Response of

President of the Republic of Sierra Leone

To a Statement By the

The Hanciles Family of Bonthe, Gbangbatoke, and Gloucester, paid a visit on President Koroma on Monday, August 29, 2011, to thank him for appointing their sibling, Hon. Osmond Hanciles, as Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation; and, giving the opportunity to Osmond’s twin brother, renowned columnist, Oswald Hanciles, to develop the first biography of the President. The President, in response to a prepared statement read by his first biographer, Oswald Hanciles,  said that Oswald Hanciles had thanked him for the “opportunity” given him to develop his biography; but, what has really  happened is that Oswald Hanciles “took advantage of a possibility and turned it into an opportunity”.

“I learned of what Oswald Hanciles was doing as regards my biography after he had done some work with it, interviewing people who knew me when  I was growing up”, the President said.

“I had some hesitation about it, when I learned about what he was doing.  For, I felt such detailed information on my past could give people the opportunity to know too much about me, and to anticipate what my reaction would be to different circumstances, which I don’t particularly like.  But, by the time I learned about it, it was almost too late, because, he had gone far with the work”.

President Koroma said he was impressed with the “passion” that Oswald Hanciles has put into the biographical work, interviewing people who knew him from childhood, and even “people from the other side of the political divide” (meaning SLPP former education minister, Dr. Alpha Wurie).

The President said that the manner in which the biography is being done in ten volumes, and cheaply produced, is a brilliant one, for it would make it affordable and accessible to readers who would be encouraged to read it within a day, at most.

“The biography has come out with certain things people didn’t know about me; things which I hoped would be kept a secret until I leave office as President.  Be that may, it is now out.  I can manage it”, President Koroma said with a smile.

The Hanciles Family were praised by the President for their talent; and the President said that his engagement with the family has been “constructive so far”, and he hopes that this trend would continue; but, he urged the family to use their talents productively to contribute significantly towards national development.

The Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation, Hon. Osmond Hanciles, had introduced the Hanciles Family members to the President.  Present at the meeting where other siblings: Johaness Samuel Hanciles (a.k.a. “P.B.”), who was described as a “genius in computer graphic design”; Eleanor Hanciles, a socialite, who also works in Sierra Fisheries; Maude Hanciles, a librarian in the Sierra Leone Liberia Board.  The last member of the clan, Mrs. Ethel Sandy (nee Hanciles) – who is a lecturer in the Freetown  Teacher’s College; a first class seamstress of  mainly wedding dresses; a Member of the Board of Trustees of the Albert Academy; Women’s Leader in the King Memorial United Methodist Church in Freetown – delivered the vote of thanks, and fervently prayed for the President and the Nation.

Statement to

President of the Republic of Sierra Leone

By the

Mr. President, Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, we the six children of Samuel and Mayu Hanciles are honored that you have made it possible for us to meet you here today.

All six of us are from the same womb of late Mayu Hanciles, who when alive was a nurse; and from the same lions of late Samuel Hanciles, who meteorically rose in the employ of the United Africa Company, and retired at age 50 as one of the UAC’s senior Managers.

Coming from the same womb, a close knit family, we would be tremendously touched by any unfortunate incident – like when my twin brother, our sibling, Hon. Osmond Hanciles, lost his sixteen year old son, Ethelbert James Hanciles. That was 1997.  He drowned.  We all wept inconsolably. For me, even with my Yoga discipline, I broke down, and convulsed in grief.  On the other extreme, a good fortune of one of us, is the joy shared, vicariously, by all of us – like your appointment as deputy minister in your government Hon. Osmond Hanciles.

This is the first of our thank you, Sir.  As a family, we profusely and profoundly thank you for appointing our brother as a deputy minister in your government, and even as you reshuffled your cabinet, maintaining him in that position.  We are extremely grateful for this.

Your appointment of Hon. Osmond Hanciles as deputy minister has to be put in context for you to better appreciate our sense of gratitude.

Hon. Osmond Hanciles by the early 1990s was absolutely the ONLY person of his age, his educational achievement, his family stature, who continued to stay in Bonthe – ALL, literally, ALL other Bontheians who had university degrees, whose family had some means, had fled Bonthe by the mid-1990s.  For almost thirty years, from the 1970s through to  2007, Hon. Osmond Hanciles stayed in Bonthe – as teacher in the Minnie Mull Secondary School, as principal of the Bonthe Technnical Collge, as community worker, as a source of inspiration in a land dispirited by low economic fortunes.  For eleven years of the SLPP governance, with Hon. Osmond Hanciles being one of the SLPP fanatics who helped the SLPP to win average of 96% of votes cast in the 1996 and 2002 elections, Hon. Osmond Hanciles remained a Caretaker Principal of the Bonthe Technical College.  In spite of the monumental role he played as being one of the founders of the college who toted sand on his head to build it; he valiant role as community developer, he was not even confirmed by the SLPP government as full Principal of the Bonthe Technical College.  Worse, when then Vice President, and presidential candidate, Solomon Berewa went to campaign in Bonthe in 2007, he publicly threatened to have Hon. Osmond Hanciles sacked from his job if he would not desist from winning hearts and minds for the PMDC in Bonthe.  Juxtapose this stance of the SLPP government to what your government has done – catapaulting our brother to the position of a deputy minister.  We extend our heartfelt thanks to you for this; and our family would always reciprocate your consideration in appointing our brother as deputy minister.

That is one reason why we are here.  Maternally, we belong to the Margai Family of Gbangatoke, Banta Chiefdom, Moyamba District.  There are more than 1,000 adults who belong to the Margai family resident in Sierra Leone.  We could have come with several busloads of them to thank you, Sir, but, our meeting with you is to embrace you in the warmth and love of the womb, not to make a political statement in large numbers.

The second big thank you to you, Mr. President, is for you giving our brother, Oswald Hanciles, the opportunity, to write your biography.  Let me change the person now, Sir, and use the personal pronoun “I”.

I was overwhelmed when one of your advisers, a close friend of mine for about fifteen years now, a journalistic professional colleague, Mohamed Gibril Sesay, informed me that you liked the beginnings of the scripts I had done on your biography. Your nod of approval, Sir, was the only thing that could have gotten most of your relatives, and close friends, to whisper a word of your past to me.  Most of them would have feared that telling me about your past could have been taken out of context by a columnist like me renowned for being independent-minded, and often critical of those in government.  I am grateful for this, Sir.

My family here could have come much earlier to thank you, but, we couldn’t get a firm appoint.  As regards the biography, Sir, it has turned out that to be good thing that we are coming only now to thank you.  In the Holy Bible, there is the story of the Parable of the Talents.  It is a story that mandates man to always multiply his talents, his gifts…. Several months after you had given your nod of approval for me to work on your biography, I stand here proud to formally inform you that Volume One of the biography has been completed, and printed, and ready to be read – and there is a lot of data already collected for the other volumes.

I am cognizant of the historic opportunity you have given me, Sir, and I am putting my heart and soul into it – your biography is the first one of a sitting President in the history of Sierra Leone.  There have been two previous biographies, that of former presidents Siaka Stevens, and recently, that of Tejan Kabbah.

This is the first biography to be written in a small book form that would be published so that it would be affordable by the low income readers all over the country – unlike the voluminous biographies of President Siaka Stevens and President Tejan Kabbah which even most of the elite would not see, and 98% if the educated people could not afford.

This is the first biography, indeed, the first book by a local writer that has been so imaginatively, and intensely, publicized: over the past months I have had regular radio interviews on many radio stations on the book. I have been interviewed on SLBC TV; and weekly, regular flashes of my interview on the book is being shown on SLBC TV.

In publicizing the book launching of your biography, Sir, there are billboards, and posters, strategically placed in the city of Freetown.

Two songs by a local musician, G.M. Star, has been produced, titled, “Natural Born Leader” “Fallamakata Ernest” – and aired on local radio.

A formal visit was made to the First Lady to inform her of the biography, and this was given front page prominence, with colored photograph, in one of the local newspapers.

Another first is that the biography is being translated into the lingua franca of Sierra Leone, Krio – and on September 2, 2011, we will have the biography in print, and in audio form.  A first!! We hope to also have versions of the book in Mende and Temne, if not by September 2^nd, but, shortly after.

As I work on your biography, Sir, excitement keeps on mounting in me.  I realize that I am not just writing a book in a literary sense, I am embarked on a mission, a crusade.  The qualities which you possess, which you have apparently nurtured from childhood, are rare indeed – your emotional calm; your habit of being a workaholic; your humility…  Indeed, I have been promoting your emotional discipline as ‘The Missing Ingredient’ which would Sierra Leone escape from  the vexatious perplexity of the shameful paradox that the pre-Ernest Bai Koroma Sierra Leone had been: one of the wealthiest countries in terms of natural resources yet with about the poorest people on earth.

I am energized by my mission to popularize your values – emotional calm; workaholic-ism; physical fitness; humility – so that children and youth especially would ‘fallamakata’ Ernest.  Salvation likes in that for our country.

I take this opportunity to thank some of your fervent ‘silent supporters’ who have given the necessary support that has made it financially possible for the promotional activities of your biography to be undertaken – they include Ahmed Wurie, hotel and tourism guru, your school mate and teacher at Magburaka Boys Secondary School; Seray Timbo, the Chairman of NATCOM; Arthur Yaskey, the Managing Director of the NIC; Vincent Kanu, proprietor of Wusum Hotel in Makeni.  With more of such support from your genuine silent supporters, with the graphic design genius of my elder brother here, Samuel Johannes Hanciles (more known as simply P.B.) who has done the designs for the book, the designs for the billboards and the posters, the ‘packaging and marketing of Ernest’ will become more imaginative, more intense, and we will inculcate your values into the children and youth of our country – to accelerate development.

Standing under your protection, Sir, I am going to again publicly embarrass my friend who is one of your advisers, Mohamed Gibril Sesay.   About a year ago, Mohamed Gibril Sesay, at Lumley Beach spoke passionately about you to me – about your vision for rapid development for Sierra Leone; about your sincerity of purpose; about your mystical humility.  That was Mohamed Gibril Sesay speaking…This is a young man who I have known to be the reverse of too many of the sycophantic elite in Sierra Leone.  Mohamed Gibril Sesay would be very stingy with his praises for anyone.  That Mohamed Gibril Sesay could enthuse so much about you, Sir, within the context of a conversation in which he was not campaigning for my political support, but, just your name popping up in our conversation, got me thinking deeply –thoughts that nurtured my drive to write about you.  When I collected the initial scripts for the biography, it was Mohamed Gibril Sesay who urged me to speed it up into a small book, and not wait for the normal 500 page work. “Paddy man”, he said, “This is the Year of Implementation for President Koroma. The Pa say we should not delay on any action that can be taken now…”.  So, within two months, I had enough stuff for the first volume of the biography – which was ready in time for the  the height of the Jubilee celebrations on April 27, 2011.   That we have a 32 page book of  Volume One of your biography is the idea of Mohamed Gibril Sesay – a marketing genius; a probable first for a first publication on planet earth.

About a week ago, sitting down with Mohamed Gibril Sesay at about 8.00 p.m. at the new Chinese restaurant at the junction of Percival Street and Siaka Stevens Street, he popped up with one of his brainwaves, “Lets translate the biography into Mende, Temne, and Krio…”.

I have learned to yield to the genius of Mohamed Gibril Sesay, who is about ten years my junior.  I immediately sought out translators.  As I work with the translators, as I translate parts of the book from English into Krio, I could not but widely applaud the genius of Mohamed Gibril Sesay.  My aim of popularizing the biography among children and youth in a county like ours with about 80 percent of the populace illiterate has now be given greater meaning in translating the biography into local languages for audio listening by the majority of people in our country.

Frankly, Mr. President, given all what Mohamed Gibril Sesay has done in stimulating this biography of yours, and in giving the biography added value, I am wavering as to who to be more grateful to: Mohamed Gibril Sesay or you, Mr. President?

You can get help me to pacify Mohamed Gibril Sesay as I keep on embarrassing him on radio and T.V.: The Bible says this: no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel, but, put the light out so that others can see it.

I take this opportunity to plead with you, Sir, to goad those in the public sector to stop, relatively, hoarding information. It is such a Herculean task to get staff in government to release information to writers like us.  They often act as if they are doing one a favor just to release a trickle flow of information.   Most of those in the public sector would never release timely information to writers like us.  I find this amazing.  For while most of them thump their chests professing their loyalty to you and your government, by freezing communication channels they are actually undermining your government – especially as we march resolutely towards the 2012 election.

Finally, Sir, on behalf of the Hanciles Family here, I assure you of my unequivocal support to work with you so that your vision of a Sierra Leone on the path of sustainable development is made into concrete reality.   There is another unique first in the history of Sierra Leone: we are the first twins who have received such high profiled endorsement by a President in Sierra Leone – one twin a deputy minister; the other twin, the first biographer of a sitting President.  Our family is ready and willing to work with your government to speedily concretize your vision of  transforming Sierra Leone from poverty to impressive egalitarian wealth comparable to, and surpassing, countries like Ghana. May God bless you with continued robust health, knowledge, and Solomonic wisdom.

Submitted by: Oswald Hanciles

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