In their tell all or revealing song “Superman”, the four members of the hip hop group Kenema Boys promised the people of the Eastern Region and indeed all of Sierra Leone that “Freedom is coming one day.”
Since the emergence of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) led government headed by President Julius Maada Bio a lot has happened that have left the people to feel as if they are in prison, as no one is allowed to speak out or protest against how the plans and actions of the government are affecting their lives.
But the Boys from Kenema, which is party of the ruling party heartland or political stronghold of the Southeast Region, have promised the rest of the country that, “We dae wait for de day way we go pull una komot o yah; five year nor to forever; freedom is coming one day…”
The people of Sierra Leone can no longer keep quiet with the disastrous six years they have experienced under the Julius Maada Bio led SLPP government. Coming from the party’s stronghold this promise is significant as the call is coming from the people whom say although they are SLPP supporters their party’s leaders are greedy and working in their own interests.
For six years, the political, social, and economic spaces have been tightened by the president who is aided by the members of the security sector who are known for openly saying they support the president and party of the day, which disclosure is against their mandate to serve and protect the lives and properties of the citizenry irrespective of all affiliations and allegiances.
On the political front the people of Sierra Leone have been squeezed out of taking party in the running of the state by the plans and actions of the Bio led government. The president showed his political intolerance when orders were given to his police and other security sector workers to open fire, shoot and kill protesting civilians at Lunsar, Koidu, Mile 98, Tonko Limba, Makeni, Pademba Road Prison, and on 10th August, 2022, and 11th September, 2023, where scores of citizens and some police officers lost their lives without anyone brought forward to face the court of law for such wanton disregard of the freedom of speech, association and protest including the lives of the citizens that were cut down and those still in jail and prison cells from these scenes of protest actions.
In a move to announce his political intolerance and lack of concern for national unity, peace and cohesion, no sooner had he won the 2018 presidential election amid complaints from the opposition, the president allowed for the setting up of a governance transition team that put out a report that termed all members of the previous regime under President Ernest Bai Koroma as part of a “criminal racketeering enterprise” that fleeced the state. This was the basis for the establishment of the commissions of inquiry that were established without regard to due process and procedure. The COIs resulted to a white paper with the names of many members of the previous government, many of whom were brought before the courts of law, their properties seized, and made to repair huge sums of money to the government. The result of this white paper is to cower the main opposition into keeping quiet in fear of being called up for prosecution for corruption and other related charges. The plan has worked well for the SLPP regime as no one from the main opposition APC has been able to speak out against the regime’s excesses. The Auditor General and her deputy including members of other political parties and media owners have been sacked and held at police cells for pointing out the leadership foibles of the present government of Sierra Leone.
Also members of the APC that had won parliamentary elections were removed from their position by the government using the courts instead of the constitutional provision of a bye election. The result of this bastardisation of the constitution was the imposition of the Speaker of the Fifth Parliament for a government that failed to win a majority despite winning the presidency.
The assault on the constitutional due process continued with the declared State of Emergency during the Covid19 period without submission of the procedures during which members of the opposition and citizens were brutalised by state security and government operatives.
The tightening of the political space continued with the passing of laws that were aimed at keeping the party government and the incumbent in power not limited to the Cyber Crime Law and changing of the electoral laws, from the constituency to the proportional representation system during which there are delineated constituencies, all aimed at the incumbent party and president to win a majority in the House of Parliament.
In continuation of the tightening of the political space, the Bio led government cancelled all public celebration of special days and events that act as means of assuaging the hardships and difficulties the people continue to face under a regime that promised much but has been failing to deliver. The rationale given for banning the celebration of Paddle, Lantern, even the nation’s Independence Day, is for them not to be used by disgruntled elements in the country to stage an unseating of the government.
But the most glaring failure of the Maada Bio led government that has led for the Kenema Boys to release such a damning single “Superman” is the widespread hardship that has gripped the nation. Since taking over the prices of goods and services that were left at manageable rates before power was handed over to president Bio, not limited to the cost of social services, have all gone up, some at six times their costs in 2018.
Things are so hard for the people of Sierra Leone from all the tribes, regions and parties that Kenema Boys stated that “Tranga-ness nor dae ever lef” and that many people in Kenema are finding it so hard that they have resorted to eating palm nuts (banga) to assuage their plights. The prices for a bag of rice, locally produced goods such as pepper, farina (gari), wood coal, bread, onion, tomato, the exchange rate with the US dollar, have all risen so high that four out of five homes across the country go to bed hungry every night. The country’s economic activity is at a standstill as inflation runs amok while the government largely depends on grants and pledges from the international community to function. Things have gotten so bad for the broke government that is more corrupt than any government before that taxes are raised during every appropriation time for which people are failing to see improvements in the delivery of public services and infrastructural development.
All promises the government headed by Maada Bio have failed to materialise with many of those entrusted to see them through not being able to account for how they spent monies entrusted to them for their implementation: the free quality education, the anticorruption fight, and all the agricultural and road construction projects have failed to show any appreciable result for all the money and time spent in their drafting and promotion.
The citizens of Sierra Leone that have been cowered into keeping silence have been rescued or redeemed by members of the president’s own party who say they can no longer keep quiet while they see the massive poverty that members of their party and region continue to suffer under the leadership of the party of their fathers.