Sierra Leone’s security situation is under constant threat after November 26, 2023 attacks on police and military facilities for which President Julius Maada Bio is worried and jittery.
The effect of November 26, 2023 is still hunting the country as business and commercial activities is currently at an all-time low key. Everyone fears for their safety. The streets of Freetown known for congestion even at 10pm owing to the hustling and bustling during normal times become desolate and quiet as the people fear what might come their way.
The seat of power is also frightened as their intelligence networks are yet to locate the armed assailants. Unidentified gun men, according to official sources, broke into the armouries and made away with large cache of arms and ammunition, a move that brought the country to a standstill as the country’s safety hangs on the balance.
No one knows where the assailants are at the moment and what is in their minds also remains unknown.
Trying remnants of the renegades is not enough as those who have melted into the jungles must be found and stopped before they strike.
The situation President Bio is going through is reminiscent of President Ahmed Tejan Kabba who was toppled in May, 1997 by a group of renegades in the Sierra Leone Army.
While few were captured, tried and executed after the restoration of President Kabba in 1998, the renegades hit back from the jungle in 1999 causing the heaviest atrocities in the nation’s capital, Freetown.
Those in the jungle grew in military strength so much that it was difficult for a local force to remove them not until the British SAS (Special Air Service) invaded them in 2000 and ended the ‘West Side Boys’ phenomenon.
Throughout the period before the British invasion, armed raids and banditry were frequently carried out on the Freetown-Masiaka highway.
The attacks seriously disturbed trade and commerce between Freetown and the provinces thus heightening the rate of poverty and suffering in the country. President Bio is also currently threatened by his people in the South-East who are not happy with the release of former President Ernest Bai Koroma to seek medical treatment in Nigeria.
The former President was said to have played significant role in the “attempted coup” against President Bio and that public opinion among most of the South-Easterners held that Koroma was already guilty and must be either jailed or killed.
But, South-Easterners were taken aback after they saw the former President disembarking from a Presidential jet in the main Nigerian International Airport.
Bio’s people saw the release as a great betrayal and that Bio is in connivance with the former President. Hundreds of SLPP members in the diaspora constantly threatened to wage war against President Bio who they accused of endangering the Mende tribe.
A popular blogger, Kutubu Koroma is among those threatening Bio to bring back Ernest Koroma or faces the wrath of South-Easterners.
Other SLPP diasporans even admonished guards securing the President to move away from him fearing a reprisal by former President Koroma who they said would never forgive Bio.
Back home, Bio faces similar threats by his comrades in the SLPP who accuse Bio of a sell-out, but it remains unclear whether Bio has travelled to the South-East regions to calm down his people.
President Bio also fears people in the North-West regions which are key APC strongholds, and also where most of the killings by security forces have taken place.
A Few hundreds have crumbled under the barrel of the gun in places such as Tombo, Lunsar, Makeni, Waterloo and Freetown during protests against high cost of living and election irregularities.
It is also in the APC strongholds that the security forces have carried out most of the illegal and indiscriminate arrest and detention Sierra Leone has seen over the years with none held accountable for human rights abuses.
President Bio has a genuine cause to fear North-West regions as he created the conditions for conflict and insecurity the day he was sworn into office.
Instead of uniting the country, President Bio resorted to strengthening political divisions in the country through his double-standard administration: one for the South-East and one for the North-West regions.
After taking over presidential power from Ernest Koroma, Bio cancelled most of the development projects in the North-West after they had been approved by the former President with Mamamah Airport project being the most notable.
The Airport project was meant to boost the toll gate system by an enhancing government revenue, reducing congestion in Freetown and easing the landing of aircrafts into Sierra Leone from other countries.
The Bio regime was not happy with the project since it would improve the North-West regions leaving South-East behind. The Bio regime would not like to see such situation.
Instead of the construction of the ultra-modern Airport, the site amounting to about 1, 500 acres was entrusted to an agricultural company to create economic zones for the transformation of raw agricultural produce into finished goods.
It was a good project for national development, but government again undermined the entire investment after it failed to comply with major portions of the agreement.
It was also reported that government had wanted to transfer the project to Bio’s home district, Bonthe or any other part in the South-East regions when the project was meant only for Mamamah village.
Bio’s government also ended a big agricultural project that would have transformed lives in Makeni city, home of the former President. The project was also a loan secured from an Israeli Bank by ISA (Integrated Solutions For Africa) investor, Rapheal Israel.
The project would have created thousands of jobs for the jobless men and women in Sierra Leone and also helped farmers improve on their agricultural productivity.
An investigation carried out by Nightwatch press also discovered that the investor’s refusal to take the project to Njala in Moyamba district led to the cancellation of the project.
The investor, Raphael Israel made effort to convince the government about the contribution of the project to national development, but ended in failure. He went back to England and that was the end of the project. Even the Saturday National Cleaning Day was stopped in Freetown and other parts of the country.
Such political decisions made it difficult for Bio to make headway in his state governance project.
By his divide-and-rule policy, did not lend a leaf from Ernest Koroma’s example who implemented all projects approved by President Ahmed Tejan Kabba.
Most of the road projects implemented in the South-East regions, strongholds of the ruling party were laid down by the Kabba government. Koroma implemented almost all those projects including those he initiated as he did not believe in political divisions.
He sees all Sierra Leoneans as the same people sharing a common destiny. Amid moves to ensure peace in Sierra Leone, Bio still continued the divisions in light of the policies he initiated and implemented.
The recent restrictions government imposed on the use of the main road in Freetown following the importation of the 50 buses were also discriminatory.
Many say he would never enforce such rules either in Kenema or Bo city without meeting robust resistance from his people. President Bio also shows discriminatory style of leadership for respecting the rights of the people of South-East regions during protests and come down heavily on those of the North-west regions.
During Protests in Kenema and Bo cities, no protester loses their lives while it is a different case for the North-West. Suffice it to day that Bio’s divisive politics with its attendant problems makes him jittery now and in the future.