Glancing the photo from a distance, one would see it a hug between Ernest Bai Koroma and President Julius Maada Bio.
But, a deep observation shows something different: only Ernest Koroma hugged while Bio snubbed him.
Ernest Koroma stretches his hands around Bio with his usual broad smiles while Bio, sad-faced, draws back his hands as if he still had a grudge to vent out for the former head of state.
It appears as if Bio is yet to forgo the wrongs of the former President for attempting to collapse his regime in November, 2023.
Ernest made the tight hug after his return from exile to heal old wounds and renew the bond of trust and friendship not only between him and Bio, but among the people of Sierra Leone.
From the photo, one would be correct to observe that it is only Ernest Koroma who is forcing himself on President for a reason that is yet to be told. Despite several criticisms about the renewal of friendship, unity between the former and current Presidents is crucial to the country’s peace, security and stability.
Calls from the public entreats Bio to swallow the bitter pill, and extend the political largesse to the former head of state.
It is clear that no sitting President anywhere in the world would give freedom or clemency to a former head of state who finances a coup against his government.
No exception for President Bio who was going to detain the former President at Pa Demba Road correctional facility if ECOWAS officials had not intervened on time.
Ernest Koroma was accused of sponsoring the 2023 coup to remove President Bio for which he was arrested in his hometown of Makeni and taken to the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) headquarters where he was interviewed and placed under house arrest.
From his house, Koroma was arraigned before a magistrate in Freetown and treason charges read to him, marking the inception of a preliminary investigation that would have lasted for months before committal to high court.
The next appearance, sources said, would have been a different outcome for Ernest Koroma who would not have returned home.
Koroma would have been held in custody at Pa Demba Road prison where he would have spent the rest of his life if found guilty of treason.
The signs of instability and an all-out tribal war prompted ECOWAS to come in and fly the former head of state out of the country and grant him temporal asylum in Nigeria.
Conditions were also imposed on Bio’s government especially taking care of the former President’s property while in exile.
President Bio was also requested by the ECOWAS team to drop all charges against Ernest Koroma, and pay his benefits and other facilities and restore courtesies due a former head of state.
Senior SLPP politicians and grassroot members were annoyed with Bio’s actions for letting the former head of state off the hook.
Their main aim was to see the former President jailed for life or executed for treason as Koroma had been convicted in the court of public opinion.
Many Sierra Leoneans expect Ernest Koroma to stay in Nigeria till death so that the country’s peace and decorum could be maintained. But, the comfort and solace he enjoys home brings him back.
Those who are au fait with the country’s current political trends will have no doubt as Bio makes it clear from the from the start that Ernest Koroma is not a friend. President Bio made the statement during a radio discussion in the middle of his first term.
Many Sierra Leoneans were taken aback by the President’s statement in light of the deteriorating political situation at that time.
APC members and supporters see those in the SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) as enemies, with the country embroiled in high levels of political violence.
It was hoped, at that time, that a declaration of friendship ties by President Bio with the former head of state would have cooled troubled waters.
The enmity between Ernest Koroma and President Bio dates back to 2018 immediately after the declaration of the latter winner of the polls.
Bio, in the immediate period of the announcement by ECSL (Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone), appeared that he was not in control of the situation as thuggery and other forms of political violence rented the air.
President Koroma’s daughter and son-in-law came under armed attack as armed men raided their residence in search of stolen government vehicles.
Sources said that rifles were pointed at Koroma’s daughter and son-in law, asking them to surrender their vehicle which was not a government vehicle.
Ernest Koroma was however alarmed by the thuggery at her daughter’s residence, and same time branded the political transition as a “military takeover.”
The armed men were apparently SLPP thugs who quickly formed vigilante groups, usurping police role, but their raids were sporadic and rudderless without knowing the right targets.
Apart from targeting former ministers, deputies and other political figures, the vigilantes also went after judges and magistrates whose positions do not change with the change of regime.
A high court judge was taken out of his vehicle by the thugs believing that he had to give up his judicial functions owing to the defeat of APC in the 2018 polls. Ambassadors, high commissioners, consuls and other principal representatives were immediately dismissed, ignoring the normal protocols of re-calling them.
Most of them were stranded in countries thousands of miles away from home.
The political situation was tense so much that Bio was sworn in at a quiet place at Raddison Blu formerly Mamie Yoko Hotel instead of State House, the normal venue for a swearing-in ceremony.
As former ministers were being chased, plans were also ongoing within SLPP’s top cream to put in place a Governance Transition Team (GTT) to handle the transfer of power from APC to SLPP.
Overnight, the GTT led by erstwhile Chief Minister, Professor David Francis published a report indicting the Ernest Koroma regime as the most corrupt in the country’s political history.
The report negatively branded the past government as “a criminal racketeering enterprise” which sucked the country’s economy dry.
The mountainous debt and huge sums of money lost to corruption, according to the transition report, led to the formation of a judge-led commission of inquiry to investigate the regime’s financial activities and the governance processes.
The findings against the government were adverse, a situation which resulted into seizures and forfeitures of assets of former government officials including Ernest Koroma.
Koroma was the person of interest at Commission of Inquiry.
The former head of state, for years, also became a key suspect for investigation by the Anti-Corruption Commission. Koroma’s residence in Makeni city was constantly raided by ACC investigators, resulting into a commotion with members of various secret societies in Bombali district.
They came out in solidarity with and protection of the former President, and to stop any move of taking him out from his home town.
To uphold the country’s peace and stability, Koroma quietly reported at the ACC, and statements were obtained from him.
He returned to his hometown only after he was granted bail, and from that day, tension arose between President Bio and the former head of state.
The coup allegation against Ernest Koroma was the last straw that broke the camel’s back as he was taken out of his comfort zone to a strange land. Nostalgia (home sickness) overcomes the former President while in exile since home is home.
Koroma is here in his homeland but faces an uncertain future since Bio is unpredictable and ECOWAS’s intervention is always slow.