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| Heartless SEA-bola |
The embattled and
self-destructive Special Executive Assistant to the President (SEA), Sylvia
Olayinka Blyden, has plunged herself into further ridicule when she tried to
counter a report in The Torchlight about her failure to deliver much-needed
equipment solicited by Sierra Leone Nationals in Canada (SALNAM) and handed
over to her for the Ministry of Health & Sanitation in the fight against
the deadly Ebola virus that has killed scores of Sierra Leoneans and infected
hundreds others.
While President
Ernest Bai Koroma and the whole government machinery are working towards
eradicating the disease, Sylvia Blyden, who has abandoned her State House
office for over two months now, is busy at political point-scoring and
self-seeking praise, while consistently condemning the Minister of Health even
when the latter appeared before Parliamentarians.
“Sylvia is
suffering from a lack of English Comprehension. That is what happens when
someone who proclaims to be a trained and qualified doctor with two medical
degrees cannot practice her trade and goes ahead to assume a profession that
she has no knowledge of. It was the use of the word ‘protocol’ that confused
her. Our newspaper never said we contacted the State Chief of Protocol (SCOP).
What we wrote was ‘according to protocol’; and to put that expression in its
right context, let me read the whole sentence, ‘The President, as the gentleman
that he is, consented to receive any donation from any source in the fight
against Ebola; but when Sylvia Blyden was informed that, according to protocol,
she would have to be led in audience by the Minister of Health, she refused to
turn up…’ The word ‘protocol’ in this
sense does not mean a person; it means ‘normal procedure’ or ‘practice’ or
tradition’. When someone says ‘according to protocol’, it normally means
‘according to normal procedure’. So, to write the English that Sylvia would
understand, we would say ‘…but when Sylvia Blyden was informed that according
to normal procedure, she would have to be led…’ You see where she got it wrong
and rushed to speak to the SCOP in a matter that she was not named?” was the response of the Editor of The
Torchlight after reading the jumbled article in Awareness Times.
Sylvia is also
pretending not to know that there are many other officials that make
appointments for the President besides the State Chief of Protocol. “There are
many people that see the President on a daily basis without the knowledge of
the SCOP. That is just natural; and it was one of these channels that Sylvia
wanted to use to deliver the equipment,” our State House source maintained,
further explaining that, “At State House, there are layers of officers who can
arrange meetings with the President, like the ADC, the Personal Assistant, the
Executive Assistant, the Advisers, and the Special Assistants without even
making reference to the SCOP.”
At the moment,
according to our sources, the equipments donated by International Hope Canada
(IHC) are locked in her office at State House and she is with the key while
refusing to go there: “She transported them into the office in the night, and
wanted to personally present them to the President; but as things are normally
done here (meaning, according to protocol), the line Ministry should lead in
such presentations. But she is refusing to comply. How can she now accuse the
President of not delivering the items for use when she has locked them up and
is busy lobbying the APC Secretary General to intervene and make an appointment
for her?”
Coming to the
facts of the matter itself - that is, the non-deliverance and non-use of the
donated anti-Ebola items that are badly needed in the battle against the
disease - The Torchlight Editor said the Awareness Times article exposes Sylvia
Blyden as someone who is pointing accusing fingers at the President for the
non-distribution of the much-needed items. Yesterday’s Awareness Times quoted
her as saying “even before the cargo
plane arrived with the items from Canada, I had long since presented samples of
the donations alongside a formal written report on my trip to President
Koroma…I won’t take it upon myself to distribute items. I have reported to the
President. It is up to the President to decide what to do… ”
Our investigations
revealed that when Sylvia sought to do the presentation, she was informed that
she would have to be led by the Minister and would also do it jointly with Dr
Adonis Aboud of DSTV. “While Adonis came, Sylvia was nowhere to be seen.
However, it was even the Deputy Minister of Health II who led Dr. Adonis in
audience to the President,” our source disclosed.
The Awareness
Times story, apparently written by Sylvia Blyden herself, gave false
impressions about herself as if she bought or solicited the items all by
herself without a single mention of the Sierra Leone Nationals Association in
Canada. The paper wrote about ‘presentation of donations procured by his
Special Executive Assistant…’; but the fact is that they were solicited by
SALNAM and she waded into the matter when she visited Canada.
When contacted,
Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Sheka Tarawalie (Shekito), who was
consistently referred to in the Awareness Times article, said the country is
facing a national tragedy that should not be trivialized. “I don’t play
politics with people’s lives. In Government circles, we do things according to
protocol; and so, as a government official, I’ll only refer you to what the
Government Spokesman, Information Minister Alpha Khan, has said about the lady,
that she is ‘a demented rumour-monger’. And I can’t waste my time responding to
statements made or articles written by a demented rumour-monger.”
Sylvia’s craving
for attention and playing the blame-game continued even over the passing away
of front-line Ebola fighter Dr Khan. Instead of just reporting the death, she
personalized it and did not even have the courtesy to call his name: “Rest in
perfect peace. I still have our SMS text messages we exchanged between Saturday
24th May 2014 and Sunday 25th May 2014 about the unfolding situation in Kissi
Teng. God knows best.” This becomes more poignant by the fact that Sylvia has
abrogated these dates to herself by castigating the Ministry of Health on what
happened when the Ebola disease entered Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, Sylvia
has also attacked President Koroma on social media (Facebook), blaming him for
the type of ‘followers’ around him on Monday 28th July when many Sierra
Leoneans were commending the President
for making the trip to Kenema.
Responding to one
Khadee Sahid-Kamara who wished that the President’s followers would have his interests at heart, Sylvia Blyden
responded, “ My sister, if the President's "followers" do not have
his interests at heart, then I blame the President for not well choosing whom
and whom are fit to follow him. Leh we lef for blame the followers. The
President, like all humans, was given the gift of choice. Only he can choose
who follows him.”
Sierra Leoneans in
Canada and around the world, including many at home, are bemoaning the fact
that Sylvia Blyden has selfishly held on to the protective facial masks and
isolation gowns because of her ego. “It is heartless for items that arrived in
our country on July 16 to be kept under lock and key while people are dying.
Doctors and nurses are complaining of shortage of materials or over-use of the
old ones. Who knows, if these items were released by Sylvia Blyden, perhaps Dr
Khan would not have died,” Sulaiman Kanu, a Sierra Leonean based in London
fumed.
While Health
Minister Miatta Kargbo is working hand in hand with the President and visiting
the most affected regions, the embattled SEA is idling around, playing to the
gallery as a rumour- monger.
(Read tomorrow’s
edition for more)
Credit: The Torchlight Newspapers
Credit: The Torchlight Newspapers
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