The Westminster sources that informed me about the British government conceding the defeat of Solomon Berewa by Ernest Koroma after seeing provisional results that showed Ernest crossing the 55% threshold in the first round still maintain that if things like perhaps a more-than-rigorous search for invalid votes within NEC and some minor discrepancies (that reduced the projected 61 APC seats to 59)  did not occur, then there would have been no run-off by now.

They extend the argument to the comparison that had the Sierra Leone political system been like the British parliamentary one where the party with the highest number of MPs forms a government, then Ernest Koroma should be President by now. 

Still, that does not mean we have to change our system; or that the British one is perfect. And yet, my Westminster sources still believe that Ernest Koroma will win this second round, and all they care for now is to find a working relationship with the in-coming All People's Congress government. For them, the talk about trying to balance power by having a President that does not have a parliamentary majority does not hold water in terms of the progress of Sierra Leone. The British electorates believe in giving a government (meaning Prime Minister and majority in parliament) to one political party. That's the only way you can properly assess a party and know whether to vote for them again; and it's the only way by which a government would be able to implement its policies easily without going to unnecessary wrangling often generated to gain political mileage. As the APC has got the majority in Parliament, so give them the presidency too, the British system opines.

That being the case, and by all indications on the ground (especially when one week has passed and Berewa has not made any move to campaign, virtually conceding defeat), in just a matter of days now Ernest Bai Koroma will be declared the 4^th Executive President of Sierra Leone (after Siaka Stevens, Joseph Momoh, and Ahmad Kabbah). Just let me stop for a moment on this issue of Berewa not campaigning. So don't you think the man was so confident of winning by his dreamt 75% that he did not even have a Plan B for the run-off. What a man! O sorry, there was a Plan B - after sensing defeat, then cause chaos, declare a state of emergency, and prolong stay in power. It's just that the two lawyers misread the constitution and did not know that this plan would only explode in their faces and further increase their unpopularity, both internally and internationally.

The brazen, brutal, and barbaric display of violence in Segbwema, Kenema and Bo by some hooligans who still want Sierra Leone to be gripped in the shadow of death was most unwelcome in a country that wants to shake off the shackles of its recent ugly past and reclaim its distant glorious history. All indications are that supporters of Solomon Berewa were apparently carrying out orders as to the implementation of Plan B. They therefore attacked the convoys of campaigning stalwarts and leaders of the All Peoples Congress and the People's Movement for Democratic Change. Police reports state that indeed live bullets were fired at the de facto President Ernest Koroma and minority opposition leader Charles Margai. There are those who would choose to concoct another story to try and keep Solomon Berewa, who is apparently on a political life-support machine, alive. But you can't survive for long on life-support in a situation where electricity supply is so unpredictable like the Sierra Leonean voter.

The truth is clear. My grandmother used to tell me that one does not have to be present where a monkey drinks to know how it does it. Certainly, I did not have to be present in Bo, Kenema, and Segbwema (even as I'm grateful to those who supplied all the relevant information on the ground) to know that trouble must have definitely been started by SLPP supporters. For a few reasons. The first has already been over-used by APC stalwarts - a winning team cannot start a fight. Two, let's even assume the APC/PMDC coalition had wanted to start a fight, it wouldn't be at a time when their presidential candidate was around and would certainly put his life in danger. Third, the APC/PMDC would certainly not have been foolhardy enough to go and start a fight in an SLPP heartland where they would be easily overrun. Six (you can easily get the fourth and fifth reasons), they would not have started a fight when they had Sierra Leone Police personnel as escorts.

So who is smelling his hand? The one who said he didn't even need the votes of Sierra Leoneans whilst he bribes (courtesy EU election observers report) those who were being prepared for Plan B. Thank God the plan has failed. Thank the British personnel of IMATT for rescuing our President-to-be. O what a glorious moment that the British here in Westminster would seize to start the relationship they so want to create with the new APC government. One man's poison is another man's meat - the situation that has finally poisoned Berewa's political junk food is the one that the British would feed on to open a cordial diplomatic channel.

And very soon the Brits themselves might come under attack from the SLPP Labradors - for not being neutral… ha ha. Because, as I see it these days, they spare no one in accusing them of supporting the APC - the UN, the Special Court, the expatriate at NEC, the EU observers, even aliens from another planet. That just spells the end for the SLPP. Because if those people that you used to call your friends, those very ones that you used to use to scare a gullible public about the whole world being at your beck and con, if those very ones are now your enemies, then where is the wherewithal with which to face September 8? It's like the story of the infamous high jumper who kept blaming and removing every bit of his clothes for his inability to jump until he ended up being naked in public.

Foregone conclusion is not a phrase that I particularly like because of a school teacher of mine that overused it whenever he was finding an opportunity to beat someone, but clearly that is the case now as to the presidency being at the hands of Ernest Koroma. And this is where I would like to appeal to the new Sierra Leonean leader on the issue of those who have been so bold as to openly attack him.

I have been following the campaign from day one, and I notice Ernest Koroma's frequent proclamations that God has sent him to be the new leader of Sierra Leone. Not once, not twice, but several times. Please, please, in the Name of God, don't hold anything against these people when you shall have formally taken over the reins of government. Remember that Sierra Leone is one country with one people. Those who are dissenting must be forgiven and brought back to the fold, especially when we know that they are just a lousy minority and are only being used by greedy politicians. Even the policeman that stopped you from entering Kenema should not be marked for the sack because he was merely carrying orders from somewhere above. We should go the extra mile of educating our uninformed compatriots about the true meaning of democracy - that, it is a machinery where the brain, not the brawn, is the fuel. If Abass Bundu had not deserted the opposition to unwisely join the SLPP, and thereby losing his credibility, his book, ‘Democracy by force?' (critical of the Kabbah government and explanatory of how democracy and force do not go together) would have been an appropriate recommendation for reading.

Notwithstanding, it is all but important to inform the President-in-waiting Ernest Bai Koroma that the task of nation-building is gigantic and we have no time to delve in matters that would only tear us apart. We have forgiven many - we forgave the Manes, we forgave Ndorgbowusu, we forgave the secessionists, we forgave Hindo Hindo, we forgave the sobels, we forgave the Kamajors, we forgave the RUF - of course we can forgive the arsonists.   So when we shall start the process of putting back Sierra Leone on track, we would not say ‘O, no good roads for Kenema, because they stoned us,' we would not say ‘no pipe-born water for Bo because they broke the leader's vehicle's windscreen,' we would not say ‘no electricity for Segbwema because they insulted the leader'. But, we will say, ‘we forgive them', in the manner of Jesus Christ, ‘for they know not what they are doing'.

So help us God!