It is an age-old custom that New Year brings new changes and a change is evident and imminent in Sierra Leone either mid or end of 2024.
For real change to occur, according to many Sierra Leoneans, it must begin from the political class or top cream of society and later cascaded down to the grassroot.
When we talk of change, we mean new attitudes, new applications and new ways of doing things particularly the way we relate to one another within the family, the work and worship places, business centres, the streets, politics and the list continues.
New year, for many, is a reformation period for prosperity owing to several resolutions that come to mind, adopted and put into practice as it is the case with every Sierra Leonean who wishing to tap the goodies and niceties of life.
Written on their faces, it is safe to say that political transition in 2024 is the main change Sierra Leoneans are yearning for making the New Year a unique one for this year.
To ensure that the long-awaited change occurs, a tripartite committee set up recently by the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party, main opposition, All People’s Congress and Development Partners is up and running looking into alleged irregularities of the June 2024 multi-tier elections.
The scale, according to election monitors, was tilted in favour of the incumbent candidate, Julius Maada Bio.
At the moment, going in for a rerun or Bio gives up power is the recommendation which a vast majority of Sierra Leoneans have always wanted to see as they fear for the worst in the near future.
The people hold the fear that government would embark on a wild wolf chase immediately they are recognised and funded by the international community even when they know that a real winner of the elections is yet to be ascertained.
According to local and international observers, Bio was pronounced winner when he did not win the elections and such pronouncement came from the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Kenewui Konneh who, many said, was more PAOPA than President Bio himself.
Konneh heads the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone, a body mandated by law to conduct and supervise all public elections in Sierra Leone.
In the exercise of such legal mandate, Konneh should be controlled by no one, buy many say he chooses to play second fiddle to government authorities to aid Bio’s hold on power.
From the outset, Konneh has been dancing to every tune played by government on to the day of the pronouncement of the election results.
The act has turned him an object of investigation until the truth is reached devoid of any political gimmick as international investigators champion the probe. No matter the dodgy tricks, it is difficult for Konneh to come out clean.
He did not publish the voters’ register let alone genuine results that would have seen Bio out of State House.
As the investigation continues, the people wanted to see strong electoral reform in this 2024 that would prevent a broad daylight thievery of votes in future elections equal in scale to the one perpetrated in June 27.
Most importantly, the people of Sierra Leone and the international community are poised about seeing fresh election this year so that the country can be removed from the socio-political and economic quagmire into which it has been trapped for the past five years.
As it stands, the current government appears not effective as it lacks the will of the majority which should be the basis of governmental authority. The Carter Centre Foundation report re-echoed the lack of legitimacy as it indicates that Bio’s government does not reflect the will of the majority.
Sierra Leone’s constitution, 1991 also contains similar clause in its preamble as it states that “sovereignty belongs to the people of Sierra Leone from whom government, through the constitution, derives its powers, legitimacy and authority.” Such legitimacy can be acquired only through the ballot box in a free and fair manner and nothing else.
Other Previous reports also show that Bio’s government grapples with legitimacy crisis as the international community especially US, UK, UN and EU do not recognise them and hold back their funds to compel government’s compliance with the demands of a credible electoral process in Sierra Leone
However, these changes also cannot occur if we don’t look back at the past, relate it to the present and prepare for the future.
Sierra Leone, without being hyperbolic, has dangerous moments between 2018 and 2021 characterised by breaches, hard times, rule of law challenges, protests and police crackdowns among others resulting into low key Christmas and New Year festivities.
A great many Sierra Leoneans quietly and sadly spend the vacation in their homes with immediate family members seeing no good in venturing the streets.
Masquerades, carols, lanterns and bonfires which use to be hallmarks of Christmas were conspicuously absent as the people think about hand-to-mouth survival and about seeing tomorrow.
During normal Christmas and New Year festivities, upcountry used to host city guys who enjoy the village environment, the comradeship and camaraderie of peers they once stayed and grew up with as well as villagers’ traditional courtesies.
Such friendship, joy and celebration is completely out of the question this time as the security situation does not permit.
Joint police-military checkpoints and roadblocks are countless on the highway and the slightest suspicion could lead to arrest and detention on the site.
Personal effects or Luggages are searched by armed guards for anything of state interest.
Mobile phones are the principal objects of the search, and APC (All People’s Congress) groups and messages of the APC-linked social media ventriloquist, Abdul Will Kamara plunge one at loggerheads with the security forces.
Hundreds remain in police and prison cells having been picked up from homes for alleged legal breaches based on mere finger pointing.Most were not informed of the main reason for their arrest as prescribed by legal procedures.
Homes are constantly broken into and valuables taken away by security operatives who go unquestioned although their actions are overtly ultravires (outside the law).
North-Westerners among whom APC gets the largest support are, most times, on the wrong end and staying put is the only way to keep heads above waters.
No gainsaying that as long as Christmas is dull, there will also be a dull New year owing to recent events that continue to define the lives of many Sierra Leoneans. Everyone has right to fear as they don’t know what when their time of harassment and intimidation is due.
Amid weak economy and threats to livelihoods, armouries were overrun, according to government officials, in late November at Wilberforce and Murray Town military facilities as well as police installations in Calaba Town and Jui communities creating panic and fear.
The fear factor still remains although the invaders have been repelled as no one can tell when they will strike.
The armed attacks were initially seen as mere security breaches but later metamorphosed to an “attempted coup” raising a big cloud of suspicion of government’s crackdown on opposition politicians.
International reports also showed that the coup was one that was stage-managed to lord it on political opponents.
Those arrested have been arraigned after a month in detention, a move that also brewed similar questions about government’s real intention on the coup.
Perhaps, the arrest of former President Ernest Bai Koroma over allegations of involvement in the coup formed one of the most spectacular events of the previous year.
Although Koroma is hailed in several African countries as defender of peace and democracy on the continent, he does not get such honour back home.
To Bio, the former President is a fiend and not a friend, a statement Bio made in a media interview taking many Sierra Leoneans by surprise. Almost every member of the public expects a cosy relationship between the predecessor and his successor for the business of state governance to go on smoothly.
If 2024 goes without such reforms, the current anomalies will still hunt Sierra Leone in 2025 and years to come.