Vanity Blair tour: Tony to be crowned 'Chief' in Sierra Leone

 Add your view

Prime Minister Tony Blair flew into Sierra Leone today on his farewell African tour - to be made a Paramount Chief.

His wife Cherie will look on as the villagers of Mahera garland him in honour of Britain's role in helping free the country from years of bloody civil war.

The 6,000-strong villagers elect their own Paramount Chief and are also allowed to choose honorary chiefs who deserve special recognition. As well as his garland Mr Blair will be presented during the colourful ceremony with a big stick, denoting his status.

Mr Blair's official spokesman joked: "But what he can't do is raise taxes or make people labour unpaid in the fields."

Blair arrives in Sierra Leone, where he will be 'crowned'

Mr Blair touched down at Lungi airport near the capital Freetown for talks with Sierra Leone President Ahmad Kabbah and President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of neighbouring Liberia to discuss how to boost African peacekeeping capacity, and deliver on aid and trade promises for the continent.

Sierra Leone is officially the second poorest country in the world, according to United Nations' figures.

During his visit Mr Blair will announce he is keen to push for an international fund to support the rapid deployment of African Union peacekeepers within their region, the aim being they should reach troubled spots within the first 60 days of trouble erupting.

Scroll down for more

How Mr Blair and his wife (pictured leaving London yesterday) might appear in the US glossy

After his trip to Libya where he and Cherie met Colonel Gadaffi, Blair plans to fly to Sierra Leone, where he will be hailed a "hero".

The wartorn country's rulers plan to make the British Prime Minister a 'paramount ruler' - the highest honour that can be bestowed - for sending troops for sending troops to help end civil war in May 2000.

A grateful British public - who are paying for the trip - will doubtless be pleased to hear that no detail of the Premier's style and grooming is apparently to be lost to posterity.

For it emerged that among his entourage are a writer and two photographers from the glossy American fashion magazine Men's Vogue.

And if they aren't enough to capture every fascinating moment of the Blair progress, there are also documentary television crews from Bob Geldof's Ten Alps TV and production company Jupiter.

Two weeks ago, the novelist Martin Amis was invited to accompany the Prime Minister on his final trip to Washington as Premier.

He is understood to be writing an essay on the handover of power to Gordon Brown for the Guardian newspaper.

The Tories said it was increasingly clear that Mr Blair's last few weeks in power are being used to boost his profile on the world stage in preparation for his retirement career - which is expected to be rather lucrative.

Shadow Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "Tony Blair seems to have abandoned being Prime Minister and the hard-pressed taxpayer is having to fund his vanity tour of the world, which is aimed at the next stage of his career.

"He seems more concerned about how he looks in Vogue than tackling real issues at home. It's time we brought an end to this farce."

Tory leader David Cameron has accused Mr Blair of behaving like a "pop star" on a farewell tour and demanded he quits immediately in favour of Gordon Brown.

Mr Cameron says Mr Brown has been left "wandering the country with nothing to do" while Mr Blair is jetting around the world "indulging his vanity".

The attacks are designed to maximise Labour's increasing discomfort over Mr Blair's protracted farewell from Downing Street.

He landed in Libya yesterday on the first leg of a whirlwind five-day tour of Africa which will also take in Sierra Leone and South Africa.

His valedictory wanderings have already taken him to the United States, France and Iraq, as well as a number of visits around Britain by helicopter.

Scroll down for more

In Libya, the Premier met the country's bloodstained dictator Colonel Muammar

Gaddafi in a Bedouin tent at a military compound in the desert at Sirte, about 150 miles south east of Tripoli.

The PM travelled there aboard Gaddafi's luxurious private plane. As he descended the steps of the aircraft on to a red carpet, he was mobbed by photographers and a military band played an out-of-tune rendition of God Save the Queen.

Mr Blair's 20-car convoy then snaked across scrubland to the site of the makeshift rendezvous, where the two men sat on ornate gilded chairs and chatted on first-name terms.

Mr Blair praised Gaddafi for becoming a crucial ally in the fight against terrorism - and urged Iran to follow his lead and come in from the cold.

He said Libya, a former pariah state, has provided "extremely valuable" information to help track down extremists plotting carnage in the UK.

Mr Blair also applauded Gaddafi - who gave the order that condemned 270 innocent people to death in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing - for dismantling his weapons of mass destruction.

It is the first time he has met the dictator since a meeting in 2004, arranged after the former godfather of world terrorism had finally accepted blame for the airline bombing and paid £2.7billion compensation to victims.

Mr Blair said: "The relationship with Libya has been completely transformed."

Representatives of Sierra Leone's 149 paramount chiefs, local traditional rulers in the former British colony, will name Blair one of their own at a ceremony in the township of Mahera.

"We have nothing, no money to give him but it is a way of recognising him as a chief of our nation," said Ibrahim Kamara, a local official in the village of tin-roofed shacks, spread among mango and coconut trees across the river from Freetown.

"All the paramount chiefs together with the head of state agreed on the gesture. It's the highest traditional honour," he said, as schoolchildren practised a welcome dance behind him.

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter