By Ezekiel Nabieu
There have been media attacks on the role of Diasporans in the political affairs of this country for reasons that can best be conjectured by a state citizen. The matter had been comprehensively discussed in a radio program-Night Line-with DJ Base, as the moderator.
It was raised by one of our amorphous civil society groups for want of relevant issues to address. One would have thought that there is a plethora of issues of more social and economic import than pouring water on duck’s back as it were. These are in addition to controversial issues which discussants skirted around.
The timing of the issue raised obvious suspicions with regard to its purpose. It soon became clear as the discussions went on that the butt was none other than the redoubtable Dr Kandeh Yumkella. This is in spite of the fact that from time immemorial Diasporan Sierra Leoneans, including three former heads of state namely Sir Milton Margai, Sir Albert Margai and Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, were Diasporans before becoming heads of state. Not only that. Many sierra Leoneans who have failed in all their ventures abroad have sneaked into the country only to surface at lucrative jobs obviously because of their financial and/or moral support to their political parties while abroad. Aside from support to political parties it is a fact that many families depend on the financial support of diasporans which is why the campaign against diasporans should be a non-starter.
Back on track the crusaders had their backs against the wall when they couldn’t give a satisfactory answer to the question as to why they launched their campaign at that point in time and not earlier. They were at pains to state that they were going to embark on a country-wide tour to ensure that diasporans are excused from their midst.
A political party worth its salt would obviously know how to screen and would not need the unsolicited services of a bogus group of citizens misrepresenting civil society.
If only the representatives or self-appointed representatives of civil society knew what they were talking about there would scarcely have been any need for this piece. I must confess that I admire the courage of DJ Base for hosting that bunch who were palpably out of their depths. But if he had not hosted them we would have taken them at face value. They simply exposed their ignorance with flying colours.
The panelists inadvertently strayed into the importance of manifestos in elections and one of them posited that in order to be qualified to be voted for ones manifesto should state what one has done among other things. All that that ignoramus should have done instead of presuming to know was to have consulted even a mini dictionary to know that a manifesto means a public declaration of policy and not what one has done.
Diaspora office
The fact that a diaspora office has been established by the incumbent government means that it believes they have a positive role to play in the affairs of state. This is in spite of the fact that there is a ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation whatever that means. As the name implies it is expected to seek the interest of Sierra Leone and Sierra Leoneans abroad and with their Information attaches they are expected to give potential returnees all necessary information about employment opportunities. But jobs have to be found for the boys and girls. It conceded that some of them would have supported the government while abroad and so are placed in sinecures.
Orchestration
Owing to the irrelevance of the issues on the table speculations were rife that the panelists were hired by ill-motivated politicians. Sadly though, they did a poor job of it. Could the orchestrator have been Maada Bio? Not likely because he himself qualifies as a Diasporan having virtually lived out of the country since the 2007 elections. Indeed one of the panelists naively shed the light on Dr Kandeh Yumkella when he stipulated 10-15 years stay in the country as a prerequisite for contesting the presidency of Sierra Leone.
The incumbency of the late Dr Ahmad Tejan Kabbah is a classic example of consequences of Diasporan rule. It will be recalled that Dr Tejan Kabbah gave such concessions to the former opposition APC that enabled them to ease their way to power. His brand of democracy was simply ultra-western. He began by encouraging them to settle their intra-party wrangle out of court. He gave them permission to establish a radio station when his vaunted SLPP had none. He rejected the interested membership of the SLPP of people like Eddie Turay now our High Commissioner to United Kingdom His stance that he was not President of the SLPP but of Sierra Leone is well known.
With such a dreary background sections of the electorate should not be blamed for being chary of supporting Diasporan candidates. They may not necessarily go the Tejan Kabbah way but voters need to be assured of party loyalty policies.
Qualified Diasporans
At one time of the other all of the candidates for the presidency have lived abroad either studying or working. So it is a moot point to ascertain who qualifies as a Diasporan or not. Candidates need not work themselves into ferment over the issue. In fact let it be a non-issue. Let candidates be elected on the basis of their track records or manifestos. Who is a Diasporan?
(C) Politico 09/02/16
