By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
There comes a moment in the life of every nation when the level of disrespect thrown at its people becomes so unbearable that silence itself becomes complicity. Sierra Leone has finally arrived at that moment. For years we have slowly downgraded the dignity of our presidency by electing individuals who have no business occupying positions of national leadership. And now the consequences of that mistake have matured into a full blown national embarrassment. What we are witnessing today is not merely politics. It is the final insult.
For decades, quality leadership has been in decline in Sierra Leone, replaced by characters who lack the basic attributes of statesmanship. Integrity, charisma, respect, honesty and discipline are qualities that have vanished from our public life. Instead, we have been handed men driven by greed, consumed by arrogance and intoxicated by insolence. The political class we have today is not only the weakest in our post independence history but also the most morally bankrupt. And the situation has become so rotten that individuals who should not even be trusted to man the gates at East End Police are now boldly throwing their hats into the ring for the presidency.
Nothing exposes this degradation more than the recent outburst by Lawrence Leeman on Truth Media online TV where he shamelessly declared his ambition to become the flagbearer of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and eventually President of the Republic of Sierra Leone. I watched that clip with shock, disbelief and deep sadness. Not because ambition is a crime but because of who is expressing it. Sierra Leoneans must understand the seriousness of this insult. This is not a political joke. This is the final sign that the bar has collapsed to the ground.
Let us be brutally honest. The problem is not solely Lawrence Leeman. The problem is the system, the environment and the political decay we have allowed to fester. We have made the presidency so cheap, so degraded and so contaminated that individuals who should be answering serious questions about their pasts are now presenting themselves as the future of our nation. Leeman is simply a product of that decay, the latest and perhaps most painful reminder of how far we have fallen.
Sierra Leoneans deserve to know who this man really is. When Lawrence Leeman served as Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs his tenure was clouded by reports of brutality, intimidation and heavy handedness. He was repeatedly accused of human rights violations especially during the turbulent periods leading up to the Pademba Road Prison Incident. He was part of a political clique widely believed to have contributed to the climate of fear that defined those years. The August ninth and tenth incident in Freetown brought all these concerns back to light. The committee assigned to investigate the matter summoned him and linked his actions to misconduct significant enough to warrant his removal from the ministry.
Yet instead of humility, remorse or reflection, Leeman has chosen arrogance. Instead of acknowledging the countless concerns raised about his conduct, he has launched himself into the political arena with chest beating confidence, declaring intentions to replace a sitting president as if Sierra Leone is his family property. He does that as if leadership is a reward for notoriety or as if the people he once disregarded have forgotten everything. This level of audacity is not ambition. It is provocation.
And what emboldens such a man? The answer lies in the presidency itself. Over the years the Office has been dragged from a symbol of national honour to an instrument of personal convenience. The downfall of our leadership standards did not begin with Lawrence Leeman; it began when we elevated individuals entirely unprepared for the demands of national governance.
No example illustrates this tragedy more than Julius Maada Bio. Here is a man who spent more than twenty-two years drifting through life with no job, no structure, no responsibility and no understanding of what it means to earn an honest paycheck. For more than two decades, he behaved like an idler, surviving on nostalgia, handouts and the political oxygen pumped into him by an ecosystem of opportunists who needed a symbol of continuity from the old NPRC era. A man who never built a career, never managed an institution and never demonstrated professional discipline somehow rose to the highest office in the land. The tragedy of Sierra Leone is that a man who had never experienced the dignity of earning a monthly salary ended up controlling the national treasury.
At this point it is necessary to recall the words often attributed to the late President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, a leader who understood responsibility and the cost of instability. “Leadership is not a game for the impatient or the unprepared. Sierra Leone has suffered enough from men who grab power without understanding the weight of it. A nation cannot move forward when those who once disrupted its democratic path now seek to lead it again.”
And it did. Under Bio, governance became impulsive, vindictive, wasteful and disconnected from the lived reality of ordinary Sierra Leoneans. Institutions weakened. Accountability evaporated. Arrogance became policy. And because the presidency itself lost its seriousness, every political nonentity suddenly believed they too could become president. Lawrence Leeman is simply the loudest symptom of that sickness.
Sierra Leone has become a playground for those seeking validation, a stepping stone for those running from their past and a rehabilitation centre for individuals who should be nowhere near public service. This is why today anyone with the boldness and absence of shame can wake up and declare themselves presidential material. And Sierra Leoneans, worn down by hardship, corruption and fatigue, barely react. That silence is dangerous.
We must break it.
The stakes are too high. The next election will determine whether Sierra Leone regains its dignity or sinks even deeper into the mud. We cannot afford to entrust our future to individuals whose names resurfaced only when controversy called. Leadership is not an experiment. It is not a comedy show. It is not a reward for loyalty to a party. It is not a consolation prize for those removed from office in disgrace.
The presidency must be restored to a place of honour, competence and seriousness. It must be occupied by individuals who understand service, sacrifice and national duty, not people who carry unresolved allegations, who mistake arrogance for confidence and who believe that boldness compensates for lack of competence.
Lawrence Leeman’s declaration should not anger Sierra Leoneans. It should wake them up. It should remind us how much we have lost by accepting mediocrity. It should alert us to the fact that if we do not act, the politics of insult will deepen and the next leader may be even less qualified than the last.
This is the time for Sierra Leoneans to reclaim their country. To demand accountability. To insist that leadership must once again be earned and not grabbed. Our children deserve a nation where the presidency is not reduced to a public spectacle. Our future deserves leaders who understand the weight of responsibility. And our democracy deserves dignity.
We must say enough. Enough of the arrogance. Enough of the insults. Enough of turning the presidency into a circus. Sierra Leone is not a stage for political comedians. It is not a dumping ground for rejected ambitions. It is a nation fighting for survival and it requires leaders of substance and not noise.
The era of insults must end. And it ends the moment we decide that never again will we allow mediocrity to govern us.