In recognition of his many travels out of the country since 2018, president Julius Maada Bio has been called an Absentee President, with many civil society activists saying that no president before him has travelled as much yet bringing back so little that continues to negatively impact on government revenue and provision of public services for the people of Sierra Leone.
The issue of the absentee father has long been a problem. All over the world women are the primary parental authorities in most homes, with many of them heading the home. Fathers are in the habit of either totally abandoning their duties to their families or are missing from the home for long periods leaving the running of the home to their womenfolk.
Civil society activists commenting on president Bio’s many and frequent travels out of the country have alleged that since he took over the reins of the presidency in 2018 the president is never in the country for long, adding that he does not spend more than a few months in the country before finding or creating the need to fly out. They said this is the main reason the president seems out of touch with the reality on the ground on how his many plans and actions have affected the people whose conditions he promised to alleviate. The president is out of the country so much he does not know about the condition of the people, the report of whose condition he is being spoon fed hence misled by his appointed ministers and heads of departments and agencies.
The civil society activists say the president’s many travels have not benefitted the state neither have they changed the people’s hardships from bad to good. Instead, the activists said the people’s economic condition continues to worsen by the day.
“The president and his large entourage travel a lot out of the country. He travels so much he is the absentee president. According to Africanist Press the president and his wife cumulatively withdrew over Le74.1 billion as international travel per diem in 2022 alone. The president and his travelling companions have spent over $28 million on foreign travels and rising since he came to power. Yet still we fail to see how helpful such trips have been to the people and state. Our economic condition continues to get worse every passing day. If his travels have not brought anything good to the country, then we can safely assume that he leaves the country so frequently taking something out of the country. So what he is taking out and most importantly why?” asked a civil society activist that commented on the president’s many foreign trips.
The allegation is that the president, who travels on chattered flights, is busy stashing money away in foreign banks in preparation for his life after State House. Civil society activists say the unsubstantiated claim is predicated on the assumption that the Maada Bios have ties to many of the privately owned companies that win government contracts resulting from business agreements with multinational companies.
“It is a common practice in the governments of Sierra Leone during the second and final term of the incumbent regime for there to be large scale pillaging of the national coffer. Imagine a sinking ship full of riches where the captain has long boarded a lifeboat and has abandoned the ship. What did the captain leave with and what would you think his crew members are busy doing on the sinking ship? They are also trying to enrich themselves before the ship finally sinks. When a president is as absent from the scene as president Bio has been then that leaves his government employees to do as they please,” another civil society activist suggested.
The CSO heads said the president purposely travels to countries or places we have established embassies asking what is it that his appointed ministers are not doing for him to travel so much. Meanwhile the president’s many trips according to the activists continue to affect the nation’s foreign reserve. According to research at present our total international reserves sank by 20.62 per cent from 624,496,475 US dollars in 2022 to 495,698,794 US dollars in 2023. Since the 33.66 per cent jump in 2021, international reserves plummeted by 47.60 per cent in 2023. Despite a slight increase in the gross foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank, which now cover 2.7 months of imports compared to 2.3 months recorded in the third quarter of 2023, the reserves still fall short of the required three months of import coverage. In 2023, the gross international reserves saw a decline from 3.3 to 2.8 months of import cover between the first and second quarters.
“Our absentee president’s many trips are wrecking our foreign reserves because whenever he travels he needs US dollars from the Central Bank. But for Sierra Leoneans to really know that the president is busy taking out instead of bringing benefits to the nation he travels to places where we have ambassadors or to where his appointed heads of ministries should be busy travelling to. You should know that he also travels with a large entourage that need per diems for such travels including the president and his wife. To make my point if members of the president’s office are alleged to have travelled out of the country with a cash amount of $157,000 to pay for hotel bill then how much more do they take out of the country that we know nothing about? Remember that presidents and their entourage don’t go through customs and can therefore travel with anything without having to give an account,” a female member of the civil society activists noted.
Based on the Auditor General’s Reports spanning 2018 to 2022 tens of millions of dollars, vehicles and equipment continue to go unaccounted for by members of the president Bio led regime entrusted with such public properties. The activists alleged that a large portion of the monies public workers have misappropriated end up in bank accounts and investment schemes outside of the country.
Meanwhile president Bio has been called the absentee president for his many trips outside the country that civil society activists say have not made any impact on the country and people’s condition. The CSO heads has called on the next government of Sierra Leone to ensure that the spending activities of this current government are brought under scrutiny for them to give a proper account of how they expended the public purse.
“For a president that promised to fight public corruption and plug financial leakages things have turned out really bad under president Bio where mismanagement of public money is concerned. They should be made to give an account no matter who is president after 2028,” the heads of civil society organisations implored. Lonta!