Editor’s Note: This editorial by publisher Gibril Koroma was first written and published August 24, 2008.
Editorial
We received news, on Saturday night, of the election of a new APC-North America executive headed by former Acting chairman Osman Conteh of Washington DC.
Apart from Osman, we at the Vanguard know some of the new executive members (they had graced our pages with some fine writing). There is the feisty and no-nonsense Essa Thaim-Kurugba, a very good writer that’s well known to our readers (he is now the Public Relations Officer); there is Mohamed Forna, alias Yamba Lawyer (now the treasurer). Mohamed recently wrote for us a very politically blunt article on his home chiefdom, Gbonkolenken,in the Tonkolili district of northern Sierra Leone. We also know Abdul Kamara, alias Chief (now General Secretary) another PV contributor and fine writer in his own right. And so on.
These are not Nobel Laureates, but dedicated men who love their party and their country in a way and manner seldom seen in most Sierra Leoneans. Their passion is sometimes so strong that they frequently send us very fine copy that we simply could not resist.
They are always ready to confront opponents, take blows and deliver same in the world of politics without flinching. African politics can be tough and the APC in North America seems to have full confidence that these men are willing and ready to be democratic foot soldiers to serve the party in and out of Sierra Leone. They are very dedicated and very loyal (basic requirements in the rough and tumble world of politics) and very willing to make sacrifices. A lot of them also seem to have a grassroots pedigree, one of the strengths of the ruling APC, a party that emerged, a little more than 40 years ago, from very ordinary and very humble Sierra Leoneans, what is commonly known as the masses.
We therefore wish them well and urge them to reach out to the other contestants who did not get elected in the interest not only of the APC, but of Sierra Leone as a whole.
Our country needs serious people to handle its political affairs. You don’t always need to be in Sierra Leone to play that role. The ball is in your court, gentlemen. Good luck.
The two major political parties in Sierra Leone (the APC and the SLPP) now have new executive members in North America, dedicated and battle-hardened loyalists ready to spring into action. Let’s wait see what they can do for party and country. The future seems interesting. Very interesting.
Photo: President Ernest Koroma, chairman and leader of the APC.
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