints is merely an excuse to justify their anger without exposing their hurt.  I criticized only the Old APC in a serious way but was most gentle with EBK.  (I have the video).  SLPP does not recognize the distinction between Old and New APC, like I do.  For 3 full months, I studied the two and saw the huge differences. Going over to APC has badly damaged SLPP and helped the APC. No doubt about this.  In fact, many expect EBK to win at least 60% or more of the vote in the First Round with the SLPP winning no more than 35 seats in parliament and APC winning the rest but for 5 seats going to the PMDC.  APC is going to win all the seats in the West and North as well as some in the Southeast.

My going over to NDA or PMDC or sitting at home keeping was totally out of the question and would have been of positive little impact but of great stupidity.  Bio and his ex-sobels and ex-combatants would have gained from my silence.  I never wanted those kinds of people to ever benefit for my actions or from my non-action.  I wanted my switch to have an impact and I believe it did. Remember, evil prevails when good men keep silent!

There is also the cultural embarrassment of me preferring Northerners to the people of my motherland.  But they never thought of such when they gave me the Third Degree.  By the way, many responsible SLPPers, including ex-ministers and ex-elected officials  have told me that I was justified in resigning.

Lastly, not all APCers like me.  A good number were my enemies during the AFRC-RUF junta period but everyone acknowledged that I am a first class public servant whose presence in their party will be helpful to APC.

Wow! That is about the most arrogant and bigoted explication I have ever read. So you think everyone at the convention, while conceding democratic process was observed, voted based on their "African cultural values?" You give us an email from an alleged and un-named fellow arrogant bigot to as evidence to confirm this view.

The colonial mentality is simply striking! If a white person wrote with such contempt for African cultural values he would be categorically denounced as a racist. If a college student in the US wrote with such condemnatory bias and sense of superiority as you, they would be failed for uncritical and judgemental thinking that privileged their own culture over others.

Now it is clear why you got no votes. You are an outsider who disparages people, traditions, and culture.

What a damn disgrace.