By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
No doubt, Sierra Leone now appears to be a nation of sheep with the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) figuratively taking majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans to the abattoir like sheep being led to the slaughter. And like sheep; they are silent before their shearers as they are constantly being bitten by soulless economic hardship, chronic corruption, and with what now appears to be the narco-nization of Sierra Leone.
If not being sheepish-nized (another One Dropian coinage), how could majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans play dumb to the point of inertia in the face of the current Christmas Tree-like (or the non-provision of) electricity supply in the country? How could they refuse to raise their fingers in obscene gestures of defiance to the mass unemployment and shamefully shameful healthcare facilities nationwide? How could they pretend not to see the countless instances of “unexplained wealth” among the ruling elite? And how could ordinary Sierra Leoneans keep their cool in the face of the seemingly narco-nization of their country?
And while the SLPP government of President Julius Maada Bio is reneging on settling school fee subsidies for junior secondary and primary schools nationwide; the SLPP is insultingly building and opening state-of-the-art party offices all over the country (According to the Regional Secretary of the Sierra Leone Teachers’ Union, Foday Kuyateh, the only time the SLPP government constantly paid school fee subsidies on time was in 2018 when the Free Quality Education initiative was launched.). While the SLPP government is busy furnishing those newly opened party offices with the modernity of modern modernization; most classrooms in government schools are in dire need of manageable furniture and learning materials. And while the Connaught Hospital and the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH) in Freetown, and other hospitals in the Districts, are stinking with willful neglect; the SLPP government is more concerned about the immaculateness of its party offices nationwide.
What President Bio and his SLPP are subtly telling the “sheep” of Sierra Leone, by those actions, is that partisan interest is more important than national interest. For when one juxtaposes the insulting neatness of those newly opened SLPP offices with the states of disrepair of government hospitals and schools countrywide; one will realise that the concept of SLPP-ness has now superseded that of Sierra Leonean-ness.
And in the midst of all those insulting insults, it is now clearly clear as clear could be clearer in its clearness that Sierra Leone appears to have been narco-nized as cocaine, “Kush”, and “Tramadol” are now appearing in the same sentence each time Sierra Leone is mentioned in international news. This issue seems to be of utmost importance to the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Hon. Abdul Kargbo, who in an “Open Letter to President Julius Maada Bio”, dated 10 May 2026, shows concern “regarding the alarming and repeated international reports linking Sierra Leone, Sierra Leoneans, our territorial waters, our ports, our borders and persons associated with our country to international narcotics trafficking and organized criminal networks”. He is even upset at the SLPP Government’s “continued silence, limited public disclosures, and apparent reluctance to aggressively confront these allegations.”
I tend to concur with Hon. Abdul Kargbo’s concern that the SLPP Government’s “continued silence, limited public disclosures, and apparent reluctance to aggressively confront these allegations” are causing reputational damage to Sierra Leone’s chequered reputation. If it is being claimed that Europe’s most wanted convicted drug lord, Jos Leijdekkers also known as “Bolle Jos”, allegedly impregnated and married a Sierra Leonean lady; then instead of the Office of National Security (ONS) issuing a bland statement about an investigation concerning international “cocaine news” about Sierra Leone, they should just track down the lady’s father to whom Leijdekkers “answer belle” and “put kola” to!
My last statement, above, is very important because as Chinua Achebe notes in his novel, “Anthills Of The Savannah”, to get at the root of a murder (in a village setting) committed by using a machete; one must first look for the blacksmith who made the machete. If the SLPP government is really serious about tracking down Jos Leijdekkers in Sierra Leone, they should start looking for those who attended his child’s “pull nar doe” or the “god mammy en god daddy” of his alleged matrimonial union to that Sierra Leonean lady.
But as Hon. Abdul Kargbo note, in his 10 May 2026 “Open Letter to President Julius Maada Bio”, the SLPP Government’s “apparent reluctance to aggressively confront these allegations” is what is giving credence to those allegations that Sierra Leone is slowly being transformed into a narco-state where international fugitive drug lords could find sanctuary. So, in my opinionated opinion, the ONS and other security apparatuses know where to look if they intend to find what they are looking for. But they appear to be willfully looking for horses in places where they know they will only find goats and sheep.
And the laughable thing about this whole international “cocaine news” about Sierra Leone is the seemingly fruitless overseas travels by President Bio to “rebrand” the country. This reminds me of the Abraham Lincoln’s fabled man who murders both parents, and then, when sentence is about to be pronounced, pleads for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan. Charity, I believe, should start from the frontage of one’s home. It is laughably tragic for a leader to say he wants to “rebrand” his country when his own government appears to be inflicting reputational damage to the very country he is attempting to rebrand overseas.
But as the SLPP government and its supporters appear to believe that Sierra Leone is a nation of sheep; they don’t seem to give a hoot if majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans are starving to death as long as they and their families are living opulent lives. They appear not to care about the Christmas Tree-like (or the non-provision of) electricity supply in the country as long as they have running generators and solar panels in their homes. And the SLPP government and its supporters appear to believe that they could get away with murder even if majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans are crying blue murder.
As things now stand in Sierra Leone, we are only surviving the un-survivable simply because we have accepted the unacceptable. We smile in most instances where a little frown would have shown our displeasures. We pretend to be happy when deep inside us we are hurting badly. And we are only surviving the un-survivable because we have allowed the ruling elite to insultingly and arrogantly refer to us as “resilient people.”
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