Kabs Kanu: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 13 July 2023:
I will never stop stressing that RESTITUTION – Putting right the wrongs that have been committed, should be the first step towards genuine peace and reconciliation in any society or situation.
We all want peace and reconciliation in our motherland because it is the only route to national reintegration and national development. But we must go about them the right way that is pleasing and satisfying to all concerned.
Asking for peace and reconciliation with an aggrieved man whose ox you have stolen (Without first returning the ox) is hypocritical; it is the height of bullying and impunity. You are wilfully holding on to my ox and asking me to make peace with you? Are you serious? Are you really sober? What sane person ever does that?
President Maada Bio upset the political apple cart in Sierra Leone. He openly and brazenly robbed not only the citizens of the land by rigging the recent elections and imposing himself in power. He also hurt the stakeholders who provide the funds, logistics and necessary resources to stop our country from sinking into the miry pool of economic destruction, abject poverty and suffering.
By boldly and criminally stealing the mandate of the people, President Bio has also angered the nations and organizations we refer to as the moral guarantors of peace and security. The people trusted with the responsibility to ensure that we do not go back to war as we did in the 1990s , a bloody, deadly and costly war that we have still not fully recovered from.
According to a paper on progress update on the strategic objectives of the U.S government, “The United States supports the expansion of democracy abroad because countries with freely elected, accountable governments contribute to a freer, more prosperous, and peaceful world. Democracies are our strongest partners on security, trade, energy, and the environment, in peace and conflict.”
Rigging an election is an illegal interference with the process of the election that robs the people of their constitutional mandate to decide whom they want to govern them, according to Moses Obisike in his book “Electoral Malpractice and Political Development in Nigeria” (2022).
President Bio and his hoodlums in the Elections Commission of Sierra Leone criminally changed the figures on the Result and Reconciliation Forms ( RRFs ) where the real votes from all the polling stations were recorded, a very dumb and asinine act, given that after the counting of the votes in the polling stations, elections observers, stakeholders and representatives of all the political parties are given copies of these forms. They knew the outcome of the elections already from these RRFs.
Only people with their heads in the wrong place would go and change the figures in the tallying process to produce a different outcome and then expect the result to be accepted, hook, line and sinker. It is worse than broad daylight robbery.
Consequently, the robbed citizens, the cheated opposition and its supporters , local and international Elections observers and the international stakeholders and moral guarantors are all annoyed with the Elections Commission and the SLPP government.
The best way to handle this problem is to put things back in their right place. If President Bio is sure of himself and his public boasts and posturing that he can defeat the opposition APC at all times, he must either order a rerun of the elections or the recounting of the votes, this time by an independent international organization that will ensure transparency, neutrality and credibility.
President Bio cannot insult the intelligence of the people and the international community with such brazen criminality and then start calling for peace and reconciliation. Things do not work like that. As long as all parties remain aggrieved and hurt, any such peace and reconciliation will be fake and hypocritical, and a recipe for chaos in the future.
Political historians have recorded that many wars in Africa were preceded by rigged elections. We in the media and international stakeholders and moral guarantors are trying to avoid that scenario being replayed in Sierra Leone.
Bio and KONNEH planned what they have executed and I think these stupid fellows aim to destory the country. Let me say this Bio will never and ever able to deliver in this nation well, because over 200 people has been killed by this guy, even when he was once a military man he believes in plot …..
I used to view Sierra Leone Telegraph as a very credible and objective online news that report the news to us. However, the Sierra Leone Telegraph has turned into a propaganda tool for the APC. A Credible newspaper should based their reportings on fact, rather than lies or conspiracy theories. For the record, no international observer has ever said the Sierra Leone election was rigged. What a lot of the Western observers have been saying is that the election in some parts of the country was not transparent. Transparency and rigging are not the same. Yet the Sierra Leone Telegraph has been using the words rigging many times with absolutely no evidence to back up their case. The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the United Nations have congratulated president Bio. What the APC could have done is go to court if they believed they were the true winner, and let the Sierra Leone judiciary play it constitutional role. Its is not a good idea for the Sierra Leone Telegraph to post op-ed of people call the current government of Sierra Leone lead by President Bio quote illegitimate. The entire world international organizations or individual country recognized president Bio as the constitutional and legitimate president of Sierra Leone. I know most likely like my previous post, the Sierra Leone Telegraph will suppressed my comment and not make it public. As a private newspaper, i understand the Sierra Leone Telegraph has the right to either block or make my comment public. I accept and respect that right.
Mustapha, we will not deny you your right to be heard, hence we have published your comment to prove that we are not as anti-democratic as your president. However, you are entitled to your opinion – not your own facts. So for you to say, you “used to view Sierra Leone Telegraph as a very credible and objective online news that report the news to us. However, the Sierra Leone Telegraph has turned into a propaganda tool for the APC” is simply wrong.
When your SLPP were in opposition, the Sierra Leone Telegraph was branded by the APC as a mouthpiece of the SLPP. You did not complain then. in fact we udsed to publish articles for SLPP operatives such as Yusif Keketoma Sandi who is now a minister in the SLPP government.
Now you are doing exactly the same as APC did before losing the 2018 elections because you are in power and allergic to criticism. You do not want to be criticised. We are proud of our record as champions of human rights and civil liberty in Sierra Leone. And, we will continue to criticise every incumbent government in Sierra Leone that abuses the human rights of its people.
Mr. Editor, Are you idle enough to be responding to these SLPP sycophants and bootlickers on your discussion page who want newspapers to bend the story to suit their tyrannical and uncivilized politics in Sierra Leone? Everybody knows that your newspaper tries hard to be credible and independent, my dear editor, these people will not change. but We live in a country with a political party ( SLPP) that don’t want newspapers to tell them the truth. Every paper must say what they are doing is right. SLPP supporters forget that the world now knows that they are very lawless. They have no respect for the constitution. They have no respect for democracy. They have no respect for human life. They have no respect for anything and they want journalists to endorse them. Anybody who points these facts to them is biased, is tribalistic and is not credible. I reckon it is the reason that other outspoken journalists they attack on this forum no longer dignify their allegations with a response. Count yourself lucky that they did not murder you in cold blood like they did to Evangelist Sampson and others. I knew that it was only a matter of time before they came up against you. Please do not let them cower you. Continue to publish any article that throws light on the abuse of power going on in the country.
Mustapha C did not fear his creator who made him by saying that no international elections observer team accused the ECSL of rigging the elections. What boloney. The meaning of the statement that the election lacked transparency, trust and credibility is that it was rigged. SLPP supporters think they know everything . As we all can see, they are nothing but empty barrels and our country is very unfortunate to have such citizens. Who does not know that this SLPP government is the worst? Soon, we will start buying a bag of rice one million leones. Everything in the country is breaking apart. No price control, no independent judiciary or media, no diversified parliament, no development project. SLPP has put Sierra Leone hundred years backwards and yet then still we have fools who come to this forum to attack journalists trying to let the world know the mess SLPP have created in a once progressing country. My only regret is that our people are not militant enough to rise up against them and take the power away from them. That is what is responsible for them running their mouths on this forum.
You are welcome brother Bilal. I personally believe that the APC propagandist is continuously doing his job to discredit the ECSL commissioner since he was nominated by the president. Throwing doubts about the election results is the only option that can satisfy their supporters and sympathizers to distract them from questioning their lackluster performance before and during the 2023 elections campaign. The APC slogan which they used to brainwash their supporters was “2023 Back to Power”, was based on the fact that Marcella Samba of the National Elections Watch (NEW) assured the lifetime leader of this CHAOS she had planned.
I personally believe that this entire presidential election was decided in Kono , where some political experts believe that NEW intentionally took lower election samples (39) in their projections and took higher samples of over 75 in the APC and SLPP strongholds, which results were already predictable. They also lowered the election turnout in the South East which also discredited their projections for a “Runoff”. The reality is, the Electoral Commissioner and the voters already stood up to the APC’s 72 hours ultimatum, so nothing and nobody can convince them that they have LOST the presidential election.
NEW purposely set up their own elections headquarter at the Brookfields Hotel, funded by the lifetime leader and a rogue international organization, to counter the results from the ECSL elections headquarter at the Bintumani Hotel. For the past 5 elections, NEW had been part and parcel of Standing Together for Democracy Consortium for the collaboration of Peaceful Free and Transparent Elections, comprising of 80 Civil Societies. But since former President Koroma who is currently the head of the African Union elections monitoring team has enrolled them in the AU payroll to travel abroad for elections in Africa, Marcella Samba’s loyalty is now with the APC party and not Sierra Leone.
I strongly believe that the first failed attempt on 10 August ,2022, “Maada Must Go” ( to replicate Sri Lanka) insurrection was purposely executed when President Bio was on vacation in London, and former President Koroma including NEW officials were in Kenya for the August 9th elections. It was strange that Marcella Samba was the first to be interviewed by Al JAZERA TV about the situation in our country.
Peace and Reconciliation of our nation is now in the hands of the lifetime leader and chairman of the APC Earnest Bye Bye Koroma , to accept both the 2018 and 2023 Presidential elections results rather than continuing to “ Make Our Country Ungovernable”.
How do you know that Bio rigged the elections? Making a bunch of allegations without proofs is too crazy.
Brother Fallay,
Thanks for providing the link to a very educative piece relative to elections. I really enjoyed reading it.
It is unfortunate that a polarizing figure like Kabs Kanu can once again thrust himself in the forefront of a national discourse and as usual pollute everything with his usual propagandistic lies. Why should President Bio apologize for an election that he won by a landslide? Why should President Bio also negotiate with a bunch of lawless rogues that front the ALL the People’s Congress (APC)? Negotiate what?
If there is a crisis in Sierra Leone, then it is an APC crisis. They created it and they have the power to bring it to an end. You cannot hallucinate about winning an election in which your performance was so pathetic and also dream about the victor offering you a restitution. Are these people living in the real world?
It is gradually becoming a trend that losers are no longer willing to accept defeat and concede in elections. This putrid behavior is a threat to democracy worldwide. Like Donald Trump in America, Samura Kamara does not reside in the real world. He delineates a situation and forces himself to believe it even when that situation shares nothing with the objective reality of things that surround him.
Laughingly, Kabs Kanu has not only become the spokesperson for the APC but is also now determining what the actions of the International Community should be relative to Sierra Leone. What the brother fails to realize is that the leaders of the APC have always been deceptive with the public. They crawl under the cover of darkness to the president’s residence begging him to drop charges against them and also return the homes that have been confiscated from them. It is also reported that some have even been begging for jobs. Are these the clowns and charlatans that should be taken seriously?
The clock is ticking – there is a method to the madness…our country is still on the brink; an eerie quietness always comes before the angry storm descends; Sierra Leone a raging, roaring storm is on the way; Brazen, heartless thieves are now currently in State House, men that should be tightly shackled and languishing behind bars in our rat-infested filthy prisons; People of my beloved Sierra Leone…Genuine Progress never comes through amoral acts of deceits, treachery and questionable, underhanded methods…but only through diligence, transparency, creativity and relentless, backbreaking hard work; Folks, Julius Maada Bio must not be allowed to easily get away with committing this despicable act of treason against the poor people of Sierra Leone; He has to go, because, he has already proven to the world by rigging the elections, that Democracy is his worst enemy. And now to his tribalistic delusional supporters for whom he has tirelessly been building glittering diamond studded castles in the skies…those hopeless, clueless, gullible, barely literate folks, who are hoping to see long stretches of streets paved with gold that lead to BO, Kenema, Kailahun and Bonthe…its time to wake up and smell the coffee; Your hero robbed the poor of their inalienable rights, thinks about no one but himself and not the nation as a whole; His tribal sentiments and utterances expressed are all traps cunningly designed for you to take sides with him against people of other tribes in Sierra Leone who only want the best for their country; that’s the game plan of Maada Bio, Prince Harding and Fatima…We must stand up with one voice against them; We have no other choice; We must resist them, until they are no longer in power; We must show no empathy or consideration to them because they are not patriots but shameless thieves; And remember also Sa Lone, if you save a thief from an angry crowd…he is bound to eventually turn on you…No two ways about it…Maada Bio and his cronies must go.
The link below will probably help the APC party PROPAGANDIST who has been preaching DOOM AND GLOOM if his party loses the 2023 presidential election:
https://www.theafricareport.com/250125/losing-an-election-the-five-stages-of-political-grief/