TWO INFLUENTIAL U.S. SENATORS EXPRESS CONCERNS THAT MAADA BIO DICTATORSHIP SHOULD NOT REALLY BE QUALIFYING FOR MCC COMPACT.
As if there is never going to be a let up to the problems of the Maada Bio dictatorship, two influential U.S senators in the Foreign Relations Committee have written a strongly- worded letter to the Millennium Challenge Corporation to protest Bio Government’s continued eligibility for the organization’s U.S $500 million Contract grant—a position that many Sierra Leoneans have also expressed, given the blood- stained character of the government, human rights abuses and the June 24 boldfaced rigging of Sierra Leone’s national elections.
Sierra Leoneans and even this newspaper, COCORIOKO, have been condemning the MCC for a while, blaming the Corporation for giving President.Bio’s government fake grades to enable it to qualify for the Compact. The senators not only insinuated that the MCC was lowering its standards declaring the SLPP Government eligible but warned the Corporation that “Other countries are watching to see how the MCC will respond to well-documented democratic backsliding in Sierra Leone”.
Sierra Leoneans have even wondered whether the Bio government, well noted for bribing international organizations to give the president and his wife and acolytes fake awards had not been bribing the MCC too, because it is a miracle how such a grossly corrupt and bloody government that has been murdering innocent citizens to perpetuate itself in power has been able to qualify for the Compact. Something criminal and sinister must really be going on inside the MCC..
Read below the report in the Foreign Affairs magazine and the letter from the senators.
FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE
PUBLISHED:NOVEMBER 28, 2023
Risch, Coons Express Concern Over Sierra Leone’s Eligibility for MCC CompactWASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Chris Coons (D-Del.), yesterday sent a letter to Millennium Challenge Corporation Chief Executive Officer Alice Albright expressing concerns over Sierra Leone’s continued eligibility for an MCC compact.
“We write to express concern over Sierra Leone’s continued eligibility for a Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compact following the nation’s deeply flawed elections in June 2023,” wrote the senators. “While there may be compelling diplomatic and development reasons for moving forward with an MCC compact, we urge the board of directors to consider whether the benefits of proceeding at this point outweigh the reputational risk.”
“Democracy faces serious challenges in Africa and around the globe. The recent surge in coups and contraction of democratic spaces globally may have narrowed the pool of potential MCC partners, but that does not mean the MCC should lower its standards,” the senators continued. “Now, perhaps more than ever, it is essential that the MCC stay true to its foundational principles.”
“We recognize that a compact of this size and scale may provide a significant point of leverage to incentivize the adoption of political and electoral reforms in Sierra Leone,” the senators concluded. “We urge the MCC’s Board of Directors to keep this in mind as they consider re-selecting, and ultimately signing, a compact with a country that is so clearly backsliding and has not sufficiently taken steps to reverse course.”
Full text of the letter can be found here and below:
