Maada Bio’s Running Mate Choice:  How the APC and NGC Propaganda Machines Failed to Spark

Our friends waited, waited and waited. If you are a football fan, you can only liken the excitement to that of the last day on the transfer market when the best coach in the league unveils the most exciting player who will help him to win the league. Juldeh has them all: young, dynamic, intelligent, influential, popular, grassroots, attractive and, a commitment to the party.

Politically, if Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio was looking for his missing rib in his presidency, he found that in Dr Juldeh Jalloh.

But there is something much more fundamental and essential. The raping of our constitution by President Koroma through the sacking of the elected Vice President Samuel Sam Sumana has thought all of us that the Presidential Candidate should never take lightly the decision of who should be his Vice Presidential Candidate.

As a former Head of State, Bio has the added advantage of understanding the significance of such a decision. He had been there and had seen it all. Just as no one can teach President-Elect, George Weah how to play football, so too no one can educate Bio about the highest offices of our land.

Just another reason why the propaganda machines of both APC and NGC failed to spark in their woeful attacks this time against Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio’s appointment of Dr. Juldeh Jalloh. For our friends in APC, their propaganda attack was comical and could have passed for an infant joke. They went on google and just typed the name “Juldeh Jalloh.”  A “Juldeh Jalloh,” an APC member, appeared.  He had once declared to contest for the APC Chairmanship in the USA.

It was laughable that APC did not even know their members. If the APC propaganda machine had eyes, it was also blind to see that APC Juldeh Jalloh and the SLPP Juldeh Jalloh have different professions and identities. And maybe, they must “pay attention” to this: the SLPP Juldeh Jalloh was born in Kono and parents are from Port Loko. Even our NGC friends helped APC to share the google link on social media. But a drowning man will grab even the blade of a sword.

When the google link backfired, then our friends turned to Photoshop using the face of Dr. Juldeh Jalloh in handcuff. It reminded me of the flooding of social media with a nude picture alleging that it was President Ernest Koroma.   Then, our APC friends dismissed the photo as a photoshopped work which, honestly, it was.

Frankly, if a photoshopped picture could not work on President Koroma how could, APC members think that a photoshopped image could work on Dr. Juldeh Jalloh?

Our APC friends are so bad at photoshop that when they photoshopped a Ghanaian Identity Card with Bio’s face, it looks the artwork done by a group of hungry kids.

From the comedy, then our APC friends went to the ridiculous.

Our APC friends believe that everything in life is about money and you won’t be surprised if some can even sell their souls for money. So they cooked up this: that the running mate position went on sale for $100 thousand US dollars and others said $250 thousand US dollars.

They are so disjointed that the propaganda machine cannot even agree on a single figure. Just maybe the APC

operatives should remind themselves that in 2007 their running mate position was for sale.

Whatever fee they paid then, we now know the seller did not keep his promise, and the buyer feels cheated.

One thing I will assure my APC friends is that the Rtd. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio will not run the country like a business. For a man who has served as Head of State, he knows too well that choosing a Vice President conscientiously is worth more than any amount of money. It is about restoring the dignity of our nation after the VP sacking fiasco and having an excellent partnership between a President and his Vice President not only to deliver on the bold vision in the Party’s manifesto but also to keep alive the hopes and aspirations of the people they will serve.

Just as the APC propaganda machine failed,  so too the NGC propaganda machine was unable to spark.

Our NGC friends looked rattled, shell-shocked and dumbfounded. If you are an NGC member and you care more about a candidate who has worked in United Nations, a technocrat, a policy analyst, a Ph.D. holder and an elitist, then Dr. Juldeh Jalloh offers you the complete package.

Our rattled good friends in NGC keep reminding us that we once told them SLPP is not a UN Garage.

Yes indeed, SLPP is not a UN Garage where you can come only at retirement age, never voted for the Party, never contributed a penny in any elections and abused everyone to get to the top.

Dr. Juldeh Jalloh has left the United Nations at 47 years and not at retirement age.  He joined the SLPP in 2002 not when he wanted to contest for Presidency.  He has made many financial contributions to the SLPP since 2002 not because he wanted to lead the Party, and most importantly, he has voted and supported SLPP in many general elections.

If you are an NGC member and you care more about a candidate who has worked in United Nations, a technocrat, a policy analyst, a Ph.D. holder and an elitist, then Dr. Juldeh Jalloh offers you the complete package.

So SLPP is not a UN Garage to dump old “UN vehicle” but we can happily welcome a “UN Vehicle” with “young and dynamic engine” and a track record of financial, technical and voting commitments to the Party.

Sadly, our NGC friends had also written many hateful things about lawyer Alpha Timbo, a man they once hailed and respected when he was a member of the Alliance. But whatever they write about Alpha Timbo in our hearts as SLPP members we adore him as a distinguished man who genuinely cares about our party and country not to see another five years of a failed APC government.

It was no coincidence that a day after the announcement of the running mate, lawyer Alpha Timbo was in Bombali District supporting the nomination process of thirty-eight SLPP Councilor candidates.

In the typical SLPP family spirit, the SLPP Regional PRO, Abubakarr Taal wrote in a news update that Timbo endorsed the appointment of Dr. Juldeh Jalloh, stating that the Party is more significant than everyone.

Unlike our friends in the NGC who ran away, Timbo’s commitment to the SLPP is not based on personal interest or to run away crying wolf. He stays, recommits himself and supports the cause he has always cherished: the Sierra Leone People’s Party.

The APC and NGC propaganda machines have both failed because voters know only Julius and Juldeh can rescue our country from this APC Agenda for Suffering.

© Yusuf Keketoma Sandi