By KABS KANU
SLBC has effectively been turned into a state-controlled and state- promoting media by this half-baked, lawless and Undemocratic President , Maada Bio, after all the laudable efforts of Presidents Ahmad Tejan Kabba and Ernest Bai Koroma and stakeholders to make it an independent, non-political media , serving the interests of the people.
But this is the reward for sitting down and allowing Britain to impose on us a man who has no respect for law, constitution , convention and civilized modes. Maada Bio is the most uncivilized President we have ever had in Sierra Leone. He does whatever he wants and his docile, stoic and unpatriotic people let him get away with everything. No wonder, while other countries are advancing , we are deteriorating in everything.
Why should President Bio use SLBC as his private property ? Why does he refuse to allow opposition parties to have the same access to the radio and TV station ? Was the new SLBC not designed to be a national broadcaster catering to the interests of the whole nation when it was formally inaugurated in 2010 through a UN- and multi- stakeholder initiative and merged the then SLBS with the UN Peacekeeping radio service, Radio UNAMSIL? The aim was to establish an independent national public broadcasting service, serving all political parties and every persuasion. In Sierra Leone.
President Ernest Koroma of the now opposition APC used the SLBC for the purpose it was created when he was in power . He allowed the then opposition SLPP , supposedly independent then but now proved to be partisan pro- SLPP civil society groups and other organizations to use SLBC to promote their views and agendas.
But the first thing the uncivilized and Undemocratic President Bio did when he assumed power in 2018 was to dismiss broadcasters and directors belonging to other tribes and stack the place with his own Mende tribesmen and women. From that point, Bio allows only himself and his SLPP officials to use the SLBC. This is wrong and it defeats the purpose of the institution.
The only way we can have peace in Sierra Leone is when we practice political tolerance and allow other political parties , civil society – if it had not been that they too have become partisan SLPP to participate fully in national discourse.
One tribe and one political party rule is a recipe for disaster. But it seems that it was the reason that Bio came to power : to stroke the fires of tribal animosities and provoke a tribal war in Sierra Leone, which we, Christians and even Muslims, are praying will never happen in our country. But President Bio with his one-party and one- tribe rule is slowly pushing our country towards that direction.
May God frustrate President Bio’s wicked plans .
