President Julius Maada Bio returned back to Sierra Leone to rule the country as a democratically elected head of state. He is however not here to do the work of governing the country. This is the allegation made by a ranking ruling party executive who said the president is more interested in the power inherent in the presidency instead of getting down to the work of governing the country.
The words ruler and governor are synonymous. However, there is a thin line between ruling and governing that is exemplified by how well or otherwise the ruler performs his or her job as the governor.
“From 2018 to present we have seen that the president is truly interested in the idea of ruling as head of state, not in the expectation of running the government as a ruler. From his many travels we can see that the president likes being a ruler with all the pomp, ceremony, pageantry, photo opportunities and rubbing shoulders with other world leaders. The president rarely spends more than a month at a time in the country before he is out and about to far off places with his large entourage visiting other world leaders who don’t reciprocate his visits. President Bio really came back to rule Sierra Leone, not to run the government of Sierra Leone,” said a Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) executive who spoke on conditions of anonymity.
The metamorphosis of retired Brigadier Julius Maada Bio from the “Tormentor” to “PAOPA” was a planned event that has only come to light since Bio assumed the reins of power as head of state in 2018. Nightwatch was informed that when the president left the country after ensuring that Ahmed Tejan Kabbah won the 1996 presidential election, his taste of power as a part of a junta regime was short lived. The SLPP executive averred that the former military leader regretted having to leave power, especially after wasting all the millions of US dollars he allegedly left the country with.
“Bio’s first foray into being head of state was as an autocratic leader who ruled by decrees and orders from above that for the most time bypassed the rule of law. We can see that he came back with that same attitude of a junta leader under a democratic dispensation. He has no respect for the rule of law that he considers inimical to his mission. Dictators rule while leaders govern. You have to understand that the president was young and inexperienced in the 90s. Even in those days after he overthrew Valentine Strasser he ruled the country but played a negligible role in the governance of the state, which work was carried out by technocrats such as Samura Kamara and others. He was just interested in being a leader without doing the work of governing the economy, people and state. Remember he wanted to extend his stay as military head of state by proposing that we have peace before elections, which didn’t work as the reverse happened because it was what the people had wanted,” the SLPP stalwart informed this medium.
The ruling partisan said now, as it was back then, president Bio is caught up in the limelight of power and is ruling for the ability to wield that power. This is the reason he changed his moniker from the “Tormentor” to “PAOPA” while seeking the office of the president before the 2018 elections.
“The name PAOPA as we know is getting something done by force whether people want it or not. Bio was determined to win the 2018 elections even if he had to do so by force. And this is what has happened. We know that the APC can punch holes in both president Bio’s wins as president, with his 2023 win highly doubtful. But since he is only interested in ruling simply for the sake of ruling, he is forging his way to complete his second term despite the manner in which that victory was won. Look at Bio’s governance record since 2018. If he was interested in governing Sierra Leone and making a success of our economy he would have fulfilled his 2018 manifesto promises to the people. Since Bio took over corruption has been given wings to take flight to higher heights. Financial leakages have become floodgates with the Auditor General’s Reports since 2018 showing widespread corruption by people the president hired to help him govern the country. The failures of the Free Quality Education programme and the anticorruption fight say a lot about his interest in making a success of the government of Sierra Leone. How can the president truly convince the people that he came back to make a success of the country when he openly stated that he cannot fix our broken economy?” asked the SLPP strongman.
Any president that cares about how and if his plans and actions are affecting the people would have long stepped down from office upon admitting that he is unable to fix the economy. No western leader worth his salt would stay in power after realising that he or she cannot make a success of the economy. S/he together with her cabinet would have stepped down as a matter of principle. But because Maada Bio just wanted to rule for the sake of having his name on the list of the presidents of Sierra Leone he has held on to power leaving people to speculate that he is only president to enrich himself and his band of technocrats from home and abroad.
“President Bio has succeeded in winning two presidential elections while the economy continues to go from bad to worse in a jiffy. Under his leadership president Bio has tightened the democratic space, ruled over a trigger happy state security setup that is responsible for the deaths of scores of protesting civilians and those held in our correctional facility at Pademba Road, passed bad laws, took actions that are against set procedures and the rule of law, wasted the people’s money on travelling to the tune of millions of US dollars last year alone without the people and economy benefitting from such travels, continues to threaten the peace and security of the state by his stealing the people’s mandate to lead from a manipulated vote count that saw him declared winner of last year’s presidential election that no other country or elections observer groups has declared free, fair and or credible, and so much more. These traits are not indicative of someone that came back to Sierra Leone to run a successful government regime. Maada Bio only returned to get back to power by force and this is what he is still doing. He is president PAOPA, and is tormenting us with his insistence that he won the presidential election freely, fairly and credibly when the voting public and our international partners continue to say otherwise,” stated the SLPP executive.
Leadership and governing are two sides of the same coin. While anyone can be a leader, not everyone will make a good governor. A leader is only interested in the power and prestige that come from ruling while a governor gets his or her hands dirty doing all in their ability to make a success of the government they head. Lonta!