By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
Had it been written on a wall; the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) would have brought down that wall with propagandistic arrogance. Had it been written on a blackboard or whiteboard; the ‘Paopagandists’ would have used a greenish duster to clean it off with a typical Paopa-ian relish.
But since it seems to have been written on the sky; the SLPP Squealers appear to be hopelessly hopeless in erasing it. That the current SLPP government could go, would go, and should go in 2028 through the ballot box is no longer an issue. That issue appears to have been settled and sealed by the untold suffering of majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans who have seen the “land that we love” being gradually blacklisted internationally because of it being allegedly used as a conduit for the trafficking of cocaine and other hard drugs.
Now, most of the times whenever Sierra Leone is mentioned in international news, it is either prefixed or suffixed by a cocaine-related narrative. Yet, the SLPP government of President Julius Maada Bio has been spending huge chunks of taxpayers’ money claiming to be using them to “rebrand” Sierra Leone abroad. International public relations firms are reportedly being hired by the Bio-led administration to whitewash its horrid horrible human rights record at home. And international awards are said to have been bought and paid-up public lectures and other so-called intellectual engagements at prominent universities abroad are being organized—all in the name of rebranding a country whose reputation seems to have been tarnished by the very government trying to rebrand it!
Yet, it seems that the only people who have been benefitting from the “rebranding” processes are members of the First Family. Unconfirmed reports claimed that while majority of ordinary Sierra Leoneans cannot afford one un-squared meal daily and are sleeping rough in houses that are no better off than pigsties; our revered First Lady Fatima Bio is said to have acquired several property in prime areas in her native country, The Gambia. Despite she is living in clover at the presidential State Lodge in Freetown; she is said to have stubbornly held on to a Council flat at Southwark, in London, until the issue became an international embarrassment to the embarrassment of embarrassed decent and right-thinking Sierra Leoneans.
And the SLPP government’s “rebranding” processes have also been of massive benefit to the Bio Family outside State Lodge. Some of President Bio’s nephews and nieces have plump jobs in parastatals, diplomatic missions, and even in cabinet. And they even have one uncouth Bio who, because of new money (hope you get the English idiom here?), is now a sort of social media clown that brags about her newfound wealth with insulting rudeness! Again, my Krio relatives have a way of putting it succinctly: “Nar moni misroad so”.
When it comes to the issue of “unexplained wealth”, in relation to the Bio Family and all those associated with them, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) appears to have expunged that phrase from its playbook! Despite President Bio has been travelling all over the world preaching about how tough his government has been in dueling corruption; grand corruption has eaten (and still eating) Sierra Leone’s body like a cancerous cancer that has fortified itself against morphine! The ACC now appears to be a painted lion that only frightens those who are not connected to the Paopa-ian comedy while the anti-graft czar, Francis Ben Kaifala, seems to be playing the gatekeeper at the Paopa-ian circus!
Sierra Leone is currently in a fine mess not only because the SLPP government’s “rebranding” processes have been tainted with scandalized cocaine-related scandals, but because President Bio appears not to be in total control of his home and government. He seems unable to control some members of both his nuclear and extended family. He appears unable to control some of his misbehaving cabinet ministers. And he seems hopelessly hopeless in the face of the flippancies of some SLPP National Executive members (You can interpolate Jimmy Batilo Songa and Moses Mambu here.). The only thing our Commander-in-Chief seems to be in total control of is what portion of the national revenue must be set aside for his seemingly pointless and unfruitful overseas travels (in my opinionated opinion)!
And after President Bio has travelled (and still travelling) the world over to “rebrand” Sierra Leone as a decent and safe country where investors would be safely safe to do business; some of the fruits of such “rebranding” processes are that the country is now alleged to be on the verge of being a full blown narco-state where some Italian investors can be allegedly duped and robbed in gangland style while Lady Justice is blindingly blindfolded in Paopa-ian characteristic-ness!
But all of these scandalized scandals are not lost on Sierra Leone’s Development and Donor Partners who are now yanking the financial rugs from under the SLPP’s feet or switching off the life-support machines. And the International Community seems to be covertly, and in some cases overtly, using proxies to tighten the financial noose around the SLPP government’s neck. Even the friends of SLPP’s friends now appear to be in courtship with the friends of SLPP’s supposed “enemies”.
So, those who think that the SLPP will still stroll around the corridors of power after 2028 are either foolhardy optimistic fools or are living in a phantasmagorical world. All the signs that the SLPP government could go, would go, and should go in 2028 through the ballot box are as clear as a midday sun. It’s just a matter of constitutionality waiting its course to course its full course.
At times, in my quiet mischievous moments, I grudgingly concur to the hypothesis that a country deserves the government it chooses. Whenever I try to take stock of the countless political incorrectness now taking place in Sierra Leone, coupled with the never-ending scandalized scandals about Sierra Leone or any member of our First Family making headlines in and on international media; I always feel ashamed that my country could be portrayed in such a shameful manner after all the international “rebranding” efforts undertaken by President Bio.
But again, it is only insane people that will expect much in a situation where a group of starved foxes are tasked with safeguarding the chickens’ coop! In 2018 and 2023, when Sierra Leoneans had the chance to choose between political decency and messiness; most of them chose the latter. When they had the chance to choose between political sanity and madness; they chose the latter. And when they were chanced to choose between common sense and willful stupidity; they tossed common sense out of their windows! So, if I should be a little bit cliché-ish here, it is a case of “garbage in; garbage out”!
medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986