By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Charity, I believe, must begin in one’s backyard—or even in the frontage. One cannot be shouting from atop the Bintumani Mountain about the filth in other people’s backyards, or frontages, while one’s own is more Bormeh-ish than the Bormeh at Kingtom in west of Freetown!
This brings me to the press release released by the State House Media and Communications Unit on 30 October 2025. In it, they gleefully, and with alacrity, tell Sierra Leoneans that, “President Dr Julius Maada Bio has announced a series of decisive and far-reaching measures to combat the Kush epidemic during a high-level stakeholders’ meeting at State House….” And they also inform us that, “…President Bio emphasized that the Kush crisis represents one of the gravest threats to Sierra Leone’s social stability, public health, and national security.”
It is gratifying that President Bio has suddenly awoken from his seemingly reverie and realised that the current Kush-demic, or cocaine menace, is posing one of the biggest threats to Sierra Leone’s wellbeing. But the truth is: Our Commander-in-Chief appears to be seriously unserious about the fight against the Kush-demic and other hard drugs as he seems to be consistently inconsistent on that fight. But since I’m a man of innuendoes and euphemisms; I will simply say: President Bio might have spoken with his tongue pressed against his cheek—forgetting that it will be a sign of bad taste for an old man to tell stories in which dried bones are repeatedly mentioned!
As I noted in the intro of this One Dropian dropping, one cannot be shouting about the filth in other people’s backyards, or frontages, while one’s own is more Bormeh-ish than the Bormeh at Kingtom! I don’t think President Bio has the moral authority to talk about fighting the Kush-demic, or cocaine menace, when the name of one of his nieces often appears in the same sentence whenever the Kush plague is mentioned! And what is frighteningly frightful is the allegation that Europe’s most wanted cocaine convict, Jos Leijdekkers or “Bolle Jos” (“Fat Jos” in Dutch) is in a romantic relationship with one of his beloved daughters, Agnes, who is even said to have recently mothered a child for the Dutch cocaine convict!
According to the 7 February 2025 online edition of the Africa Confidential (Vol. 66–No.3), Freetown has become “the cocaine entry port” under the watchful watch of President Bio. And guess what? One of President Bio’s nephews, Yankuba Askia Bio, is the Director General of the Sierra Leone Ports and Harbours Authority. So, if one of the President’s beloved daughters is alleged to be in a romantic relationship with Europe’s most wanted cocaine convict; if one of the President’s nieces name is often mentioned when allegations of Kush importation and peddling is discussed, and if one of the President’s nephews is the Director General of the Sierra Leone Ports and Harbours Authority under whose watch Freetown has become “the cocaine entry port”; it will be safe to conjecture the way I’m now conjecturing. But I’m not insinuating any insinuations—I’m just trying to make sense of the allegations to see if they are sensibly sensible!
That same online Africa Confidential (Vol. 66–No.3) Report claims that, “…Leijdekkers’ operations involve many members of the current [Bio-led] administration linked to the President, whether by blood or otherwise, whom he has appointed to their present offices….” [And that Leijdekkers has been] “deploying enormous bribes, recruited members of the country’s national security infrastructure to provide logistical and security services.”
And two former Chief Immigration Officers appointed by President Bio, Jaiah Kaikai and Alusine Kanneh, are said to have had very strong links to Jos Leijdekkers—Europe’s most wanted cocaine convict. Yet, the two men are still walking in the corridors of power like celebrities celebrated by the Bio-led administration. If President Bio is seriously serious about fighting hard drugs in Sierra Leone, these two men should either be now having hard times at the CID headquarters in Freetown or having their day in the Law Courts especially when it has emerged that one of Jos Leijdekkers’ operatives in Turkey, his brother-in-law, was recently caught by INTERPOL in Dubai carrying a Sierra Leonean Diplomatic Passport! So, between Jaiah Kaikai and Alusine Kanneh the public might want to know under whose watch that Diplomatic Passport was issued to Jos Leijdekkers’ brother-in-law!
Added to such national misfortune, or disgrace if you like, is the fact that nothing serious has come out of the investigations of Sierra Leone’s former Ambassador to neighbouring Guinea, Alimamy Bangura, after seven suitcases full of cocaine including about US$100,000 in cash were allegedly found inside a Sierra Leonean embassy vehicle by Guinean security personnel at the Sierra Leone-Guinea border. The cardinal question is: Was former Ambassador Bangura serving as the cocaine smuggling conduit for some higher-ups in the Bio-led administration that his investigation has become another classic Bio-ian “Buff Case”? His case has now become what the Americans would call a “Cold Case”!
Looking at the instances, above, in light of President Bio’s recent seemingly tongue-in-cheek “decisive measures to intensify the fight against Kush” (as coined by the State House Media and Communications Unit); I can cautiously assert that our Fountain of Honour seems to be paying lip service to the Kush-demic, or cocaine menace, because he appears to know where the problem really lies. He should, instead, save us the theatrics and call a family meeting and that will be that!
And what is laughably laughable because of its humourless humour is when President Bio proposes that his administration will introduce “Legislative and Enforcement Reforms Including Asset Seizures” of those “profiting from the Kush trade”. What comes to mind, for me, is the famous phrase, “Follow the money”, which gained currency during the (President Richard Nixon) “Watergate” investigations and was later made famous by the blockbuster Hollywood movie: “All The President’s Men”. Here again, President Bio might not have to look beyond his nose to “follow the money” because if he is nosy enough he will be able to sniff the new money within his family circles and among some of his current and former appointees! But since he appears to be feigning ignorance of knowing where the new money is; I will also feign ignorance of his feigned ignorance!
So, President Bio’s proposed “Creation of a Special Court” and the “Formation of a Special Security Unit” to supposedly ensnare those “profiting from the Kush trade”, when he could only sniff them around him, will be white elephant-ish like most of his Bio-ian created Commissions and Agencies!
medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986; https://nationalistsl.com
