In his ongoing fake degrees crusade, Dr. John Idriss Lahai has alleged that top management officials of the National Revenue Authority (NRA) bought fake PhD degrees from a fake Commonwealth University.

The top management officials in question are; Tuma Adama Gento-Kamara (Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the NRA), and Ibrahim Sorie Kamara (Commissioner of The Domestic Taxes Department, DTD).

Dr. Lanai made this accusation in a piece titled: “The National Revenue Authority (NRA): A Distraction or The Orwellian Politics in the Fight Against Fake Degrees?”

The rest of the piece is stated below:

“On 12th April 2022, the Commissioner-General of the NRA, Dr Samuel S. Jibao issued an internal memo – titled: “Submission of Academic Certificate/s for Personal File.” The memo was for the attention of all “Managers, Supervisors and Officers” – and by qualified extension, for the attention of the general public (please I apologise on NRA’s behalf since all critical minds are laughing off this PR stunt surrounding this ‘unofficial’ release of an internal memo to the general public).

It is okay to aspire to be the first Government agency to issue a release aimed at curbing the problem of fake degrees within all MDA (Ministries, Departments, and Agencies) of the Government of Sierra Leone. Unfortunately, the decision of the Commissioner-General of the NRA to direct this memo to “managers, supervisors and officers” exposes the Orwellian politics (not forgetting the hypocrisy that accompanies it) in the fight against fake degrees.

Some (including my 14-year old daughter) have argued that this memo is a distraction that was meant to turn the public’s gaze from the top management officials with fake PhD degrees. But I was able to impress upon some (especially my daughter) that what this memo presents is the Orwellian character of public administration (“the way of doing it” as opposed to “the ways of viewing it”) in Sierra Leone. How do I mean? For starters, let us use George Orwell’s book “Animal Farm” to explain the kind of problem we are dealing with. There are seven commandments that all animals must follow. The seventh one reads “all animals are equal.” However, when the banality of human nature (the worse form of corruption) consumed their leaders, a qualifying assertion was added to the seventh commandment. The new one reads: “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” This assertion fits neatly into the message contained in the NRA memo.

That said, this memo exposes the fact that within the NRA there are two sets of rules: one favours the commissioners and the chairperson of the Board, and the other imposes upon the middle-to-junior level officials (managers, supervisors, and officers) a rule that requires them to listen to (and never challenge) the selfish decisions of the senior management team (SMT). The middle-to-junior level officials (managers, supervisors and officers) are required to submit their degrees for verification by the SMT headed by a Chairperson and a commissioner with fake PhD degrees.

If the Commissioner-General of the NRA, Dr Samuel S. Jibao is sincere, his memo should be addressed to all NRA officials: from the Chairperson of the Board of Directors to the junior officers.

To help Dr Samuel S. Jibao here is what he should know (although he knows this already):

Tuma Adama Gento- Kamara and Ibrahim Sorie Kamara paid US$5000 each for their PhD degrees (honoris causa) to the fake Commonwealth University; their degrees were conferred during a deceptive international conference in Dubai (kindly refer to my leaks regarding the fake PhD degree of the Petroleum Regulatory Agency’s boss, Mr Brima Baluwa Koroma for more on this fake Commonwealth University).

It is rather unfortunate for the NRA (a state institution) to even recognise the fake PhD degrees of their Board Chairperson, Tuma Adama Gento- Kamara, and Commissioner, Ibrahim Sorie Kamara. I have included (below) screenshots of press releases from the NRA management that referred to these officials with fake PhD Degrees as Doctors (Drs). How unfortunate.”