I Didn’t Know What My Dreadlocks Meant Until I Cut Them Off
Dreadlocks hadn’t been my hairstyle choice when I was growing up in Sierra Leone, because they were associated with drug users, school dropouts, and others on the fringes of society. But I came to the United States to study at Harvard, where I became interested in soccer and music, and the locs, really seemed to fit. Then I did something that got people’s attention ~ David Moinina Sengeh.
David Moinina Sengeh
On Jan. 23, I represented my country’s government before the U.N. Security Council, where I called for a cease-fire in Gaza and justice for all parties. The following day, International Day of Education, I gave a lecture at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education on ‘radical inclusion,’ a strategy for social justice outlined in my 2023 book with that title.
Then I did something that got people’s attention. I cut my hair.
Specifically, I cut off the dreadlocks I had worn for 17 years.
Dreadlocks hadn’t been my hairstyle choice when I was growing up in Sierra Leone, because they were associated with drug users, school dropouts, and others on the fringes of society. But I came to the United States to study at Harvard, where I became interested in soccer and music, and the locs seemed to fit. They had the added advantage of being simple — no weekly haircuts. They continued to be part of my image as I earned a Ph.D. from MIT and then took a job as a scientist and, eventually, a manager at IBM Research Africa in Nairobi.
And they remained when I joined Sierra Leone’s government — first in 2018, as chief innovation officer, eventually as chief minister. The locs weren’t without issues. I’ve had doors closed in my face because people didn’t believe I was a minister, and opponents called me derogatory names during policy debates. While my boss, President Julius Maada Bio, never made negative comments about my hair, some in government made snide remarks to my face and behind my back. Others told me to respect our ‘culture’ and called me a foreigner in my homeland.
But times were changing. More people started growing dreadlocks. Positive references to locs began appearing in public spaces, from youthful graffiti to inspirational sayings. Meanwhile, I was gaining recognition in Sierra Leone and abroad as a spokesman for inclusive and transformative education.
Sometime in 2023, I began thinking about changing my hairstyle and, right after the Harvard talk, I decided it was time to do it. Perhaps because Harvard is where I started the locs in the first place. That evening, my cousin helped me find a barber a Jamaican friend in Boston whose shop stayed open after 8 PM.
As I heard the snipping sound of the scissors, I felt lighter — even relieved, though I wasn’t sure why.
David Moinina Sengeh
I gathered up each of the 103 locs of shorn hair. I might keep them safe for my grandkids. Or maybe donate them to an organization helping people with hair loss resulting from medical conditions.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised at what happened next. But I was. I was shocked at the public response: a mix of relief, disappointment, grief, anger, and inspiration.
People from many places — not just Sierra Leone, but Togo, Rwanda, Scotland, Australia, the United States, and France — reached out in person and online to tell stories on how my hairstyle had influenced them. As a young, Black, African man wearing dreadlocks while occupying spaces of power typically filled with White, Western men with gray hair, they said, I had given them a different kind of hope. They said it was great to hear someone call for justice before the Security Council, but what inspired them even more was I did it in locs.
I gathered up each of the 103 locs of shorn hair
Some stories came from officials (male and female) in other governments. One diplomat told me she finally grew dreadlocks because she had seen mine. Other ministers wrote that when they had seen me sit close to my president at global meetings with my hair flowing down my back, it encouraged them to display the difference in their own cabinet rooms — not just in how they looked but also in their radical ideas.
Young professionals who thought their dreadlocks had finally gained the “blessing” of their parents and bosses sent me screenshots of those same people asking them when they would cut their hair now that I had cut mine.
Community leaders who had told me that my hair forced them to question many of their own stereotypes reaffirmed a commitment to their new position: they still believed in radical inclusion.
Back in Sierra Leone, people who thought they knew me were shocked when they couldn’t recognize me. Close colleagues and family members couldn’t hide their amusement. Meanwhile, the social media chatter over my hairstyle went on.
So much emotion over one small, personal decision.
But why did I cut my hair? Everyone keeps asking. Am I declaring my intent to run for president? No, I’m not. (On the contrary, I think a president with dreadlocks would be very cool.) The answer is simple: I am not my hair. I am me, as you are you. My locs didn’t start as a public statement, though that became loud enough over the years. I just liked them. Now, I like my short, simple hair that doesn’t make any statement. I like no longer being easily recognized in a crowd.
I am ‘me’ — a hip-hop-rapping, pick-up-soccer-playing politician who travels Sierra Leone, and the world, advocating radical inclusion. And I doubt my next hairstyle will change that.
Sierra Leone allows ex-president Koroma to leave country on medical grounds
On Wednesday, the magistrate overseeing the case ruled in favor of Koroma's lawyers, who had asked the high court to grant Koroma a trip abroad for medical reasons.
The magistrate said the ex-president would be allowed to travel to Nigeria for no more than three months before adjourning the case to March 6.
Reuters: Updated Wed, January 17, 2024 at 1:23 PM EST
FREETOWN (Reuters)
Updated Wed, January 17, 2024 at 1:23 PM EST
FREETOWN (Reuters) -A Sierra Leone high court on Wednesday allowed ex-president Ernest Bai Koroma, charged this month with treason, to travel abroad on medical grounds.
Koroma, 70, was charged with four offenses for his alleged role in a failed military attempt to topple the West African country's government in November.
There are concerns Koroma's indictment could stoke tension brought by a contentious election in which President Julius Maada Bio was reelected for a second term in June 2023. The main opposition candidate rejected the results and international partners questioned the vote.
Months later, on Nov. 26, gunmen attacked military barracks, a prison, and other locations in Sierra Leone, freeing about 2,200 inmates and killing more than 20 people.
The government said afterward that it was a foiled coup led mostly by Koroma's bodyguards. They summoned the ex-president for questioning at the start of December.
Koroma condemned the attacks shortly after they happened. His lawyers have called the charges "trumped up" and part of a "political vendetta".
The magistrate overseeing the case on Wednesday ruled in favor of Koroma's lawyers, who had asked the high court to grant Koroma a trip abroad for medical reasons.
The ex-president will be allowed to travel to Nigeria for no more than three months, the magistrate said before adjourning the case to March 6.
Sierra Leone's attorney general declined to comment.
Koroma was not in court on Wednesday, a Reuters reporter said. He was granted bail when the court indicted him on Jan. 3 and has since been confined to his home in the capital Freetown.
Nigeria had previously offered to host him temporarily, which he had accepted, according to a letter from West Africa's main regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, seen by Reuters.
According to Sierra Leone's penal code, a person found guilty of treason could face imprisonment for life.
Twelve other people also have been charged with treason in connection with the failed coup, including ex-police and correctional officers and a member of Koroma's security detail.
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana Writing by Sofia Christensen Editing by Nick Macfie and Toby Chopra)
Related
Sierra Leone Failed Coup
Information Minister commented on Al Jazeera on the court's ruling granting ex-president Bai Koroma permission to travel to Nigeria on medical grounds.
Chernor Bah, the Information Minister, commented on Al Jazeera on the court's ruling granting ex-president Bai Koroma permission to travel.
Former President Ernest Bai Koroma Formally Charged With Treason
Sierra Leone Civil War
The rebels carried out large numbers of mutilations, in particular, amputation of hands, arms, legs, and other parts of the body a horrific practice developed during offensives in the rural parts of Sierra Leone. In Freetown, several hundred people, mostly men, but also women and children, were killed and maimed in this way. Hospitals registered ninety-seven victims of hand and leg amputation, including twenty-six civilians both of whose hands were hacked off. Among those who had reached the hospital were a two-year-old toddler who had lost one arm, and at least twelve children under the age of eleven who had either lost a limb or suffered serious lacerations from these attacks.
Human Rights Watch
January 6, 1999
Human Rights Watch
January 6, 1999, rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) launched an offensive against the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown.
In the early hours of January 6, l999, rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) launched an offensive against the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, capturing it from government troops and the soldiers of the Nigerian-led peacekeeping force known as ECOMOG, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Cease-fire Monitoring Group. The battle for Freetown and the ensuing three-week rebel occupation of the capital was characterized by the systematic and widespread perpetration of all classes of atrocities against the civilian population, of over one million inhabitants, and marked the most intensive and concentrated period of human rights violations in Sierra Leone's eight-year civil war.
As the rebels took control of street after street, they turned their weapons on the civilian population. By the end of January, both government and independent sources estimated that several thousands of civilians had been killed. The rebels dragged entire family units out of their homes. They murdered them, hacked off the hands of children and adults, burned people alive in their houses, rounded up hundreds of young women, took them to urban rebel bases, and sexually abused them. As the ECOMOG forces counterattacked and the RUF retreated through the capital, the rebels set fire to neighborhoods, leaving entire city blocks in ashes and over 51,000 people homeless.1 And, while the RUF took with them almost no prisoners of war, they withdrew to the hills with thousands of abductees, mostly children and young women.
This latest rebel offensive brought to the capital the same class of atrocities witnessed in Sierra Leone's rural provinces over the last eight years and is the latest cycle of violence in an armed conflict that has claimed an estimated 50,000 lives and caused the displacement of more than one million Sierra Leoneans. Since launching the rebellion in l991, the RUF has fought to overthrow successive governments it accuses of widespread corruption, nepotism, and mismanagement of the country's vast diamond and mineral resources. However, since its inception, the RUF has failed publicly and clearly to articulate an alternative political agenda and has consistently committed gross and large-scale atrocities against civilians.
The rebel offensive brought to the capital the same class of atrocities witnessed in Sierra Leone's rural provinces.
In December 1998, following the capture of the diamond-rich Kono district and subsequently Makeni, Sierra Leone's fifth largest city, thousands of RUF fighters started moving towards the capital. By early January 1999, they had reached the peninsula on which Freetown is located and gathered less than twenty miles west of the capital city. On January 6, the rebels broke through the highly stretched and poorly manned ECOMOG defenses, ill-prepared for a rebel offensive in force, and proceeded to march through the eastern suburbs and straight into the city center.
Sierra Leone Remembrance Day, January 6
January 6, 1999, rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) launched an offensive against the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown.
Sierra Leone Remembrance Day, January 6.
Video Courtesy: Al Jazeera
Former President Ernest Bai Koroma Formally Charged With Treason
The former president is represented by lawyer Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara. The Ex-President Koroma was granted bail by a High Court order on condition. The case was adjourned to January 17, 2024.
By Theo EdwardsFour offenses include treason, misprision of treason, and two counts of harboring
Sierra Leone's former president, Ernest Bai Koroma, has formally been charged with treason. The 4-court charge borders on his alleged involvement in a failed attempt by security forces to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone on November 26, 2023.
Ex-Presendent Bai Koroma court appearance
Ministry of Information Press Release
The government has disagreed with ECOWAS Terms set out in a letter ref: ECW/PC/DC/2024-001/oat dated January 2, 2024, addressed to the President of State of the Republic of Sierra Leone.
ECOWAS Terms set out in a letter ECW/PC/DC/2024-001/oat dated January 2, 2024
The Attorney General of Sierra Leone requested the matter stand down; later, reports indicated that charges were filed.
The former president is represented by lawyer Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara and other lawyers. The Ex-President Koroma was granted bail by a High Court order on condition. The case was adjourned to January 17, 2024.
Former President Ernest Koroma's Treason indictment and bail conditions
Former President Ernest Koroma's Treason indictment and bail conditions
Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara, the lead-lawyer representing ex-president Ernest Koroma, comments on AYV tv on the legal matter and implication against his client _a former head of State.
The former President was arraigned on a four-count indictment including treason and two counts of harboring. The charges stem from alleged involvement in an attempt to overthrow the Sierra Leone Government on November 26, 2023.
FILE - Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, center, on arrival for talks with Gambia's President Yahya Jammeh, in Banjul, Gambia, Dec. 13, 2016. Former President Ernest Bai Koroma was charged with treason for his alleged involvement in a failed coup attempt in November, Sierra Leone's government said Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.
Sylvain Cherkaoui/AP
Nightmare Before Christmas
The gruesome incident happened on the evening of December 21. At the time we went to press, there were 16 people in the hospital, 1 in critical condition, and two people lost their lives.
By Theo Edwards
A loaded container slides off a container chassis and crushes pedestrians to death
The gruesome incident happened on the evening of December 21, 2023. At the time we went to press, there were 16 people in the hospital, 1 in critical condition, and two people lost their lives.
The Mayor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, on Facebook, expresses her thoughts and prayers with victims of the trailer accident at Eastern Police.
The gruesome incident happened on the evening of December 21, 2023, by Eastern Police.
US Government Rejects Election Outcome in Sierra Leone as Mayor Aki Sawyerr Discloses Rigged Results
The main opposition APC rejected the outcome of the results, demanding full disclosure of all polling station disaggregated results. The international community in the country also refused to accept the rigged results announced by the ECSL chief Mohamed Konneh. They are demanding transparency and referring to the elections as lacking integrity.
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 15 July 2023 — Abdul Rashid Thomas
ECSL Chief Mohammed Konneh
Sierra Leone Telegraph: 15 July 2023 — Abdul Rashid Thomas
The main opposition APC rejected the outcome of the results, demanding full disclosure of all polling station disaggregated results. The international community in the country also refused to accept the rigged results announced by the ECSL chief Mohamed Konneh. They are demanding transparency and referring to the elections as lacking integrity.
It is now three weeks since the results of the presidential, general, and local elections held in Sierra Leone were announced by the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL). And so far, there is no end in sight to the unprecedented political crisis in the country, created by the ECSL after declaring Julius Maada Bio as president for a second term and his ruling SLPP party as winner of the parliamentary election with a huge majority.
The main opposition APC rejected the outcome of the results, demanding full disclosure of all polling station disaggregated results. The international community in the country also refused to accept the rigged results announced by the ECSL chief Mohamed Konneh. They are demanding transparency and referring to the elections as lacking integrity.
The US government published this statement: “The United States continues to be concerned about irregularities in the election results announced by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL). Independent parallel vote tabulations and analyses by accredited national and international observation missions raise questions about the integrity of the official results.
We call on the government to institute an independent, outside investigation of the elections process and integrate observer recommendations to improve the electoral modalities for future elections.
We are also disturbed by the reports of intimidation – including death threats – against domestic and international observers, civil society organizations, and ECSL personnel. We call on all actors to exercise restraint and engage in peaceful dialogue to resolve disputes.
evidence of serious-electoral malpractice revealed by Freetown Mayor-Elect Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr
The resolve and determination of Sierra Leoneans who went out to the polls on June 24 to make their voices heard was inspiring. Free and fair elections are essential for any democracy.
The government and political parties must commit to strengthening democratic institutions to better protect the rights and reflect the aspirations of the people of Sierra Leone.
The latest US government statement comes on the heels of evidence of serious-electoral malpractice revealed by Freetown Mayor-Elect Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr yesterday.
Mayor-Elect Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr said, 'Results and Reconciliation Forms (RRFs) are public documents that record the votes secured by candidates at each polling station. They are completed, signed, and stamped by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) staff and also signed by the political party agents and independent observers present.
The RRFs are displayed at the polling stations so that the voting public can see the votes secured by all candidates at those polling stations, and voters can thus themselves follow the tallying element of the electoral process.
It has taken longer than 48 hours, but I am pleased to share with the voting public and all other interested stakeholders; the attached spreadsheet with links to uploaded copies of 1,289 RRFs from 226 (80%) polling centers. Please click on the blue hyperlink in column M for the polling center and polling station to access the relevant RRF.
These forms, completed and validated by ECSL staff, political party agents, and independent observers, allow the public to witness the tallying process and maintain trust in the electoral system. Providing transparency by uploading the actual RRF forms onto the internet, allowing anyone to review them by simply clicking the link as provided in the spreadsheet she circulated. This significant step strengthens the credibility of the data she shared, as it is not an opinion but a verified fact.
You can see the spreadsheet with links to uploaded copies of 1,289 RRFs from 226 (80%) polling centers here:
The results data from these uploaded 1,289 RRFs are summarized at the top of the spreadsheet and show 191,634 (66.1%) votes for Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr and 95,025 (32.78%) votes for Mohamed Gento Kamara.
As of today, we have obtained results data extracted from 1,778 RRFs from 272 (96%) polling centers in Freetown. This includes the 1,289 RRFs have been uploaded and data from 489 RRFs that have yet to be uploaded. It should be noted that several stations did not open on polling day, and there were stations at which the box for mayoral votes was missing.
The summary of the results data from the 1,778 RRFs shows 263,858 votes (66.07%) for Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr and 131,652 votes (32.97%) for Mohammed Gento Kamara.
It is the expectation of candidates, voters, and election observers that votes secured and recorded in the RRFs at polling stations are reflected in the official results announced by ECSL.
That is the reason why the All People’s Congress Party, the National Elections Watch (NEW,) and all the international observers are requesting that ECSL disclose the disaggregated results per polling station that were tallied to arrive at the published results for all levels of the 24th June 2023 Sierra Leone elections.
'We hope that this very reasonable request will be granted as it is the right of every citizen to have their vote counted and thus their voice heard in a democracy.'
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CBS Eye On The World with Greggory Copley, Defence & Foreign Affairs Editor and Publisher.
U.S. Embassy Position on the Sierra Leone Election Results and the Country's Economy; Ambassador Reimers' announcement on Radio Democracy 98.1. (Last Updated August 16, 2023; 7:35 AM EST.)
SLPP—NGC Alliance
President Julius Maada Bio announced a second set of cabinet ministers Dr. Yumkella —Chairman Presidential Initiative For Climate Change, Renewable Energy & Food Security.
A serious concern, amid a cost-of-living crisis and with Sierra Leone's economy on a free fall, both the IMF and the World Bank holding back their financial support after the multitier general election in which the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) disputed the results, alleging that the election tallying and results management weren't transparent and credible —instructed its newly elected parliamentary members and local council not to participate in the Bio-led SLPP government until their demand for polling station results of presidential and general elections held on June 24 were made public.
Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella
Chairman Presidential Initiative For Climate Change, Renewable Energy & Food Security
President Julius Maada Bio announced a second set of cabinet posts.
Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY) was appointed Chairman of the Presidential Initiative For Climate Change, Renewable Energy & Food Security.
Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, until recently, was the Director General of UNIDO – United Nations International Development Organisation; presidential candidate in 2018 and leader of the National Grand Coalition (NGC) Party; Member of Parliament representing Kambia district during the fifth session of Parliament.
Regarded by many in Sierra Leone as one of the few principled politicians left in the country, Yumkella admitted months ago in a press conference that he was in talks with the SLPP to form an alliance with his National Grand Coalition (NGC) Party.
This decision by Kandeh Yumkella to enter into alliance discussions with the Bio, SLPP, was seen as a betrayal and a sell-out and did not go well with the rank-and-file of the National Grand Coalition as he was mocked ruthlessly by its members, with some in the executive resigning in protest. They view the Bio-SLPP as corrupt. However, Yumkella insisted he did it in the interest of Sierra Leone. He [Yumkella] believes that an alliance between the SLPP and his party, the National Grand Coalition (NGC), would help to unite the country and bring about change.
Ultimately: the decision to enter into an alliance discussion with the SLPP was a strategic one for Yumkella though there are both; risks and rewards associated with this decision.
Dr. Yumkella —Chairman Presidential Initiative For Climate Change, Renewable Energy & Food Security.
Cabinet Ministers | Deputy Ministers | and Other appointments
Some of Bio’s old guards have retained their ministerial portfolio, including Dr. Austin Dembi, who stays at the Ministry of Health with responsibility for sanitation removed from his portfolio.
Tamba Lamina stays at the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, while Mohamed Orman Bangura remains at the Ministry of Youths.
Kanja Sesay stays as Minister of Energy, and Dr. Turad Senesie continues as Minister of Lands and Country Planning.
Former Minister of Information and Communication Mohamed Rahman Swaray was sent to head the Ministry of Employment, Labour, and Social Security, replacing Alpha Timbo was sacked from the government. And former Press Secretary at the Office of the President — Yusuf Keketoma Sandi, now Deputy Minister of Information and Civic Education.
Minister of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, Dr. Memunatu Pratt, was sacked after failing to improve the country’s tourism industry. Replace by Nabeela F. Tunis. Adekunle King, formerly a Labour Minister, replaced Nabeela Tunis as Minister of Western Area with strategic responsibility for the development of Freetown.
Dr. Denis Sandy, sacked by President Bio in his first administration as a Minister of Lands, has made a comeback, now the new Minister of Works and Public Assets.
Kandeh Yumkella is expected to play a crucial role in the newly Bio-led government.
About Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella
Dr. Kandeh Yumkella was an expert in development economics and agricultural economics. He had over 25 years of international experience and worked in various high-level policy positions in the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the United Nations (UN).
In UNIDO, he served as Director-General for two four-year terms (2005-2013). He was the first from Sub-Saharan Africa to have been appointed to the position. In this role, he led the organization's work promoting industrial development and technological innovation in developing countries.
He was also the founding Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All) initiative, launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2011. SE4All aims to ensure universal access to modern energy services by 2030.
Dr. Yumkella's expertise in development economics and agricultural economics made him a valuable asset to the UN. He was able to help the organization develop and implement policies that would promote economic growth and sustainable development in developing countries.
Some of his specific areas of expertise:
Private sector development
Public-private sector dialogue and partnerships
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
Support systems
Capacity-building in industry and business associations
Trade capacity-building
Agro-industry and rural development
High-level policy dialogue and consensus-building
He was also a member of the UN Secretary-General's High-level Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. He brought a renewed and vital focus to global energy issues and; led the coordination of the United Nations' response to renewable energy transformation.
Updated: July 20, 2023; 11:36 pm, EST
With the cost and affordability questions being raised by concerned citizens, over the number of appointees, President Bio of the SLPP government has appointed additional cabinet ministerial positions—at a time when the country's economy is in its worst shape. These appointments brought the number of ministers, deputy ministers, and other appointees over the last weeks to surpass eighty (80) for his final term in office, as allowed by the constitution.
additional cabinet ministerial positions
Whatever Happened to The So-called Strategic Alliance?
KKY; looking for his name in the cabinet ministers' list. As the Chief Minister, Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, and Trade Minister positions swiftly filled by SLPP loyalists, one can't help but wonder if Bio has even spared a thought for any desperate NGC lackeys, even for the lowliest of roles.
A Surreal Spectacle Unveiled!_ By Alan Luke
KKY; looking for his name in the cabinet ministers' list
A Surreal Spectacle Unveiled!_ By Alan Luke
KKY; looking for his name in the cabinet ministers' list. As the Chief Minister, Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, and Trade Minister positions swiftly filled by SLPP loyalists, one can't help but wonder if Bio has even spared a thought for any desperate NGC lackeys, even for the lowliest of roles.
These individuals, who once proudly represented the third largest political party in Sierra Leone, decided to ditch their principles in favor of hopping on the SLPP-led government gravy train.
Prepare yourselves for the grandest act of political betrayal Sierra Leone has ever witnessed! As President Bio triumphantly unveiled his questionable cabinet following the election coup, it became glaringly obvious; that Kandeh Yumkella, Jesmed F. Suma, Andrew Kemoh Kieli, Alhaji Amadu Sheriff, and their fellow NGC stalwarts have shattered all records when it comes to negotiating ineptitude.
These individuals, who once proudly represented the third largest political party in Sierra Leone, decided to ditch their principles in favor of hopping on the SLPP-led government gravy train. They conveniently turned a blind eye to the Bio government's laundry list of excesses, including extrajudicial killings, mammoth-scale fraud, and a knack for sowing division and chaos. It seems personal interests trumped any concerns for the public's welfare, as they shamelessly abandoned everything they once claimed to believe in.
It's safe to say; we will need a superhighway on Damascus Road to prevent a traffic jam as NGC executives and members scramble to join the bandwagon.
During the elections, the NGC leaders were not content with being ordinary supporters; they practically transformed into the SLPP's cheerleading squad, rooting for SLPP candidates for the presidency and Freetown. NGC aspirants were even obliged to campaign for SLPP candidates wherever the NGC failed to field a representative. The 'NGC- vuvuzelas,' the likes of the clueless DJ Million, went out of their way to justify this bizarre alliance.
They claimed it was all for 'the sake of securing SLPP's unwavering support for Yumkella in the 2028 elections.' What a load of hogwash! The reason behind the alliance was that Yumkella deemed it beneath his distinguished self to do what any other grubby politician would do—cross carpet.
As the Chief Minister, Finance Minister, Foreign Minister, and Trade Minister positions were swiftly filled by SLPP loyalists, one can't help but wonder if Bio has even spared a thought for any desperate NGC lackeys, even for the lowliest of roles. Meanwhile, Yumkella and his cronies stood idly by as they witnessed the loss of four MPs, one District Chairman, and the control of Kambia District Council. To add insult to injury, the NGC's vote share nosedived from a measly 6% to less than 1%. With public trust eroded, remaining members disillusioned by the web of lies spun by their leaders, and the party teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, one can't help but wonder: what's next for the NGC leadership, if none of them get a job in government, that they are so desperate for?
Perhaps a career in stand-up comedy would be a fitting alternative.
Tagged: #Comedy Central, Satirical