Sierra Leone Telegraph: 25 March 2024:
An idle mind they say, is the devil’s paradise. And, when a president of one of the poorest nations of the World gets tired of sitting on his hands doing nothing, hustling for cash abroad becomes a hobby, despite being reduced to a laughingstock.
President Bio owns the national record, if not the continent’s record for the most travelled abroad president, as Sierra Leone’s economy slides to rock bottom with one of the worst performing currencies on the continent; inflation running at over 50%; youth unemployment at an all-time high of over 80%; and the government struggling to pay salaries of public sector workers and contractors.
Yet corruption and the abuse of office for personal gain are providing a lifeline for those higher up the political food chain, headed by the President.
With international donor aid now drying up as foreign nations caught-on to the reality of poor governance, lack of transparency and accountability, President Bio is ever increasingly looking for opportunities to make quick bucks by making personal appearances and delivering speeches to gullible audiences at events overseas.
According to State House report in Freetown, “His Excellency President Dr Julius Maada Bio will today, Monday 25 March 2024, deliver the Third Annual Distinguished Lecture in African Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, at 5:30 PM EDT (9:30 PM in Freetown).
“During the Distinguished Lecture with the theme: “Navigating The Future: Democracy, Progressive Politics and Inclusive Development in Africa – The Sierra Leone Experience”, President Bio will share his political leadership journey and his Government’s experience in promoting sustainable development through democratic governance and inclusive leadership in Sierra Leone.
“According to the Organisers, His Excellency President Bio’s choice as this year’s Distinguished Guest Lecturer is due largely to his towering global credentials as a “passionate reformer and steward of good governance.”
“His Excellency President Bio joins other outstanding Africans who had spoken at the prestigious Annual Lecture in African Studies, including His Excellency Mokgweetsi Masisi, President of Botswana, and the Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka.
“The University of Pennsylvania has a rich history of notable graduates and hosts some of the most prominent thinkers and leaders from Africa, including Nigeria’s first President, the late H.E. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Ghana’s first President, the late H.E. Kwame Nkrumah, and the President of Ivory Coast, H.E. Alassane Ouattara.”
What moral right has a president who has extra-judicially killed hundreds of his compatriots in cold blood, to stand on a podium to tell the world about civil liberty?
What moral right has a president who continues to hang on to power after stealing the votes of citizens at the June 23rd 2024 elections, to tell the world about his democratic and inclusive credentials?
What moral right has a president whose government cannot account for millions of dollars missing in the country’s Auditor General’s report, to tell the world about how to practice good governance?
What moral right has a president who has presided over a country that has been reduced to one of the most unhappy and poorest countries in the world, where young people must turn to drug abuse to mask their pain caused by joblessness, poverty, destitution and life of crime, to tell the world what a good leader he is?
The world must have gone mad
Writing on Twitter, this is what a local journalist and social commentator said:
“When you have a President, whose job is to look for one travel trip or another, he reduces himself to a “TEACHER ON THE ROAD.”
“President Bio has travelled again and this time to give a public lecture in a university in the United States on Democracy, but his democratic credentials are still in question following international discredited re-election.
“He will also lecture on progressive politics, but he has exacerbated the divide in the country along region and tribes.
“Sierra Leone’s President will also talk on development in Africa using Sierra Leone as a case study, but public hospitals lack the most basic amenities across the country.
“Interesting to know that a President that has never done a Public Lecture in any of his Universities in Sierra Leone at least to inspire a KUSH-affected young people is ON THE ROAD to US with his country facing the worst economic situation in decades few weeks after he came back from China and Dubai.
“On the other hand, his Nigerian Counterpart is trying to ban government sponsored overseas trip at least for 3 months but over here even Bio’s Ministers and some of his local council officers are competing for the next flight overseas.”
The international community must take a huge responsibility for what is happening in Sierra Leone today, for failing to act robustly against President Bio as they promised, when he stole the June 2023 elections from the people of Sierra Leone.
There is no doubt come 2028, the Bio-led government will be out of office, but sadly in the meantime, a lot of damage will be done to the lives of the people of Sierra Leone.
How did we get here and where did we go wrong to be led by a President who has his priorities misplaced. Serious presidents in Africa are working hard to transform the lives of their people and will not have time for globe trotting in the name of lectures. How will these lectures improve the lives of our people rather than benefit the president in allowances and fees.
Its a disgrace that since this President came to office the Country has been worse off and will leave our economy poorer than he met it. President Bio will be remembered as the most divisive and inept leader we have ever inherited.