By Joseph A. Kamanda

Sierra Leone is undoubtedly doomed by a plague of fake promises, cruelty, and dictatorship, ethnic and regionally divisive poor leadership, being presided over by high level of state-sponsored public sector corruption in the last five years now.

Since Julius Maada Bio was “forcefully imposed” on Sierra Leone by the moral guarantors of the nation’s democratic process, political, socio-economic and governance situations have continued with rapid reversal trends, despite vows by the president of curbing corruption and promises of offering better leadership.

With hopes of improving the wellbeing of all, amidst negative changes, one is urged to ask if Bio actually promised to fight corruption and offer good leadership during his campaign for the presidency in 2018, considering the high level of misrule unfolding under his regime, with hundreds of his campaign promises still largely remained unmet.

The Bio administration is delivering unethical, dishonest, and poor governance performances as against what he promised. Nothing is done normally as it were in the days of late President Alhaji Dr Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and former President Ernest Bai Koroma. Not even the fight against corruption is independently achieved, but much of it is selective, wherein the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) members are protected by the ACC to save the SLPP from corruption scam.

In the case of Dr Alie Kabba’s alleged involvement in the New York Chancery Building corruption matter, before Hon. Justice Adrian Fisher of the High Court of Sierra Leone, Dr Kabba seems to be highly protected by government and the ACC, as if the anti-graft agency has received orders from above on what to do in prosecuting the matter.

The former Sierra Leone Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York has never shown up in court in respect of the matter since it commenced hearings. Dr Kabba, whose name is on the ACC witness list, continues to skip court hearing. And the ACC has not come out with any public pronouncement about Alie Kabba’s refusal or delay to show up in court. The commission’s handling of the matter, when it comes to providing witnesses such as Alie Kabba and Nabila Tunis, pretends as if the ACC is also on order to shelve the case files of the two former senior diplomats.

This shows that the ACC only targets opposition politicians, and Commissioner Kaifala is on record for instructing ACC staffers to “leave our government and SLPP party people, and let us chase and prosecute former government officials and weaken the All People’s Congress (APC) to its deadly point”.

A senior ACC worker also disclosed that the ACC can never fight corruption inwardly under the Bio rule, as the ACC is one of his government’s intimidation tools being used against the opposition politicians. So with Dr Alie Kabba and Nabila Tunis ‘indemnity’ from the ACC trial clearly exposes the Bio-led government wicked and corrupt leadership.

Thus the need for a strong, sincere and committed leadership to fight corruption, focus inwardly on on-going corrupt offences, rather than chasing political opponents.

Since April 4, 2018 to date, restrictions have been imposed on all forms of freedoms, as if the country was brought under a fresh military rule by President Bio. Free speech is heavily muzzled by the pro-regime watchdogs; the police and the Judiciary, Ministry of Information and Communications’ repressive laws. Walking-dead Civil Society Organizations are nowhere to be seen in all of these. The judiciary and the police always arrest and subject peaceful citizens to unlawful detentions for merely expressing their views on serious national issues, due to the wicked leadership the country continues to be saddled with. This is completely new and it is the exact opposite of the democratic legacies of Koroma and Kabbah.

Reversals of economic gains, growth, peace, stability, unity, democratic consolidation, rule of law, agricultural productivity and self-food sufficiency, continuous procedural breaches, uses of the judiciary to clamp down on opposition voices, among host of other military dictatorship rule strategies which are not good for the image of the country. Hence, somebody must stop these corrupt, wicked and undemocratic governance style and provide Sierra Leoneans with a sober leadership, so as to avert another Wednesday August 10, 2022 protest; a day that has registered in the annals of Sierra Leone and will ever be remembered.

Over the past five years, President Bio has kept deceiving the masses to a point that nobody seems to have confidence in him anymore because of lack of merits to handle state affairs, coupled with deceitfulness, corruption, poor governance, among other ills around his untrustworthiness and leadership. A leadership problem that can never be eclipsed in future, which is why the people are calling for democratic reforms, with a new leadership capable enough to deliver the country from the current mess come June 24, 2023 and earn Sierra Leoneans a sigh of relief.

To the attitudinal and behavioural problems of those groups of Sierra Leoneans who have been praying for a good leadership in the last ten years, as if nothing good was done, should continue with their prayers for another good leadership, as “the beautiful ones are still not yet born…”, instead of keep basking in regrets of actually missing what they had described as “unsatisfactory” rule of former president Koroma. People especially Sierra Leoneans must learn to honour the good works of their leaders. Many blamed the APC for the nation’s predicament despite the impressive transformative progress it made in the last ten years, for which it must be praised.

Those politically-motivated calls by the then opposition SLPP, aimed at replacing the APC with a ‘bread and butter’ provider government dashed hopes as it never materialized and people are now merely basking in regrets. Expectations are not met even up to the eleventh hours, due to inept leadership burdens that continues to befall the country. And such failures have exposed the deceitfulness and unkindness to the extent of a doom nature of the Bio-led SLPP rule.

The country keeps deteriorating into a state of poor socioeconomic level, corruption, disrespect for procedures and rule of law, gross human rights violations, unemployment, regional and ethnic divisions, imposed poverty, lack of agricultural productivity, food insufficiency and trending military dictatorship as the modus operandi under the guise of democracy.

Koroma recorded inspiring gains, but he is not credited by Bio for any with some Sierra Leoneans continuing to decry him, even though they are regretting and wouldn’t want to have him as their president for the second time.

On what befell Sierra Leone during the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) post-1996 era; an economic situation no Sierra Leoneans would want to be reminded of anymore, is why many are now criticizing Bio for reversing legacies he inherited from his predecessors. The NPRC under Bio handed over an empty state coffer to the late President Kabbah in 1996. Hence the current state of affairs being reported by the Africanist Press is not surprising to anyone reflecting on what happened in the mid-90s.

So, concerns of widespread alleged lootings from state resources with no reaction from government has left many to go by Africanist Press’ reports as the gospel truth.

This has also dropped public confidence in Bio to a peak that no one seems to trust his leadership. Lack of public confidence and trust continue to hunt the regime with spark of confusion in the mind of President Bio, all rendering him sleepless as we approach the June 24 2023 multi-tier elections, knowing fully well that he hasn’t done much to earn him a smooth second term victory.

Second term is a tenure sitting presidents hardly campaign for, provided they deliver their first term goals well and in record time.

Sierra Leoneans are unquestionably not children of a lesser god, to be treated the way Bio is handling their affairs. God save Sierra Leone from the claws of wicked, corrupt and poor performing leaders and bless this nation with a very progressive leadership.

Certainly for Bio, much is not recorded for the last five years as promised, not even the ‘bread and butter’ commitments, which is why the SLPP looks much confused and worried about the massive failures of the Bio hegemony.

These ugly trends loom largely over the country, with Bio formulating undemocratic rules of engagements, aimed at limiting freedoms, to cover up the weaknesses and failures of his administration from critiques, the opposition and the media, though certain sections of the media and CSOs have long been captured and bought over.  So the nation shouldn’t wonder why the media and the some CSOs are silent over so many societal and state governance ills under the Bio rule.

A state captured indeed, well-tailored along former president Yayah Jammeh model of The Gambia, gross human rights violations being cruelly perpetuated to a peak of imprisoning physically challenged APC’ Hon Alhaji Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay for allegedly communicating to the person of the president. Other opposition figures including Hon. Mohamed Bangura, Med Kay, John Yapo Bangura, Kadie Conteh, Lucy Turay, Santigie Dumbuya, Abu Bakarr Kamara Saidu Dumbuya Maseray, Sillah Kamara for reasons best known to the police under the watch of President Bio.

Again to the specifics of his tyrannical rule, lies, fake and unfulfilled promises, deceitfulness, bad governance, joblessness, endemic state-sponsored public sector corruption, imposed poverty on the masses et al, have midwifed the multiple leadership failures of Bio.

Reports of rights abuses, intimidation of political opponents and illegal uses of the judiciary to target political rivals, blatant show of disrespect for constitutionality and the rule of law continue to breed unsuccessful governance due to rapid reversal of progress made in the last twenty years by the Kabbah and Koroma regimes.

And with the current doldrums of a leadership of his, there is nothing tangible he can show for the last four to five years in office. So don’t be surprised to see Sierra Leone so overburdened with leadership woes.