By virtue of law and the principle of vicarious liability, public concerns are blaming President Julius Maada Bio for the seeming transformation of Sierra Leone as a drugs transshipment hub resulting in the widespread sale and use by the country’s youth. This, according to concerned Sierra Leoneans, is having an unprecedented negative impact of that growing demography thus raising additional concerns of a serious challenge to the country’s future and emerging leadership.
Concerned citizens and members of the President’s ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) are of the view that the President as Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces has everything within his Constitutional powers to put a radical stop to this menace, which due to his neglect, has turned into a cancerous embarrassment that has now reached diplomatic proportion.
The upset citizens are of the opinion that the President, who had campaigned to restore discipline and law-abiding ways of life in the country, appears to have reneged from that stance and has left the vehicle of his government without those checks and balances to ensure that discipline and as such his own vehicle is now running at top speed unable to control it. It is his laisser-faire attitude that his compatriots are using to blame for what is happening to Sierra Leone regarding the rampant inflow of prohibited drugs, in this case, cocaine and other hard drugs to an extent that the country’s foreign diplomatic vehicle could be arrested in a neighboring diplomatic jurisdiction transporting an estimated 38kilograms of cocaine and cash to the tune of One Hundred Thousand United States Dollars from Sierra Leone, the country of origin. They maintain that the President should take responsibility for this, nothing more, nothing less.
This arrest has led to a proclamation of “Persona non Grata” on the country’s Ambassador Alimamy Bangura by the Guinean Government and his immediate recall by the Sierra Leone Government for a thorough investigation of the event that has tarnished the country’s diplomatic reputation and has popularized the country’s fragility to the world.
Sierra Leone has been grappling with the widespread abuse of illicit or recreational drugs by its youthful population many of whom are unemployed and destitute. The rise of Kush, Cocaine, Crack-Cocaine (Coco), Heroin (Brown-Brown), Tramadol (TM), Marijuana (Jamba), Ecstasy (e’s), Boiled Diaper (Pamper Water), and other locally manufactured drugs, has left the nation’s largest demography; its youthful population, at the crossroads, with many young people completely struck-out as addicts to these dangerous drugs. The rise in the abuse of illegal drugs by the young people of Sierra Leone has seen admission to the main mental health facility at Kissy reporting a 3,000 per cent rise in admissions for mental health issues relating to drug abuse.
“We will hold President Bio responsible for all that is happening in the country, from the drugs problem to corruption. As head of the Government, he must take responsibility for what happens under his leadership. Our children are being destroyed and our President appears no to feel for us since he is not doing anything tangible to radically put a stop to this menace” an angry Mother decried.
However, with the President carrying the bulk of the blame, what about those he has assigned with the responsibilities to ensure that his Government works in the interest of the people? The police, the National Drugs Agency, the Customs and Excise arm of the National Revenue Authority, the politicians, the political heads and Parliament; what are they all doing? The drugs that are causing the country these catastrophes don’t come into the country by magic. They come either by sea or by air and the containers they are hidden in supposedly go through the necessary established checks and controls. How then that these drugs end up being accessed by our vulnerable youth? If this cap of blame and responsibility must be fitted on any heads outside the Presidency, those in the security sector, the National Drugs Agency, the National Revenue Authority cannot be left out. Our police should not just be masters at pulling triggers at innocent protesters or demonstrators; they must be catchers of criminals involved in acts that undermine the integrity of the state. But what is being muted around is that, senior personnel of the very security sector supposed to protect the lives and properties of citizens are the very one providing security and cover for these drug Barons and their established Cartels across the country. If that is not the case, and the police for instance are true patriots, they will not protect or provide safe havens for such criminals against the interest of national security. Given the ecstatic fanfare of the Government following the breaking news of the Conakry drugs scandal and all that has transpired so far, no one knows who and who have been arrested nor are people been briefed with developments on the investigation. It is hoped and only hoped that this will not be another act of impunity; ‘a buff-case’ where nothing will come out of the investigation.
A civil society head in his expression of concern to Nightwatch recalled that the Sierra Leone Police and Customs officials have been apprehending drugs at our borders, “not once; not twice, actually many, many times and they even sometimes enthusiastically show these arrests on videos on social media” but nobody, not even a fly has been prosecuted and jailed in relation to those shown social media video arrests,” and he went on to express doubt that anything substantial would be heard about this Conakry drug scandal; not even the identity of the second person arrested, he stated.
“However, the worst is this Sierra Leone embassy national embarrassment. Sierra Leoneans have been caught smuggling drugs around the world before, but not our embassy or government of Sierra Leone workers in our foreign missions. There was the case of a suitcase in London with drugs, the Sierra Leonean air passenger who swallowed 59 pellets of cocaine that was arrested at Sri Lanka’s airport reported online on 20th November, 2024, but nothing is as damaging to the country’s reputation and its commitment to fight international drugs smuggling as the affair in Conakry.
No one will ever take the government of Sierra Leone serious when it comes to the matter of drugs. Apart from the country now being a Narco-State, how can the government fight the battle against drug abuse locally when it is obviously involved in smuggling drugs from Sierra Leone to other countries? If the APC regime under Ernest Bai Koroma was a ‘criminal racketeering enterprise’ then this regime under Julius Maada Bio should be described as “a rabidly corrupt and brutal drug dealing cartel,” the civil society man stated.
According to sources in the intelligence sector, the Sierra Leone embassy in Conakry, Guinea is the distribution hub for drugs leaving Sierra Leone for other West African countries and Europe. This was not the case under any president before Bio. We will all remember that under Ernest Bai Koroma a cocaine airplane was intercepted with those complicit charged to court led by key suspect Ahmed Sesay and imprisoned. All this regime has done is to arrest young people with few wraps of Kush or other illicit drugs while the big fish like the embassy staff and the ambassador are routinely let off the hook,” a source at the Office of National Security (ONS) informed this press.
People are of the view that the situation of rampant drug dealing in this era of the SLPP led government has not been a secret in the ruling party regime as no less than the Speaker of the Fifth Parliament, Dr. Chernor Abass Bundu had said that some of his government’s authorities were “closer with these people” (those involved in drug dealing) and the action has to be very robust now and must not leave no one found wanting in the act. The then speaker of the Fifth Parliament furthered that the fight can be won through a joint effort at national, regional, and international levels to deal effectively with the manufacture, distributors, and marketing of these drugs across borders.
“Drugs destroy families and the young people of any society. As head of our government president Bio is responsible for all that have happened regarding the drugs issue. A lot of allegations have been made against this regime with regards the spread of drugs. This regime knows those who make the drugs, who import the materials, who smuggle them and who sells them. All these people pay some amount of money to the authorities to openly operate.
The people who sell the drugs operate a cartel no less than right next to the party government’s headquarters on Wallace Johnson Street in full view of the Central Police division. How can the president not be responsible when he has been quiet when allegations are made against someone in his immediate family of being the leading light in the drug dealing operation? As head of the body or government president Bio is responsible for what has happened in Guinea and in Sierra Leone about drug abuse. He is responsible, even guilty,” concluded our source at the ONS.