By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
If the June 24 general elections are conducted in a free and fair atmosphere, there is no way the All People’s Congress (APC) will not win those elections. Apart from the fact that the APC is the largest political party in Sierra Leone; the ineptitude of the Bio-led government to solve the basic “bread and butter issues” is one of the many reasons why majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans are determined to vote out the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) on June 24.
Since President Julius Maada Bio took over in 2018, his government has made little efforts to unite the country; they have made seemingly calibrated efforts to perpetrate and perpetuate blatant human rights abuses against members of the APC; they appear to have put mechanisms in place to rig the June 24 elections through either the infiltration or planting of their henchmen (and women) in the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) and the Political Parties Regulation Commission (PPRC) with both heads allegedly being once-upon-a-time SLPP card-holders, and the Bio-led government has repeatedly shown blatant disregard for the welfare of ordinary Sierra Leoneans except for the ruling elite.
Instead of trying to ameliorate the sufferings of ordinary Sierra Leoneans through policies that will cushion their miseries, the Bio-led government has repeatedly been rubbing salt to injuries by introducing more taxes aimed at suffocating the local business community in the country.
Now it is very expensive to travel into and out of Sierra Leone as the introduction of new airport taxes has made Sierra Leone an unattractive destination for tourists. Added to those woes, the half-assed policies instituted by the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Sierra Leone (BSL), in the last five years under the watch of President Bio, have lured hyper-inflation which has permanently settled in our homes, communities, and places of business.
Ordinary Sierra Leoneans cannot imagine what economic hardships they would face if President Bio and his group of “pancake heads” (to borrow a Russian colloquialism) are given the second chance to complete their mismanagement of the country’s economy. As my Krio relatives would say: “Da frog way nor pull wase way e young; norto way e ol e go pull am”! If in their first inning President Bio and his toadies have shown gross disrespect for the wellbeing and human rights of ordinary Sierra Leoneans; then imagine what they would do if given a second chance to polish their chauvinistic arrogance and corrupt practices.
And as if to insult our intelligence insultingly the Chief Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa, has promised that the SLPP would solve the “bread and butter issues” within three months if given another chance at State House. In 2018, they promised to fix the economy within six months if given the chance. It has taken the SLPP over five years now without them building a common “Tapalap” bakery. And instead of stabilizing the economy; they have taken it to the doldrums.
That’s why even in their perceived south-eastern bastions of the country, hundreds of thousands of SLPP supporters are also tired of the lies and half-truths which the Bio-led SLPP government has been dishing out to them. They are being told: “this is our time to eat”; but in reality it has only been members of the First Family and their numerous hangers-on who have been enjoying the fruits of their supporters’ labour!
Yet, members of the Bio-led administration have repeatedly been whipping up tribal and regional hysterical sound-bites to frighten their supporters into a sort of tribal collectivism. But majority of the people in the southern and eastern parts of the country are feeling the same hardships which their compatriots in the north and Western Area are also experiencing.
Despite the ruling elite appear to be preaching tribal communalism to frighten south-easterners into voting for the SLPP hysterically; they now know that voting on tribal sentiments is what has led the country to its current state of affairs. They know that President Bio appears to be a personification for failure. And they now know that the half-assed policies of the Bio-led administration are responsible for their current state of abject poverty.
And in the midst of all these economic woes and blatant violations of ordinary citizens’ fundamental human rights; all President Bio could do is to insult them more by transforming himself to a comic dancer. By prefacing his political rallies and events by dancing like a humourless clown in an uninteresting circus; our Commander-in-Chief appears to be sending the message that he doesn’t care if ordinary Sierra Leoneans starve to their deaths as long as he, his family, and members of the ruling elite are living lives in clover. His irritating public dances are reminiscent of Nero, the fifth Roman emperor, playing the fiddle while Rome was burning!
One thing that is very clear is the fact that majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans are now determined, more than ever before, to see the back of President Bio and his caboodle on June 24. Once bitten, twice shy. And majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans have promised themselves never to make such a mistake again because the election of President Bio in 2018, in itself, was one of the greatest mistakes ever made in Sierra Leone by Sierra Leoneans! And they are determined to correct it this time!
And it is that determination, by majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans, which the APC Leader and Presidential candidate, Dr Samura Matthew Wilson Kamara, reechoed on Wednesday 14 June 2023 during his nationwide address at the New Brookfields Hotel in Freetown.
In that address, Dr Samura Kamara captured the mood of ordinary Sierra Leoneans thus: “I wish to reiterate that the All People’s Congress and its supporters will not accept any election results tainted by rigging or manipulation…Should there be any evidence of electoral malpractices or attempts to subvert the integrity of the electoral process, we will utilize all available legal and peaceful means to challenge such actions and ensure that the true voice of the Sierra Leonean people is heard….”
This time, Nero won’t be allowed to play the fiddle while Rome burns. If Rome is going to burn; there will be no sound of the fiddle. So, let the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) do the right thing and everything will be fine!
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