By Abu Shaw in London (01/01/2023)

Today is 2023, a New Year that the world over is surely celebrating but in Sierra Leone most of the suffering citizens have nothing to celebrate. The lack of Merry Christmas in Sierra Leone among the majority of the citizens last year was due to the blatant failure of the ruling SLPP government of President Julius Maada Bio to deliver the goodies his SLPP Manifesto of 2018 had promised the people. After four and half years of SLPP misrule and bad governance, all President Bio and his gang of SLPP/Paopa thieves could deliver is undemocratic governance and unimaginable corruption in the corridors of power, bad heart, vengeance etc Yet, President Bio continues to live in Cloud Cuckoo Land and instead of coming out publicly to say ‘I have failed my people. I am sorry’ he is stubbornly and stupidly saying that he should be given another five years come in the June 2023 elections.

This is the insult that Sierra Leoneans can no longer tolerate from President Bio who has overtly disappointed the electorates. In his dispirited Christmas address to the nation, President Bio ill-advisedly failed to say ‘Sorry’ for failing the people. President Bio rather asked Sierra Leoneans to ‘Forgive’ him. For what? The citizens pondered. “How can we forgive President Bio after all the mass murders of innocent citizens? How can we forgive the SLPP government after committing numerous human rights abuses since 2018? What did the President do to stop the crimes against humanity in the country? How can we forgive the President after the untold corruption in various government ministries without proper accountability? Does President Bio realise that the massive frauds in government are the key that is responsible for the hardship and suffering nationwide? It is too late for the President to ask for forgiveness from the people of Sierra Leone. We will not forgive him,” says a bitter resident in the capital Freetown.

No wonder, people cannot easily utter the words ‘Merry Christmas and Happy New Year today. However, there is a fervent hope that the New Year 2023 will be a hopeful and promising one for Sierra Leone considering the June 24, 2023, elections hovering in the horizon which the voters are eagerly waiting for to kick out the Bio presidency from State House. Sierra Leone is in a messy state and in a very pathetic situation dotted with sorrow and untold hardship nationwide. As a consequence, only a handful of citizens could summon the energy to say the words “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”. Unfortunately for the majority of Sierra Leoneans today, they could not utter this simple celebrative words “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year” as there is nothing positively tangible to celebrate due to the current socio-economic problems, intolerable and unbearable suffering ravaging the country caused by the corrupt SLPP government of President Bio.

If the President is to make any seasonal statement to herald 2023, the best he could do is to publicly apologise to the people of Sierra Leone for failing to deliver the goodies. Otherwise, it is better he keeps his mouth shut and allows the citizens to wallow in their misery. There is no doubt that Sierra Leoneans need an immediate and frank apology from President Bio and his bunch of SLPP government thieves for derailing the progress of the country in the last four and half years of misrule, bad governance, rampant corruption, and human rights violations among other vices. This present unhappy situation has never happened in Sierra Leone before where suffering and hardship have overwhelmed most citizens who could not afford basic things like food, medicine, clean drinking water, electricity and so on. All the blame for this ugly and shameful occurrence can be put squarely on the doorsteps of the inept President Bio who’s incompetent SLPP regime has plunged the nation into the abyss since he succeeded President Ernest Koroma of the APC administration in 2018.

Most citizens today have openly expressed their disappointment in the current SLPP regime for failing them big time. Sierra Leoneans were recently left in shock when this week, a teenager was interviewed live on national television in Freetown where he said sarcastically that this year’s “Christmas should be postponed”. This unusual statement clearly shows how low the people of Sierra Leone are feeling today. The only happy people in Sierra Leone today are those in the upper echelons of the SLPP regime who continue to plunder and thief state resources in reckless abandon. Added to this list of happy goers are some of the families and close friends of government functionaries. Besides the above individuals living on the golden platter, the majority of Sierra Leoneans are visibly malnourished, hungry, sick, poor, hopeless, because of the bondage being inflicted on the country by president Bio’s cabal. Dozens of innocent peaceful protesters are languishing in prisons recently jailed for the August 10, 2022, protests. Not to mention the thousands of citizens murdered by state security since 2018 and the imprisonment of political prisoners. Sierra Leone is crying.

Today, the failed SLPP regime has taken the freedom and democracy from most citizens they once enjoyed and cherished. President Bio has taken all the civil liberties, rule of law, human rights from Sierra Leoneans, especially from those who do not support them. Critics or opposition politicians are targeted on a daily basis, beaten, arrested, detained for simply having critical views about the government. Rife corruption in the corridors of power has rendered the country into hopelessness, a bleak future that has already started biting the majority of the people. That is why this year’s Christmas and New Year is the worst in living memory. The people do not have enough food to eat, power supply is non-existent, hospitals are in poor state, transportation fares are sky-rocketing due to uncontrolled fuel prices etc. How do you expect the people to enjoy and celebrate Christmas and New Year that they had enjoyed over the years after President Bio has reversed the nation into the dark ages?

However, the Organiser newspaper and all patriotic Sierra Leoneans wish every good citizen a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year. And all bad Sierra Leoneans in and outside the country to rot in hell. Amen. The one singular solace Sierra Leoneans are hanging on is the fact that on June 24, 2023, there will be a crucial election that would decisively decide the future of President Bio and the country. President Bio has always given the Covid pandemic and now the Ukraine fracas as the primary reasons for his government’s failings, but most Sierra Leoneans know that these reasons are inexcusable because the ongoing problems affecting the majority had started long before covid struck. It is therefore apparent that the sufferers will teach the violent SLPP crooks a bitter lesson by kicking them out of power come 2023 elections.