Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Walminah Oresola Blyden has blasted the aspiring Mayoral Candidate for the Freetown City Council under the ruling Sierra Leones people party, Mohamed Gento Kamara.

This came after Kamara uttered statements believed to be bigotry when addressing a congregation inside a mosque.

Different bodies including, the main opposition APC party, SLAJ, the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone and others condemned the act.

Sylvia Blyden took to social media and wrote:

‘’Mohamed Gento Kamara, this is your own Sister, Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Walminah Oresola Blyden OOR. Today, I am going to chastise you and at the same time show you some understanding but before that, allow me to inform you a little bit about the 39th Mayor of Freetown, His Worship Mayor Siaka Probyn Stevens.

That is the Freetown Mayor who later became His Excellency President Siaka Probyn Stevens. He was NOT a Krio. He was a Limba/Mende born in the provinces. He settled in Freetown and in 1964, he became ELECTED BY THE KRIOS to become their Mayor. He was one of the most successful Mayors. Allow me to quote from Chapter 7 of Autobiography of Siaka Stevens:

“One of my first tasks as Mayor was to search for a suitable building to house all departments under one roof. After delicate negotiations, I succeeded… During my tenure of office as Mayor of Freetown, it was my policy for the Council to become more and more involved in primary education to which the less privileged children had virtually no access at that time. As Mayor, I succeeded in doubling the intake of pupils at the First Municipal Primary School, the old Grammar School, at the commencement of the school year…. During my term as Mayor, I also sought out a number of Sierra Leonean engineers working in England. They were all anxious to return home… I kept pressing the Central Government to give these Sierra Leonean engineers a chance. Eventually the Government responded. This was the beginning of what was to become known as Africanisation”.

The above was written by Siaka Probyn Stevens the highly successful Limba/Mende Mayor of Freetown who later became the President of Sierra Leone.

So with that background, let me now chastise you my dear Gento even as I show you some understanding.

Here goes:

Gento, I am not at all happy with you because you have behaved like a COWARD who lacks testicular fortitude.

Gento, next time you want to say some TRUTHS like you did in that mosque in Freetown last week, please develop the testicular fortitude to single out Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr by name and shame her by name; because most of what you spoke out against was about a perfect description of Yvonne’s well-noted BIGOTRY during her now-ended tenure as Mayor of Freetown.

Gento, next time don’t smear ALL the Krios just because of Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr who openly stated that she prefers for non-Krios like the Mende “Buwah Bisieh” to NOT get employment under her watch. Name her and shame her. Don’t extend it to innocent Krios who don’t subscribe to her tribal bigotry. That was so unfair. 

Gento, next time, don’t smear ALL the Krios just because Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, one single Krio woman, is a BIGOT who treated her Muslim, non-Krio Deputy Mayor (Osman Tolo Koroma) like a piece of waste matter rather than a human being with feelings. She kicked him out of the office built for the Deputy Mayor next to her own office on 13th floor and forced him to live inhumanely in a cubicle on the 5th floor. She treated him like he was her canine. It was so so so ugly. At one point, she ordered that he should not act as Mayor to sign cheques when she traveled. She set him up and molested him to zero on a Live Facebook feed. She reduced him in the eyes of the public. I still don’t understand why Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr treated a fellow human being who was supposed to be her Deputy Mayor with such callous disregard. She treated her Deputy Mayor like a canine.

Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr treated the non-Krio, Muslim gentleman Osman Tolo Koroma so despicably and after humiliating him, she then was grossly insensitive enough to announce that for her aspired 2nd Term *(may God Almighty forbid it happening!),* she did not choose a Muslim, she did not choose a non-Krio to be the next Deputy Mayor after Osman Tolo Koroma! She instead announces that she wants her fellow Krio and fellow Christian to serve as next Deputy Mayor of Freetown in the event the APC and Freetown repeats the 2018 mistake that made her our Mayor! 

So such bigotry after such public molestation of the Muslim, non-Krio Deputy Mayor Osman Tolo Koroma is totally unacceptable and should be condemned. I actually can relate to your words. I understand your frustrations.

However, my beef with you, my dear Gento, is that instead of directly criticizing the bigoted Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr, you behaved like a COWARD who is frightened of tackling Yvonne’s bigotry. 

How? You day frade Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr bah? Are you scared to name her as the bigot culprit? 

Your justifiable frustrations with Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr are understandable but instead of shaming her, you went behind a shield like a COWARD and started to tar-brush Krios and tar-brush Christians.

Gento, I do understand the frustrations (you called it ‘advantage’ in the video) that is behind your utterances but next time, please just name and shame Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr and link her as an individual directly to her inane displays of bigotry. Leave us, the Krios, as a grouping alone.

Gento, nor cam DORTY all Krios because of the palpable nastiness of Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr against Muslim, Non-Krio Osman Tolo Koroma and against the Mende tribe which speaks ‘Buwah Bisieh’.

For the Muslim versus Christian sentiments, I actually think you have been misunderstood as you were not criticizing Christians. You were rather criticizing some of your Muslim brothers who abandoned Islam because they believe they can get employed into jobs much faster if they join Christian churches. It was not a condemnation of Christians but a condemnation of your fellow Muslims. All the same, inasmuch as you may feel hurt (‘advantaged’ as you call it) over Muslims being unemployed, keep in mind that up to 70% of Sierra Leoneans are Muslims so by extension, Muslims will be the greater number in most category of citizens including the Unemployed category. You Muslims are in much higher numbers than Christians at any given point in this country.

Gento, I have met your lovely biological mother who was introduced to me last year at Bishop Archibald Cole’s New Life Ministries church. She was introduced to me last year as one of the spiritually blessed and powerful Christian Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Gento, your mother is a delightful lady. She is a true Christian. I took a photo with both her and your wife, who is also a Christian lady. Your mother is a Christian Reverend and your wife is a Christian. So don’t allow Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr’s bigotry to make you seemingly smear ALL Christians. 

My humble advise to you as a Sister is that since you have been misunderstood, it helps to apologize for hurting the feelings of those who have misunderstood you. For me, I understand your frustrations. For those who may need to be pacified, reach out and assuage their feelings. An apology for hurting their feelings is not a bad idea.

Before I end this my long message my dear brother Gento, I want you to take note that the campaign to make the Limba/Mende Siaka Stevens elected as Mayor of Freetown in 1964 was CHAMPIONED BY THE KRIOS including my late father Babatunde Edward Blyden, a Krio Youth, who was the Campaign Manager for the Limba/Mende Siaka Stevens at Fourah Bay College.

Siaka Stevens was ELECTED to be Mayor of Freetown BY THE KRIOS because those of us who are THE TRUE KRIOS OF FREETOWN don’t believe in tribal bigotry. 

I hope when my time comes to stand and ask to be elected as President of Sierra Leone one day in the future, you Gento, will be amongst those who will look at the Strength of my Character, my Clean Record of National Service and my other Courageous Leadership attributes rather than my Krio Tribe.’’ She stated in her message.