Since news broke out of the conferment of Honorary Doctorate Degrees at Waterloo by a so-called fictitious educational institution known as Dominion University there have been revelations, on a daily basis, of the acquisition of fake PhD Degrees by certain individuals said to be top notch Government officials. The protagonist who has been making these startling revelations is a hitherto unknown personality known as Dr John Idriss Lahai who is currently acting as a whistleblower.

Seemingly, it appears that this Dr John Idriss Lahai has now made it a mantra in naming influential Government officials in Ministries, Departments and Agencies as individuals possessing fake PhD Degrees. Going further from naming or exposing these individuals, Dr Lahai went ahead to suggest that these officials identified must be sacked from their current positions maintaining that they are not qualified to hold those positions.

Interestingly, it has now turned out to seem that the whistle blower, Dr Lahai, is going around trying to discredit individuals working for the Government of Sierra Leone or holding public offices out of deep frustration and with a deliberate attempt to portray or paint the current political dispensation or administration in a very bad light making it appear as if the Government is made up of quacks and deceptive people. This assertion could be justified on the premise that he has only concentrated on identifying individuals said to be aligned with the Government.

When this news medium did a background check on the said Dr Lahai what was discovered about him speaks volume why he is unashamedly going around trying to malign certain individuals and the findings inform our conclusion that a kind of mental disorder is pushing him to that extreme. It was revealed that Dr Lahai was eyeing a particular job which he wanted the Government, especially President Bio, to assign to him but was not successful in that venture. The story continues that he was offered another job which he declined and that became so embittered.

Against such a backdrop, he became deeply frustrated and when the Dominion University saga sets in he saw it as an opportunity to discredit the Government by going around and making false allegations against certain Government Officials as a way of fighting back for what he considers as being deprived from getting what he badly wanted.

The latest individuals that he has accused of having fake PhD degrees are the Board Chairperson of the National Revenue Authority (NRA), Tuma Adama Gento- Kamara, and the Commissioner of the Domestic Tax Department, Ibrahim Sorie Kamara, of the same institution.

Investigation conducted by this media clearly revealed that with regards Tuma Adama Gento- Kamara, It must be made clear that her appointment as Board Chairperson of the National Revenue Authority in 2018 came before the award of a honorary PhD to her by the Commonwealth University in 2019.

Her appointment was rather based on the fact that she is a highly educated legal personality who hails from a family background that puts high premium on education. She is the daughter of the illustrious Dr.Bu-Buakei Jabbie, who is a renowned household name legal luminary.

She diligently through honest, hard-work went through all the rudiments of the educational system as she was fortunate to grow up in a favourable and conducive learning environment and educated home.

Tuma Adama Gento-Kamara did her law degree at the prestigious De Montfort University in Leicester, United Kingdom. Immediately after graduation, she did her Masters in Law (LLM) in Corporate and Business Law from the University of Central England in Birmingham, UK. She graduated in 2006.

Thereafter, in 2009 she returned to Sierra Leone and did her Bar. She came out with flying colours. Tuma Adama Gento-Kamara then entered into a lucrative law practice as Barrister and Solicitor of the Superior Courts of Sierra Leone where she served with excellence and distinction.

She introduced the module Tax & Revenue Law at the Law Department, FBC, since 2014 and since then she is also the first lecturer that has lectured it and still lecturing it, and that again came before the honorary award in October, 2019.

In 2018, it pleased His Excellency President Bio to appoint her as the Board Chairperson of the National Revenue Authority. Her mandate, because of her huge contribution to the transformation of NRA into a modern tax collection entity earned her a renewed mandate from the President in 2021.

With the wealth of experience that she brought with her to the country’s revenue generation agency, NRA has undergone tremendous revolutionizing managerial and operational changes that have resulted in the Agency raking in year after year record revenue for the state.

Tuma Adama Gento-Kamara is also the first African and woman to hold the Vice Chair position for the biggest Tax Administration Mechanism in the world (Belt and Road Initiative Tax Administration Cooperation Mechanism (BRITACOM)). She was elected (not nominated) to be one of the four Vice Chairs in April 2019 and re-elected again last year for another term. All this was again before the Honorary degree was awarded.

Currently, the accomplished academician and corporate management head of NRA is pursuing a second Masters degree in Public Administration at York University in the UK. In the modules that she has so far covered, she has come out with flying colors.

Let it be made clear that the honorary PhD awarded to Mrs. Gento-Kamara by the Commonwealth University in Dubai in October 2019 was purely based on recognition of her indelible contribution to the legal profession.

Thus, any attempt by Lahai to detract from the excellent academic and professional achievements of Tuma Adama Gento-Kamara can only be described as peruile and futile.

It is an indisputable fact that Tuma Adama Gento-Kamara worked hard to acquire her educational qualifications. She attended good schools and Universities where she excelled with flying colours and the records are there to attest to that fact.

For Dr. Lahai to claim that Tuma Adama Gento- Kamara paid US$5000 for a PhD degree (honoris causa) to a so-called fake Commonwealth University conferred on her during a deceptive international conference in Dubai is totally at variance with the actual reality as credibly stated. It is a blatant lie and totally erroneous allegation to say the least.

To take the argument further, there have been instances when certain individuals cannot defend what they claim they have in terms of qualification. In the case of the NRA Chairperson she proved her mettle in the legal field in such an exceptional, exemplary and impressive ways to such an extent that President Bio strongly believes that she can deliver which was why he appointed her to the position of Chairperson of the Board at NRA.

As to Dr Lahai’s Orwellian theory of the Commissioner-General making distinction of NRA personnel that should submit their educational certificates that could best be responded to by the Commissioner- General.

There is the probability that very soon rather than later Dr Lahai will land in court for malicious libel as he is now finding pleasure in making what he refers to as Leaks, going about maligning credible personalities claiming that they have fake degrees. Where he is getting his information from for now remains a mystery.