Kabs Kanu: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 5 April 2023:
Maada Bio and the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) have created an ugly hyper partisan atmosphere that has divided our people tragically along party, tribal and regional lines and set the stage for another conflict in our country, unless God intervenes.
Maada Bio (Photo) is the accursed chicken that came home to roost. He should never have been allowed to lay his hands on power again after his junta NPRC rule, during which he helped murder Bambay Kamara and 26 others and also, according to President Kabbah, stole $18 million which he frittered away on wild living and women.
Maada Bio came for an encore and the ungodly international community led by the then British High Commissioner, Guy Warrington, and some aggrieved people within the APC paved the way for him to seize power once again.
Bio promised Sierra Leoneans a new direction but look at what he has done to our country. He has trashed our currency, destroyed our economy and all our social, political and economic institutions, and even our parliament, judiciary , the media, police and the army .
Maada Bio has also divided our nation tragically along tribal and regional lines and sowed hatred and enmity among our once united people of the Southeast and Northwest.
Bio has brought unprecedented suffering to our already impoverished people. He has made prices of food, fuel and all basic commodities to quadruple since he came to power in 2018. Not only that. Human rights violations and politically-motivated killings have abounded in Sierra Leone during his tenure, as featured in the latest reports of Amnesty International and the U.S. State Department.
Sierra Leone is still reeling from the murder of innocent protesters at Tombo Village, Mile 91, Lunsar, Tonko Limba, and Makeni, and on August 10 , 2022, and the massacre of hundreds of prisoners and correction officers at the Pademba Road Prisons.
Maada Bio is not showing any penitence for the horrors he has committed and last Saturday his security forces almost murdered the opposition APC presidential candidate, Samura Kamara at the Mile 38 checkpoint near Freetown.
Maada Bio has been cautioned by the European Union ( EU), United Nations Representative in Sierra Leone, British High Commissioner, the U.S. Ambassador and the ECOWAS Parliament but he has not only paid deaf ears to them; he has continued to defy these moral guarantors of good governance, peace, stability and respect for human rights.
Maada Bio does not learn from history. He should remember what happened to Samuel Doe in Liberia, Mouamer Ghaddafi in Libya, Mobutu Sese Sekou in the Congo and Ignatius Acheampong of Ghana. He might think that he is undefeatable and will get away with all the bloodshed and governance abuses , but such thinking is born out of ignorance of past world affairs.
Sierra Leoneans are threatening that Bio and his wife, Fatima Bio will suffer for everything they have done to our people. It is only a matter of time.
Sierra Leone is presently sitting on a timebomb and the question is: Did Maada Bio come to usher in a New Direction or Bloody Direction ?
SPIRITUALLY, THE THIEF Comes To STEAL, And To KILL, And To DESTROY.
But! WHEN YaHWeH GOD-ALMIGHTY THE GOD OF ABRAHAM Says YES!,
Nobody Can Say NO.
Nobody, Nobody Can Say NO, WHEN YaHWeH Says YES!!
“Let us try to destroy the good in us by cowardly submitting ourselves to the evil that is in society”. If I could methodically give my sincere opinion on this article which I believe that my audience would look through their lens and differentiate facts from fiction.
To start with,our constitution clearly spelt out a provision for party registration through which an individual will ascend Presidency in the country. This gave birth to a number of parties that have contested for presidential and parliamentary elections our the years. Most of these parties over the years have gained popularity and recognition through tribal lines. SLPP party is South East, APC party North West, NGC from North West, C4C party from East, PMDC from South. If we go through the list of the past records of our elections, it is well noted that people have voted vehemently for their respective parties based on their tribes, social affiliations, religious beliefs, and cultural norms.
Take for example NDA party is a Fullah tribe party. In all these years it has been led by a Fullah man. All other parties are doing likewise unless the SLPP party. The late president Ahmad Tejan Kabba hail from the North, and yet he was voted in as president under the SLPP party. This action taken by the party hierarchy did not in anyway create any chaos in any of your articles at that time unless now that the party is headed by a Southerner. Let’s be fair. I see nothing wrong in that as long as he leads his people, Sierra Leonean in a fair and just manner.
My president,your president, our president indeed promised us a new direction in his campaign drive. Have we ever seek to know the true meaning of this word ‘New Direction ‘ from a managerial perspective, strategic perspective and any other perspective? Is it true that he indeed succeeded in achieving his goals based on one of these perspectives? This is the question a reasonable person should ask and analyze. Sierra Leone before now was in low index in terms of Education and in the fight against corruption, but now we can all agree that this is taking care of in the new direction. Sierra Leone sports activities in the country came to a zero standards but now we can talk of having a female premier league in the new direction.
Sierra Leone was least considered to be represented at global stage but now it is been taken care of in the new direction. Sierra Leoneans before now hardly believe women can have a 30% of representation in all works of life but now that has been taken care of in the new direction. Sierra Leoneans before now hardly believe there will be freedom of speech unhindered but now that has been taken cared of by abolishing libel law in the new direction. Sierra Leoneans before now hardly believe the death penalty can be abolished but now that has been taken cared of in the new direction. The list goes on…
If you read through the book of Erik Erickson titled “identity and the life cycle “. You will come to realize that the word people often use as division along tribal or ethnic lines is certain context is unfair. We are all born in different places with different cultures and traditions. Therefore,every child is trained to live and adapt to the culture and traditions of his or her roots. Politics has just made it worse based on the insane messages about knowing our identity.
Let me begin by saying that the state is responsible to maintain peace, calm, law and order. Who are those that comprises the state. It is our very self. The law was never going to be in existence if we as individuals were indulged in doing things that are morally acceptable in society. Our perception in the issues of life and the manner in which we have addressed those issues makes us a better nation and a stronger nation.