By Chernoh Alpha M. Bah (Africanist Press)
Since 1946, Africa has presided over the United Nations Security Council debates and meetings for a total of 141 times. Few days ago, we published the long list of African countries and the dates of their various tenures on the Security Council. The most recent African country to preside over Security Council debates was Mozambique, which completed its one month presidential tenure in May 2024.
This month (August 2024), Sierra Leone is serving its third one month rotational term on the presidency of the Security Council. Sierra Leone first served its initial two-year rotational term on the Security Council in 1970 and 1971. The country assumed its current rotational term in June 2023 for the 2024-2025 terms.
For about a year now, especially, during the past two weeks, Julius Maada Bio and his Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) politicians in Freetown have deceptively misinformed Sierra Leoneans that the country’s second term on the Security Council is “unprecedented and historic”. They even claim the rotational role, a normal ritual of the United Nations process, is the result of Maada Bio’s international travels and success of his lobbying effort.
One of Bio’s apprentices told TV news anchors in Freetown that Sierra Leone’s one-month rotational presidency of the UN Security Council is “a pride for Africa”, an apparent effort to imply that the ritual role has never been performed by an African country.
This deceptive propaganda effort targets Sierra Leone’s largely young and impoverished population, misleading them into believing that Sierra Leone’s rotational tenure demonstrates “global recognition” of Maada Bio’s “exceptional and excellent leadership,” and that the presidency of the UN Security Council is “proof of Sierra Leone’s progress on human development”.
Another amateur member of Bio’s brigade even said the UN Security Council ritual process is part of Maada Bio’s “BIG FIVE delivery achievements”. In fact, Bio himself is planning to travel to New York for one session of the talk show at the UN Headquarters in Manhattan, New York. So much meaningless noise is being made over this habitual UN process that has no real significance to the actual domestic issues affecting Sierra Leone citizens.
It is a noise that aims to stampede the important questions of the day. For instance, will Sierra Leone’s presidency of the UN Security Council address the skyrocketing of commodity prices in the country? Does the Security Council’s programme of work include a debate on the continued collapse of Sierra Leone’s economy, the unbearable and untold hardship forced upon millions of Sierra Leoneans today by increased DFC loans and US corporate takeover of the country’s critical infrastructure? Why do we have an alarming reduction in Sierra Leone’s foreign currency reserves worse than any other time since the 1980s?
These are some of the questions that Bio and his brigade are always dodging.
However, it is now obvious to everyone that Maada Bio’s crisis of legitimacy has not only robbed the SLPP of a real future in Sierra Leone’s politics, but his penchant for recognition in a world that is far ahead of him has accelerated the collapse of Sierra Leone’s economy, and continued the reversal of the country’s fortunes. Unfortunately, this unhealthy situation has flourished in recent years with impunity because of the collaboration, and collective silence, of the majority of our intellectuals and professionals in the country.
That said, I have attached with this message copies of the May 2024 and August 2024 UN Security Council’s programmes of work. The two documents show that the May 2024 agenda of the UN Security Council when Mozambique presided is not different from the August 2024 agenda that Sierra Leone is now superintending.
An examination of both programmes shows that Sierra Leone will not be doing anything at the UN Security Council that other African countries (including Mozambique) haven’t done. The August 2024 meetings are just part of the normal work routine characterising the UN bureaucracy; nothing unusual, and nothing unprecedented.
It is our responsibility as citizens to correct atrocious state propaganda whenever and wherever such propaganda emerges. Citizens of a country are collectively obligated to guard against unhealthy propaganda in the interest of public safety and public morality.
CREDIT: AFRICANIST PRESS