Sierra Leone Telegraph: 19 July 2019:
The ‘earth shattering’ mystery surrounding president Bio’s disappearance has now been unravelled, despite efforts by State House to keep his whereabouts unnecessarily and unprofessionally secret.
The Kenyan government yesterday reported that president Bio is in the country, where he is enjoying a luxurious safari holiday, few in Sierra Leone can afford.
The president also held ‘unofficial’ talks with the Kenyan president – Uhuru Kenyatta, about developing trade between the two countries, contrary to erroneous report that president Bio is in London enjoying a well-earned rest from his busy private schedule.
The facts are out – president Bio is out of the country on business and pleasure, leaving behind a country broken by decades of economic mismanagement and corruption.
Economic hardship is biting really hard for most Sierra Leoneans whose average daily earnings is not more than $1.50.
Successive presidents have been accused of health tourism and for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars enjoying luxurious holidays abroad at the expense of the country’s beautiful tourist resorts that are struggling to attract visitors.
Sierra Leone is not only endowed with vast precious mineral resources, but has a small pocket of very rich political class who needs to inculcate the habit and patriotism of spending their cash locally, in support of local industries that employ the millions of poorly paid Sierra Leoneans.
The economics concept of ‘the multiplier effect’ of local spending in order to boost the circular flow of income in the economy, must be respected and practiced seriously by those in power, rather than keep looking up to foreign investors for salvation.
If those in political leadership continue to spend the bulk of their wealth on holidays and business investments abroad, then Sierra Leone will always depend on handouts from the international community and loans from the IMF and World Bank. Charity must begin at home.
So why is president Bio in Kenya, apart from enjoying a luxurious safari holiday few in Sierra Leone can afford?
According to the Kenyan Brodcasting Corporation, president Uhuru Kenyatta yesterday, Thursday, held talks with Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio and Mauritius Acting President Paramasivum Pillay Vyapoory, where tourism and trade topped the agenda of their discussions.
At the meeting between President Kenyatta and President Bio, the two leaders discussed ways of promoting tourism and boosting trade between Kenya and Sierra Leone.
President Kenyatta commended his Sierra Leonean counterpart, who is in the country with his family for vacation, for choosing Kenya as a holiday destination. But is this not at the expense of Sierra Leone’s local tourism operators that are struggling to stay afloat?
Less than 20,000 tourists visit Sierra Leone every year, which as a result, there are very few airlines flying to Sierra Leone. And when they do, the cost of flying to the country is beyond the average visitor looking for a cheap holiday.
Not surprisingly, the Kenyan president encouraged other African leaders to pick Kenya as holiday destination of choice, which he said has a well-developed tourism and hospitality sector with so much to offer its visitors, such as president Bio of Sierra Leone.
Those criticising citizens for requesting information about the whereabout of president Bio must keep in mind that president Bio was elected by the people, and is therefore the most senior public servant in the country. His affairs of state are of public interest; and will be held accountable as long as he is the head of state.
To lie about his itinerary or failing to inform the public as all leaders before him have done, is a betrayal of trust and the principles of probity and transparency, which president Bio himself promised to uphold.
Read more here:
Tourism, trade top agenda as Uhuru hosts Sierra Leone, Mauritius leaders
Where is President Bio. He is working (Dae pa dae woke). When in 2008 former president Obama (the first Black American, of African origin, via Nairobi, Kenya, became the first to win a country-wide presidential election in the history of the United States, the leader of the Republican party in the upper house of the US congress (parliament), the senate, Mr. Mitch McConnell, of the southern state of Kentucky, wasted no time in professing his disdain for President Obama by implying that he intends to make president Obama a one-term president. He said he would certainly do anything within his power to make sure this becomes a fait accompli.
It is historically noteworthy to acquaint oneself with the State of Kentucky as one of the southern border states of America that toiled with slavery in its hesitance to join the confederate states that were hell bent on maintaining slavery and those who were teetering on both sides of the controversy.
However, the one term presidency as advocated by no less the Republican leader of the opposition in the senate, was never to come to fruition, as it was all fake news, because president Obama went on to win re-election, a campaign that was hard fought, however.
After winning the 2012 re-election with a higher margin of victory propelled by a cacophony of a myriad of voters and after his four-year mandate, constitutionally, he could not run again after 2016, and he followed the imbedded mandatory constitutional provisions without any fuss of “after you na you mantra”.
In western democratic dispensations, rules are rules; designed to be followed, in a political context, to the letter, as well as to adhere to constitutionally mandated tenets not to be flouted by the likes of politically unscrupulousness and undisciplined politicians, African style.
Recall, president Obama gave a speech during his official state visit to his father’s homeland of Kenya, to the effect, that: “Africa don’t need strongmen”, such as dictators, but rather politicians who are patriotic enough to care for their people and for love of country.
In similarly ignominious vein, as a copycat, albeit, dissonant and far fetched, the so-called Chief Executive Publisher (CEP) of the now almost defunct, newspaper based in a small county of somerset, New Jersey, cocorioko tablet of a newspaper, The “Right” Reverend Pastor Kabs Kanu, (a graduate of a Liberian Gospel secondary school in Monrovia), likewise implied that it is so powerful that his newspaper will bring down the president.
By implication, pastor Kabs Kanu was trying to inculcate into the minds of gullible Sierra Leonean voters, that president Bio should not be accorded the privilege and the long standing process of another term in governance, ”no re-election, no second term, no second time, no extension of his mandate, no third term, (“no after you, na you”), but you got the idea,
We are talking about President Bio here.
A much more resilient and determined head of state focused on changing the disheartening narrative of Sierra Leone, than all the previous presidents combined, has nevertheless come under devious inclinations of mischievousness as to see his downfall even before he get started.
Also it is absolutely necessary to note the fact that the famed APC party, during 2016 presidential election, has professed that it has 101 strategic plans and ways to win any and all elections. Heaven knows what happened. And we all now know that it was proven to be, not only untenable, but also patently false.
The chief operator of Cocorioko fame had based this flimsy opinion of bringing down the president on a porous tenet and the fact that it has a large presence and following on social media platforms, the likes of whatsapp (1.5 billion users), You Tube (1.9 million users), twitter (335 million users), facebook (2.2 billion users), We Chat (1.06 million users), Instagram (1 billion users), Tik Tok (500 million users), Sina Weibo (392 million users), Messenger (1.3 million users), Face time (12 to 20 million calls on a daily basis), Duo (100 million use on a daily basis and the list goes on.
These worldwide social media characteristics have absolutely zero bearing on the populace of Sierra Leone whose exposure to these aforementioned, is minimal at best, or non-existence in its elementary stratosphere. Ever wonder how many voters use any of these platforms in Sierra Leone.
And also how many of these platforms are even known to exit or used in Freetown, the center of literacy in Sierra Leone, where about 75 percent of the country’s 7.5 million people cannot read or write the language of the newspapers. And by existential prevalence, the president was known to have disappeared from the Sierra Leone dusty landscape and was assumed to have gone missing by his distracters, spear headed by no other than the famous newspaper publisher, Kabs Kanu of Cocorioko fame.
But then the president miraculsly appeared in Kenya with President Uhuru Kenyatta during his usual travails in search of ways to develop Sierra Leone. Once the opposition acknowledges their defeat and that there is a new sheriff in town the better for the country.
From the pictures, it seems to me that the President and his wife have lost weight. I wonder what type of food/diet they were on during their stay in Kenya. You see, this is what happens to your body/health when you fail to holiday in one of your country’s tourist attraction eating at least your cassada leaf, krane krane, okra soup with foo too etc.
Mr. President, please try and upgrade the tourist attractions and areas in your country before your next vacation. Sierra Leonean food and diet are the best in the world. You have seen and experience the difference when cassada leaves, okra soup, potato leaves properly prepared with ogiri and egussi are out of your daily diet.
Try to come back home as soon as possible to gain your correct weight and energy by eating the world’s most delicious and mouth watering dishes once again. Thanks in advance President Bio for upgrading the tourist attractions before your next vacation.
Sierra Leoneans will be proud to hear their President promoting their country’s tourist attractions than admiring and promoting another country’s tourist attractions. By the way, all are just photocopy from our policies. Thanks for listening President Bio and may GOD BLESS YOU and the first Lady. We pray for your safe return back home. DELICIOUS and MOUTH WATERING dishes are waiting for you.
Sahr Matturi: Asking where Sierra Leonean president is, is a legitimate concern and a democratic right of every Sierra Leonean. Its a healthy sign that you guys are debating such issues. However you should leave Kenya out of this debate. Because Sierra Leone is a sovereign country there is no way Kenya can undertake to communicate its president’s whereabouts, Kenya can only do so for its leaders.
As to tourism in your country vs Kenya, the numbers tell you Kenya’s tourism industry is much more advanced than Sierra Leone’s. Kenya gets over a million tourists a year, Sierra Leone gets roughly 70,000. There must be something that you can learn from Kenya’s success especially given you have better beaches and are closer to USA, Europe and if you tapped west african market you have the big economies of Nigeria, Ghana in West Africa.
As to intra african trade, I just mean trading within africa by African states. This is currently very low, most african countries trade with Europe, Asia and America and very little with their neighbouring states. We are literally creating employment in China, USA, German Japan etc and poverty in our backyards. Next time buy Kenyan tea and coffee instead of Starbucks.
God Bless Sahr Matturi and the Sierra Leonean people.
Thank you brother Bilal for giving this relevant information to the public. I don’t care what this President does for APC and it’s supporters, even adding God’s angels on that which is not possible, they would never be ok. APC would never aim or plan good for this President no matter what.
Why do you want to know much about the President when in fact, you’re not one of his supporters? There is an inquiry about the deputy chairman of APC right there on the line. I’ve been watching for the past 24 hours, Mr.Sahr Matturi never made a single comment about that; though all the evidence shown on the picture, the deputy holding the country’s (DIAMOND) in his hand.
The millions of $$$$$ that this president distributed to the APC leadership, you think that everybody is pleased with that? We are not but I believe that he did it for reasons. We are all praying for peace for our country, let’s pray for Sierra Leone and give this president credit for his good work.
The late Siaka Stevens handed over power to the late, J.S. Momoh just like that without no election, at the same time he washed off his from all politics. Here comes Maada Bio who handed over power to a Civilian gov’t led by the late Kabba.
After 2007 election, Mr. Kabba washed off his hands from politics. Dr. Ernest B. Koroma promised to run the country as a business concerns, but you know, I know and the whole world aware how he governed. Let’s give a big credit to Bio. Thank you
My comment is for the President if Sierra Leone. My name is Sonny D Josiah and from Sierra Leone. I want to tell my fellow Sierra Leonean and the President that I have plan for our Country to be self sufficient. We will be able as a Country to do whatever we want to do. I have the plan and I want whoever read my comment to relay this message to the President. I am not a politician and nobody know about me but I have the plant that will make our Country great again. I just want to help my Country if accorded the opportunity. Looking forward to the Presidents call. I have the answer to our Country’s problems. I have a vision for my People. Am getting old and no longer want to waste time. LONTA!!!
Intra Africa trade and tourism should be encouraged rather than vilified. Its only by trading mostly with African countries that we can generate jobs for Africans and lift our people from poverty. By holidaying in Kenya President Bio is not only promoting an African economy and African employees but also getting to see first hand what policies Kenya has put in place for its tourism industry. He can then apply the same back home. Travel is good, it widens people’s horizon.
For disclosure, I am a Kenyan but I would be happy to visit your country. If you can advertise the top locations it would help.
Thanks Mr. Bamra Ben for your contribution to this platform. However, saying that President Bio’s visit to Kenya will allow him to see what policies Kenya has put in place for its tourism industry is disgraceful and unacceptable in my view. Sierra Leone already has tourism policies in place that countries like Kenya and others copied and implementing. We were the first to have qualified experts in the tourism field. Can you deny this fact? Bottom line, Sierra Leone does not need tourism ideas from Kenya.
Also, what we are talking about is a president who went missing and his people were searching for him. PERIOD. Our President does not have to be holidaying in Kenya for such things. That is just a variable outside of a function. DISCUSS/ARGUE.
What do you mean about Intra African Trade? EXPLAIN.
Why did the Kenyan authorities not make any announcement of the arrival of President Bio in Kenya, knowing fully well that, Sierra Leoneans were looking for their President? Was that a good judgement by the Kenyan authorities? Furthermore, before encouraging Intra African Trade, let’s first sort out our regional trade problems/issues. DENNY.
Mr. Bamra Ben there confused about the whereabouts of President Bio. Thanks Mr. Bamra Ben and may GOD BLESS YOU.
By any means JMB isn’t the same as ordinary man. For God’s Sake he is a president of the republic (state property) and has every right to notify every Sierra Leonean about whatever he intend to do, he is not owned by his wife nor families but us the citizens. What if he was kidnapped in Kenya, whom will he blame? African leaders try to be sincere!
Kidnap? My man watch your tongue, Kenya is not a criminal country where a foreign leader could be kidnapped or disappear. This president is on a mission for the benefit of the country. Nobody owns the president – what a heck is this? This gentleman is even trying to insults the first lady. If she’s not the first person to know about her husband then who else?
Yes of course we all knew that he is not an ordinary man, thanks for acknowledging that. Leadership must be secured and respected as well. Using the language “not owned by his wife nor his family” is an insult. Try not to use that kind of indecent language anymore. Let us respect this man for his hard work. Thank you
Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with a president vacationing out of his country after 15 months of hard work. Vacationing in Europe or the Caribbean is far more expensive than vacationing in Kenya. I know this because I have vacationed in these regions of the world. Besides, president Bio’s salary is sufficient to pursue such a leisure. The man, like the rest of us, has a right to his privacy.
Thank you Levi, I hope that would be loud enough for everyone to hear.
I spent my money calling all over the place and at the same teetering everywhere to find this President. Even hanging around one of the ten top hospitals in the UK. This was all done at my own expense. Now look what happened. My president was found vacating and living in one of Africa’s most luxurious places. Is that fair?
However, I thank God for doing my best to find the whereabouts of this President. Finally, I will never waste my precious time and money if I hear that this President is missing the next time. For now, no problem. Now that he has been found, we pray for his safe return home.
The Kenyan government was not fair to the people of Sierra Leone in my view. Why did they not make some sort of announcement when President Bio arrived in Kenya? They knew very well that Sierra Leoneans were looking for their president. As a punishment to their economy, I will not make any trip to Kenya this summer. Although my money might be very little in terms of the high number of tourists that visits Kenya every year, it matters to me personally, because, I would have satisfied my conscience. LONG LIVE PRESIDENT BIO.
Helloooo!…”as a punishment to their economy…?!?” Don’t make me laugh…hahaha! Sorry,but methinks your anger and frustration is totally misplaced. The Kenyans did not abduct your president. He chose to visit their country. You should thank them for receiving him warmly, and honouring him with a visit to their presidential palace…as a visiting Head of State from a sister African country.
What makes you think Kenyans had any idea your president had gone AWOL? You ought to leave them out of this matter.
Mr. Sahr Matturi, you failed to do your homework properly hence you wasted your money to look for a president whose whereabouts were never hidden. It is only APC folks who thought that the president was missing. When president Bio landed in London, the Acting High Commissioner, Ms. Agnes Dugba Macauley issued a press release indicating that the president was in London resting. Did you want to know the address of the president’s hotel?
Fast forward, the president flew from London to Nairobi at the invitation of president Uhuru Kenyatta. How come you didn’t know that? It was in the news. Vacationing in Kenya may be a luxury but it is affordable on a president’s salary. You can also afford it because you earn more than the president of Sierra Leone.
Please check with me the next time you want to know president Bio’s whereabouts. That can save you some of your hard earned money. Thanks and may God bless you, Mr. Matturi
A globe-trotting and high maintenance president!!
Indeed, as chameleons change their colors to adapt to their surroundings, and just as leaves and twigs brighten and fade according to diverse seasons, so also do men and women trade and exchange their moral values and disciplines when they become rich and achieve good success in their aspirations and daily endeavours.
I think it is an admirable thing for human beings to imitate nature, but certainly not in the worst, most perverted ways. The shocking attitude of gross indifference being displayed by this President towards the plight and sufferings of the poor is heart-breaking and truly alarming.
There are beggars, severely handicapped and mentally I’ll, uncared for – countless in numbers, scattered hopelessly everywhere like grains of corn, and this man had the audacity to blast off like a Space rocket with his family and friends in pursuit of solace, repose and a jolly good time.”MUY TRISTE” let me translate and make things clearer, it means – VERY SAD!
Truly shockingly sad to see the masses struggling to make ends meet, many not having a roof over their fragile heads, and this President that has barely been in office longer than a twinkle of an eye, takes off running to Uhuru Kenyatta, escaping the harsh realities and the responsibilities of the highest office of the State.
For what reasons then was he elected President over our beloved nation. Again, what sort of poor judgement and ineptitude is this? A sitting President, out rightly patronising and promoting Tourism for others, while our own holiday resorts remain barren, unyielding and languishing in squalor, poor management and complete financial disarray.
Are you angry yet? What are you waiting for? Its crystal clear to me also that this ‘Runaway President’, doesn’t believe in Sierra Leone at all. I am ready to bet anyone, anything you want to try and prove me wrong. All the noises and talks of patriotism coming from the camps of the SLPP are just empty, baseless, unfruitful rhetoric. Ignore them! Their priorities are not in order and never will be. Why? Because nothing ever succeeds where eyes and vision have become clouded and distorted by Pride, egoism and greed.
Instead of immersing themselves in selfless sacrifices and service of devotion to country, where leaders with tough spines, shed blood, sweat and tears trying desperately to measure up and provide for the needs of a hungry, dependent nation, they are taking unnecessary vacations, popping expensive Champagne, while children go to bed hungry and suckling infants are left neglected, malnourished and dehydrated because of lack of access to affordable milk.
Is this who the SLPP is bragging about? A man unreliable and inconsistent as water in a bowl, waiting to spill over any time?Is this who the SLPP is blowing trumpets and singing songs about? Come on guys, you can’t be serious. I have seen ordinary shoemakers, roadside mechanics and carpenters with better work ethics than your Poster child dressed in lucent green. Truly pathetic!
And again, let me quickly emphasize, whenever truth is being fearlessly spoken on this platform, a noisy crowd of incompetent, good for nothings will start pointing their unproductive fingers, blindly ignoring the facts being presented, saying that such words are not true because I am APC.
Please cut that out; Its foolishness! Don’t give me that at all – don’t even try to give me any of that. Finally, the loudest Shout out ever, going to the honourable, distinguished gentleman – Abdul Rashid Thomas, for helping to keep our nation afloat, sailing on peaceful, candid and truthful waters….Nuff Respect Sir! Rising Sun Will Rise Again.
You will soon die of jealousy. Wakeup from dreaming!!! You always talked childishly. Your distractive words cannot stop what God has already elevated.
Good evening brother Saidu. I guess your APC are patroitic by sending our money to foriegn countries and also contributing to most of the country’s under development, considering they are the longest ruling party in our country. Whilst Nkrumah and his likes we’re putting their country on the road map, ours were promoting the philosophy – “where you tied a cow is where they can eat”.
Only the rich are enjoying in Sierra Leone, while the poor are suffering.
If you too want to enjoy like them wait for the right time. Stop complaining!!
I hope the SLPP’s Public Relations/Affairs machinery or staffers will learn a lesson from the brouhaha that recently ensued over President Bio’s ‘disappearance’. They could have proactively calmed the waters if, from the very moment the rumour mills started revving up about his whereabouts, they had created an international radio interview opportunity for Bio from wherever he may have been at that point in time.
That could have (1) minimally cleared off the uncertainty that was exercising the minds of his well-wishers regarding his whereabouts and even his wellbeing, (2) assured the generality of Sierra Leoneans that their president was after all alive and kicking, and (3) disabused the minds of naysayers about their negative thoughts.
I think his handlers dropped the ball by not quickly getting him on, say, BBC or VOA (two mass communication channels with indisputable global reach) to say something (no matter how brief) about where he was and what his mission there was. To have allowed such basic, clarifying information to first emanate from a non-Sierra Leonean source at a time when a spirited debate, characterized by wild rumours, was taking place back in the country, was a PR faux pas.
I hope next time, the president and his handlers will remind themselves that Sierra Leoneans (supporters or non supporters alike of the president or government) are entitled at all times to timely information in respect of what may or may not be happening to their leaders–especially when the whereabouts and wellbeing of these leaders become a subject of speculation among the citizens. The need for such a proacive public affairs awareness has since become imperative in the age of social media and ‘Fake News’.
Let them try, the end crowns the work. No one will die without showing his/her stewardship in this beautiful rich country called Sierra Leone. If Sierra Leoneans had been good management-oriented, Sierra Leone would have been greater than the United States of America, trust me.