News Story

NEW PEOPLE - KEEN OBSERVER: When the National Organization of Sierra Leoneans in North America (NOSLINA) was created, most people were hopeful that it was going to be above political influences and games. Those high hopes have now been shattered by the latest publication of their honorees. Specifically, many people have questioned the wisdom of NOSLINA honoring people like Rev Kabs-Kanu and Yaya Fanusie. This in my view is the lowest NOSLINA has gone in their ten year existence. Does NOSLINA want to make us believe that these two really deserve such honor? It would be interesting to hear the rationale for such honor to the two people who many folks consider social misfits. While Yaya Fanusi in my view does not deserve to be honored, his excesses which should have disqualified him are less egregious than the so called Rev Kabs-Kanu. Yaya Fanusie is rude, unpleasant and immoral but Kabs-Kanu is vile, a tribal bigot and a down right subversive charlatan whose name should not have been forwarded.

Yaya Fanusie is known as a senior citizen about sixty-five years of age who prides himself of spewing nasty words about women on the internet. He brags about being comfortable in insulting opponents’ mothers because of simple disagreements. It was revealed that Yaya Fanusie only received the award because of some racist preferences exhibited by some NOSLINA members against Madam Judy Figi, a white American lady who taught for years at Harford School for Girls in Moyamba. According to NOSLINA sources, Judy Figi defeated Yaya Fanusie four times in a match up for the award, but some board members prevailed on racist sentiments to include Yaya Fanusie. The reason they gave was that Yaya Fanusie is an African and it would look bad to prefer a white woman over him for an award intended to recognize Sierra Leoneans. It is however worthy to note that the NOSLINA awards is not just for Sierra Leoneans but, for friends of Sierra Leone who has helped the country. This is the most despicable reason I have ever heard from NOSLINA. How else can you demean such a noble organization?

Rev Kabs-Kanu like Yaya Fanusie is a social misfit who is the worst tribal bigot the Sierra Leone community of journalists has known in recent history. Added to that, Kabs-Kanu has admitted to supporting the notorious AFRC butchers during their disastrous overthrow of a democratically elected government in Sierra Leone. Kabs-Kanu was a member of a group of journalists who advocated against the reinstatement of the elected government. How can any organization in their right minds award such a damaged good as Kabs-Kanu an award? In addition, Kabs-Kanu stokes tribal anger just for fun. There is hardly any editorial on his website that does not instigate violence against other tribes he disagrees with in Sierra Leone. For him everything that goes wrong in Sierra Leone is the fault of other tribes. He has on numerous occasions made unfounded accusations against other tribes of training rebel groups in Sierra Leone. It is hard to decipher what his motives are in his bigoted editorials other than a one man crusade at possible genocide against other groups. NOSLINA should be condemning people like Kabs-Kanu and not condoning them by giving them awards.

NOSLINA as an organization for all Sierra Leoneans should be avoiding people like Kabs-Kanu like one would avoid the Black Death plague. Knowing many of NOSLINA’s membership, I probed as to why they would do such a thing. It was again revealed that APC operatives in NOSLINA had promised Kabs-Kanu the award even before the votes were cast. The simple reason for this promise was that Kabs-Kanu, while falsely presenting himself as an objective journalist, was an APC operative who was constantly used to spread false rumors like the assassination hoax manufactured by the APC during the election campaign. Unfortunately, when it came to voting for the deserving honoree, Victor Fakondoh beat Kabs-Kanu in all three contests. The APC operatives opened the elections three times with the hope of defeating Victor Fakondoh but Victor Fakondoh always defeated Kabs-Kanu. It should be noted that Victor Fakondoh has an impeccable record among Sierra Leoneans in New Jersey. He has helped many Sierra Leoneans with immigration issues and has helped many refugees resettle. It is therefore unconscionable for NOSLINA to even put Kabs-Kanu against such a decent individual. When Kabs-Kanu lost the elections three times, the three APC stooges plus one, prevailed on the NOSLINA board to give the award to all those nominated, this way they would fulfill their promise to Kabs-Kanu. In short, Kabs-Kanu did not win the award and NOSLINA risks losing its image when such manipulations are allowed to go on. It is in my view demeaning to hard working people like Judy Figi and Victor Fakondoh to be on the same pedestal with social misfit like Yaya Fanusie and a tribal bigot like Kabs-Kanu. It is my fervent hope that the two decent individual would turn down the award because it no longer has any value. NOSLINA risks a massive rejection of their awards in the future if they keep manipulating them to reward tribalists like Kabs-Kanu.