By Jerry Saccoh Kai-Lewis
It is now clear that President Julius Maada Bio is not the only one that is “desperate” in Sierra Leone’s quick descent into a one party state dictatorship under the erstwhile military dictator.
Sierra Leone’s quick rollback into a one party state after the people had thought that their 11 year civil war had laid waste to that impulse has left many reeling that the incumbent is really desperate to go for a second term, so much so that he is willing to revert the country to the backward days of late president Siaka Probyn Stevens’ All People’s Congress – APC one party state that continues to devastate the country.
Our misnomer “father of democracy”, it is becoming apparent, will now be properly labelled, or crowned for killing democracy in Sierra Leone. (It was Joseph Saidu Momoh, not Bio, who returned Sierra Leone to a multiparty democracy.)
It has become clear to FORUMNEWS-SL.COM that there are a lot of other desperate people in what is quickly becoming a “half party” government regime. Their desperation for validation from the embattled president has taken public relations spins, as it appears that the president might not be looking their ways if his second term is to be anything but memorable for the right reasons.
But they are not alone. Even President Bio is desperate for international recognitions and approval of his elections victory. Though he forges on with his government naming his friends to lucrative positions, there is still the expectation that it is all for nothing as there will either be a rerun of the elections, ‘or Sierra Leone would have been allowed to set a very bad precedent for presidential elections.’
Meanwhile, those who are presently worried that President Bio might not be calling them up to bat this term, while he has already named quite a few, have resorted to promoting their achievements in the very media they managed to avoid and sideline since 2018.
Now that they are unsure of the continued holding of their government portfolio jobs, such people that had long forgotten the media and were not, or were rarely heard or seen in the media, are now all over the place with paid articles tabulating their successes.
My, my, how unsure are we? It is very unbecoming of professional men and women to be clamouring for positions that were theirs last term. How insecure one must be to be canvassing for your position. Here is a fiat, the words of which was borrowed from Dr Ernest Bai Koroma as he said them in 2012, which should come as a consolation for all those of the former government of Salone circa 2018-2023 that are unsure of their positions in the new government: “If I performed well during the last term, re-appoint me. If I haven’t, then don’t reappoint me!” Because Koroma had performed well, he was re-elected in 2012.
It begs one to ponder the state of anxiety in the SLPP regime as President Bio names, re-names and shames many people from his past cabinet that he deems as unproductive. This has caused quit the excitement as local political observers say some cabinet ministers from 2018-2023 have resorted to desperate measures going as far as syndicating public relations yarns about their past achievements that are largely cosmetic.
Such begging for jobs should be the preserve of civil society organisation heads, not trained technocrats with qualifications to match. For such people here is another point of consolation. According to our sources close to the presidency, anyone that performed well during the past regime should not worry about getting rehired or continuing in some other government position.
Only those who failed the president by their lacklustre performance need worry about their place in President Bio’s second term cabinet.
It should and must be here noted that Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, Anti-Corruption Commission – ACC head, Francis Ben Kaifala, Ibrahim Brima Swaray (from the failed and corrupt National Public Procurement Authority – NPPA to National Revenue Authority (NRA), Dr David Moinina Sengeh (Education to Chief Minister) never had to engage the media to sing their praises for the president to notice. Their so-called performances spoke for them.
As former Minister of Information during the National Provisional Ruling Council – NPRC regime, the president has been quite comfortable as his own chief public relations person since 2018. No one in the past regime was the apologist and promulgator of his ideas as the president.
When the President was being blasted from pillar to post for his government’s plans or actions by the media last term journalists never heard from such people. President Bio was his own media person these past five years.
Now that the President has planned and accomplished his own re-election, which really came as a shock to many who are now hoping he would name them to his cabinet, his naysayers cum friends are reportedly also throwing shades at each other all in an effort to show who was more committed to the President’s re-election bid.
You see, none of them was confident that Bio would win the elections, even if it meant stealing the elections. But now that the dastardly deed has been done, the unbelievers in the past government have come home to roost. As a master strategist, we expect the president to know what’s up with them, and do the needful.
Therefore anyone seeking to influence the president for job position they held in the past government regime must be looked at askance because, had they performed beyond doubt or reproach they should be as confident as the new NRA head, the VP, Chief Minister and the ACC Commissioner, and not shamefully canvassing for a job position they once held or still hold, but are unsure of continuing in their seats.
Meanwhile, FORUMNEWS-SL.COM is reliably informed that Dr Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, Victor Foh, Jacob Jusu Saffa, Sahr Jusu, Prof David John Francis and others are also desperate considering their fate in President Bio’s new government. Also desperate are those whose take home salaries were being paid for by our government’s international supporters that were recently suspended or halted citing settling the current electoral impasse. They were reportedly given their marching orders by State House.
The idea here is: ‘Your work, not your words, shall vindicate you’, as it did the aforementioned men.
Lonta!
