Sierra Leone Telegraph: 11 August 2022:
Sierra Leone’s main opposition political party – the APC, last night issued a statement condemning yesterday’s violent protests which saw the killing of civilians and security officers. Widespread rioting brought the country to a standstill.
The main opposition APC is being accused by supporters of the government and ruling SLPP party of orchestrating the nationwide protests.
Since President Bio’s election to office in 2018, there has been a continuous rise in political tension and violence in the country, which many say is made worse by a highly politicised and unprofessional police force.
In 2018, President Bio invited all leaders of the opposition parties for talks and tea at State House. But calls for the President to maintain continuous dialogue with the opposition so as to promote national cohesion, fell into deaf ears.
President Bio in a nationwide broadcast in 2018 referred to the main opposition APC party as a terrorist group, a charge the APC strongly refuted.
This is what the APC said in their statement last night in reaction to yesterday’s violence:
A hardline factuon of the ruling party seized power with their paopa tactics. What do you expect of hawks?
Instead of showing statesmanship, he calls the opposition terrorists. The international community are laughing at him because they have security apparatus that would have analysed the situation.
Asked a simple question by the BBC, what is your intelligence reports on the situation, he said its a coup.
Mr President, you should be intelligent enough to discern between hungry rioters and a coup.
The issue is still there and if not resolved, will happen again.
A hungry man is an angry man.
The question of why only the north? Even if people in the southeast are hungry, they dare not say, they were the first to experience paopa brutality, during the election campaign.
The attempted murder of John Benjamin amongst others.
At the end of the day when the finger pointing and blame game stops, Sierra Leone as a nation-state will still be there with its security and territorial integrity intact. And one inevitable fact that will always be there with us is the cost of living crises and as a nation state what do we do to address the chronic disease of youth unemployment and lack of opportunities. Yes Bio government is talking about the investments his government have made on quality free education. But we know that is a long term goal. What is his government doing about the immediate and now cost of living crises affecting not only our country but countries around the world . Every government has a different way of addressing the problem. The common denominator that majority of governments have managed to buy time from their hungry and restless population, is to pay money directly to households to help mitigate the problems. And work out practical solutions that will have immediate impact to peoples livelihoods.
Think of the covid 19 government programs to help those in need at the extreme end of society that can’t see a way out of the poverty tthemselves themselves..People will say that is only possible in advance economies. It is doable, if the government of Sierra Leone can set up a credit union bank or work with the commercial banks to guarantee any small loans taken out by families, without insisting on putting their pan body or chickens, as a collateral before they are given the loans. It will even be better if the government will give the paramount chiefs and the Section Chiefs in every district of Sierra Leone to run the program. The local Chifetains know their people better than someone sitting behind a desk in the Ministry of Finance in Freetown, assessing would be loan applicants from his laptop or desk top.
People will say where will the money come from? Lets be clear, since Bio took office, the Woldk Bank, the IMF, the ADB, the Gulf cooperation council, the European Union, the British overseas development Aid, the Chinese government, Korean, Japanese, and the United States of America have all poured in hundreds millions of dollars to our country’s coffers because they have made the assessment a country like ours recovering from a civil war will need. And we need the help because we don’t produce semi conductos , we are import and export of raw materials driven economy. So every help that comes our way should be put into good use to get us out of the aid dependency culture.
Liberia, Ivory Coast, Angola, South Sudan, CAR, DRC, Rwanda are all examples of countries that are experiencing or have experienced the same war and peace problems. The difference is the political leadership of those countries that makes all the difference about which way they turn. Almost twenty years after the RUF civil war we are still standing on the cross roads wondering which way to go. Bio should stop calling the opposition terrorist. The choice of words by an elected leader is very important to how his country is perceived both nationally and internationally. Apart from putting the country’s security risk, no would be foreign investor will want to come and invest in that country, because they will just listen to what the leader of that state thinks about his dominion. “SIERRA LEONE IS A TERRORIST STATE! Which planet is Bio and his henchmen living?
The Sri lankan leaders had millions of people held similar demonstrations against them and calling for their resignation, but no one called the civilian population terrorists. At one point they were occupying the Parliament building and the President’s residence, equivalent to demonstrators taking up residence at State House and our Houses of Parliament at Tower Hill. Throughout, the Sri lankan police and army acted professionally, even taking selfies with the demonstrators. Our police should have acted differently if they were told to act professionally. The lack of leadership of the Sierra leone police continues under the new inspector general of police. The youngmen and women serving in the Sierra leone police, the army and the civilian that lost their lives are all victims of our corrupt system of government in Sierra Leone. We need peace in our country. May their souls rest in peace.
APC have failed the coup attempt, they will virtually just come out and condemned, you can run but can’t hide. Is it possible for you to hide behind your finger? give me a break APC, your life chairman, Ernest Bai Koroma, also your incoming flag bearer the previous man, Samura Kamara, aware of every plot. If we here to say the truth let’s talk about it, or else we quiet. APCs are behind this coup attempt. Because of Bio eliminated the death penalty, that is why the terrorism had started in the tiny west African state. The evidences that showed APC is responsible coming out soon. Murdering these guys in cold blood, is that a solution to come to power? this terror act must be fully investigated and the terrors brought to justice.
Who else have the capacity to do such a thing if not the APC? But the government cannot afford to tell the public that they were unaware of what was about to happen. They should therefore take full responsibility for their ineptitude and apologise unequivocally to the people of Sierra Leone.
APC political party members and supporters should totally stop such bad behavior. This is totally unacceptable and no stupid and inexperienced writers should link this to security forces approach or handling of matters.
I am now in position to watch vigorously see any reporter writes such sad story blaming national security.
More in-depth investigation is ongoing and those responsible will face the full weight of the law.
While should one blame global issues to a specific national administration.
Let us stop such approach.
It appears the extremists PAOPAs and warmongers with uncontrollable impulses seem to have lost it, almost forgetting that the Sierra Leone telegraph is not a breeding ground for propaganda, hate mongering, and incitement. The last time i check, a national tragedy took place that have affected all shades of political affiliations. Like the victims of Makeni, Tombo, Lunsar, Pademba road killings, the victims of yesterday tragic event are first and foremost Sierra Leoneans. None of them deserves to lost their lives under the such circumstances.
At such trying times for our nation, one will expect peace loving Sierra Leoneans to dial down the hate mongering and political posturing, that has the propensity to inflame things further more. Sadly, those who have put political party politics above the safety and security of our nation thinks otherwise. By all indications, the same hate mongering and political parties bashing over the past 4years is what led to yesterday’s event. So what makes you think continuing the same approach will yield a different result. Insanity!
This is a jubilant moment for the APC due to the BARBARISM they have once again displayed to the international community, by hacking, killing and burning our law enforcement officers in broad daylight.
Under the leadership of the late President Tejan Kabba, the SLPP government prosecuted Charles Taylor and Foday Sankoh, hopefully under President Bio, they will find the COWARDS that committed these atrocities against our law enforcement officers , and will spend their time in jail.
Alusine, please you do not have evidence to prove that those killings were carried out by the APC party. So I would suggest you refrain from making such spurious and legally contentious statements here. Thank you.