By Joseph A. Kamanda
October 4th 2020 marked exactly two years seven months of reigns of the governing Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) in office under the failed leadership with massive democratic lockdowns coupled with the prolonged Covid19 campaign with no head way so far.State governance is nothing to make mention about. System bearers’ collective failures begin from where the SLPP leader, President Julius Maada Bio and his entire government start work onto where they are now as I piece this article together.
And before properly settling down to work President Bio’s hegemony first and foremost destroyed the very supremacy of democracy, by ordering the violent storming of the House of Parliament, by poorly trained armed Operational Support Division (OSD) wing of the Sierra Leone Police, who stormed the well and disrupted the electioneering process of the Speaker of the House, and elected the ruling minority party candidate, Hon. Dr Chernor Abass Bundu as against the wishes of the majority opposition All People’s Congress (APC). That clearly manifested Bio and the SLPP’s show of disregard for democracy marking the very beginning of the failure of his government in consolidating democracy.
Since then, president Bio is still finding it very difficult to come to terms with democratic cultures as he does not so easily embrace democracy even though he is always called the “father of democracy”. His worst critics are of the firm views that he is not that familiar with democratic cultures as competitive elections and has since then to date remained intolerant to his political opponents, especially the main opposition APC members and supporters. He hardly include Sierra Leoneans from the other sides of the political divide in the governance process of the country, which are also largely serving as major contributing factors to his unacceptable failure as well as other state governance challenges under his leadership.
For the SLPP, everything president Bio inherited from his predecessor, former president Dr Ernest Bai Koroma and the APC were badly “broken”; “broken economic” and thus tried hard to change them by all means in “poapa” terms into the new direction forms as they are now.
By gauging views and public opinions of the ruling SLPP and the Bio government achievements in closed to three years now, out and about in the streets of Freetown and in other major towns, I first met with Samba Saiku John Bah who said; “we were expecting better reforms as promised in the new direction manifesto, but even before the arrival or the recording of coronavirus cases not much was noted about national gains by president Bio and his new direction ideas, especially in the areas of the economy. And now there is less talk of what the government has done nearly three years now. All we now hear from the media is about coronavirus and Ćovid-19. We only hope the whole coronavirus does not serve as a cover up of the failure of the system.”
Government’s major achievements are narrowly centred on the crippling education policy as part of president Bio’s SLPP human capital development agenda and their selective anti-corruption fight, as well as the commissions of inquiries, which now threaten opposition APC members, supporter and workers of the last administration with its toothless white paper.
Failure as an unavoidable factor in the Bio led SLPP management; the system had already failed even before preparing to response to Covid-19, whose campaign continues to effectively bankroll the country. No wonder the battle is being prolonged this far.
April 4th will be hardly forgotten, as it was the day on which the widely discredited National Electoral Commission chairman and National Returning officer, Mohamed Alie Conteh declared Julius Maada Bio as winner of the March 2018 election and president of the republic of Sierra Leone.
For the SLPP and Bio it was never a start of hard work to deliver on failed new direction manifesto promises made during elections campaigns, but a moment of revenge and perpetuate vengeance against APC members and supporters through diverse forms of intimidation by taking away jobs from them.
Since then to date the narratives had changed completely as the situation transformed itself into a mere failed direction under the directives of president Bio. The expectations were supposed to have maintained a positive trajectory inherited from former president Koroma and consolidate gains made by the last APC administration going forward. But as the sackings kept on so also everything was changed almost destroying every legacies of the last administration.
I ask Paul Tamba Sinnah at Tankoro Kono to tell me about his impression about the SLPP and Bio’s second year plus in office. And he has this to say; “I am a staunch member of the ruling party and religious supporters of president Bio. I believe in all his ideas especially the free education, commissions of inquiries and couple of other things the government has done is doing. But honestly I don’t think much has been offered in terms of solving our bread and butter and other economic problems, which are the areas some of us are highly disappointed at president Bio and the SLPP.”
Disappointing are all over as the expectations remained unmet with hopes and aspirations being dashed. The magic didn’t happen as seen in the continuing unfolding trend of negative change in almost every aspect of state affairs against all what the last government did.
However this manner of political failure of president Bio and the SLPP started with the hateful display of winner takes all democracy through massive sacking and dismissals of people who served the last APC administration, based on their regional, ethnic and political affiliations as if they are not Sierra Leoneans and do not deserve the rights to be hired to work for the government of Sierra Leone.
Winner takes all according to political scientists is no democracy and consolidate peace and stability nor democracy itself. Some said it is not even good for emerging and young democracies not to mention developing countries trying to properly embrace the culture of democratic processes for first time. That is why the dismissals and sackings of former government officers by Bio and the SLPP have been widely criticized.
Further sounding views on the second year of the SLPP and president Bio in office, Matu Gassimu, a fish monger at Kissy market on Black Hall Road, east of Freetown, said; “we are still trying to figure out what exactly went wrong since they came considering their activities which are more focused on the probity of past public servant for financial misappropriations of public funds. So for me it could be too early to start assessing their performance now. Let us give them a bits of time to see when they can offer more so after the complete eradication of the global pandemic when situations shall have returned to their normal stages before we start apportioning blames on whosoever for failure to deliver.’
It is however believes that the failure of the Bio SLPP government started its leadership failure right from the divide and rule system of government it introduced in the running of the state apart from other areas where the SLPP continues to struggle to deliver despite Bio’s 1996 short lived National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) junta experience. That of itself can save the day at State House.
Just as it worries every well-meaning Sierra Leonean, there were never such expectations of retrogression from a government that promised to do so much in bringing progress and development to Sierra Leone by taking the country if not to the top, but to an enviable level of self-reliance which turns out to be the mere opposite. Promises of delivering goodies in terms of social services to the door steps of the people are still far from realities, with peace, security, socioeconomic and development programmes being completely derailed from what used to a very progressive trajectory in the last ten years of former president Koroma which is now leading to the massive human sufferings of Sierra Leoneans.
What actually continue to reminds country about the government’s missing NPRC junta era of the mid 90s are the wasteful spending on materialism that have nothing to do with the improvement of living standards of the people. So can somebody please tell Bio to focus a bit on people pro-policies for the betterment of every citizenry?
Moreover, overseas traveling, luxuries for the president, his wife, their siblings and ruling party loyalists as well as unwarranted job offers to SLPP diaspora members are most of the areas where Sierra Leoneans’ tax payers moneys are being lavished by Bio and his retrogressive party.
Also the importations of incompetent and unqualified SLPP party members and supporters from the diaspora – United States, United Kingdom and elsewhere to hold lucrative expert jobs that they could hardly deliver on backed home, but are being paid in thousands of Dollars for such jobs.
That as well adds to the leadership failures of Bio, the new direction and the ‘paopa’ circle in the last two years. But as God could have it, all the blames of misfortunes are now being placed on the global coronavirus pandemic.
Whereas in the Koroma era, by the time the APC government clocks a year in office changes were already felt in the four corners of the nation, with new developmental programmes for the general benefits of all.
Koroma actually inherited Freetown as the darkest city in the world but turned the situation around and brought regular power supplies in his first one hundred compared to Bio’s two years in state governance yet his can’t provide consumers with twenty-four hours electricity supply. Water is less counted in highlighting social services the Bio government can offer even during a catch-up coronavirus lockdown, water is one essential service people can hardly lay hands on. And attempts by Freetown residents to fetch water from leaking pipes were halted by irate security personnel who were manning the lock down. They seized their jerry cans and arrested most of the said defaulters for violating coronavirus lock down rules.
Koroma among the multiple development approaches used to propelled Sierra Leone’s post-conflict transformative nation building were the consolidation of democracy, peace, security and stability, freedom of information, opened the country to trade, commerce, infrastructural development and direct foreign investments. But most of these gains have been drastically reversed by Bio and the SLPP two years plus wasteful rule.
His regime brought social services as tar marked roads, electricity and water supplies to not only Freetown but to all provincial towns in the country through the three-town water project delivered by the Agenda for Change and later Agenda for Prosperity.
As at present, failed leadership of Bio can hardly assure the nation of complete peace, social justice, freedom of speech, political liberty constitutional rights have been put on hold with opposition APC politicians continue to languish in prison cells at the Male Correctional Centre on Pa Demba Road, all due to intimidation from the ruling SLPP party on orders from the office of the president at State House.
Otherwise the likes of former Freetown City Council mayor Herbert George Williams, Abu Bakarr Daramy, Alfred Paolo Conteh and retired Sergeant Amadu Koita wouldn’t have be held behind bars. That is also part of leadership failures on the part of president Bio to create a level playing field for the opposition to go about with their normal political activities.
Nastiest of it is the judiciary in Sierra Leone which has proved to be the worst ever in history. It is only the Sierra Leone judiciary that drove out legitimately elected APC Members of Parliament from their seats in the house following a politically pushed court ruling from this very poppet bench under the so called democratic rule of president Bio.
All of these are happening under a leadership that does not believes in the culture of democratic governance which is why Bio continues to derail electoral processes and imprisoned political opponents that are critical of his style of bad governance. A process his predecessor had always created level playing fields for all to participate fully in the democratic processes to the best of their abilities without any form of intimidation.
Though he met Sierra Leone with a very sound economic foundation left by former president Koroma and last APC government, yet president Bio had reversed everything he inherited from his predecessor including the prices of food and essential commodities, making livelihood means more difficult for the people with businesses including key mining investments in the country that are causing extreme poverty all over again as if Sierra Leone is just emerging from a war.
So what is worth cerebrating about Bio and the SLPP his return from his lavish Lebanon trip except leadership failures especially, when the government can’t meet the basic needs of the people?
For leadership incompetence is not what Sierra Leoneans voted for in the March 2018 elections but for peace, security, democracy, good governance the list is long, so stand down as earlier as you can president Bio and apologise to Sierra Leoneans if at all you lack the capacity to govern well to deliver the people from mass sufferings in closed to three years now.
