I honestly do not know which Krios she claims to be speaking on behalf of but this old woman named Cassandra Garber has been making quite a lot of loud mouthed statements on behalf of a group of Sierra Leoneans (the Krios) of which I am a proud member.

Last December 2006, Standard Times Newspaper published locally and over the World Wide Web, an article written by one Ishmael Dumbuya entitled, "Krios Form Union to Defeat SLPP in 2007" in which Cassandra Garber is amongst those who spoke during the launching of a newly formed ‘something’ they termed as "Kotoku" which had as its main objective:- having all Krios gang up against the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) to ensure that the SLPP loses the 2007 Elections.

Mama Garber, at her current ripe old age, failed to think about the consequences of their unguarded and reckless boasts on behalf of us, Krios. Did she even stop to ask what could be the repercussions should the SLPP also decide to retaliate and gang up against all Krios also?

Yesterday, she published another of her recent statements purportedly on behalf of us, the Krios, in which she starts off by speaking about Arnold Bishop Gooding, a member of what she terms as "a prominent Krio family".

To those who are not aware of who is Arnold Bishop Gooding, be informed that Arnold Bishop Gooding was the de-facto Attorney General and Minister of Justice in Sierra Leone on December 29th 1992 when 29 Sierra Leoneans (including bonafide members of Freetown’s Krio Community) were executed here in this Freetown without due judicial process. 29 lives were snuffed out extra-judicially in a manner reported not to be with respect to even their basic human rights but yet still as the State’s Attorney General and Cabinet Minister of Justice, Lawyer Arnold Bishop Gooding Esq. from a "prominent Krio family" strode on despite the extra judicial killings!

Today, Cassandra Garber, the self-appointed Krio Spokesman who could not even get a few hundred Krios to vote for her in 2004 Elections, claims to be speaking on behalf of the rights of Krioman Arnold Bishop Gooding. In her disjointed statement, she promotes her ethnic divisiveness by ignoring others similarly affected like Fulas, Temnes, Mendes or Limbas.

Promoting what she claims to be the interest of her Krio clansmen over the interest of other Sierra Leoneans, smacks of her probable feeling that as Krios, we deserve preferential treatment over others. Bullshit!

Cassandra Garber has put herself to shame with that position of hers. The Krios affected are no better than the others. What would have been more civilized and more African, was if this old woman had also mentioned that Sierra Leoneans were affected rather than just isolated Krio cases as if it is only the Krios that us, the Krios care about.

To make matters even worse, Cassandra Garber has recently been making utterances that in my view are designed to incite hatredness against the Krios by SLPP partisan activists. As we the Krios only make up a very minute portion of Sierra Leoneans, if we should expose ourselves to such undue hatredness by claiming to be ganging up to bring down one of the leading (if not the leading) political parties in the country, we will numerically and otherwise, not be able to defend ourselves should such a political party decide to also gang up against all the Krios.

I honestly do not know how any sane person can expect the SLPP with Krio Ministers like Abator Thomas and with Krio appointees in very high places like Chief Justice Dr. Ade Renner Thomas to swallow the purported statement from Garber and her ilk that the Krios were going to gang up against the SLPP. What if the SLPP ganged up in retaliation against the Krios? Such reckless exposure of Krios to harm’s way by Cassandra Garber and her cohorts should be condemned outrightly.

Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, like Arnold Bishop Gooding also comes from two very prominent Krio families and this inalienable right of mine as a bonafide Krio is causing me to speak out today to publicly ask Mama Cassandra Garber to please stop promoting the reckless partisan hatredness that she is currently embarking upon, under the deliberate guise of fooling her readers that her recklessness is being perpetuated in the name of the Krios!

Which Krio gave her the mandate to expose us to the wrath of any of the nation’s political parties? Infact, which Krio has even given this old woman any mandate to speak on our behalf?

The Constituency formerly known as Freetown West III is full and overflowing with Krios. And so it was that when women of substance like SLPP’s Selwina Francis from that constituency and APC’s Rosaline Forde (APC) (Central II) were proving the respect they commanded by being mandated by their people to speak for them during the last Local Government Elections of May 2004, Old Mama Cassandra Garber contesting in Krio dominated Freetown West III could only manage to get a scattered handful of votes.

One would have thought that shameful performance of hers at the polls should have given this old woman some food for thought about her perceived popularity in Freetown or even amongst the smaller percentage of Freetownians who are Krios.

But, oh no! Old Mama Cassandra Garber thinks she has been divinely accorded the right to expose us, Krios to partisan hatredness with her unguarded statements which are the epitome of recklessness! When some six months ago in December 2006, she first took part in that reckless exercise as reported on by Standard Times, many eyebrows of Krios in the Diaspora were raised.

Infact, many concerned Krios in the Diaspora sent emails in to Awareness Times Newspaper seriously questioning the psychological frame of mind of Cassandra Garber in light of those utterances as published by Standard Times Newspaper.

The crazy claims that the Krios had formed a union to ensure the defeat of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) not only raised a lot of eyebrows but actually left concerned former students of hers who grew up under her tutelage, wondering just what has happened to their former sober minded Principal.

"What is wrong with Aunty Cassan? Tink ya ee done senile or ee done craise bah?" one of her former students who is also a Krio, wrote in to Awareness Times Newspaper’s email box.

At the time, I had also been concerned about her show of recklessness and how by claiming to be speaking on behalf of Krios, she and her handful of like-minded cohorts were exposing me and my Krio people to unwanted partisan attention! However, since the Internet Edition of that article was slightly different from what was actually published locally and knowing the well recognised penchance of the Standard Times Newspaper to distort facts, I had given Cassandra Garber the benefit of the doubt.

However, yesterday’s release as published by local tabloids in which she again pens down some opinionated release in the name of the Krios, has caused me to realize that someone from amongst us, the Krios needs to let the reading public know that Cassandra Garber does not speak for the vast majority of Krios.

Garber is certainly speaking on behalf of a group of something or the other (Kotoku?) but not on behalf of us the Krios. She is therefore well advised to limit and guide her utterances accordingly.

Please Mama Cassandra Garber, do not expose Krios to dangerous situations. You and your partisan cohorts can still exercise your constitutional right to oppose whosoever you wish and condemn whatever political party you wish to condemn BUT please do it all on your Kotoku own, representing just yourselves without bringing us Krios as a group, to face risky scenarios and outcomes.

So, to end, as we say up in the Mountain Rural District where you and I both hail from, (though we are several generations apart), just one more thing will I say here and that is our popular Mountain phrase of … Krio Man Say LONTA!