Sierra Leone: As the President turns 80...
Lans Joe Sesay
While acknowledging that the octogenarian leader is the cohesive force holding the country together, the SLDP maintains that the fragile stability has been achieved by the coercive tactics that Stevens employs.SIERRA Leone's President Siaka Stevens officially turns 80 on Friday August 24, and already plans are underway to make the occasion another national event.
Taking the lead is the state-run Radio Sierra Leone with its current commercials and public notices of non- stop programmes to mark the "Pa's birthday." They include all-night parties, gala dances and football matches.
One announcement invites the public to an anniversary parade by school children while another public notice urges supporters of the ruling All Peoples Congress party (APC) of which President Stevens is both leader and secretary-general to turn out in full force at the Siaka Stevens national stadium on Friday, August 24.
At the same time, the central committee of the APC party has been charged with the responsibility of soliciting funds for the national birthday celebration. The bulk of the money will, as in previous years, come from Sierra Leone's 50,000 Lebanese community.
The elaborate preparation has sparked off a sharp reaction from the newly-formed opposition Sierra Leone Democratic Party (SLDP). The London-based chairman of the new party, 50-year-old Mr Edison Milton Gorvie has accused President Stevens of "running Sierra Leone as if it is his (Stevens') personal patrimony" his inherited property.
As in previous years, the President's birthday broadcast to the nation this year is expected to centre on his achievement of "political stability".
While acknowledging that the octogenarian leader is the cohesive force holding the country together, the SLDP maintains that the "fragile stability" has been achieved by the "brutal force" Stevens employs. The new party attacks the political killings by Stevens since he came to power in 1968, stressing that the list includes two Brigadiers, three cabinet ministers and one bank governor.
"Many Sierra Leoneans have been forced into exile because of Stevens' ruthless policy of eliminating uncomfortable opponents,' said Mr Gorvie, a former diplomat at the Sierra Leone High Commission in London - turned exile.
In the past, the President's birthday meant money and sophisticated gifts from leading business concerns, politicians and top civil servants. Companies took advantage of this annual event to present their statements of accounts while the faithful pledged their loyalty to the President. The newspapers too usually cashed in on the event with prominently displayed adverts from mostly business tycoons who also flooded the state house with "happy birthday wishes."
The apparent absence of a likely successor to Stevens in the hierarchy has inevitably led to the emergence of various factions in the cabinet all eyeing the presidency.
Having retired his second Vice- President C.A. Kamara-Taylor because of ill-health in May this year, President Stevens is openly under pressure from Kamara-Taylor's supporters to sack his first Vice- President, Mr S.I. Koroma on the same grounds of health. Apart from a near-fatal road accident which left him with patched ribs some eight years ago, first Vice-President S.I. Koroma is also suffering from frequent loss of speech. Competent sources say President Stevens may soon give in to the growing demands to get rid of his first Vice-President.
In London, the exiled opposition party has condemned the deliberately created power vacuum and the elabor- ate plans for the forthcoming birthday as a ploy by Stevens to divert attention from the country's deteriorating economy.
According to the present Finance Minister Salia Jusu-Sheriff, severe shortages of foreign exchange have continued to adversely affect Sierra Leone's trade. Mr Sheriff's latest budget projects a deficit of a staggering Le190m (190 million leones) for 1984/5.
The country's mineral economy is also collapsing. Alluvial diamond mining - still the barometer of the economy was down from 2.19 million carats in 1968 (when Stevens came to power) to an all-time low of 78,000 carats in 1983/4.
With the caratage of alluvial mining dropping steadily, government desperately wants to get the kimberlite (underground) diamond mining project under way).
But the snag is Stevens wants to have more of the stake (about 60 per cent) from this exciting new development while at the same time asking the British Petroleum Minerals International (BPMI) to provide a greater chunk (about Le100m) of the Le118m funding needed for the underground kimerlite project.
BPMI - the company which bought the former mining company of the Sierra Leone Selection Trust (SLST) four years ago - says it will only fund the new mining project if Stevens cuts down his demand from 60 per cent to an undisclosed stake.
Officials in Freetown on the other hand maintain that the talks between the government and BPMI " are continuing".
Meanwhile, the lack of much-needed foreign exchange has forced Stevens to enter into another deal - this time for the mining of gold in the northern province
According to the government-owned Daily Mail of June 9 this year, the Bin Rafer Mining company - a subsidiary of the Saudi-based International Saudi Methods and Organisation System (ISMOS) has agreed to invest 100 million dollars in the mining of gold in the northern district of Tonkolili.
In fact the company had already committed 28 million dollars to the project before the Daily Mail reported the news
