Salone News

Good Night Berewa, Good Morning President Koroma (Part Three)

18 September 2007 at 23:20 | 693 views

By Sheka Tarawalie (Shekito) on holidays in Huddersfield,UK.

You don’t need to be a psychologist or psychiatrist to know that Solomon Ekuma Berewa was not on his own - rather, was not himself - when he attended the swearing-in ceremony of Ernest Bai Koroma as the fourth Executive President of Sierra Leone.

On Monday morning 17th September 2007, if anything, Berewa was expecting to be sworn in as President. Or, at worst, that morning, with SLPP lawyers Sulaiman Banja Tejan Sie and Bubuakei Jabbie together with the party’s lachrymose Secretary General Jacob Jusu Saffa (who proudly answers to the devious nickname of JJ Blood) having filed an injunction at the Supreme Court, Berewa was expecting delays which might have led to a twist in the announcement of the election results.

The attempt to smear the image of the international community had not worked; the threats against opposition supporters failed; the effort to intimidate the police proved futile; the determination to sway the electoral commission through fraudulent officials was fruitless; the campaign to blame or involve the army lost weight; the zeal to over-stuff ballot boxes proved vain; and the SLPP’s last-ditch attempt to overturn the people’s will was to resort to the law. It also proved childish - as the Supreme Court eventually ruled that it did not even have the jurisdiction to pass a verdict on such a matter, thereby dismissing and throwing it away.

And for this, Berewa must have been bitterly disappointed. He would have been so frustrated at his failure to jump over the last bar to clinching the presidency to the extent of not being able to go out that day. You would want to argue that Berewa was just doing a face-saving exercise. O yes, I agree totally; but he could have also saved his face by not attending the ceremony, by just asking Momodu Koroma to attend.

Yet he was able to go out and publicly congratulate President Koroma in a final, even if unwholesome, show of solidarity for democracy. There, at State House, a place which a couple of hours before the former Vice President was certain he would occupy, was where the dramatic event unfolded, heralding Sierra Leone as a beacon of democratic hope in Africa.

Instead of Berewa, it’s Bai. This indeed was Solo B’s dreaded moment - if you like, his political nightmare. Berewa’s full realization that he will never be president of Sierra Leone - an ambition he has been nursing since God-knows-when and for which he has done all types of things (good and certainly bad) - is the greatest fear he had had (perhaps even more than death). But one thing you might not like me for is that I do admire the way the ‘Bomber’ faced this nightmare.

There was the reluctance in Solomon Berewa’s voice; there was the stress, strain, and constrain in the manner he uttered the words; but there he was in person saying in the public glare, at the chagrin of crest-fallen SLPP lawyers seeking an injunction to prevent this very thing from happening, that, “As soon as I heard that Koroma was declared winner and President-elect I took the phone and called and congratulated him...I will be available at all times to render to President Koroma whatever assistance he needs from me as the welfare of the people should be his concern, like a father, [to] ensure that his children are not maltreated." That ended the story. The pathological journalists whose Maths could not add up, the lawyers whose legal papers could not stand up, and the bodyguards whose pistols could not fire up, can all now be seen as history. A new day has dawned in Sierra Leone.

Now, don’t get me wrong; Berewa could - or should - have done better by honourably accepting defeat beforehand. That he didn’t do this earlier on indeed speaks volumes. You would want to know why he even, like in democracy generally, did not concede defeat the moment he had knowledge of the majority of provisional results. In 2005, Burundian president Domitien Ndayizeye acknowledged defeat when the Hutu rebels’ party, the Forces for the Defense of Democracy, showed triumph in early results way before the electoral commission announced. President George Bush Sr., after seeing provisional results of his defeat by Bill Clinton following a bitterly contested election, quickly congratulated the winner even before the results were formally announced, saying “ Here’s the way we see it and the country should see it, that the people have spoken, and we respect the majesty of the democratic system. There’s important work to be done, and [our country] must always come first. So we will get behind this new president.”

Berewa did not take the early and more sensible initiative. He bidded his time. Apparently, we know Berewa was awaiting a kind of miracle - the miracle from the south/east, particularly from Kailahun and Pujehun just like last time around in Kabbah’s election days. You see, it was always these places that produced the magic wand for SLPP victory. When the unshakeable Christiana Thorpe said, "There is no longer a place for fraud and malpractice in the Sierra Leone electoral system. The people of Sierra Leone deserve to exercise their rights in an atmosphere of freedom, fairness and transparency," I immediately understood what she meant. She said this was the message that emerged from these elections. I cannot agree more.

In both the elections of 1996 and 2002 where the SLPP emerged as winner, it was always the Pujehun and Kailahun votes that made the huge difference - the only irony being that these areas were most active in the rebel war and so should have been most affected in terms of an incapacity to participate in elections. In 1996, thousands of votes, over and above the registered voters, came from these areas. For the sake of driving away the military, we accepted that. In 2002, these districts also had the 100% or above voter turnout magic, giving this false impression that these are the most democratically-inclined areas in Africa, if not the whole terra firma (not even in Australia where voting is compulsory has there ever been a 100% turnout in any given area: whether someone died in-between registration and voting, or they are sick, or they travel, or just break the law). But when the SLPP used the explanation about allowing returning refugees from Liberia to vote even without having registered, we also agreed.

However, in 2007 ‘di war don don’, but still in Kailahun and Pujehun the opposition was prevented from campaigning - certainly so that they could bring more voter turnout or over-turnout. And this was where Christiana Thorpe made a difference. Under a James Jonah and a Walter Nicol, this was permissible. But, alas, a woman has again made a difference in Africa. She held her ground, stuck her neck out, said no to the powers-that-were, and played by the rules. Thorpe fulfills the Albanian proverb, “If you fear God, you won’t fear humans”.

Thorpe did not fear anybody. So she proclaimed Ernest Bai Koroma (54 years old with 54 percent of valid votes) as president-elect of our republic. And there is no turning back for Koroma. He took the oath of office, administered by the same Chief Justice that the SLPP had wanted to use to stop the occasion. And President Koroma himself rose to the occasion and responded accordingly with the promise of forming a government of national unity and implementing zero tolerance on corruption.

President Koroma will do well to make this a reality: by forming a government reflective of our country’s diverse configuration and fighting corruption (the latter could be better quickly addressed by merely making the Anti Corruption Commission truly independent and perhaps give its former hardworking head, Val Collier who fell out with the SLPP over his determination to prosecute government culprits, a second chance). However, it should be noted that a government of national unity does not mean bringing in politicians who have outlived their usefulness, those who have contributed to the backwardness of our nation. Certainly, Koroma will not take seriously Berewa’s declaration of availability for any assistance needed. The promise to fight corruption is the promise to reject the old system, and this should be demonstrated in the calibre of people that will form Koroma’s cabinet. From there, the people will start to know how much Koroma is ready to match his words with action.

I would like to remind the new president that the current opposition, which is the SLPP, is lethal and still powerful. They still have a highly powerful, even if divisive and blind press outfit, they have 44% supporters some of whom are spread in all walks of life in our society, they still have international connections, and many of them are filthily rich. In essence, they still possess what it takes to outwit a new government. Wisdom and caution should therefore be guiding principles for the new APC government, so that at the end of the day the SLPP will see the futility of continuing to put up a robust fight and in 2012 President Koroma and his party given second innings to continue in office. You just need to reflect how the SLPP have left office and then you’ll know the type of opposition they would want to mount. So, President Koroma, be reminded of the words of Maltbie D. Babcock, the fifth century Roman philosopher and religious figure, who said: “Be strong! We are not here to play, to dream, to drift; We have hard work to do and loads to lift; Shun not the struggle - face it; ’tis God’s gift.”

And in our joy and determination to succeed, we must not forget our partners in democracy, our international friends, whose reputations were glaringly tarnished in a bid to deny Sierra Leoneans the benefit of democracy. The UN representative in Sierra Leone was picked out for criticism and derision by a scathing if glaringly untrustworthy section of the media. But, as it has turned out, Victor Angelo is indeed either a victorious angel or an angelic victor.

All in all, events in the past few days have actually changed the world’s perception of Sierra Leone. And Berewa’s presence at President Koroma’s ceremony, no matter what you think of it, has played a role in setting a good democratic precedent. Once again, Sierra Leone is on the path to becoming the Athens of West Africa, if not the mother of democracy in Africa. Just compare what happened in the Nigerian elections recently and you’ll know what I mean. Good night Berewa, Good Morning President Koroma.

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