Greenlove Publishers Present…biography On President Ernest Bai Koroma

Concord Times (Freetown)

8 June 2011

Freetown — Oswald Hanciles, Columnist of THE OSWALD HANCILES COLUMN published in local Sierra Leonean newspapers and online newspapers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, has written the first biography on President Ernest Bai Koroma, titled, “NATURAL BORN LEADER” – Volume One. (He is working on ten volumes).

With the nod of approval from the President, the publishing company of Oswald Hanciles, GREENLOVE, has started promoting the book in this media: on SLBC TV/radio; on D.J. Base NIGHTLINE programme on SLBC; on Josiah Paris’ Universal Radio; on STAR radio; on CTN radio, etc.

Through the voices of Frank Kargbo, justice minister, Hindolo Trye, labour minister, Ambassador Osoya Kamara (our envoy in Kuwait), Arthur Yaskey, MD, National Insurance Company, Alice Onamake, MD, Reliance Insurance Company, Allie Fornah, MD, Association for Rural Development, Dr. Alpha Wurie, former education minister in the SLPP government, Nat Cole, former Comptroller of Customs, etc., the book delves into the life of President Koroma when he was just an ordinary school boy in Makeni, a secondary school pupil in the Magburaka Boys Secondary School in Tonkolili, a student in Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone; and a young insurance professional in Freetown…to the present time.

According to Oswald Hanciles, the Purpose of the Biography includes: highlighting the rare qualities of the President so that the populace, partisans and political opponents alike, would get to know him better, and stimulate greater acceptance of him as ‘Father of the Nation’; spotlighting the President’s positive values – of altruism; workaholic-ism; physical fitness; emotional discipline, etc. – so that the populace, especially children and youth, can emulate him, with the President serving as the ultimate role model in our society; beginning the process of intensely disseminating information on the sublime and practical traits of the President that would help to stimulate greater national cohesiveness and national unity; solidify the nation’s foundation for sustainable peace and stability; and utilizing the essence of the President’s life as a propellant for sustainable development and justice in society; letting the public better grasp that the each of the rare and intrinsic qualities of President Koroma creates the conditions to better harness the intellectual capacities of Sierra Leoneans locally and internationally, stimulate productivity, create the space for entrepreneurs to flower and prosper, attract significant investments into the country, and help in re-branding the country; making the President the ‘ultimate role model’ for children and youth especially in the country; and his life a ‘leadership guide’ for all leaders at different levels of society.

The book brings out these amazing habits of the President:

•  Emotional control – the President, even when in primary and secondary school, through tertiary level, manifested uncanny emotional discipline: never showing extreme emotions of anger or joy; never fighting; controlling lust, etc. He can be inscrutable in his demeanor.
• Altruism – the President, even in primary and secondary school, would give away all the money he has, so that others would not lack.
• Courage – the President would always fight for the underdog; would be loyal to his school mates, even if it meant facing disciplinary sanction.
• Workaholic – even as President today, the President is a workaholic; insisting on punctuality as Managing Director in the insurance industry, reliable; trusted….
• Humility – though from a middle class family, the President as a boy mingled with low class biological peers. Today, he is still nice with those he grew up with who are not at his lofty pedestal.
• Physical fitness – plays squash regularly; the squash game dubbed by FORBES magazine as ‘Healthiest Sports in the World’; therefore, the President can be said to be the ‘Healthiest President on Earth’.
• The book will be launched during the second week of July; and will be circulated in every nook and cranny of the country; and, also circulated in the Diaspora.

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