Sierra Leone: Ex-Army chief’s son bares his mind on outcome of Presidential Election

Adekunle Dada

Vester Johannes Milton, son of LT-General (retired) John Edson Milton, former Sierra Leone Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) bares his mind on the outcome of the Sierra leone’s Presidential election on his Facebook wall, stating that the most important thing for him is peace and not any political party.

The law student at Birminham City University, hailed the ruling party for accepting defeat and for lot of developments achieved in the past 10 years. He however, shared four areas where he thinks the ruling party failed the people.

Below are his thought on the outcome of the presidential election:

At the end of it all, the most important thing for me is PEACE not any political party. With the utmost respect, I admire APC for accepting defeat. As usual, there was a lot of assumptions about them (APC) rigging the election (which undermined the PEACE), but yet still there is a winner and it’s not them (APC).

Indeed within 10 years there was a lot of developments. However, personally I think they (APC) failed in 4 things;

The Toll Gates: Right to this moment I am still trying to figure out what was the reason for that gate. People are already vulnerable to immense hardship in the country, so why would you create something that will actually increase that? Knowing the state of the country’s economy.

The Ebola Virus & Mudslide: Yes it is true, they didn’t cause the outbreak of that virus. It is also perfectly correct that people build in locations that they have been told not to build for safety reasons. But I ask this, where do they expect people to build if; 1) Land is been grabbed by high stakeholders? 2) People don’t even have the money to build a good house or buy a land?

So, why not deal with housing issues? Create affordable housing system so that people can rent or buy what they can afford, instead of distributing these lands among yourselves.

The worst thing about both of these unfortunate events, was that no one, NO ONE, was held responsible. Which is always the case. If people are held responsible for not just their actions, but also things that may occur under their management I believe these heads of offices will actually do their jobs well. Because it will be at the back of their head, “if this happens I will be held accountable and responsible for it, so I need to be careful”.

This should not be just about a political party. It should be a system. A system that should be in place to fight for “the people of the country”, if really these political parties are “governments for the people”.

In addition to these, is the fact that they have allowed the country’s economy to be MONOPOLISED by FOREIGNERS. Which is really bad, i wonder if they actually realise it is a major factor contributing to the hardship in the country. Whatever these foreigners say that a price will be, that’s what it will always be. Foreigners are actually dictating our markets’ price tags. It is wrong in every single way.

As for Education, Health facilities, light, water, food, etc. I won’t consider those. Mainly because it’s not just the APC. Neither of them (APC and SLPP) has never delivered. Which is a big shame. Not more than 3 Universities in the whole country. Just one state mortuary, sighs.

But at the end of it all, we are still waiting for that good soul to make things happen even if it’s not much. So CONGRATULATIONS to SLPP. The country is in your hands now.

Finally my fellow young generation, we are the future of our country. Personally, I don’t think anyone in the older generation will be able to make that significant change in this country.

There are two common mentalities amongst them, which is, “Becoming a political leader is to make myself rich and foster tribalism”. That’s how it has always been. It’s up to us growing up to change that. Example; if they do not have sound knowledge on growing technologies, how will they be able to make good technology deals with western world that will be suitable for the country’s benefits.

I pray and hope we will see some changes by the new President. God bless us all and the Land that we Love #SierraLeone 🇸🇱

No, I don’t support any political party. ME NOTO PARTY PIKIN.