Sierra Leone cannot afford for incumbent president Julius Maada Bio to continue in power until 2028; the nation cannot even entertain the president going past 2024 without holding another elections. This is according to Sierra Leonean citizens who paid a courtesy call on Nightwatch newspaper to list their concerns with talks of Bio not running in 2028.
The concerned citizens said Maada Bio continuing on the helm was a threat to national development and peaceful coexistence, adding that he was also damaging the nation’s broken economy which he does not know how to fix or resolve.
“If the president said he could not fix the economy, then his continued role can be viewed as the opposite to spoil the economy. Lately, he had been doing so by insisting that he won the 24th June, 2023 presidential election, the nation’s financial backers that prop up the government of Sierra Leone and our economy said he couldn’t have possibly won.
If Bio continues to insist on winning the international community will have to knuckle down with more sanctions and funding cuts for which the people and the nation suffer. We cannot afford for Bio to continue on at State House up to 2028,” said the head of the delegation of peaceful nationalists that paid a courtesy call on Nightwatch based on the topic of discussion.
Sierra Leoneans from all walks of life also said Bio is not qualified to lead the nation since he stole the people’s mandate going as far as saying that Bio admitted during his first five-year tenure that he was unable to solve the people’s problems.
After the 24th June, 2023 stolen election saga, Bio is yet to be recognised by any of the nation’s financial, moral and other supporters who use their taxpayers’ money to fix the mess the incumbent regime continues to make.
The lack of recognition by the international community of Mr Bio’s claimed electoral victory is also shared by all opposition parties especially the main opposition, All Peoples Congress (APC).
“As a result of the president claiming that he won the presidential elections last year, the APC boycotted Parliament and the councils across the country until an intervention by the international community led to a brokered peace dialogue that produced a communiqué signed by the government of Sierra Leone and the APC. As Sierra Leoneans, we thought it wise that Bio did not rule this country anymore because as at now our economy could not live without our international donors such as the US, EU, UK. These people don’t recognise Bio’s second term administration,” one of the concerned Sierra Leoneans said.
The relevance of the donor community to the peace and economic consolidation of the state could not be overstated when they were involved in the brokered peace deal as the third side of the tripartite electoral fraud investigative committee that also involves the government of Sierra Leone and the APC to investigate the stolen election.
“We cannot run government without the international community as evident in the government of Sierra Leone sackings and funding cuts after the announcement of Julius Maada Bio as the winner of 24th June. Our donor support friends play a major role in the administration of our government with regards budgetary support, project funding, training, etc. Therefore, for Mr Bio to treat the points in the communiqué with less seriousness than they deserve and failing to ensure they are sorted out, he has caused the international community to view him as a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The SLPP government of Sierra Leone has failed to free political prisoners, failed to stop all politically motivated court cases, failure to compensate and return people to their communities after they were chased out by the ruling SLPP supporters, and failed to compensate bereaved families of those killed at the hands of government security forces,” the Sierra Leonean patriots informed Nightwatch.
Instead of working with the peace communiqué on 26th November, 2023 gunshots were heard from Wilberforce that resonated across the city and to the rest of the country and world.
“The President was the first to call the event a security breach in his first speech after the attempted putsch. The head of the army was next to call it a security breach. Later the information minister said it was a coup without qualifying his statement. Interestingly, on the day after 26th November the tripartite committee set up to look into the stolen election was supposed to start its work but was derailed by the events of the previous day,” said another member of the group.
In an interview on AYV television with the United States Ambassador, he categorically stated that all he knew was that he did not consider the 26th November, 2023 incident as a coup.
However, he said all those arrested in relation to the allegation must be dealt with according to Sierra Leonean law, adding that at the end of the day, and regardless of the attempted coup investigation, trial, etc, the elections investigation process must start.
The US Ambassador said he could not fathom any of the opposition parties taking part in planning and executing a coup against the incumbent regime. Despite all this, Mr Bio still went ahead and had President Bai Koroma arrested on treason charges as one of the coup plotters.
EBK was investigated for several days at the CID, held under house arrest, and charged to court for which he made an appearance. After his charges were read EBK was granted bail but still held under house arrest. At the end of the day, EBK was freed after ECOWAS/AU intervened and flown to Nigeria where he had resumed his elections observer or monitoring role for the regional and continental bodies (ECOWAS/AU).
“All said and done we Sierra Leoneans don’t think President Bio is interested in developing the country. He is not into development. He is into intrigues, controversies, divide and rule which are signs of a society where peace or lack thereof is a deficit and where the economy is in shambles.
We want a peaceful atmosphere going forward as things continue to be hard financially. A bag of rice is close to Le1 million, people go to bed hungry every night across the country. With Bio admitting that he cannot fix the economy and with no support coming from the international community because he is insisting that he won the 24th June, 2023 election, we cannot afford for Bio to go past 2024,” Sierra Leoneans said.