Kabs Kanu: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 30 June 2023:
Some frenzied and disappointed Sierra Leoneans who mean well, have written comprehensive articles on social media suggesting to the opposition All People’s Congress ( APC) what it needs to do to regain power in Sierra Leone. The ideas provided by these Sierra Leoneans are brilliant and well-appreciated but let me waste no time to tell you that as long as it is President Maada Bio and the Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) that are sitting on the chair, no amount of political strategies will make any difference for any opposition party in Sierra Leone.
This is because the opposition has not and will not lose elections in Sierra Leone going forward because of inept campaign strategies. They will continue to lose elections as long as President Maada Bio, the thief , who, whenever he had gained power had stolen it and appointed himself head of state remains alive. In 1996, he robbed his boss , Captain Valentine Strasser in broad daylight and staged a palace coup. In 2018, he came to power by another hopelessly rigged election, aided by another criminal elections commissioner called Infa Allie Conteh and the then British High Commissioner, Guy Warrington who effected regime change.
So, as long as Maada Bio (Photo) remains alive, it is goodbye to democracy in Sierra Leone. As long as Maada Bio is alive, Sierra Leoneans must also say goodbye to their peace , stability, sanity, national development and transformation.
Maada Bio is an ill wind that will never blow Sierra Leone any good. Maada Bio is the cursed chicken that former President Ernest Koroma failed to put in its coop because of over-confidence and God knows why; and the cursed chicken Ernest Koroma spared has come home to roost, with deadly consequences.
Koroma had every opportunity to have stopped Maada Bio from seizing power again in Sierra Leone. He had the luxury of conducting that famous inquest on the extrajudicial murders of Bambay Kamara and 27 other citizens , animalistically butchered to death by Maada Bio and his colleagues in the NPRC junta — for which Bio could have been found culpable and barred from ever running for office.
While handing over power in 2007, the late President Kabbah disclosed in his handing-over note that Maada Bio, as junta leader, had stolen U.S $18 million from the national coffers. Koroma could have also set up a commission of inquiry on Bio and that also could have been good reason for Bio to have been banned from ever contesting for power in Sierra Leone. But again, President Koroma failed to do the needful.
We know that President Koroma was a good man with good motives, a man who wanted national peace and cohesion and a leader who did not want to upset the apple cart. He was forgiving and thought that if he gave Maada Bio a second chance, he would have repented and reinvented himself. But look at where it has landed us, and the very Dr. Ernest Koroma. A monkey will never change its black hands, the local proverb goes.
Maada Bio is a very wicked and hardened dictator and nation-wrecker as seen from his behavior with the 2023 elections for which he is now in hot waters from America, the EU , Britain and the world community . Bio has destroyed democracy in Sierra Leone and has set a precedent that will harm our nation for years to come. Bio has left a bad and smelly taste in everybody’s mouth .
He is a reprehensible and incorrigible bigot, with his ugly head only full of ugly ideas about how to promote tribal and regional hegemony and so nothing any opposition leader ever does in Sierra Leone by way of strategies will tip the scales. Bio will kill and kill and kill and kill to make sure that the ballot box does not work for anybody.
The thief Maada Bio will steal and steal and steal and steal every election, which is why his supporters say that the APC will never regain power in Sierra Leone. Yes, indeed, unless Sierra Leoneans and the world decide how to put paid to this puffed up monster , this megalomanic bully that had filled the Elections Commission with his tribes people, elections will never produce the will of the people again in Sierra Leone .
His psychotic SLPP supporters boast on social media that when Bio’s term expires, he will hand over power to Kandeh Yumkella and after Yumkella, Bio’s shameless , TikTok-dancing wife, Fatima Bio will have it next. How low can a nation sink ?
So while Maada Bio is still alive, here is a good advice for Sierra Leoneans: Say goodbye to democracy and the peace and sanity of your nation. Unless you remove the monkey from your backs, there will never be free and fair elections in Sierra Leone . But at what price to the nation? I pity the poor people who will bear the brunt of the consequences.
Sierra Leoneans will only continue to suffer and will continue going down, down, down. May God bless our country and save the state.
The state of Sierra Leone is one of those great survivors of abuse, suppression and oppression even though it is presently the 3rd poorest and unhappiest country in the world. There are still living things in Sierra Leone even after the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)’s operation no living thing. When the motherland thought all hope was lost in the past, we had seen an intervention from the natives or from the largesse and altruism of the international community. Whether in the positive or negative sense, there had and there will always be a quake in the status quo or establishment. A roll-call of our recent human rights abusers in our chequered history includes Albert Margai; Siaka Stevens; former soldier J S Momoh and his attack dog Bambay Kamara; Foday Sankoh and Maskita with the rest of them RUF barbarians; SAJ Musa; Bio and the rest of the bloody NPRC; Johnny Paul Koroma and his AFRC misfits; the West Side Boys and then Bio and his PAOPA thugs.
It is never given that events will not move in cycles. Eventually something has to give. “The long k*k* eventually cuts and the pain in the ar*e goes into remission”. We all know that from experience. Lift your hand up if it is not true. I always say the truth; nothing but the truth. Very relaxed i am about the fate of the constitutional coupist. It is not always that you could be three-times lucky and revell in nirvana although the 1st Lady says are beloved has a PHD in Coup-making – “Salone man lek PHD i guess”. Those in the executive arms of Government – especially the Judiaciary who were co-accused by the TRC for the genesis of our troubles in the 80s and 90s, and who are living in the moment benefitting from the establishment and status quo displaying deafening silence, winks or acquiescence akin to their counterparts during the regimes of Siaka Stevens and Momoh – should think first and foremost about the sustainable futures of their children and children’s children rather than themselves.
I am sure they want to live in a peaceful, diverse and inclusive Sierra Leone where everyone is judged by the content and richness of their character attributes rather than their region, tribe, school or fat wallet and pedigree of their progenitors. They will want a Sierra Leone where the actions or omissions of every public officer are accounted for. They will want a Sierra Leone where the human rights, choices,franchise and election votes of every single Sierra Leonean counts.
The subregion is right on top of shifting tectonic plates of political instability and marauding armed groups. You do not want to create a pressure cooker of simmering discontent that will eventually boil over and let all hell loose once again. Recent history has taught us that each and every determined group in Sierra Leobe is capable of holding the country to ransom and any thought or illusion of armed superiority over other parties or the people is transient or ephemeral.
The other day, when i heard about the UK appeal court ruling against the UK Government jeopardizing their plans to send illegal immigrants to the Rwanda, i spent the whole day musing about those strange bedfellows – integrity and the Sierra Leone Judiciary. I just think to be a judge you must have a very clear conscience and intact moral fibres encapsulated within a very strong backbone. Saying it is lacking amongst our public officials in the motherland is an understatement. As a matter of fact, some of those character flaws among our public officials start at school age in Sierra Leone. When are we going to be a seeming Thomas Sankara’s Burkina Fasso – land of honest women and men, mortals of integrity?
I feel so sorry for our long suffering Salone tax-payers and people that i have vowed not to ever accept a salaried public sector job there no matter the extenuating circumstances.
The unfortunate reality that is currently trending around the world is ELECTIONS DENIAL,.
Since the 2020 presidential elections between former President Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden in the USA, we have seen it happened in Brazil and most third world countries. I hope and pray that the APC party leadership will finally DENOUNCE AND DISSOCIATE themselves from their so-called and wannabe “GANGSTER KING” Adebayor , for the sake of PEACE AND STABILITY in our beloved country “MAMA SALONE”.
Losing election is not an easy situation to handle. It can set your emotions in a roller coaster mode.There is not even a perfect election even in the USA which is regarded as the model of democracy around the world. The election between former Vice President Al Gore and then Presidential candidate George W. Bush who was the 43rd presidentfrom 2001-2009 was a perfect example. That was the first time I heard about “hanging chads” and using binoculars to decide the validity of the ballot.
But after the Supreme Court decided to respect the decision of tthen Florida Secretary Of State Katherine Harris, who’s capacity is like our ECSL commissioner, former Vice President Al Gore respectfully congratulated the winner former President George W. Bush for the UNIFICATION AND PEACE of the country. Unlike Samura Kamara who promised to “ Cause all types of problems” after losing the 2018 presidential election.
If I can borrow the words of Dr. Sylvia Blyden, former President Koroma and his handpicked stooge decided to use Adebayor as their “Ventriloquist” to practice Cyber bullying and incitement against our citizens and law enforcement officers. The reality is, even the “Ganger King” late Tupac respected his MOTHER through out his lifetime as indicated in his musical lyrics below link which is usually played on radio stations especially every MOTHER’S DAY:
https://www.google.com/search?q=mama+lyrics+by+tupac&client=safari&channel=iphone_bm&source=hp&ei=DU6fZI_dHMeu5NoPkpOPuAQ&oq=mama+lyrics+by+t&gs_lcp
Mr. Kabs can define himself as a good propagandist though he’s not perfect in what he enjoyed doing. Let me ask him this question; I can quote from his article sub heading “Goodbye democracy – goodbye peace and stability in Sierra Leone”. Has he forgotten about 2015, when Ernest Bai Koroma poured (toxic acid water)on democracy when he removed an elected fine Vice President just to install his favorite? Guys, let’s think about the history. We will fight for that atrocities for a long time. APC said that Kono man is unfit? Trust me after SLPP its SLPP again.
I find it interesting that the writer of the article above singularly blames President Bio for all the woes afflicting the All People’s Congress (APC). Let’s stop the blame and victim games. APC’s mess is an organizational issue that has nothing to do with external forces. In other words, the party’s internal contradictions and gross incompetence emanate from infighting, greed, poor leadership, and a bankruptcy of ideas relative to good strategic planning.
At the start of the campaign season, it was common knowledge that the APC was not ready to mount a serious challenge to the more organized ruling party. Consequently, it resorted to obstructive tactics by calling for demonstrations to sack the electoral commissioner and have the elections postponed. The party’s militant wing headed by Adebayor, a resident of the Netherlands, resorted to vile rudeness headlined by mammy-cussing of Southeasterners, especially the Mendes and Konos. Little wonder the party was creamed and turned upside down in the vote-rich Southeast. Rudeness and mammy-cussing do not win elections. You also will not win national elections if you are feckless and uncompetitive in the opposition’s stronghold.
If the APC does not reform itself and disavow rudeness and violence, it would stay in opposition for many years to come. The party must discipline itself, have a national representation and a plausible agenda for good governance. Absent these, it will be foolhardy to waste scarce resources on a national campaign for the governance of Sierra Leone.
See – I have always emphasized this important point for many years…since Ernest Bai Koroma naively allowed Julius Maada Bio to get away with all the heinous crimes and atrocities he committed against the people of Sierra Leone our country has never been the same; The truth of the matter is that…he squandered a glorious opportunity of getting rid of this remorseless, blood sucking leech that is now in our State House today…even a toddler wearing soak and wet diapers would never had let Bio go so very easily but Ernest did; I voted for President Koroma..but truth be told. it was his lack of insight, foresight, and poor sense of Judgment that got us where we are today; Please, do not make any flimsy, superficial excuses on his behalf…he failed woefully and miserably in his efforts to deal decisively with Julius Maada Bio. True.