This is a repost from a prominent whataapp group: UNBECOMING A PRESIDENT!! VP SAM SUMANA AND HIS ATROCITIES By Tamba Nyinah In Sierra Leone, the path to president from vice president is elusive if not mysterious. Since Independence in 1961, ascending to presidency has been the primrose path for VPs in this small West African nation. And such is how unbecoming a president has become a tradition here. Evidently, VPs before President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma’s Sam Sumana have been unsuitable or nonconformists to attitude or behaviour: History has it that Dr. Siaka Stevens’ S.I. Koroma was not suitable due to ill health; Joseph Saidu Momoh’s Francis Minah was charged with treason and convicted; Tejan Kabbah’s Joe Demby was removed for nonconformity and finally, Berewa unlike S.I. Koroma was unsuitable because of non-saleability. And President Koroma’s VP Samsumana, at face value seems to be on the same primrose path as those before him – and if he continues down that path, we may not be able to know if his true value is worth more than his manifest face value because he may end up like one of the lots before him. VP Samsumana was a little known man in politics who, according to his estranged foreign business partners, “was a park attendant in the United State before he attracted our attention in mining business with him in Kono district.” His ascendance to power was sudden, which is now ebbing away faster than it surged. The foregoing is deep-rooted mainly in the mistrust between him and the president exacerbated by a long standing chaotic relationship with a key political stakeholder from Kono district. Kono is VP Samsumana’s political base from where the short-lived admirable popularity fomented into the sudden power to become the VP. And the estranged key political stakeholder is Hon. Diana Konomanyi, Minister of Local Governments and Rural Development. As a respected and powerful power broker of the All Peoples Congress (APC), Diana was able to bring Samsumana in from a small-scale mining activity into politics against all odds. Before that, it may also not be untrue that VP Samsumana was not even a card carrying member of the APC. Though, VP Samsumana’s father, late Chief Samsumana, was a staunch supporter of the APC who had been a political detainee of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) then before his death, the records Diana, who does not take ‘no’ for an answer, would awaken to find an entry point into the APC for VP Samsumana. Indeed big wigs of the Party say that Diana almost imposed VP upon them as running mate to President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma with relative ease. Better yet, another rumour exists that Diana was very instrumental in settling the issue of VP’s controversial university degree saga – that he had been accused of presenting a falsified document for a university degree to meet the requirement. But VP and his fledgling followers say it was all lies to limit his chance of becoming the running mate then. VP, in his own words, has stated times without number that he was the key financier of the 2007 elections that brought the APC to power, a claim stalwarts of the Congress have refuted. Many say that, in fact, when the Congress was in dire need of money, which hinged the choice of running mate on leadership acumen and good financial standing, the VP lied about funds he did not have. Indeed, the beginning of VP’s unhinging from the Congress came with his fallout with his kingmaker, but also compounded by many more farce he has brought upon the APC as well as his politically incorrect statements and blunders for which he is notorious. Without going into details, VP barely returned as running mate in 2012 because of nonconformity evident by a range of accusations against him by foreign investors and partners of his private business then, notably the timber gate, the economic crime accusation levied against him by his small-scale mining partners etc. He has so far demonstrated gross ingratitude to Hon. Alpha Kanu, Hon. Ibrahim Ben Kargbo and Mr Karamoh Kabba, three media and communication gurus, who championed his cleaning-up process from attacks by international mainstream media and foreign investors. What is more, VP is habitually fond of badmouthing the President in his relaxed mood, folly of the maxim that ‘leaders have bigger ears than those they lead’. Unconfirmed rumour has it that he cannot visit the president’s lodge anymore because recording exists that he is plotting bad things for the president. In a similar way, the VP unleashed another big lie recently to raise the hope of his near to hopeless supporters which left the First Lady, H.E. Sia Nyama Koroma, who had been a fervent supporter of the VP, in a shock and awe by the fact that VP’s followers would throw a party in Kono in celebration that the President has been afflicted by an oesophageal cancer and will die soon as rumoured by the VP, which will according to him, make chance for him to become the next president by default. No wonder his unbridled affinity for Good Luck Jonathan style apparels. A website, “Samsumana for President 2017” exists which content is filled with no development manifesto but piles and piles of insults and personal abuses on the president and his ministers who VP believes will not favour him for flagbearer in 2018. The VP may distance himself from the website but not its insulting and abusive content against the president. He knows his supporters; there exists not many of them and can order them to stop if he so desires. But by the look of things, it seems the VP is enjoying every bit of abuse and mean insult on the person of the president by his supporters. In Kono, VP is infamous for unleashing his favourite tools; hooliganism and youth violence against his perceived political rivals and innocent citizens. Many ministers have been violently attacked by VP’s hooligans including Hon. Musa Tarawally, Hon. Diana Konomanyi, Hon. Mankhailu Bah, Hon. Minkhailu Mansaray, Hon. Logus Koroma, etc. Not even Kono district Paramount Chiefs and the Chairman of the APC in Kono have been spared from these attacks. And there are records of how the VP orders the violence and remits the funds to jobless Kono youths. On the 16th of March 2014, the VP ordered his hooligans led by a notorious criminal by the name of Adamu Eze to attack a philanthropist, Madam Phebian Fengai, who is presently building a healthcare centre at a reasonable distance from the VP’s house in Kono simply because according to him, “The hospital will attract poor people and beggars around his compound.” The attack led to the wounding of two of Phebian’s contractors. Upon investigating, the president saw no need to stop Phebian’s project. He overruled and provided security for her to continue her project. As of writing this piece; the hospital turned out to be the best clinic in the district. And on Tuesday 21st of October 2014, the VP’s hooligans led by again allegedly besieged the Kono district Koidu New Sembehun city for a day in violation of the public emergency proclaimed and ratified by the President and the Parliament respectively and disrupted the war on Ebola when he [Adamu] refused to subject his sick mother to an Ebola test who later turned out to be an Ebola positive patient and would die two days later. This time, Adamu was fighting his own battle and VP is on record to have admonished him to stand down the riot. The danger of rioting during a public emergency was boldly written on the wall. But Adamu, frustrated by the fact that one of his underlings, who had passed away just before the riot, had been whisked away to Freetown by the VP for medical attention, retorted that “you are my boss and I have carried out all your orders but now you let me down when my mother fell ill. Instead, you took Alie Baylaybaylay to Freetown when he fell ill and left my mother to be picked up by the Ebola unit,” he lamented. Those who were on the scene say that Adamu verbally abused the VP before he threw the phone to the ground and went ahead with his rioting which would lead to the commandeering of the SLBC radio station in Kono and the shooting death of two youths in a shootout with police. Amazingly as Chairman of the Police Council, one would wonder why the VP does not utilize the conventional police force trained to protect lives and properties under his command to defend his interest rather than his insistent choice of hooligans and youth violence to settle scores especially with his perceived political opponents. Recently, in a show of defiance and nonconformity, the VP held a conference call of about 100-Kono people in the diaspora and at home to discuss the Adamu riot. His utterances were inciting alongside statements intended to denigrate the dignity of the presidency in the eyes of the public now under review by the APC National Advisory Council (NAC). He may also be in trouble with Government for utterances in variance with the principle of collective responsibility. He publicly opposed the presidential order for the police to arrest Adamu and his gang members who perpetrated the violence in Kono. Some conference attendees say the VP was petty to have spent about five minutes of the conference call time publicly insulting the deputy minister of political and public affairs who also hail from Kono. And the reason for his invectives on him, the deputy minister had gone to Kono to sensitize the public to stay calm in an effort to ensure no further violence occurred during the arrests. But it seems that the VP’s luck is running out with growing frustration of members of the APC NAC lurked in the shadows of his prospect of becoming the next president of Sierra Leone. And the APC Youth League is waiting no more; according to my source the youths are even more so frustrated with VP’s nonconformity, which they perceive as a threat to their political future and have instigated an extraordinary NAC meeting to take an extraordinary measure which may include his ouster from the Congress. For those who still think that the VP is popular in Kono, they may have been carried away by the noise of Adamu and the gang. But for attentive politicians, Banabana a renowned political activist in Kono has the story, “show me ten serious politicians VP started with in 2007 who are still with him?” he asked and went on to answer that “I know only four now” whom he named as “Tamba Sandi, John Aka Koroma, A. Boy Mbriwa and Harriet Turay,” he stated. 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Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 18:05:36 +0000
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