Musician Emmerson Bockarie and Tribalism

Culled from the Torchlight newspaper, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop), Freetown.

My comment on Emmerson Bockarie’s new album and its theme song—“Kokobeh”—will take the form of a mini-skirt: very short but it will cover the essentials.

If Emmerson Bockarie (photo) is inferring that President Ernest Bai Koroma is only employing Temnes and also subtly implying that the President is sacking Mendes (which he undertones in his song “Kokobeh”); then it logically follows that it was only Mendes that were being employed during the SLPP’s eleven years’ rule. And it is a gospel fact that 80% of those currently working at NRA, NASSIT, SLRA, SLRTA (in fact 97% of all the Traffic Wardens are Mendes particularly from Kenema district!), ONS, and the departmental heads at the Ministry of Finance are not Temnes or even northerners.

Added to that the Chief Justice and Deputy Speaker of Parliament are Fullahs; the Director of Public Prosecution is not a Temne; the Chief of Defence Staff and his Deputy of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) are not Temnes in fact they are southerners; the head of the Sierra Leone Fire Force is not a Temne but a southerner; the head of the Prisons Department is not a Temne; the Ombudsman who also doubles as chairman of the Constitutional Review Committee Justice Edmond Cowan is not a Temne but a southerner; Justice Tolla Thompson who is the chairman of the PPRC is not a Temne but a Krio; the head of the Sierra Leone Civil Service is not a Temne; the Secretary to President Koroma named Osho Coker and the President’s personal secretary called Yvonne are not Temnes but Krios; the Personal Assistant to President Koroma named Brian Gilpin and the Special Executive Assistant (SEA) to President Koroma Dr Sylvia Olayinka Blyden are both Krios not Temnes; the Special Assistant to President Koroma on Media Outreach is Oswald Hanciles who is a Sherbro not a Temne; the head of the MCC Unit at State House is Mamoud Idriss who is certainly not a Temne but a Mende; the head of the SPU at State House is not a Temne but a Krio; the Thomases (Nanette and Dr Ivan Ajibola) at the ABC Secretariat are Krios not Temnes; the head of the Independent Media Commission (IMC) Rod Mac-Johnson is a Krio not a Temne; the head of the Relics Commission Charlie Hughes is not a Temne but a Sherbro, and the newly approved Board Chairman of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank is not a Temne but a Krio.

Coming to the cabinet: Ministers Moijueh Kai Kai, JB Dauda, Sam Maligie and Musa Tarawalie, coupled with Deputy Ministers Mustapha Bai Atila, Osmond Hanciles and Kortu from Kailahun District, are all Mendes not Temnes. The Minister of Finance Dr Kelfala Marah; the Minister of Agriculture Dr Sam Sesay; the Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Samura Kamara; the Trade Minister Osman Boi Kamara and the Energy Minister Oluyimi Robin-Coker are all certainly not Temnes!

The Minister of Transport and Aviation Leonard Balogun ‘Logus’ Koroma’; the Minister of Local Government Diana Konomani and the Deputy Minister of Political Affairs Karamoh Kabba are not Temnes but Konos; the Tourism Minister is not a Temne and Minister Allieu Pat-Sowe is not a Temne.

And on the Diplomatic front: the Sierra Leone Ambassador to Russia HE Yambasu and the Deputy High Commissioner to the United Kingdom are not Temnes but Konos; the Sierra Leone Ambassador to the United States HE Stevens is not a Temne; the Sierra Leone Ambassador to China HE Victor Foh is a Mende not a Temne; the Sierra Leone High Commissioner to Brussels and the EU HE Ibrahim Sourie is not a Temne; the Sierra Leone High Commissioner to Nigeria Henry Macauley is not a Temne but a Krio, and the Sierra Leone Ambassadors to both neighbouring Guinea and Liberia are not Temnes!

And should I add that the Vice President of the Republic of Sierra Leone is a Konoman not a Temne coupled with the fact that the Minister of State in the VP’s Office is not a Temne? And it is not a Temne who is Mayor of Freetown! And I will go on and on and the list will definitely be endless.

But again, I can understand as Emmerson is a “Bockarie”. Whatever that means, you draw the inference yourself!