In the intensifying SLPP race to succeed President Bio, Hon. Dr. Sidi Mohamed Tunis’s continuous financial moves are raising alarms. Just few weeks ago, he’s poured 2 Billion Old Leones into SLPP party executives, then, spent another whopping 400 Million Old Leones on the Western Urban District Executives, all in the space of one week. Before these, he had earlier donated a mouth-watering sum of USD 40,000 to the SLPP North American branch.
These cash-splashing sprees are not isolated incidents. They are deliberate and calculated moves to capture the hearts and minds of SLPP supporters and also a manifestation of wealth to prove his determination to succeed President Julius Maada Bio come 2028.
All of these are unfolding amid Sierra Leone’s economic strangulation and widespread hardship among citizens, with over 60% barely scraping for a daily less than USD 2 to feed their families. This unchecked cash-splashing by Hon. Sidi Mohamed Tunis has raised eyebrows and the question: Where is all this ‘Sidi 4 Salone’ money coming from?
Tunis’s sudden hand of giving now extends well beyond SLPP circles; painting a picture of a generous giver whose resources seems boundless. Through his One Love Salone Foundation, co-managed with his wife, Nabeela Tunis, he has also committed a -whooping 10 Billion Old Leones (about USD 500,000) over five years as scholarships for indigent students, targeting fields like medicine and law to bolster Sierra Leone’s professional pipeline.
Just last November, he donated 200 Million Old Leones to launch IPAM’s Center of Excellence in Entrepreneurship and Innovation, equipping students with mentorship and tools for economic impact. In late October 2024, he stepped in with tuition grants for 30 students at the University of Makeni and Ernest Bai Koroma University respectively; directly addressing fee hikes that threatened access to higher education. As if that is not enough, in April 2025, he sponsored the Hon. Sidi Mohamed Tunis Inter-Departmental Debate Championship at Fourah Bay College, awarding USD 2,000 to winners and fostering youth discourse on national development.
Arguments can indeed be made in commendation of his philanthropy, but when such philanthropy spikes alongside political maneuvering, it blurs the line between altruism and influence peddling.
The mathematics does not add up without scrutiny. These SLPP infusions alone, totaling over 2.4 Billion Leones plus another USD 40,000 scattered abroad, dwarfs a typical Sierra Leone Member of Parliament salary or even a member of the ECOWAS Parliament and Speaker of the ECOWAS parliament. In a nation where 2 Billion Leones can bankroll rural clinics or slum infrastructure, dropping it on party elites feels tone-deaf at best and manipulative at worst.
This is not an abstract: Sierra Leone’s Anti-graft body the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has flagged “electoral philanthropy” as a democratic toxin, where cash sways primaries and sidelines merit. Tunis’s timing, syncing with succession buzz, fits this mold precisely; especially given his international footprint, like North American ties that could hint at undeclared foreign streams.
History amplifies the red flags. The 2019 Technical Audit Report nailed Tunis for mismanaging over 2 Billion Leones in Pujehun constituency funds, including 700 Million Leones for a phantom Zimmi library that never fully materialized. There have been no charges, no refunds, and just lingering distrust and as the whirlwind of allegations spin, came the 2021 SLFA scandal, where 8.8 Billion Leones evaporated from the Finance Ministry amid graft probes.
Patterns like these are not coincidences; they’re warnings of a system where public servants treat state resources as their personal slush funds. Is Tunis’s current spree self-financed from legitimate ventures? Or are we seeing echoes of laundered assets, proxies, or offshore flows masked as generosity? Without disclosure, every donation from IPAM’s center to SLPP’s coffers casts a shadow.
That’s where the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) must step up as mandated by the 2012 Anti-Money Laundering Act to flag transactions over 50 Million Leones, the FIU has the tools: trace wires, audit ledgers, freeze assets. They’ve busted diamond smuggling and fake charities before, why the crickets now? Are we witnessing yet another political favoritism in the SLPP fold? Is it a disguised fear of distracting Bio’s “New Direction” before 2028? Inaction in this circumstance is not neutrality; it’s enabling.
A full FIU probe, just to cross-check these gifts against Tunis’s asset declarations, past audits, and global ties is non-negotiable. Demand bank records for the 2.4 Billion Leones and the USD 40,000 transfer; verify against his Foundation’s books.
Hon. Tunis, prove the skeptics wrong: Release audited sources for every Leone and Dollar you are giving out. SLPP’s top brass must enforce the party’s conduct code to ensure they uncap undeclared donations or it risks auctioning the flagbearer ticket. President Bio should champion transparency as he did with free education. Sierra Leone cannot be built on suspicion; people want facts.
The FIU should investigate Tunis now or cede ground to the courts.
To be Continue…
