Lawyer Charles Francis Margai, the Leader of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) has in a telephone chat with Awareness Times last weekend from Bonthe District, confidently asserted that, "the entire Bonthe District now belongs to the PMDC."
PMDC Leader: Charismatic Charles Francis Margai waxing lustily
Lawyer Margai’s claims were buttressed by Lawyer Ansu Lansana, the PMDC’s National Secretary General, who also told this newspaper over the line from Bonthe that the three parliamentary seats for that district "will all be swept by the PMDC."
Speaking also to Awareness Times on the telephone was Theophilus Gbenda, the Editor in Chief of the PMDC newspaper, Positive Change. According to Gbenda, the reception granted to the PMDC delegation by the residents of Bonthe was, "amazing" because "everybody left their homes and businesses to come and welcome Charles Margai."
"Everybody was telling us that since the days of Sir Margai, no politician has brought out such a tumultuous crowd in Bonthe like Charles Margai has done." Gbenda said.
Speaking further, Gbenda said that all the Paramount Chiefs were in attendance and that many openly spoke in support of the PMDC assuring the Margai entourage that the people of that area now had, what they termed in the local parlance as, "two bobbies to suck from" meaning that the people now saw the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the PMDC as two viable breasts from which they could figuratively suckle.
Lawyer Ansu Lansana excitedly recounted back to Awareness Times that the reason why he was so confident that come July 28th 2007, PMDC was going to sweep Bonthe District was because Bonthe had been neglected by the SLPP since the party took over the reigns of office in 1996.
"There is nothing in Bonthe for the people to point to as development by the SLPP. I assure you that Bonthe is going to vote for the PMDC as a protest vote. In fact, the people have told us not to bother to campaign again to them as the SLPP’s lack of attention to them has already signaled in their minds that they need a new caregiver and that new caregiver is the PMDC." Lansana lustily waxed.
Continuing, Lansana said that the SLPP Government has not shown understanding towards the plight of the people of Bonthe because, "SLPP has never been a Government but has always been a political club made up of corrupt, selfish grabbers."
For his part, the PMDC Leader, Lawyer Charles Margai extensively detailed out the successes that he claims to have been scoring all throughout his ongoing provincial tour. According to Margai, he was "not at all bothered by the trivial propaganda" being spread in Freetown by what he termed as "a desperate Solomon Berewa and his dying SLPP".
In reaction to the claims by the PMDC, the SLPP’s National Secretary General, Jacob Jusu Saffa who hails from Bonthe, chuckled loudly that "Margai and his band of merry men are living in a dream world."
"Most people stayed away from them during their time in Bonthe. The people who came out to meet Margai did so out of curiosity. They wanted to catch a glimpse of the funny character they had been hearing so much about. They wanted to see and hear the funny man as he is a source of amusement." Saffa told Awareness Times adding that all what Margai spent his time doing in Bonthe was "blasting Solomon Berewa", "preaching violence" and "making a complete fool of himself."
When Awareness Times had asked Margai to react to some of the reports that the PMDC was falling apart, Margai had retorted that he knew that Berewa was the one "spreading lies" that the PMDC was falling apart even though Berewa "knows that the PMDC is more popular than the SLPP right now."
"I am not going to waste my time discussing what Mr. Berewa is doing or saying in Freetown. I am engaged right now in finding out from my people all over Sierra Leone what they will need for me to do for them when I win the elections. Between now and the end of June, I will have traversed the entire country." Margai had said.
According to Margai, he is expected to have arrived in Kono yesterday evening where he would be spending one week, come back to Freetown this weekend and then head back up to the Northern Province. He has extended an invitation to independent newspaper houses to assign reporters to his entourage so that they could get a "first hand account" of his "huge support nationwide".
Awareness Times has not been able to independently verify the claims by the PMDC strongmen about the welcome accorded them in Bonthe District but we will be independently monitoring Lawyer Margai in Kono.
© Copyright by Awareness Times
Newspaper in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
