By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Today, I’m serious. In fact; I’m seriously serious. Figuratively; I’m dead serious. And seriously; I’m very serious about the state of affairs in Sierra Leone under the watchful watch of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) whose rudder is being controlled by President Julius Maada Bio.
And I’m so serious that I will not touch on the issue of the SLPP government taking away Part Five of the Public Order Act 1965, with the right hand, and bringing the Cyber Security and Crime Act of 2021 with the left. The madman, “Blacker”, and the physically challenged Kemoh Sesay are two examples of the Bio-led administration’s double standards in terms of Freedom of Speech as enshrined in Chapter Three of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone. And the political space, in the country, is now replete with countless instances of Sierra Leoneans not having any guarantee of freedom after exercising their freedom of speech.
But that’s not the thrust, or crux, of today’s One Dropian dropping. And I will not even mention the laughable allegation that the physically challenged Kemoh Sesay was “cyber-bullying” and “stalking” the physically strong and healthy retired Brigadier Bio with all those US Marine-like well armed security personnel he moves around with! It just “doesn’t add up”, to quote Dr Sama “Puawi” Banya. To even dream the accusation that Kemoh Sesay was “bullying” and “stalking” the Commander-in-Chief is like accusing Albert Einstein of plagiarizing his (Special or General) Theory of Relativity from “Blacker”!
And that’s all there is to say about that. Now let me come to the thrust, or crux, of today’s One Dropian dropping; which is: the state of affairs in Sierra Leone. Despite President Bio is reported to have claimed that he has fulfilled all his 2018 Manifesto promises and that what he is now doing are bonuses to the citizenry; the fact is: the SLPP government has put the country in an attractive mess. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the National Electoral Commission (NEC), the Political Parties Registration Commission (PPRC) and the National Civil Registration Authority (NCRA) appear to be under the grip of State House; whilst “there is a significant decrease in trust” in the Sierra Leone Police and Judiciary as their “reputations are less trusted than is needed”, to quote Hon. Norbert Neuser the Head of the EU Election Follow-up Mission.
And that’s not all. The Bio-led administration is yet to solve the bread and butter issues as the cost of living has rocketed from the Bintumani Mountain to Mars. The “gron dry” is epitomized by the high electricity and water bills coupled with high transportation costs. As far as I am concerned, the SLPP government has not done much to address these challenges. The economy has not been reenergized as it appears as if the growth rate has not changed from where the erstwhile All People’s Congress (APC) government left it. Economically, majority of Sierra Leoneans are worse off today than they were four years ago. And “this is more than any Government has ever done [to them] in four years”, to borrow the Commander-in-Chief’s words.
Yet, President Bio could still muster the courage to tell the nation, in his Independence speech of 27 April 2022, that his government has “taken immediate steps to soften the impact of these hard economic times”. And as if to mock the poor people’s miseries, he continues: “Our quick action economic recovery programme and other subsidies and tax incentives have kept essential goods in the market. Government has also undertaken social safety net programmes to help out the hardest hit and most vulnerable of our citizens….” Maybe, just maybe, the President might be talking about another Sierra Leone of which I’m not aware of. But the Sierra Leone I’m staying in is one in which no immediate steps have been taken to solve the bread and butter issues.
And there has not been any positive fight against corruption as we are yet to see the outcome of the investigations (if there were any) on the forged receipts allegedly emanating from the Office of the President in relation to one of President Bio’s overseas travels. The 2019 and 2020 Audit Reports, from Audit Service Sierra Leone, and the incessant allegations by the Africanist Press of corrupt practices by the Bio-led administration are testaments that the SLPP government believes that what is good for the cow shouldn’t be good for the heifer. The overnight rags-to-riches stories amongst the ruling elite are rude reminders that the fight against corruption is only meant for members of the main opposition.
And in all of these rags-to-riches stories the ACC seems to have forgotten, or feigning forgetfulness, about the issue of “unexplained wealth”. In one of its little handbooks called “Frequently Asked Questions”, we are told on page 4 that, “Any person that maintains a standard of living above which is commensurate with his [or her] present or past official emoluments or is in control of pecuniary resources or property disproportionate to his [or her] present or past official emoluments, unless he [or she] gives a satisfactory explanation to the court as to how he [or she] was able to maintain such a standard of living or how such pecuniary resources or property came under his [or her] control, commit an offence.” Well, going by that definition, and seeing the insulting opulence in which most of the ruling elite are now living in just four years in office, then it will be safe to conjecture that half of the current presidential appointees should be in the dock for “unexplained wealth”.
And the manner in which President Bio is running the country brings to mind the fable about the Roman Emperor Nero. I still cannot figure out why in the midst of chronic starvation, disenchantment, and never-ending hardships amongst majority of the citizenry; President Bio could still find time to celebrate anniversaries, go for official visit-cum-honeymoon in Lebanon, pledge two billion Leones and twenty tons of iron rods towards the renovation of his church at Wilberforce in Freetown, and go for holidays in his village of Tihun with the upper crust of the Sierra Leonean society in tow! Its metaphorical equivalence could be likened to Nero who played the lyre while Rome was burning.
But don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that the President should live the assumed frugal life he was living in London, Britain, before becoming Head of State. All I’m saying is that it seems inciting for the ruling elite to insult the masses’ abject poverty with their ostentatious display of unsophisticated lavishness! And President Bio cannot be telling us, in his Independence speech of 27 April 2022, that his government has “expanded access to potable water across the country with brand new investments in water infrastructure and assets” when in actual fact the taps in my home and office are devoid of running water. Again, it just “doesn’t add up”, to quote Dr Sama Banya.
It is on that note that I will end today’s One Dropian dropping with an advice to Sierra Leonean voters that in 2023, they should beware of the naked people who will come to offer them clothes.
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