WHY ALWAYS MUSA TARAWALLIE?

Paul Conton

Within the space of less than two years, Musa Tarawallie, current APC Minister of Lands, has been indicted in a government white paper looking into political violence (see government white paper ), responding to which he indicated that Government imported weapons for the police in order to control the political opposition. At the time he was Minister of the Interior, with responsibility for the police and he would ride around the country in a convoy with armed policemen and blaring siren. He has been involved in a shootout in Kono that led to civilian casualties (see Shoot-out in Kono! ), responding to which he publicly challenged his boss, the vice-president, and indicated that he (the vice president) was afraid of him. Recently, he personally led a group of OSD officers to destroy a wall belonging to a private business man (see .Minister demolishes private property ). And now, he has authorized an assault on privately owned property in contravention of a high court judgement. And these are just the incidents that have been made public (see www.natinpasadvantage.com ). God knows how many more incidents have been quietly hushed up.

ASSAULT ON PRIVATE PROPERTY

In this latest incident, Musa Tarawallie’s special assistant/bodyguard, Amerikin, was sent to do the dirty work. He is not actually a government employee, but is a constant presence at the Ministry of Lands and with Tarawallie. Amerikin showed up at the site, owned by Professor and Mrs Cyrus Macfoy under high court order, on Thursday April 18,2013, and stated that he had been sent by the Minister of Lands to stop ongoing construction work and to ask the owners to report to the minister. The site had been previously claimed and occupied by one Neneh Binta, but she had lost a high court case brought by the Macfoys in 2011 and possession was handed over to the Macfoys in December 2012 by high court order. When Amerikin arrived at the site with his orders from the minister, he was asked to produce official identification. He could not, naturally enough, as he is not a government employee. He was asked to produce some official documentation, a stop-work order or the like, from the ministry. He could not produce that either, and was accordingly rebuffed. When Musa Tarawallie heard from Amerikin that his orders had been rejected he must have been enraged. Neneh had been seen just a day or two earlier in the office of the minister. The very next day, Friday April 19, a gang of men led by Amerikin and the Director of Country Planning, Ministry of Lands, Augustine Banya, stormed the site with large hammers and other implements of assault. They violently forced their way into the compound, overpowered the workers, vandalized the construction and evicted the Macfoys’ employees. The very next day, Saturday April 20, another gang of thirty or forty men, claiming to be working for Neneh, stormed the compound and took possession of it, where they remain as of this writing.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND RULE OF LAW IN SIERRA LEONE?

There are few other countries in the world where a man with this kind of record could continue to serve as a government minister. In a functioning democracy it simply would be unthinkable. After the first of the above episodes he would have been asked to resign and dragged to court. What does it tell us about our ‘democracy’ when a serving government minister can trample upon a high court judgement with impunity? What does it tell us about the rule of law? About human rights in Sierra Leone? About the judiciary and the police? About the APC party? About President Ernest Bai Koroma?

SIAKA STEVENS AND THE APC

Musa Tarawallie simply is not ministerial material in this era of increased focus on human rights and the rule of law. He is a bull in a china shop, smashing the treasure at every turn. Why he has been retained as minister this long is an enduring mystery. Musa Tarawallie might well have been ministerial material in the old, one-party APC. The party has always been attracted to the strongman, the political thug. And leadership within the APC has often been achieved through this route. When all else fails, bring out the jackboots, and the most effective ones achieve a certain status within the party. This was the APC philosophy in the days of Siaka Stevens, who groomed the likes of SI Koroma, the agba satani, and Alfred Akibo-Betts, to ruthlessly put down any opposition to his rule. Musa Tarawallie fits this mold perfectly. To the likes of Musa a high court judgement has little meaning. It is an irrelevance to be brushed aside whenever expedient. And the easiest, simplest way to brush it aside is by brute force. No subtlety in this man. Pay your thugs and gangsters and raray boys. Give them whatever they want and get them to do your bidding. And if there’s any hesitation or doubt you lead the troops from the front.