Very few people in Sierra Leone knew about the Berlin International Tourism Trade Fair held last March in Germany, and probably only the Tourism Ministry and the National Tourist Board officials have knowledge about Sierra Leone’s participation at one of the leading global trade fairs for the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries in the world.
Ticha Lemp Lemp has learned that the Sierra Leone delegation to Berlin made quite an impression with the two products they showcased at the trade fair: Power Drink and the Wheelchair of the late rebel leader Foday Saybana Sankoh. We will talk about the wheelchair some other time; today we are focusing on the Power Drink from Sierra Leone which fascinated delegations from Europe, America, Asia, and the Caribbean.
Power drink has been around for a long time, but became very popular in Sierra Leone shortly after the rebel war following the return of the democratic idea in the small West African country.
It is usually taken by politicians before they give public statements or addresses. According to our revered physician Dr. Lemp Lemp, the drink offers public speakers overwhelming confidence and a big head full of brilliant ideas.
“It gives public speakers the confidence they need when they face their audiences,” said Dr. Lemp Lemp. “And this is followed by an ocean of incredible ideas. In short, just a sip of a Power drink ignites the brain to work astonishingly… And the individual soon begins to say incredible stuff.”
Dr. Lemp Lemp confirmed that most of our top politicians from 1996 to date are addicted users. He confessed he was the personal physician to most of them and “they simply couldn’t do without it”.
It is said that most of the late President Alhaji Dr. Ahmed Tejan Kabbah’s pronouncements were a result of his addiction to the Power drink.
Alhaji Dr. Kabbah has graced Sierra Leone’s political history books as the Head of State, making the highest number of unfulfilled promises. Among his favorites are: the provision of ‘soft loans’ to all victims of the rebel war; the provision of 24hrs electricity supply to all corners of the country; the construction of a magnificent bridge from Freetown to Lungi, the return of the railway, and food for all Sierra Leoneans by the year 2007.
Similarly, controversial People Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC) leader, Charles Francis Margai, was also said to be hooked to the Power drink during his hey days. When he was cheated out of the contest for the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) flag bearer position at the infamous Makeni Convention in 2005, Margai, apparently under the influence of Power, vowed to teach his SLPP a bitter lesson (which he actually succeeded in doing) and proclaimed that “no man born of a woman will stop me from becoming the next president of Sierra Leone”. 19 years later, Margai is still the disputed leader of PMDC- a political party formed out of the crumbs of that 2005 Makeni Convention.
Subsequently, Dr. Alhaji Ahmed Kabbah figuratively gave birth to a new politician called Mr. Solomon Ekuma Berewa. Bluffing around as the apparent heir to the throne, Mr. Berewa didn’t entertain the slightest challenge. So when he was challenged remotely for the SLPP flag bearer position by a very young former National Provincial Ruling Council (NPRC) soldier by the name of Julius Maada Bio, Mr. Berewa was said to have unsuccessfully impersonated the Lord Jesus Christ to scare the young challenger away.
Speaking in parables, reportedly after an overdose of Power, Mr. Berewa was quoted to have allegedly said:
“The one before me, Jesus Christ, died a premature death because he out-rightly challenged his Roman elders. He, who has ears, let him hear.” The statement was specifically addressed to the young contender Julius Maada Bio.
While in the Opposition, Ernest Bai Koroma was also reportedly a heavy Power user. In his many campaign statements, Koroma promised to scrap the obnoxious Criminal and Seditious libel laws of the Public Order Act of 1965 immediately he became president. He also promised to separate the offices of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General. Furthermore, when he eventually became President of the Republic, Koroma promised he would run Sierra Leone as a business, and declared zero-tolerance on corruption. And during the period he procured so many assets that his people nicknamed him ‘Ade-buy-yor’, loosely meaning a man with an insatiable penchant for buying things.
However, now out of office after two consecutive terms as President of the Republic, Dr. Koroma has chosen to forget that he ever made those promises. And Dr. Lemp Lemp said it could be that President Koroma has stopped taking the popular Power drink.
“When a user stops taking the drink, it usually leads to amnesia, a medical situation where the individual forgets a great chunk of his/her past,” said Dr. Lemp Lemp.
When he was campaigning for the presidency of the Republic, Julius Maada Bio, who first got acquainted with the popular Power drink as a young soldier who was part of the NPRC junta group that overthrew the All People’s Congress government of President Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1992, lamented the many loopholes in government leaking national revenue and promised that he would seal all those holes once he was elected president. In addition, he promised to cut down on the President’s overseas travel and delegation. His trusted lieutenant Jacob Jusu Saffa aka Jay Jay Blood, a renowned World Bank-trained economist with a proven international record of transforming broken economies, assured the nation via a radio interview that he only needed six months to turn around the troubled and broken economy of Sierra Leone. It is said that Mr. Saffa forged a very intimate relationship with Power Drink in his days as the all-powerful Secretary General of the SLPP.
It actually turned out that President Bio forgot to seal the leakages, and instead opened more holes bigger than the ones he inherited; and suddenly developed a penchant for flying and with large delegations. His lieutenant Mr. Saffa spent about three years as Finance Minister overseeing an economy that continues to walk on its knees.
Moreover, like President Kabbah of blessed memory, President Bio seems to have settled for an heir apparent in a smart young man named David. Judging by his recent public utterances as Chief Minister of the Republic it is believed the President has introduced his son (with whom he is well pleased) to the addictive Power drink.
Meanwhile, fascinated by the unique history of the Power drink, many visitors at the Sierra Leone booth in Berlin demanded a taste but the Sierra Leone delegation refused to yield to their requests and advised that they would have to place large orders.
NOTE: This work of fiction was inspired by actual events but is otherwise a product of the writer’s imagination.
