La Ronda,

“The nicer the nice, the higher the price
This is what you pay for what you need
The higher the price, the nicer the nice
Jealous people like to see you bleed” (Somebody’s watching you)

Your are brimming over with overconfidence and boasting about it too.  

Remember: God resists the proud and haughty

You may hope and you may pray, you may trust in the Lord ( Bitachon / tawakkul) but you must also be aware of this old saying, as Aretha sings in When the battle is over, “you should never count your chickens before your eggs get hatched”  - because Maada  Bio and   Samura Kamara, two soldiers of Jesus, are also praying with all their might, to win this election. In a sense, if you want to look at it this way, it’s the adherents of Jesus versus the thorn in their flesh, this time a follower of Rasulullah, sallallahu alayhi wa salaam, and  you can thank your Creator that we don’t have a religion problem in Sierra leone, unilike, Nigeria, Egypt etc.

Bitachon, tawakkul also has it’s provisos, a hadith of the Prophet of Islam ( S.A.W.) is “ Trust in the Almighty but don’t forget to tie your camel” and in war time, just as Oliver Cromwell put it  , “Trust in the Lord but don’t forget to keep your gunpowder dry !”   

You believe in the rule of law don’t you? In which case you will all have to wait and learn how  Sierra Leone’s Supreme Court applies the strict letter of the law in determining Alhaji Yumkella’s eligibility when it comes to his running for the Saro presidency. Assuming he is given the green light to go ahead, then the greater your expectations the greater will be your disappointment if Yumkella tote bokit in this election , given that  both the APC and the SLPP have a loyal, unflinching 30% support base and it’s the remaining 40% that’s up for grabs - at least that’s what I read  somewhere : Now if you think that Yumkella is going to grab all of that 40% and steal 11%  each from the APC and the SLPP, to get the required minimum of 51% in the first or second round, then  hadn’t you and they better think again?

There are reconfigurations that are likely/ unlikely if it goes to a second round, for the first Suso president of Sierra Leone, unpredictable at the moment...

In the absence of any reliable ( scientific) opinion polls , a lot of strongly opinionated wishful thinking is all that we have to go by  until they finish counting the ballots cast on March 7th, 2018.

But looka here : Chernoh Alpha M. Bah having a go at being a soothsayer ( of course, he believes that Muhammad  and not Karl Marx is the last prophet , so he is not prophesying  when he writes the following:

“ The APC know that Kandeh Yumkellah does not stand a chance to win the upcoming elections. The APC is only fighting against Yumkellah as part of a plan to stop a possible Maada Bio presidency, and they see Yumkellah’s presence in the polls as a factor that favors the SLPP’s chances since the NGC’s support is largely in the west and northern parts of Sierra Leone.” You may read on

About the rule of law, I should like to add that whereas in South Africa, Jacob Zuma is facing 783 counts of fraud, corruption and money-laundering , in Sierra Leone, it’s just the rumour mill “ blowing breeze”  and maybe another case of wishful thinking , because and no charges have been brought against, the APC’s king of kings...

Bra Enviable,

Please permit me this space to complain, just a little. You are not being fair to me.

Oh these monikers, behind which some people hide and shoot! You give me the impression that you are a seasoned politician and by skilfull means, I mean by wrongfully accusing me you’ve got me into a corner from which I have no other choice but  to defend myself by making the following quite clean and clear so that you don’t further accuse me of condoning or aiding and abetting pernicious corruption and the usual misuse of “power” , of their office, call it what you may, to “graze” where they are tethered, where corruption blooms like grass and  to ” taste” what the good for nothing criminals call their “entitlements” , “the fruits of office”

I didn’t make any “ untruthful statement”  - and heaven forbid that I should support a tyrant or  a corrupt dictator who prides himself on being above the law ; as a matter of fact I am the one challenging you - especially you on the ground ( in Sierra Leone) when I more or less ask how come it’s 783 charges that have been brought against South Africa’s  Jacob Zuma, with  the implied question in the form of a statement : “ no charges have been brought against, the APC’s king of kings…” ???

Whilst all this corruption is supposed to be ongoing

directly under your noses, Cocorioko and other mouthpieces of his master’s voice

have been busy crowing -.

like Jesus sitting on the right hand side of his Father in Heaven, flashing pictures showing  King  Ernest Bai Koroma sitting right next to  Barack Obama for dinner at the White House  and advertising such photographs of “Obama’s favourite African president”  as evidence of  O’Bai’s status in the international community. These photographs which are supposed to legitimise / certify O’Bai’s democratic credentials are calculated to fully nullify your last paragraph and to thereby deceive the poor, innocent, long-suffering people of Sierra Leone...

Reminds me of this joke:

“ A member of one synagogue said to a member of another ,

“Our wonderful rabbi talks daily with the Almighty!”

“ How do you know?” asked the other man

“ He told me!”

“ He might have been lying!”

“ Nonsense !  Do you think that the Almighty would be talking daily with a liar?”

Talking about skillful means, here’s another cause for worry : just because the Electoral Commission certified  Yumkella’s eligibility to contest the presidential elections we are taking the integrity of that Commission as for granted. The sorry fact is that without The Rule of Law Sierra Leone is going nowhere,  and after all this hullabaloo , who is it that’s going to  certify the credibility of what is supposed to be a free and fair election?  

Skillful means number 2:

Obasanjo having made his spiel  - ( does he know anything about the other candidates?) his own credibility thereby assured, when, as an election observer, he declares that the elections were free and fair, on which grounds are you going to challenge him?  Surely not for that which he did not see and did not hear?

Of course, if even just a few of your allegations are true then I assume that  O’bai  and his crown prince are going to fight tooth and nail ( by hook or crook) to win the presidential election, failing which, I’m sure that Bio especially would be all steamed up ( real  ZEAL) to bring his former president to Justice , should he Bio be declared the Winner…

It’s 7.10  am in Stockholm and I’m now going to pray a little and then go to bed.

At this point I’m really missing Mohamed K Kutubu who I’m sure would be shooting from the hip at anything APC that moves  - and I do hope that I have not just stirred the hornet’s nest.

Two days ago was the birthday of my POW classmate Nestor Cummings-John. I wish that he was here to help give a true picture of what the hell is going on over there.

What seems to be lacking is Civil Courage such as that displayed by my neighbour in Ghana,  Eboe Hutchful  in 1970, when he challenged President Kofi Busia´s use of a Mercedes Benz  etc. and accused Mr. President of having “ left his brains in Oxford”.  This happened just around the time that Busia was challenging Ghana's, judiciary. But what is the point of this example  anyway, as you have rightly pointed out the climate in Sierra Leone is not that democratic and of course , Sierra leone is not Ghana, has never been nor is  Ernest bai Koroma, Busia

Civil courage, civil disobedience not by a few, but by many may be what is required and if the elections are rigged, as Brer Bio has already told us, he is not going to take it lying down, Amen......

I hear this question ringing in my ear ; For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his soul?