The newly elected SLPP executive is weak to say the least; regionally and tribally unbalanced and made up of people with questionable characters. Take a thorough look at the executive positions and sieve out the significant from the less significant; chairman, Secretary General, Financial Secretary, Publicity Secretary, women’s leader and Young General leader were all won by people from the south-east. John Benjamin (Chairman) is a Mende from the east, Jacob Jusu Saffa, (Secretary General) is a mende from the south, J. D. Rogers (Financial Secretary) is a Mende from the east, Ibrahim L. Tayib Bah (Public Secretary) mind you is presently suffering from partial stroke, is a Fullah Mende from the east, Isata Kabbah nee Jabbie and Mohamed Mallam Janneh (Women’s and Young Generation leaders respectively) are both Madingo-Mendes from the east. (Culled from the We Yone Newspaper of March 13, 2009).
I start this commentary by quoting the We Yone newspaper of March 13, 2009 because I want to differ with the opinions expressed in that story. First of all, it must be pointed out that the ladies and gentlemen of the SLPP who converged on Kenema to select their leaders knew exactly what they were doing and therefore held the firm belief that they did the right thing that would make their party stronger. And as the saying goes, beauty is only in the eyes of the beholder and so is ugliness. The ugly expression that the SLPP has left Kenema a weaker institution is not subscribed to by any other person except the writer of the story in the We Yone newspaper of Friday March 13, 2009.
The wishful thinking that goes with such write-ups imply that people who are not part and parcel of the political party may wish other members of a political party to which they do not believe, but may do their bidding to electing officials they believe could do better.
But only in this case, the SLPP knows better the kind of candidates they wanted and they have succeeded in putting in place an executive that would improve their chances in the future.
It is therefore wrong for any of us to wish what it was otherwise. We have said repeatedly that it does not matter whether officials of any institution all hail from one region and are all members of the same ethnic tribe as long as they can perform their duties well.
This is why some commentaries stated that the incumbent government had more Northerners than Southerners, we always differ from them on the grounds that what matters is Sierra Leone and any Sierra Leonean who is fit to hold any position should be given the chance to serve her or his country without consideration of his or her origin. Moreover, for one political party to believe that another political party is weaker is to deceive oneself into becoming contemptuous and appellate just because to imply that one party is weak is to state that your own party is strong. I must once more quote the writer for the sake of clarity of my next statement.
The Leader of the APC Party, Ernest Bai Koroma is a Temne from the North. The chairman, victor Chukuma Johnson is a Creole from the Western area, the Secretary General Victor Bockarie Foh, is a Mende from the South the Deputy leader and running mate to Ernest Bai Koroma Samuel Sam-Sumana is a Kono from the East so you can realize how the APC exactly distributed the significant positions to all the four regions, an observer pointed out.
The saddest thing the SLPP did in this of their convention is the sidelining of the Kono from the executive. It seems as if the SLPP has given up Kono to the APC. Well maybe the party is going according to the Creole proverd, “Yai nor di tot, but e  sabi load wae abi.”
The SLPP knows for sure that Kono is gone and believe it or not Kono is gone for good at least for the next ten years. The least said about this quotation the better.Â
Furthermore, suffice it to say that it is not wise to prejudge the decisions that the various parties are going to take as politics is not a game to please one’s opponents but to secure victory.
Some people are of the opinion that only members of a family can be loyal to each other and therefore the safest thing to do is to come together as a family and take important decisions. Those who want to experiment with the risk of unity in diversity have yet to prove to us that it would work.Â
The APC has experience of unity in diversity but perhaps it is too early to judge that now. Maybe the right time to evaluate the concept of unity to diversity is at future elections.
If the APC comes out fine then it can preach the concept of unity in diversity for the benefit of future generations. Until then, no party is wrong in doing what they have done until proved otherwise in the future. So, it is possible that the SLPP is not a weak party as the writer in We Yone suggested because of not adequately activating its executive.
It is also possible that the APC is not as strong as it thinks because the party has brought so many different groups together. We can only wait and see the benefits of each idea as expounded in the election of the various executives.
 ( New Citizen Newspaper of Tuesday 17th March 2009)
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