By Abu Shaw in London (02/03/2023) 

President Maada Bio’s authoritarian agenda has backfired big time and now the international community is fed up with the failed SLPP government.

Panic has apparently gripped the failed SLPP regime of President Bio. Even unconfirmed reports are sending jitters down the spine of the inept Bio presidency. Reliable sources in the diplomatic circle have indicated that the international community has decided to correct the mistake they made in the 2018 general and presidential elections and to make sure this time around they have a regime change that is beneficial to the majority of the people of Sierra Leone. The regime change phenomenon has gained momentum and from the look of things, this reliable but unconfirmed information has sent chilling signs in the corridors of power of the ruling and corrupt SLPP government of President Bio. The blame game has started by the failed SLPP regime. (Photo: EU Ambassador to Sierra Leone Manuel Müller and others are accused of interference but the corrupt government has not given any justification for the accusation).

This latest development has dawned on the Bio presidency like the fall of a sledgehammer on their tiny heads. The authenticity of the international community demanding a regime change has made the incompetent officials of the SLPP government take on social media to blast and blame the global partners for wanting a regime change in Sierra Leone. There is no official statement from the international community to confirm this regime change issue but the panic-stricken SLPP regime has already started seeing the writing on the wall. Without a shadow of a doubt, the corrupt Bio presidency is smelling the rat knowing full well that the people of Sierra Leone are tired and fed with the lies and non-deliverance of the goodies President Bio promised in his manifesto for the 2018 elections. All the citizens have witnessed in the last four and half years of the SLPP regime is high-level corruption, maladministration, tribal and divisive politics, human rights abuses, mass killings of innocent citizens, socio-economic bastardisation, and so on and so forth.

Sierra Leoneans in and outside the country plus the international partners have seen the overwhelming negativity of President Bio. And to make sure, the same mistake is not committed twice, the global partners including the European Union, the United Nations, the United Kingdom, the United States, the ECOWAS, and the African Union have all decided to assist Sierra Leone by having a regime change by any means necessary. The international community does not want another civil war to erupt in Sierra Leone and they believe the road President Bio is taking the country toward will ignite another bloody war that would affect the country, the sub-region, and the world at large. That is why, the diplomatic sources say, they will not hesitate to have a regime change again. Like sprinters and athletes getting ready on their marks, set and go, the SLPP government has already jumped the gun before they are pushed by coming out to publicly blame the global partners for thinking about regime change in Sierra Leone rather than concentrate on June 24, 2023, general and presidential elections. Astonishing how they failed SLPP officials to believe could believe unconfirmed reports about regime change but as everyone knows there is no smoke without fire.From investigations conducted by the Organiser newspaper, the majority of Sierra Leone would prefer a regime change because they have found out that President Bio and his useless First Lady Fatima Jabbe Bio are not fit to run the county. SLPP government officials have personally directed their criticisms to two foreign diplomats in the persons of the European Union EU Ambassador to Sierra Leone Manuel Müller and the United Kingdom High Commissioner Lisa Chesney. Leading the fierce and unwarranted criticisms is the Returning Officer of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone ECSL Southern Region Edmond Alpha. For such negative comments to come from an Electoral Commissioner who is mandated to conduct free and fair elections indicates that democracy is dead and buried in Sierra Leone under President Bio. No surprises either because Edmond Alpha is a pious Bio supporter and a top official of the SLPP party.

Shocking that the Bio presidency has soon forgotten that it is the international community, especially the EU that is sponsoring the June 24, 2023 elections in Sierra Leone; so it beggars belief that the SLPP regime is accusing the global partners of interfering in the internal affairs of Sierra Leone. Sierra Leoneans still remember when the international community advised regime change in 2018 after Dr Samura Kamara won the elections. But because Maada Bio and his caboodle had threatened to usher in another civil war, the global partners begged the APC party to let go and Maada Bio was installed as President. Five years down the line, President Bio has made the situation worse in Sierra Leone. Now the EU, UN, AU, and others know that APC has no problems but rather the SLPP is the main problem. The global partners have now decided to have a regime change come to the June 24, 2023 elections to save Sierra Leone. As a reaction, the SLPP is blaming the EU, UN, and AU for interfering in the internal affairs of Sierra Leone. SLPP government used to use the same agents to convince the same global partners for over 20 years to smear the good name of the APC government for regime change. Have chickens come home to roost?

EU Issues a Press Statement to Reiterate its Impartial Role in Sierra Leone Elections

The EU believes that a strong democracy, with free, transparent, peaceful, credible, multi-party, and multi-candidate elections, which give a chance to all voters to express their will and to all candidates to contest without impediment, greatly contributes to long-term peace and stability. The EU does not favour specific political parties or candidates. The EU worldwide supports processes that allow that at the end of the day, elections are free and transparent, so that the people’s will is fully taken into consideration. The EU therefore since 1996 has been supporting Sierra Leone Electoral Management Bodies’ work for peaceful, inclusive, transparent, multi-party, and multi-candidate elections. EU Electoral Observation Missions were deployed in Sierra Leone in the last 3 general elections, in 2007, 2012, and 2018. #eustandswithsalone –

Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone

Political Parties Registration Commission

Ministry of Planning and Economic Development

National Authorising Office – NAO, Sierra Leone

National Election Watch – Sierra Leone

European Union in Sierra Leone