News Story

FREETOWN: THE NEW VISION: One thing we detest the defacers of the president’s image for is the reminders of what is inscribed on some of these now defaced portraits. Two of the many giant posters of the Ernest Bai Koroma had fine, succinct words emblazoned on them. There was one with him in the background and two pupils resembling Vine Memorial and St. Edwards schools pupils walking looking up to the red sun of his APC party. And there was one which is still hanging – perhaps the only surviving one- at Up Gun with a tilted bold face of Ernesto bearing the inscription “The Liberator, Taking You To The Future”. At the time, those portraits were worshipped by some people in Freetown. For those that were at Eastend Police, rumour had it that people guuarded them at night and that the traders used to stoop in front of them every morning to greet the ‘Liberator’ with “Papa morning Sir”. How fast those pictures have disappeared from the streets of Freetown.

The disappearance of the portraits was followed by the deviation from the messages on them by the ‘Liberator’. Sierra Leoneans have the penchant of ascribing titles to themselves that they know they don’t deserve. The hysteria of the elections campaign shifted attention from those minute details. It seemed as if people were desperate for a change. But the desperation for change was precipitated by the actions of some politicians who had created the impression that things were so bad in the country and that they had the answers to the country’s problems. The ‘Liberator was almost always on air or at public places stirring the change desire to dangerous proportions. “I am clean and untainted. Vote for me and you will see changes in your life styles,” were some of his words to the people.

The bait worked albeit with the help of the former nun, who to date has not convinced us about her adeptness at figures, and the ‘Liberated’ danced. On inauguration day November 15th 2007, the ‘Liberator’ said “I hear you loud and clear and I promise not to disappoint. . .” Judging by how things are going, we are beginning to wonder what the “Liberator’ heard. He probably heard the call for light clearly and has delivered it to only Freetown The rest of the country has lots of ‘mumus’ and did not shout loud enough for him to hear. (Bo, Kenema, Makeni etc, wu nar hala bi big wan ‘wi sef wan light’). ‘Liberator’ have you heard them now? They are also part of Salone and deserve something.

All sections of the Sierra Leone society are calling for food, water, cheap goods, free milk and honey, etc, but it seems they did not shout loud enough for the ‘Liberator’ to hear. The ‘mumu’ population in the country is growing and so most only grunt from deep in their throats ‘we wan eat’ which Ernesto the “Liberator’ did not hear. Interestingly the ‘mumus’ have learnt the Chinese Mandarin very well and are constantly shouting ‘tin tranga’. The disadvantage again is that the Mandarin is too nasal and the ‘Liberator’ cannot hear us properly. Arabic might be a better option for the ‘Liberator’ to hear, but it will run into problems with the interpretation. Oh! We failed to realize that the deputy ‘Liberator’ is a good Muslim and some are good at the Arabic language and will interpret it to his boss. May be we need to test his Arabic skills first before giving him that task. We have gone too far in our search to convey the real messages to the ‘Liberator’. The new official language of ‘wan topia’ might be a good option. Sierra Leoneans should begin to learn the new language in order to communicate with the ‘Liberator’ for him to perform.

We might spend the next four and half years trying to learn to communicate with the ‘oga kpata kpata’ for him to liberate us from the things he did not hear from us, though we shouted. Our fear is that the ‘Liberator taking us to the future’ might just be turned upside down to read the ‘killer taking us to our graves’. Dis wan bi problem oooh!