It was in Kailahun District where the rebel war started in Sierra Leone, it was in Kailahun District where the war was most brutally fought and it was indeed in Kailahun District that suffered the worst in the decade-long rebel war. After decades of APC misrule, the APC Government crowned it all with a well-planned rebel war. It is an extremely shrewd act of ethnic cleansing against the East and South by the Northern-led APC, all of which started by eliminating the strongman of the South, Mr. F. M. Minnah. After strangulating the SLPP Party by systematically gruesome killings of all who stood against indecency, Siaka Stevens force-walked Sierra Leone into one party APC rule. With absolute powers of the state under the one-party rule, Stevens single-handedly manipulated his succession and put the failing Sierra Leone nation into the hands of his backdoor child — Joseph Saidu Momoh. Stevens quietly groomed Momoh to the rank of a Major General so that he could succeed his throne. 

The Momoh-led APC Government went on to convict F. M. Minnah of “misprision of treason,” following a very queer and highly unjust adjudication. In the ploy to finish up with Minnah (the strongman of the South), APC anticipated unrest in the South and East. The Momoh-led APC cabal therefore secretly recruited the North-born Corporal Foday Sankoh to quell any such unrest with a guerrilla war. While the warfare was to distract the people from the dangerous political maneuver that was underway in Freetown, it was Momoh’s up-front act of ethnic cleansing against the East and South.

Corporal Foday Sankoh had a pretty good knowledge of the army and the topographic terrains of the South and East in terms of military strategicness. It was this man who would launch a brutal rebel/guerilla war (or call it proxy war) on behalf of APC. The war cost the lives of fifty thousand people, eighty percent of them hailing the East and South. The gruesome war fought for over a decade interestingly turned around to unseat the Momoh-led APC Government from power. What Mohoh, his uncle Bambay Kamara and his entire APC cabal did not know was that whatever goes around comes around. The APC war ploy that was meant to eliminate the Mendes in the East and South eventually consumed the APC Government — the creator of the war.

After much international effort, the war eventually ended and then came the period of reconciliation and reconstruction. There again the disguised APC cabal in the form of the Kabbah-led SLPP Government hatched out another drama for the already war-traumatized East and South. Over eighty percent of the reconstruction efforts, well financed by the international community, were again redirected to the North. The North is the APC stronghold, the region that was least affected by the war. But it was also the birth place of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, who posed as SLLP, but actually with thick APC blood. So the regions worst affected by the war (the East and South) were sidelined in the reconstruction drive. Up to date, the East and South are firmly gripped with abject destitution and massive devastation.

It is the decades of persistent subjection to neglect, brutality, destitution and despair that have eventually degenerated into the outbreak of Ebola, an epidemic that is associated with distant East African countries like Uganda and Rwanda. Now once again, these courageous people of the East are challenged with another life-threatening tribulation.

To the people of the East, we say, endure! These are extraordinary times with strong signs of the nearing of the days of great jubilation. Surely, these trying tribulations will soon turn into everlasting jubilation! Our renowned local prophet, Saffa Koroma of Kondorbotihun, repeatedly lamented on these catastrophic episodes in his prolific sermon treks across the East and South. 

How did the APC ploy against the East and South come to pass? The SLPP Party emerged victorious in the democratic elections following the overthrow of the APC by the NPRC Junta. To gain the hearts of the people in the North, the elders of the SLPP Party (notably late Chief Hinga Norman and Pa Alusine Deen) insisted on having someone from the North to lead the SLPP Party. This person was Ahmed Tejan Kabbah, the APC stooge who slipped the SLPP elders. So it eventually was, and indeed so did SLPP get to govern Sierra Leone for another decade under the disguise of the APC.

Honestly, the novelty of the brainchildren of the people of the East and South has always driven them to their graves. Minnah scripted the “misprision of treason” article into the laws of Sierra Leone, which eventually took him to his grave. Also Hinga Norman and Alusine Deen stubbornly pushed Kabbah to SLPP Flagbearership and it was that very Kabbah who heartlessly paved the way to their graves. This sufficiently chronicles the politicking of East and South and how the North always utilizes it to smolder the people.
 
Now again comes the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in the same Kailahun District where the APC-led war started. Coincidentally, it is again the APC that is the ruling Party, whose continuous neglect of the region has eventually led to the outbreak of this deadly epidemic.

Instead of doing what it takes to combat the epidemic, the APC Government is politicking on the disease to raise funds for its bankrupt Government. In the wake of the Ebola epidemic, the first deceitful reaction of the Koroma-led APC Government was to close the borders with Liberal and Guinea. APC knows what right to do, but it always deliberately chooses to do the wrong thing when it comes to the East and South. Closing the borders leaves one wondering if the disease is running into Sierra Leone from Liberal and Guinea. But even if that was the case, anyone familiar with the borders in that region would at once know that the APC Government politicking in a complete nonsense. Firstly, there is no clear-cut line of border separating these countries. Also even if there was a semblance of one, it is all but an unmanned stretch of forests. But again even if it actually existed as purported by the APC Government, is the border closure the best medication for the Ebola epidemic?

APC always behaves in a queer way when dealing with the East and South. It is all novelistic, if not entirely disheartening, for any responsible Government anywhere in the world to respond to an epidemic by freezing Government Services in affected regions, including hospitals. The APC Government has now declared a state of emergency in Kailahun District, squandered all external funds donated to control the epidemic, and closed all hospitals, schools, banks and other government offices. Now even NGOs are fleeing Kailahun District under the directive of the APC Government. All this is done in the name of fighting the Ebola epidemic in Kailahun District. APC is fighting the disease epidemic as if it was responding to an unprecedented terrorist attack in the region. These valiant and courageous people are once again completely abandoned to smolder in the APC-made human tragedy. Where, for God’s sake, is the promised governance for the people in this highly difficult circumstance?

We ask the Koroma-led APC Government to stop politicking in the East and South and speedily deliver the qualified medical personnel, equipment and drugs to swiftly combat the epidemic disease in the region. The APC Government cannot succeed in caging the people of the East and South. The millions of dollars donated by the international community should be fully committed to fighting the disease epidemic.

To our people of the East and South, we say endure these trying tribulations with every valor and fortitude. Verily, verily, your days of great jubilation are near. May God continue to bless you and hold you together so that you can see this great day!

God Bless Sierra Leone!

By Sulay B. Conteh