Ladies and Gentlemen, even as we enjoy each others company tonight, some of us have been badly affected by this Ebola crisis in our country. We want to express our concerns for the doctors, nurses and health care workers, orphans and all those who have been affected by this Ebola crisis. Our nurses and health care workers are absolutely vital to the health and well being of our family. They are sacrificing for us all the time, not just in this crisis but in the case of other illnesses and catastrophes. They are selfless. They work hard. They are often underpaid. So our thoughts and prayers are with them. We are here today, not only to celebrate with Mr and Mrs Bio, but to reaffirm our support for each other, our support for Julius Maada Bio and our unrelenting desire to unite in common endeavour for a better Sierra Leone. I want you to know that I am especially grateful to folks like you. Everything we have been able to do today was possible because you have been willing to work for it. Everything we have been able to do today was possible because you have been willing to organise for it. I am especially proud to say thank you to Mohamed Lamin for giving me this wonderful idea and to Luseni Dassama, and Abdul Fatorma for organising tirelessly behind the scene. My dear brother Luseni Dassama gave me one of the most difficult tasks, in my campaign to promote Maada Bio. The task was to tell him why I support Maada Bio. Whenever we are on the phone he wont let me get away with it, until I tell him why I support Maada Bio. Incidentally, for the most part, I had nothing to say. I went silent all the time trying to find my best answer but I still could not provide an answer that would inspire anybody. So Mr Dassama continued asking me the same question over and over until he became very annoying. He forced me to search deep within my soul to examine what drives my passion for a Maada Bio Presidency. And not surprisingly the answer starts with my school days as a young, handsome and dynamic Bo School boy from Blama. Julius Maada Bio was my senior in school. Maada Bio was my school prefect and yet, you would never have guessed from the easy interaction I had with him. One afternoon, I had an experience with Maada Bio that profoundly shaped the rest of my life. I had been assisting serving food in our dining hall. Maada Bio asked me to see him in his dormitory after I finished. Many misgivings went through my mind. When I finally got to his dormitory, he took me to his corner and uttered these amazing words to me. WE ARE GOING TO MAKE YOU A MANAGER. I was shocked. I can’t be a manager. It is too difficult to control my seniors at that age. I murmured under my breath. Sensing my doubt, Maada Bio placed his arm around me and said, “I have great confidence in you. You can do this. I will help you and the Senior Manager will help you prepare for the task ahead”. His confidence, his ability to see more than I saw in myself, his willingness to entrust me with responsibility that would stretch me to my potential unlocked something inside me. I realised that in time that I wasn’t the only one he treated this way. His affirmation of others, his ability to unite us in vision towards our work that inspired and motivated us, his pattern of providing us with enabling resources and empowering us as true leaders with accountability and stewardship became the norm in our entire Bo School. We began to lead and serve others in the same way and the results were remarkable. That brief experience in some ways changed my life. What it told me is that ordinary people will do extra ordinary things when given the opportunity. We sometimes think that our leaders have to be the best academic student or have fancy degrees or well educated. Back then Maada Bio had none of those things. What he possessed was an anger over injustice that he was able to channel in a constructive and positive ways Unlike many of his peers, Maada Bio never treated us junior boys as plebs or lepers or rustics. He treated me with respect, gave me a sense of confidence and his personal kindness touched my heart in many different ways. He never once asked me what tribe I belonged to or what religion I followed—things like that did not seem to matter to him. Even in those days, we could already identify his quiet dignity, integrity and towering self-confidence and decency. So I was not surprised that he decided to join the army and serve his country with immense patriotism. This was at a time when many of his school friends like Mr Luseni Dassama were abandoning Sierra Leone for greener pastures in the UK and America. Maada Bio chose to stay, for love of country and a sense of destiny calling. Soon after joining the army, he was forced to choose between a corrupt and dangerous APC Government and the people of Sierra Leone. Maada Bio chose the people of Sierra Leone at great personal risk to his life and the life of his loved ones. At the age of 31 in January 1996 as a young military officer and Head of State, the democratic destiny of a proud nation and its beautiful people depended on his decision. An anxious nation with fresh memories of 23 years of APC misrule and bad governance watched on whether he would put his personally political ambition ahead of the determination of his people for the return to a multi-party democracy. Maada Bio was not unmindful that whilst they were being protected from arms way, our people were still suffering and dying. This caring man had to take this difficult decision to engineer the peace to which our people are rebuilding their lives and people like EBK are benefitting from this freedom today. In 2005, Maada Bio lost The SLPP presidential bid to Solomon Berewa. He did not leave the party to form his own movement. He built a movement that is changing the face of politics in this country, and he has demonstrated a special gift for inspiring young people. There is a generation coming of age that is hopeful, hard-working, innovative and imaginative. As parents, we have a responsibility to help our children to believe in themselves and in their power to shape their future. Maada Bio is inspiring women, the youths, with that sense of possibility. Maada Bio became the first serious political figure to select a female running mate for Presidential elections, thus signifying his deep respect for women and the role they play in our society. Maada Bio is a champion of GENDER EQUALITY and a crusader against all forms of DISCRIMINATION. If theres a child on the northern province who cant read or go to school, that matters to Maada Bio, even if its not his family. If theres a family somewhere who cant pay for their hospital treatment and having to choose between medicine and food, that makes Maada Bio’s life poorer, even if its not his family. If theres an SLPP family being rounded up without benefit of an attorney or due process that threatens Maada Bio’s civil liberties too. It is that fundamental belief -- I am my brothers keeper, I am my sisters keeper -- that makes our party work. Ladies and gentlemen, OUR NO.1 PRIORITY IS THE REMOVAL OF THE APC POLITICAL MACHINE FROM GOVERNMENT. Our country is bleeding. Our country is on its knees. This is not the time to take a chance on potential. We need a candidate with the HIGHEST level of experience. We do not have the luxury of time and space to build up a candidates, name recognition, experience and tactical knowledge. The presidency of Sierra Leone is too serious and critical for an apprenticeship, or learning on the job experience. I want a president who understands that his responsibility is to articulate a vision and encourage others to achieve it. Our party needs a charismatic leader. Someone who can set the tone, find the right people, tell them to do their jobs and if they don’t do their jobs, he fires them! Someone with credibility who can inspire people to work harder and harder. It will take a courageous person to do that. Ladies and Gentlemen, sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible. We have that kind of opportunity with Julius Maada Bio. The future is ours if we make the right choices. Luseni Dassama, that is why, I am a Maada Bio supporter. Blamas Finest, The Man Who Conjures Something Out Of Nothing!!!
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 06:33:40 +0000
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