Bravo to the Gallant Youths of Sierra Leone!

By Tony Bee, Vanguard Correspondent, Sydney, Australia.

I doff my heart to the youths of Sierra Leone, especially the youths of Tombo, a small town outside Freetown, for not falling asleep in this year’s elections process. I thank them wholeheartedly for recently apprehending some corrupt NEC officials involved in elections malpractices, according to the police. I say to the youths: Leave no stone unturned; grab them and people like them and turn them over to the police, regardless of age or position.

Wicked and unpatriotic politicians in the country have been misusing your future for too long for their selfish greed and political ambitions. Forget about fighting among yourselves, unite through out the country to fight against the common enemies of the country’s progress by going to the polls and voting massively during elections for the party that you think will redeem you from slavery and help you attain a bright future and wrench you from the hands of the country’s evil recycled politicians. Politicians who have been squatting on you and trampling on your God given rights, the right to live happily and the right to education. Continue to open your eyes to uproot any elections malpractices in the country; we want free, fair and peaceful elections in the country.

I would like to tell the whole world and Sierra Leoneans that the apprehension of the NEC officials is just a tip of the iceberg, a small example of the bad politicians in the country and an example of what we should expect during the elections period. If Sierra Leoneans are asleep, let them wake up and open their eyes to what is happening in the country.

I would also like to draw the attention of the international community, especially the UN,
the United States and the Commonwealth to the recent appeal made by one of the Sierra
Leone political party leaders, Ernest Koroma of the APC party, who was asking for the sending of elections observers to the country.

I would like the international community to seriously have a very keen look at the call and do something towards that, to avoid damage control methods later. Our democracy is too fragile; we need durable peace in the country.

Many African leaders and their governments don’t believe in doing good work for their
people so that they (people) would easily vote them back to power by providing basic human
necessities for them, like good drinking water, shelter, roads, medical facilities, educational
facilities and above all electricity, which is the backbone of any country’s economic development.

Rather, these ’leaders’ believe in the use of force, violence, harassment, intimidation, molestation against their opponents and corrupt practices during elections time, because they have the might.

And one of their glorious periods is the voting day, that is the time they will fight tooth and nail at all costs to rig (ballots stealing and the exchanging of their empty
ballot boxes with their opponents winning ballot boxes) regardless of the aftermath of such
activities.

Therefore, the international community should not sit by and wait till voting day before they send out warnings and deploy ’troops’ or observers on the ground. Sometimes, however, these so-called voting observers(democracy troops) create more problems for the poor defenceless people and the international community by not
doing their work very well.

They will sit in their luxurious hotels and bars enjoying themselves. At the end of the day they will declare the elections free and fair and go home to enjoy their per diems.The 2007 elections in Sierra Leone are no child’s play.They will make or break that country depending on how well they are conducted.The international commuinity has a moral obligation to see that fair play prevails because anything less than that might send the country back to ground zero.