AS UK PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIR PREPARES TO LEAVE OFFICE WE SAY THANKS FOR A JOB WELL DONE IN SIERRA LEONE

Thursday May, 10, 2007 - Its now official and as we are tempted to say, from the horse's mouth. The UK Prime Minister Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, Tony Blair for you, has said that on June 27, 2007 he would be submitting his resignation as Prime Minister to Her Majesty the Queen leaving that office after ten years and having taken the Labour party through three successive General Elections victories.

Unprecedented in the history of the Labour party and unprecedented in the life of a man aged just 54!!! (They normally leave when they are far older or when they get pushed out or disgraced at the polls).

Here was a man who risked his political career, his credibility and his instinct to intervene in Sierra Leone in order to bring peace and a sense of sanity to the mother country where roving bands of violent rapists, murderers and arsonists ruled supreme threatening anyone with dire consequences should they dare mention the "I" word.

The "I" word became the catchphrase of the junta after one of their supporters, seeing an opening for him to take on the leadership mantle of Sierra Leone, Dr John Karefa-Smart went on air to talk about the interception of a message referring to a military intervention operation called "Wild Geese". As from then on, anyone who was thought to be critical of the junta was said to be one who was for "military intervention" and hence must be removed.

Armed groups had no qualms in telling the hostage population that should there be any military move to remove them from power, "it is you the civilians who will suffer" and from then on when junta troops suffered reverses in their operations against the Nigerian-led ECOMOG forces, civilians in one way or the other were subjected to murder, arson, rape and dispossession.

A number of groups soon sprang up overseas advocating for sanctions to be eased against the junta while calling for a government of national unity to be set up.

This government of national unity idea could be traced to former ECOWAS General Secretary Abbas Bundu whose party had performed badly in the 1996 General Elections and who knew that if he were to rely on his own steam, he would never make it in truly democratic institutions.

Ask the man how he came to be a minister in Siaka Stevens' government, how he got the ECOWAS job and how he became Foreign Minister in the NPRC government of Strasser!!!! (Have we left something out?).

And so as Tony Blair bids farewell as Labour party leader and later on June 27 2007 as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, we say welcome to the world of true statesmen who being selfless would not stand idly by and allow evil to reign. As we witnessed in Sierra Leone.

Here was a man who believed in the Edmund Burke adage that:-

‘All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing’ 

And Tony Blair, being the good man that he is, intervened in Sierra Leone to save the situation!!!

There are those, who up till now remain unrepentant, blaming Tony Blair's intervention as responsible for bringing an end to the "privileges" they enjoyed under the rule of the beasts.

They miss the gun rule. They miss the reports of rapes and murder. They miss the looting sprees and the dispossession of those they did not like and above all they missed the looting of government coffers.

As long as they were not directly affected by these heinous acts, the apologists were comfortable basking in the glow of the wicked as the proceeds from looted diamonds and other minerals were deposited in safe accounts abroad.

Come to think of it some of the unrepentant apologists of the beasts are within the borders of the United Kingdom even now pretending to have become changed from beast into human form, but give them another opportunity and they would gladly again rejoice in the carnage and mayhem that is a symbol/calling card of their masters.

Thank you Tony Blair for saving Sierra Leoneans from the ravages of the beasts.

It worth noting here that unlike our "pass ar die" politicians in Sierra Leone, this 54-year-old has decided that after ten years in office, it's time to quit and move on. Something from today's speech is worth noting too and should serve as a warning to those leeches and co-conspirators in whom President Kabbah finds no fault

Sometimes the only way you conquer the pull of power is to set it down.

Got the message?