{"id":51957,"date":"2013-01-15T13:58:08","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T13:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sierraexpressmedia.com\/?p=51957"},"modified":"2013-01-15T13:58:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T13:58:08","slug":"ernest-feba-tony-blair-bad-bad-wan-o","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/?p=51957","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Ernest feba Tony (Blair) bad bad wan, O!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018<\/strong>Ernest\u00a0 feba Tony (Blair) bad bad wan, O!?\u2019\u00a0 Walahi!!\u00a0 That it is stretching the Krio\u00a0\u00a0 word\u00a0 \u2018feba\u2019 way beyond the border of credulity!\u00a0 (In Sierra Leone\u2019s lingua franca, Krio, the word \u2018feba\u2019 means: \u2018to have a physical resemblance with someone else\u2019).\u00a0\u00a0 \u2018Ernest nor feba Tony wan, are dae yeri una da say\u2019! The British Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, is as lily white as the British Monarchy \u00a0can be, with distinct pointed Caucasian nose \u2013 whereas the President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma, is as black as the famed Sierra Leonean warrior, Bai Bureh, with pitch black Negroid complexion, and squashed Negroid nose elegantly carved into \u00a0his huge head.\u00a0 \u2018Tony nor feba Ernest; no way!\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 When Ernest and Tony \u2013 both men 59 years of age\u00a0 – entered the hall for a joint press conference \u00a0at State House, Freetown, on January 14, 2013… Tony, garbed in typically dour \u00a0British gray-black suit, white shirt, dark gold tie…. hobbled a bit, like an old man, with his steps almost timid; \u00a0H.E. Ernest Bai Koroma, donning\u00a0 that\u00a0 short sleeve French Suit which Africa\u2019s elites \u00a0have made a native African Suit – black short-sleeve; with the President wearing with a whisper of a red broach (Red, his party\u2019s color) on\u00a0 his left collar – \u00a0strode into the hall majestically, athletically, with Arnold Schwazenneger-type gait and dominance of his space; Ernest\u2019s magnetism, a \u00a0cinematographic ideal of what a \u2018leader\u2019 ought to be….would get\u00a0 Hollywood, Nollywood, Bollywood and Sallywood film makers palpitating….\u00a0 In spite of the exterior differences, \u00a0in terms of their vision, their ambition, their courage, their resonance, their political and historical trajectory, and their prescience… `Ernest feba Tony. Eee clear, Sam!!\u2019<\/p>\n

Ernest and Tony \u2018Resurrected\u2019 their Political Parties<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Both Ernest and Tony fought tough political battles to almost resurrect the Labour party and the APC party \u00a0in \u00a0their ascent to ultimate leadership. \u00a0\u00a0By 1992,\u00a0 \u00a0after Tony Blair\u2019s Labour Party had been defeated in a succession of four general elections, many of its members had come to accept that its policies were making Labour unelectable \u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u2018too Socialist\u2019, too Left, at a time when the Conservative \u00a0Leader,\u00a0 the Prime Minister, the \u00a0\u2018Iron Lady\u2019, Margaret Thatcher, had stigmatized any political doctrine not on the Right, not pro-capitalist, \u00a0as \u00a0British political heresy, hemorrhaging the British economy. Ernest became leader of the APC in Parliament in 2002.\u00a0 This was after the APC had been sullied by the buffoonery and ineffectiveness of the General Joseph Saidu \u00a0APC government in\u00a0 the 1980s, which led inexorably to the \u2018rebel war\u2019 being ignited in 1991, and the NPRC military coup which booted \u00a0the APC from power in 1992.\u00a0 With democratic rule restored in 1996, the APC just managed to squeak into the \u2018proportional representation\u2019 parliament of 1996 – \u00a0with a mere 5% of the votes.\u00a0\u00a0 The governing SLPP won the 2002 elections \u00a0by a landslide; \u00a0pulverizing the APC in even its traditional strongholds of Freetown, and the Northern Province.\u00a0 The SLPP leader, President Tejan Kabbah, publicly articulated his condescension to the APC \u2013 that the APC\u00a0 needed to be propped up so as not to give the impression that Sierra Leone had relapsed back into a One Party State under the SLPP.\u00a0\u00a0 When the SLPP anointed its Vice President in 2005 as their presidential candidate for the 2007 General Elections, over 90 percent of the cream of SLPP elite were absolutely certain that the APC posed no serious challenge to the SLPP; and that their candidate, Solomon Berewa, was \u2018president-in-waiting\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cContinuous Campaigning\u201d of Tony and Ernest<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Like Hon. Ernest Bai Koroma \u00a0had struck a deal with APC hardliners to clinch the leadership of the APC in 2007, so, Tony Blair reached a deal with his main challenger for the prime minister position in the Labour party, Gordon Brown, in the late 1990s.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0To impress upon the electorate \u00a0the fact that there had been a genuine change of \u00a0Labour policy, the party adopted five pledges: not to raise income tax, to cut class sizes, to reduce health service waiting lists, and to stick to their predecessors spending plans for two years.\u00a0\u00a0 The marketing techniques that had been introduced by super public relations company, Saatchi and Saatchi, for the Conservative party’s 1979 campaign…. were extended \u00a0\u00a0by a team of enthusiastic Labour party amateurs, including the former journalist, Alastair Campbell.\u00a0\u00a0 The outcome of the election broke a number of records. More Labour MPs (419) were elected than ever before, and the Conservatives were left with fewer seats (165) than at any time since 1906. Campaigning techniques, such as the use of an instant rebuttal team to counter inaccurate reports and comments, were continued in support of Tony Blair.\u00a0 Blair feared \u00a0that the party’s electoral lead could be lost, and that a single term in office would not enable him to push through his wished-for reforms \u2013 so, he kept on relentless media assault on the Conservative party. A process was set in motion that came to be known as “continuous campaigning”.<\/p>\n

It is more in the 2012\u00a0 General Elections that \u2018Ernest feba Tony\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0 U.S.-based Sierra Leonean doctorate degree \u00a0student, Allie Kabbah (whose cyber name is Behmehkhan) posted on the FOIC-SL cyber forum a few months to the 2012 elections that President Koroma has assembled the most formidable team of journalists\/public relations experts ever in Sierra Leone\u2019s history \u2013 and because of this, the SLPP didn\u2019t have a ghost\u2019s chance of winning.\u00a0\u00a0 Behmehkhan knew only half the truth of the APC media team \u2013 both overt and covert.\u00a0\u00a0 In the two months leading to the elections, the APC overwhelmed the SLPP in all the major radio stations, and on T.V \u2013 on a daily basis; in numerous interviews; in paid-for programmes; in video documentaries.\u00a0 And, the APC won the support of over 90% of the newspapers, which were deemed \u2018biased\u2019 by the EU Observer Team to the 2012 elections.\u00a0\u00a0 The SLPP had banked on stoking the fires of public disaffection because of the hike in prices of all staple food and basic commodities.\u00a0 It failed.\u00a0 With inflation biting the populace, with scary youth unemployment of about 80% of youth of employable age in the capital city of Freetown, the APC media gurus succeeded in marketing the APC\u2019s\u00a0 stark developmental record of impressive road construction, Agriculture Business Centers in every district, Free Health Care, etc. – which stirred Great Hope in the majority youth population that if \u2018ress en pamine nar boku nar dem plate tidae\u2019, there is hope that the APC leadership of President Koroma would make things better for them in his second term in office. \u00a0It worked!!\u00a0 \u00a0Ernest, like Tony, are \u00a0both resonant and persuasive speakers \u2013 with that invaluable and amorphous gloss of \u2018charisma\u2019 for a politician.\u00a0 \u00a0Ernest and Tony have used (are using) their God-given gifts, and their learned skills, \u00a0for maximum political benefit.<\/p>\n

Ernest and Tony are Transformative Leaders<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

As Prime Minister, Tony Blair\u00a0 sought to modernise the United Kingdom’s public services.\u00a0 He encouraged enterprise and innovation in the \u00a0private sector.\u00a0 He opened Britain more to \u00a0international commerce, making it about the safest haven\u00a0\u00a0 for international financial capital.\u00a0\u00a0 Under his premiership, the British government made major changes to the British constitution by legislation that transferred decision-making to devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. On taking up the leadership of the country, President Koroma pledged to \u2018run the country like a business\u2019.\u00a0 On February 14, 2013 at State House, President Koroma crowed in State House how he has \u201ccreated the environment for business\u201d to sowed it seeds here, and prosper.\u00a0 Indeed, during the first term of the Koroma presidency, billions of dollars were invested in the country by large scale mineral mining and agricultural companies like African Minerals, London Mining, Socfin, ADDAX, etc.\u00a0\u00a0 Sierra Leone\u2019s Fast Track Commercial Court is helping to build up greater confidence that the Rule of Law is supreme in the country, and investors would have their investments protected by the law, commercial disputes speedily adjudicated, and commercial agreements \u00a0not prone to capricious policies \u00a0and actions of government.\u00a0 It is hardly a wonder that the African Government Initiative (AGI) founded by former Prime Minister Tony Blair has been promoting President Koroma\u2019s government as one of its most brilliant and valuable jewels.<\/p>\n

At The Times<\/em> CEO Summit-Africa<\/span><\/strong> in London, March, 2012,\u00a0 Tony Blair spoke of a “new sense of hope and confidence” in Africa.\u00a0\u00a0 “There is a new sense of hope and confidence, \u00a0optimism, and an expectation, that is based on evidence, not dreams…..\u201d.\u00a0 Not only did Tony Blair had President Koroma \u00a0in mind in the following words, but, in that gathering of some of the biggest companies in Africa, Tony Blair expressly \u00a0praised the dramactic progress being made by President Koroma (and Liberia\u2019s\u00a0 president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf): \u201cAbove all, I am noticing in my frequent visits there that there is a new generation of leaders in politics, business and civic society who don’t simply have a new competence about how they approach their tasks, but a new attitude, a new frame of thinking, a new way of looking at their own situation…\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 Fast forward to January 14, 2013, in Freetown and not\u00a0 in London, Tony Blair read again from his \u2018development Bible\u2019, like he did in London in 2012: “African countries must be in the driving seat of their own development, setting the priorities and making the decisions,” he said.<\/p>\n

Productive Post-Prime Minister….<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

There are other ways in which \u2018Ernest feba Tony\u2019.\u00a0 Tony Blair has carved a niche for himself as one of the greatest post-prime minister\/president Statesmen in modern history – in several foundations doing valuable work in the developing world which \u00a0he is the founder for;\u00a0 in being a PR consultant for leading businesses around the world which are snatching multi-billion contracts in the developing countries; in \u00a0earning personal money of up to \u00a320,000,000.\u00a0 You can be certain that post-presidential Ernest will become the brightest star in the post-presidential firmament, earning serious multi-million dollars educating other African leaders on how he \u2018worked the miracle of Development, Justice, Freedom in Sierra Leone in ten years\u2019.<\/p>\n

by Oswald Hanciles<\/em><\/p>\n

Stay with Sierra Express Media, for your trusted place in news!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2018Ernest\u00a0 feba Tony (Blair) bad bad wan, O!?\u2019\u00a0 Walahi!!\u00a0 That it is stretching the Krio\u00a0\u00a0 word\u00a0 \u2018feba\u2019 way beyond the border of credulity!\u00a0 (In Sierra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":36119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[671],"tags":[1055,1022],"class_list":["post-51957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-president-ernest-bai-koroma","tag-tony-blair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sierraexpressmedia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}