The ‘Zombiefication’ Of SLPP Supporters
By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
The manner in which most supporters of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) swallow hook, line and sinker all the half-truths and abominable lies dish out to them by their government is ludicrously absurd. They are now behaving like zombies who can always be reanimated when President Julius Maada Bio and any of his hangers-on say something that is far removed from the truth!
But I can understand the desperation of most SLPP supporters who are always looking for opportunities to hang on to straws in the whirlwind of nearly four years of their government inability to solve the basic “bread and butter issues”. Most supporters of the SLPP are behaving like zombies as portrayed by the late Nigerian pioneer of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti, in his influential hit song: “Zombie”. They seem not to have the ability to think, walk, or even talk without being told to do so by President Bio or any of his hangers-on.
Even when corruption has now permeated the Offices of the President and First Lady to that of the Vice President’s to Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies; the “zombies” are still showering praises on President Bio for overseeing what now looks like a state-sponsored thievery. How could any sane Sierra Leonean praise the Head of State for hating the very corrupt practices which appear to be the modus operandi of the same government preaching against it?
I’m still trying to come to terms with the fact that even when the Office of the President submits receipts to Audit Service Sierra Leone (ASSL) that are marred by “discrepancies, inaccuracies and inconsistencies” (according to the 2020 Auditor General Report); the ‘zombiefied’ SLPP supporters are still trying to justify why President Bio should allegedly spend US$352,481 (about Le3.5 billion) of the tax payers’ money on his “honeymoon” in Lebanon. And even when the 2020 Auditor General Report has shown that the Bio administration is corrupt from crown to toe; the ‘zombiefied’ supporters are trying to make parallels to justify the Bio-led government misappropriation of public funds.
But as my Sherbro-Limba mother would always say: “Nar suffer dorti God take make some pipul dem”. Even when the ‘zombiefied’ SLPP supporters are finding it extremely difficult to afford an un-square meal a day; they are still justifying why the First Lady and the President’s stepson must live in insulting opulence and they in abject poverty. Here again the ‘zombies’ are reminding me of Fela Kuti’s famous lines: “suffer suffer for world; enjoy for Heaven”.
Under the watchful watch of President Bio the bastion of governance, the Civil Service, has become a citadel of tribal and regional chauvinism. Perceived supporters of the All People’s Congress (APC) are either dismissed or transferred to far-flung places as punishment for their alleged APC-ness. The Sierra Leone Police (SLP) now appears to have the colourations of the Gestapo of Nazi Germany; whilst the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) seems to have been painted with the broad brush of tribalism and regionalism. And both the Judiciary and Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) seem to be extensions of the SLPP. Yet, the ‘zombiefied’ SLPP supporters see nothing wrong in all of these.
And in the absence of any original developmental programmes or projects (except for the failed “Free [minus] Quality Education”) by the Bio-led administration; the SLPP government has been going on a shopping spree to look for unfinished programmes or projects of the APC. And every time the SLPP government re-launches or commissions an APC leftover programme or project; the SLPP “Paopagandists” and “drunkardnomists” will shower undue praises on President Bio like over-excited school boys trying to get the Head Teacher’s attention! But the thing that is funnily funny is when things go awry; the ‘zombiefied’ SLPP supporters will never blame the Commander-in-Chief for them.
When the mobile telecommunications company, Africell, built a Clock Tower in the eastern city of Kenema; ‘zombiefied’ SLPP supporters claimed it as an SLPP project. And when the leading sports betting company in Sierra Leone, Mercury International, built schools in Port Loko and Moyamba Junction (in the north-west and south respectively) the ‘zombiefied’ supporters shower praises on President Bio in the same theatrical manner Squealer always does in George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
What is interestingly interesting is the fact that every cooked-up success of President Bio is being trumpeted from rooftops by the “Paopagandists” and “drunkardnomists”. But when it comes to the President owning up to the failures, blunders and financial improprieties concerning his Office and that of the First Lady; ‘zombiefied’ SLPP supporters always try to shift the argument as if sane Sierra Leoneans are ‘zombiefied’ like them.
Well, it is William Shakespeare who notes in his play Henry IV Part 2 that “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” If President Bio could take credit for the APC’s Single Treasury Account, if he can take credit for the failed “Free [minus] Quality Education” flagship programme, and if he could take credit for making contact with a Guinean businessman for the construction of a “tapalapa” bakery in Freetown; then he must accept the responsibility of owning up to the fake receipts that were allgedly submitted by his Office to Audit Service Sierra Leone in relation to his overseas escapades.
And if President Bio can feel comfortable to dance to “Ngorboi debul” in the southern and eastern parts of the country; then he should equally be comfortable to dance to “Paddle” or “Bloody Mary” in Freetown. But, again, I can understand that dancing to either “Paddle” or “Bloody Mary” does not give one the freedom to wobble one’s body like Humpty Dumpty trying to prevent “a great fall” (pardon my English nursery rhyme) as “true Sierra Leoneans” (courtesy of First Lady Fatima Bio) do when they dance to “Ngorboi debul”!
It is on that note that I will end today’s One Dropian dropping with a quote from Niccolo Machiavelli’s influential book, The Prince, that says “There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.” And if President Julius Maada Bio had taken this quotation into consideration then Lara Taylor-Pearce, the now suspended Auditor General who is to appear before a Nuremberg-like tribunal, would not have offended him by removing the wool from his eyes in the line of her duty! But as far as the ‘zombiefied’ SLPP supporters are concerned, the only sin President Bio has committed is to allow the APC to still be in existence!
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