The Presidential Circus Restarts
By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
President Julius Maada Bio has addressed his own Members of Parliament from his own ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), in the Chamber of Parliament at Tower Hill in central Freetown, on the “Occasion of the Opening of the Sixth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone.”
And, in a few days’ time, the SLPP MPs will start their own comic show by debating among themselves the “Presidential Address” delivered to them, in the well of parliament, by their own Leader of their own party. They will be creating an atmosphere that might be likened to a situation in which clowns will be performing in an uninteresting circus with a thin audience.
But elected MPs from, and in, the All People’s Congress (APC) will not be in that circus of a parliamentary debate because they have decided to avoid the House of Parliament “saful”; they will be sitting in their homes “saful”, and will be listening to the sycophantic eulogies from SLPP MPs “saful”. And will, definitely, be giggling “saful” at the circus of real-time comedy in parliament!
The APC, as a party, still believes that the presidency of President Bio has some legitimacy issues as it “…unequivocally rejects the announced results of the [June 24] multi-tier elections in Sierra Leone, given the glaring irregularities and violations of established electoral procedures”. And the APC is still “resolved to reject outrightly the results produced by the ECSL [Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone]” which, by implication, is a rejection of President Bio’s presidency.
Despite those legitimate concerns raised by the APC; President Bio still went ahead, on Thursday 3 August 2023, to deliver a “Presidential Address” which appeared to be iced with half-truths and tongue-in-the-cheek undertones. The contents of that “Address”, themselves, were expectedly expected as snippets of them had already been in the public domain, fueled or fed, by SLPP apparatchiks or apologists.
Now let me take a critical look at President Bio’s 26-page Presidential Address. First and foremost, for our Commander-in-Chief to state that, “…Sierra Leone is a nation markedly better off today than it was five years ago…” could be described as a true lie! Even his Minister of Finance, Sheku Ahmed Fantamadi Bangura, few days ago, told the same parliament during the presentation of the Supplementary Government Budget that the Sierra Leone economy continued to grapple with “…rising inflation, exchange rate depreciation, and higher debt levels”. So, the question is: between President Bio and his Finance Minister who is telling the truth? Who is presenting the true picture of Sierra Leone as it is not from the phantasmagorical lens of fantasy?
But as the saying goes, big men don’t tell lies but they tell tall stories as if their audiences are children; so I will take it that President Bio is simply implying that himself, members of his nuclear family and extended family and the ruling elite are “markedly better off today than [they were] five years ago…” This seems to be true, considering most of their rags-to-riches statuses in just a little over five years!
What is noticeably noticeable in that Presidential Address is what appears to be a fake attempt by our Head of State at being a refined statesman. One also notices that the seemingly political arrogance and impudence with which President Bio used to address the nation, in his previous national broadcasts throughout his first five years in office, is gone. In its place is a sort of forced reconciliatory tone which is very uncharacteristic of him. The uncompromising stance of the APC might have led him to finally see “the need for dialogue and negotiation [that] resonates with utmost urgency”.
But is President Bio actually genuine in his call for “dialogue and negotiation” with the APC? Well, I think for him to show his genuineness the starting point should be a public apology to the APC for referring to its members as “terrorists” in his national broadcast of 8 May 2020. And the SLPP National Chairman, Dr Prince Alex Harding, also must make a public apology for calling members of the APC “mad people” about a fortnight ago. It will put Sierra Leone in a very bad light if its government starts to negotiate with “terrorists”; whilst it will be funnily funny for the rational “true Sierra Leoneans” (courtesy of First Lady Fatima Bio) to sit down and dialogue with “mad people”.
The APC should be alert whenever the Bio-led administration proposes “the need for dialogue and negotiation” because theirs have always been a deception for international publicity. President Bio is simply calling for dialogue and negotiation with the APC because he wants that party to give some amount of legitimacy to his presidency and government. Once that is done, our Head of State will take the pictures and footages of that dialogue meeting, or negotiation meetings, to the annual United Nations General Assembly in September to show the world that Sierra Leone is peaceful and that there is a cordial relationship between the ruling party and the main opposition.
Coming back to the Presidential Address of Thursday 3 August 2023 in the Chamber of Parliament. The only beautiful beauty of it is the acceptance by President Bio that the election which brought him again to political power was fraught with “glaring irregularities and violations of established electoral procedures”. That might be one of the reasons why he has called for the setting up of a National Electoral Systems Review Committee which will be tasked, among other things, to trigger “…an Electoral Systems Review Report that will lay the foundation for critical reforms in the electioneering process with reference to the ECSL and all other EMBs [Election Management Bodies] in Sierra Leone.”
But here again, President Bio has shown his half-heartedness in terms of genuine electoral reforms like all other so-called reforms in his first term. Why should the would-be National Electoral Systems Review Committee be headed by the Vice President who is the deputy leader of the ruling party? Why not being led by an independent citizen who can be acceptable to most—if not all—opposition parties? By handpicking his Vice President to lead a Committee geared towards electoral reforms means that the Committee is bound to fail in its mandate like the Political Parties’ Regulations Commission (PPRC) and the Commission for Peace and National Cohesion which are packed with known SLPP members and sympathizers!
And finally, one of the things I hate to love about that Presidential Address, under review, is where President Bio notes that, “…Any political party’s absence of a two-thirds majority necessitates constant engagement, encouraging us to amplify all voices and engenders a more harmonious, stable, and prosperous Sierra Leone. By fostering collaboration, cooperation, and negotiation, we can transcend political divides for the ultimate benefit of our people….”
Well, it is good that President Bio has finally realised that not only SLPP supporters are the true Sierra Leoneans. It is refreshing that he has accepted the factual fact that with “collaboration, cooperation, and negotiation [with the APC], we can transcend political divides for the ultimate benefit of our people….” And it is uplifting that with the sackings of hawkish hawks like Jacob Jusu Saffa aka JJ Blood, Prof. David Francis, and Patrick K. Muana; President Bio’s future national broadcasts will not be bellicose iced with supremacist undertones!
[email protected]/+232-76-611-986; https://nationalistsl.com
