One of the reasons many Sierra Leoneans dislike Mr.Julius Maada Bio is his “Pa-O-Pa”  (” I must be the man at all costs “) politics.  One does not know what makes this power-hungry former soldier tick but he seems to have an irritating niche to always want to be the rooster that crows in the town .He will always  fight to place himself where he does not belong . When he and other soldiers unconstitutionally and criminally terminated the tenure of the All People’s Congress (APC ) Government of the late Major-General Joseph Saidu Momoh in 1992, this power-hungry monster did not rest until he too staged his own counter-coup in 1995 and overthrew the leader of the military council , Captain Valentine Strasser.

LIKE FATHER LIKE SON : LATE BLOODY REBEL LEADER FODAY SANKOH (RIGHT) WAS DEALING IN OUR NATURAL RESOURCES WITH FOREIGN COMPANIES WITHOUT EVEN COMING TO POWER YET AND NOW SLPP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE MAADA BIO (LEFT) WHO CAME TO PROMINENCE AS A RESULT OF FODAY SANKOH HAS STARTED DOING THE SAME.

Shamefully, Maada Bio claimed that he overthrew Strasser because the latter was dragging his feet about returning the country to constitutional civilian rule and wanted to succeed himself.However, as soon as he became Head of State, the violent midget who was expelled from the United States for biting off his wife’s ear and who had taken part in extrajudicial killings in 1992 reversed himself and wanted to keep power for himself. He had to be given a reality kick   by the masses of Sierra Leone who went on the streets to demonstrate against him that he should quit power and hand over to civilians. International stakeholders had to intervene too to force him to cede power. Maada Bio only  left  power after his armed forces supporters  intially fought the masses ( All fully documented and soon to be released ) . That is why it is nonsensical and an injustice against the truth that some people are crediting him with willingly handing over power to civilians.Maada Bio never handed over power willingly. He had to be forced and threatened with action by international stakeholders whose patience was running out.

Come 2011 and though the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP ) had an illustrious list of presidential aspirants, this crude, uncouth and uncivilized midget who expatiated violence on reporters of the AWARENESS TIMES and  had threatened the APC in 2005 that he will overthrow the party if it wins the 2007 elections, emerged and violently and criminally pushed every stops to be chosen as the party’s presidential candidate for 2012–A deed that has set the SLPP asunder and caused many resignations by members.

While Sierra Leoneans were mulling over such brazen effontery and impunity and Maada Bio’s “I- Me- At-All-Costs ” Politics ,  he has gone and done it again. Without even waiting to come to power –Power that he will never gain with his hands covered with the blood of his innocent countrymen and women, by God’s grace–Maada Bio is now acting Presidential and has gone to the Gulf states to wheel and deal in the country’s natural resources. Is Maada Bio, who has not yet been elected  legally and officially as President , not once again stepping out of bounds by  going to Oman to NEGOTIATE with one of that country’s  companies over Sierra Leone’s natural resources ?

The story in the OMAN TRIBUNE   http://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=109459&heading=Oman  makes interesting but alarming reading. It shows Maada Bio’s desperation for power that has put him at odds with his own SLPP  partisans. Why is Maada Bio so power-conscious and power-hungry ? What authority does he have to start negotiating with the world over our natural resources ? Is that the true meaning of his “I-Me-At-All  -Costs” political philosophy ?  And the Al Zaman Group of Companies  of Oman is  so unprofessional and suspect in its activities that it invites Bio, of all people,  to negotiate for our natural resources – a man who does not have the legal powers to do so ? Bio did not go to Oman as a private business man but as a government representative, going by his utterances, which we will show shortly .  Do the leaders of the company think that Sierra Leone is still at war, lacks a central authority and therefore our natural resources should be pillaged at all costs as was done to us by rogue countries and companies  during the war ? Don’t we have a legitimate government in power ? Don’t we have an Investment organization called SLIEPA ? Don’t we have a Ministry of Trade and Industry ?  If the company wants to establish economic ties with Sierra Leone, why not go through these competent  legal authorities ? Why go through an opposition presidential candidate who might not even win the elections ? Why bypass lawful and constitutional authority ?

The Oman newspaper said : “He ( Bio )  is visiting Oman on the invitation of the Al Zaman Group of Companies and is accompanied by Abu Bakarr Karim, Africa representative of Vedico Agriculture Group and Ibrahim Patel, UK manager of Al Zaman investments. ” By not going through the lawful authorities to engage in such transactions, question marks should be placed on the legality and professional credibilty of this company and all its representatives mentioned above. We hope it is not a rogue company that wants to start pilloring our natural resources.

The Government of Sierra Leone must act speedily to put the brakes on Maada Bio.While he is free to go out to other countries to campaign , he cannot start mortgaging our natural resources to rogue companies that bypass legal authority  in return for petro dollars to finance his presidential bid. It is criminal and an insult to the intelligence of our people. The whole thing smells fishy and should be fully investigated by the Government. The Government has investment policies in place and procedures to be followed by foreign companies who want to invest in the country. For any company to bypass these policies and procedures and start dealing with an opposition leader who has not come to power yet casts a slur on the moral credibility of those involved in the transactions.

It is even suspicious when the paper goes on to say  : “He ( Bio ) said very few Gulf countries have commercial and trade ties with Sierra Leone. He said Iran was the only country which holds an annual trade fair. ‘At this point of time, Oman and Sierra Leone do not have diplomatic relationship. We are in discussions to have representation in each other’s capitals,’ he said. Who is the “We” ? Is Bio talking on behalf of the Government of Sierra Leone when he is not a member ? Is this not impersonation ? The whole saga reminds one of the former Sierra Leone and Liberian rebel leaders Foday Sankoh and Charles Taylor who started negotiating privately with rogue foreign companies for their countries’ natural resources without coming to power yet. Maada Bio is a prototype of Foday Sankoh and Charles Taylor—A shameless usurper and power-hungry economic vandal who cannot even wait for his time, if he has one.

The second cause of concern in this matter is that Maada Bio has a criminal record and he cannot be trusted with our natural resources.He engaged in racketeering with our passports and helicopter parts while he was military junta leader. It is not as if the people mentioned above did not know this. For them to have such interest in our country, they must have been reading our newspapers .Or is Maada Bio reopening ties with rogue companies with whom he engaged in racketeering while he was junta leader ? If the answer is no and the Al Zaman Company is innocent, somebody needs to write the OMAN TRIBUNE to forewarn the Al Zaman Company that they are dealing with a racketeer with a criminal record . May be, they do not know this and need to be forewarned to protect the country’s international image.

COUNT THIS AS THE APPETIZER.