Ingratitude is Monstrous: A reaction to Mr. Aziz Nabe’s response to the article “Sierra Leone Democracy Requires More Than a Leadership Change”!

It is not often that I would indulge in addressing a brother who clearly is down and out on his knees due to a self-inflicted, misguided and blind party loyalty induced diatribe which caused him to foolishly publish threats against the Ambassador of the United States in Sierra Leone, while performing her official duties and more recently threaten to unleash violence against any opposition to APC governance in his article in Patriotic Vanguard titled “Provocation is next to madness”.

I however would be remiss not to comment on a recent response,  by this APC party leader,  albeit verbal thug and mouthpiece,  Mr. Mohamed Aziz Nabe, a notoriously rabid but now exposed unrepentant irrational  intellectual lightweight and blind APC supporter in New Jersey to my balanced analysis and expose on Sierra Leone’s democracy, titled “Sierra Leone Democracy Requires More Than a Leadership Change”, published by the international website : www.articlesbase.com ; Patriotic Vanguard (December 29, 2008) and several online and local Sierra Leone newspapers.

Mr. Nabe’s response, published at the end of January, 2009 by the APC Times, Cocorioko Newspaper, Patriotic Vanguard and other online sites, while I was on a 6-week vacation in Sierra Leone has only recently been brought to my attention and glaringly highlights the magnitude of the challenges confronting change and the agents of change in our country.

Mr. Nabe’s insinuation that President Koroma’s APC administration and policies should be beyond reproach and analysis fly’s in the face of every tenet of accountability, transparency and democratic values that leaders entrusted with the peoples trust are held; values still very much lacking in our nation’s governance and which he clearly seeks to ensure does not prevail due to blind allegiance to party at the expense of the nation.   

I am however not surprised as this mentality appears to be very widespread in APC circles in Freetown, where critical analysis and constructive criticism of policies and programs is erroneously equated with opposition.   As an example, while recently in Freetown I was labeled as “critical” by some members of the APC government, as a result of several insurance related articles and proposals advocating change I had previously advocated.  Mr. Nabe is only serving as an echo chamber for his masters.  

As I indicated in the article, “democracy in Sierra Leone is being marred by a change of leadership syndrome that continues to be driven predominantly by tribal, regional and other considerations. This status quo has resulted in the current stagnation, exhibited in all facets of national endeavor that continues impeding the concept of continuous development desired for upward spiral of growth in nations”.

Mr. Nabe’s blind loyalty to the party is thus not only retrogressive, backward thinking and a threat to our nation’s democracy, akin to the old APC of Siaka Stevens which imposed a one-party APC oligarchy in our nation through violence, political intimidation and a “group- think” philosophy, which people of Mr. Nabe’s ilk are currently propagating in our body-politic, but moreover further exposes his basic misunderstanding of why the APC and President Koroma were elected in 2007.

 As is publicly known in Sierra Leone and overseas, in spite of police brutality and incarceration at the infamous Clarkson Hall at Pademba Road prisons in 1980 at the hands of the APC government of Siaka Stevens for daring to advocate change for our country, I unlike Mr. Nabe, during the elections and run-off elections in 2007 went to Sierra Leone and stayed an aggregate of 5 months campaigning for change resulting in the ultimate outcome that ushered the APC to power. It is thus against this backdrop that I find Mr. Nabe’s attacks against me not only as a self-serving effort at ingratiating himself to his masters but very nauseating and regrettable.

 For I am sure if Mr. Nabe were previously apprised of the role some of us played despite the efforts of very powerful people in our society to not only appeal to our collective basest instincts, which we soundly rejected in favor of change, he would not be espousing the sort of attacks against me or attempting to besmirch my reputation. Where was Mr. Nabe and others of his ilk who have since flocked into Freetown in search of positions while we were campaigning in Pujehun, Potoru, Freetown, Moyamba, Tiaama, Makeni, Bo, Kenema, Blama, Segbwema and enroute to Kailahun and undergoing vicious attacks from the SLPP?

For starters, Mr. Nabe needs to be reminded that President Koroma is a colleague of mine, whom I worked with for 4 years from 1981 to 1985, first at the claims department at the National Insurance Company (NIC) and subsequently at the marine department in Freetown. While he served as the Assistant Claims Manager I concurrently was the Superintendent in the Marine Underwriting Department until I travelled to the United States in 1985. I therefore refuse to be schooled by Mr. Nabe in the thinking of President Koroma and or any of the other insurance professionals in his government, all of whom I was privileged to have worked with as colleagues. 

Finally, having just returned from Sierra Leone, I can emphatically state that the level of tribal polarization permeating our country is a cause for concern and unless addressed in the short term through proactive measures of national inclusion and cohesion the nation risks being torn asunder. We in the PMDC party decided on an alliance with the APC party in 2007, in part in an effort at breaking the barriers of tribalism and regionalism in our body-politic, which we felt had hindered development of our nation.

However, it is regrettable to note that since taking power President Koroma has embarked on enlarging the gulf and schisms between the regions of our beloved country and his recent cabinet reshuffle, according to most political commentators failed to change this growing perception especially in the south and eastern regions of the country.

 President Koroma is clearly a very descent and articulate advocate for the type of change our country needs and I wish him every success in this endeavor, however with people like Mr. Aziz Nabe as his trusted advisers espousing the politics of intimidation, polarization and violence, he risks squandering the enormous goodwill from a majority of Sierra Leoneans.