FOCUS ON SIERRA LEONE: 29 November 2021
FOR ONCE. I AM DEFENDING FATIMA BIO, THE WIFE Of PRESIDENT BIO.
I have no interest in the fighting going on between the paopa SLPP camps because violence, thuggery, intimidation and cheating are in their culture and part of their modus operandi to achieving their political objectives.
They’re not the kind of behaviours some of us who grew up in the Conservative discipline of a one nation SLPP would tolerate or associate with.
It must be noted that never in the history of SLPP internal party elections from Sir Milton, Sir Albert and Tejan Kabba have violence, thuggery, intimidation and mammy cuss, become part and percel of electioneering process.
Three young men have been killed in the SLPP and all under the paopas.
And no one will be held accountable for their killings.
Since 2010 when Julius Bio started his campaign to take the leadership of SLPP, internal party elections have become like a battle field. Several dozens of their party supporters have been wounded , some serious enough to have received hospital treatment.
These monsters, who had forcefully, through acts of violence, subterfuge and thuggery took over the leadership of Sir Milton’s party and labelled themselves as paopas. Many are product of the worst decades in Sierra Leone, — president Siaka Stevens one party dictatorship and NPRC junta regime led by JuliusBio himself. They were neither socialised in SLPP Conservative ideology and values or groomed in it.
So what is left of Sir Milton’s one nation SLPP party are desperately violent and indiscipline men and women who have no regards for constitutionality, due process and democratic norms.
The All people’s party Congress, APC, were historically notorious for violence but they were known to take violence to opponent political party and not among themselves in their intraparty elections on a menacing and murderous scale exhibited by the paopa SLPP.
I have seen and listened to a video in which paopa SLPP women chanted: na marriade you marriade oo, you nor to the leader “
What this means is that Fatima Bio appears to them as the leader, some have described it as a co- president to her husband, president Bio, who is the elected president.
But the mere talking about Fatima Bio being the leader suggests the absence of leadership from president Bio himself being the elected president.
President Bio was standing next to his wife Fatima, when she called for rapist to be striped naked and lynched.
The president, being the fountain of justice, didn’t reprimand his wife,for what was deeply an embarrassing moment for him personally, for his government and the country, when the wife of the president called for mob justice.
Had I been the president,this is what I would have done. Take the microphone from her and say to her: my dear, our country is govern by law, and that law states that anyone who is accused of commiting a crime will remain innocent until charged ,prosecuted and proven guilty by a competent court of law. I would not condon mob justice in our country as either the president or when I become a private citizen, because mob justice is not how our laws operates. At this point Fatima would have known who is the president and who is in charge.
The wife of the president doesn’t take decisions or make policies on how a country is govern.
But after that embarrassing statement, there were other uttrances and behaviours from the first lady that I would have found them personally offensive and vile.
Fatima made a video in which she rants about cutting the private parts of rapists and barbecue them.
These are repulsive languages that are totally unacceptable in public life, especially coming from the country’s first lady.
In all these, the president and the Paopa SLPP including the civil societies, the police and the Bar association never issued a statement to condemn her statements as inciteful and unacceptable behavior.
It was people like me who wrote and condemned her and even called on the police to have a private word with her on the matter.
But is Fatima really the problem ,I will say an emphatic No.
When the seasoned BBC correspondent, our very own Umaru Fofonah asked president Bio to give his opinion about the auditor general been harassed for doing her job, president Bio’s reaction was shocking by any standard.
Instead of saying: I strongly condemn any attack on anyone of our public servants who are keeping our country going under difficult circumstances, Bio brought in his wife’s name, oh what about my wife who has been attacked. Umaru Fofonah, clearly visibly taken back by the president’s response, put it to the president that the auditor general, not your wife is a state officer.
Fatima can’t be the problem if the president have leadership skills and knowledge on the administrative sagacity required from the holder of the office of the president.
The wife of the president or first lady has no executive authority but it is an undeniable fact that Mrs Fatima Bio has considerable influence over how her husband, the president governs.
The role of several ministries appears to have been subsumed by her among which is the social welfare and children’s ministry.
She has substantial say in who is appointed to jobs. A wife of a minister spoke to a relative of mine to plead with me to stop criticising Mrs Fatima Bio.
It’s subsequently after I was told of her message that Mrs Bio offered her a job. She has since returned to Sierra Leone and joined her minister husband.
President Bio was elected to run the affairs of Sierra Leone not his wife.
His problem is that he has no idea how to govern a country, especially a deeply divided nation that needs a centrist persona and leadership. This,I honestly believe to be the case.
He has no clear vision and the ability to push them through,without inviting unnecessary national disputes.
Yankuba Kai-Samba Writing from Souguer-Algeria
