By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
From the Pontiff in the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City to the nine Imams of the Grand Mosque in Makkah to Emirs to Kings and Queens to Presidents to Prime Ministers and even common folks; they do have moments of “sudden and great revelation or realization” of something very critical to their lives or the survival of their livelihoods. It is called, in figurative terms, an “epiphany”.
But those of us who attended Sunday School in our childhood (though I’m now a non-Churchgoing Christian with a little colouration of deism) were told that according to Matthew 2:1–12, an epiphany is “the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi”. Or that it is “a manifestation of a divine or supernatural being”. But for the sake of today’s One Dropian dropping, I will stick to the figurative meaning of an epiphany.
Late last week, some influential members of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) had their moment of sudden realization that despite they have been deceiving themselves that President Julius Maada Bio has fulfilled all his promised campaign promises; yet the people of Kenema and Bo cities are still not convinced that the SLPP has been up to the task for which it was elected in 2018.
After all the seemingly connivance of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) with the SLPP to allegedly open more registration centres in the eastern and southern parts of the country than in the North and Western Area, just to give the SLPP an undue advantage over the All People’s Congress (APC). After all the allegations that the SLPP is being engaged in massive under-age registration while potential First Time voters in the North and Western Area are allegedly deprived of their constitutional right to partake in this exercise as provided for by the Public Elections Act 2022. And after all the claims that the SLPP has been Poda-poda-ing, Okada-ing, and even Keke-ing, people from neighbouring Liberia to register in the south and east; the SLPP government had its epiphany when it suddenly realised that residents in those places no longer have faith in the current government. Hence their dogged inertia towards the electoral process.
And in a blatant act of desperation, President Bio has to exhibit raw tribalism right inside his State House office when he is videoed by Mahawa Alieu, calling on his tribesmen to register in their strongholds as push has come to shove! I need to remind the Commander-in-Chief that it is politically correct for the Father of the Nation to address the nation in either the official English Language or the lingua franca: Krio. Anything short of that is raw tribalism! Not my logic but the logic of the logic. But that whole sad episode epitomizes the proverbial drowning man who will regard a straw as a lifejacket.
And it is that same desperation that led the Kenema City Council to lockdown that city last Saturday in an attempt to match up the cooked-up figures in the sexed-up Mid Term Population and Housing Census. But it is laughably laughable how the SLPP is trying to fatten an emaciated goat, at the eleventh hour, on a “Luma” Day.
And what is now certainly certain is the fact that President Bio and his “Paopa” Brigade have had their epiphany. They have had their moment of sudden realization that thousands of residents in Kenema and Bo cities have also had their own moments of sudden realization that the infrastructural development promised them was one of those deceptions which their SLPP is known for.
The people of Kenema and Bo cities know that the SLPP has failed them and the nation at large; they know that their SLPP is more talk than action, and they might have also realised that their SLPP is only living on borrowed time. So, why worry?
But President Bio and his “Paopa” Brigade are worried. The toadies at the SLPP Wallace-Johnson Street headquarters in Freetown are worried. And the Mayors and Chairpersons in SLPP-controlled Local Councils are also worried. They are all worried because if the registrants do not match up the figures in their sexed-up Mid Term Population and Housing Census; they will look like people hiding in a fog! So, they have to get their people out—even if they have to do it by force.
As I see it, the lockdowns in Kenema and Bo (the bastions of SLPP-dom) last Saturday, coupled with President Bio’s earlier tribal gaffe, could be taken as the last feeble kicks of a dying horse. It also shows desperate desperation on the part of a desperate government which is desperate to cling on to power even in the midst of chronic economic hardships and hyperinflation. If the SLPP government has really fulfilled its 2018 campaign promises to the people of Kenema and Bo, they would have enthusiastically come out “Wutehteh”. But since they have to be forced out from their homes, offices, and places of business; it tells a different story from the one being told by the “Paopagandists”.
And you and I know that people forced against their will will always have their preconceived notions of things before they were forced. Even if the expected numbers are achieved after the lockdowns; what might happen in Kenema and Bo in 2023 is that there would either be voter apathy or protest votes against the SLPP. Many Sierra Leoneans in those places are not happy with the SLPP government but are afraid to express it openly because of the fear of reprisals either from the “Paopa” Brigade or the tribalists.
And the SLPP government might be deceiving itself that engaging in voter registration subterfuges will make them home and dry in 2023. But these voter registration maneuverings might benefit the APC, as it is not a hard and fast rule that all the registrants in the south and east will vote overwhelmingly for the SLPP. You can force people to register but you can’t force them where to cast their ballots once they are inside the polling booths!
In a nutshell, if President Bio like he can decide not to speak the English and Krio Languages anymore (we will look for translators as we did for the now infamous Mahawa Alieu State House voter registration “sensitization” video). And if the Kenema and Bo City Councils like, they can declare two more lockdowns. But one thing that is certainly certain, after four-plus-years of SLPP rule; majority of Sierra Leoneans have had an epiphany about what the SLPP really stands for—ineptitude and tribal bigotry!
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