By Kabs Kanu
Whether Foday Sankoh ever had his own plans to wage war on Sierra Leone or not, the civil war in the country was a spillover from Liberia. A testimony of this fact is that former Liberian President Charles Taylor was punished with a 50-year jail sentence by the Special Court of Sierra Leone for carrying the war to Sierra Leone.
Liberia’s was a tribal war and it was bloodier than Sierra Leone’s, killing more than one million people and wreaking more destruction than ever imagined on infrastructure. Both Liberia and Sierra Leone became synonymous with war, bloodshed and instability. However, it would seem that Liberia has gone far ahead of Sierra Leone in peace building and consolidation. Since the war ended, Liberia has been far more relatively peaceful than Sierra Leone , where since 2018 it has been very turbulent since President Maada Bio, a former junta leader and his SLPP that operates like a terrorist party. came to power. There have been outbreaks of civil disturbances over bad governance, erratic policies , violence by the SLPP and police and soldiers and the killing and maiming of hundreds of innocent people in Sierra Leone by Mr. Bio’s security forces.
As if that is not enough , nothing more graphically showcased how much Liberia has left Sierra Leone far behind than the presidential and general elections conducted in Liberia. Not only was the election free, fair, credible and inclusive, it ended peacefully with the opposition leader Joseph Nyumah Boakai defeating the sitting President, George Oppong Weah. And President Weah brought tears to the eyes of even doomsayers of African politics as he picked up his phone, called Mr. Boakai and not only conceded defeat but congratulated the winner, opposition leader Boakai.
When you compare that to what happened in Sierra Leone, you will cry in shock and disappointment and hang your head in shame. In Sierra Leone, it was one of the most corrupt elections ever held in Africa; It was rigged from the beginning with a bogus census and registration process and on polling day, international elections observers flagged numerous occasions where the opposition was not allowed to vote in the strongholds of the ruling SLPP. To add insult to injury, while the counting was still going on and no presidential candidate able to cross the 55% threshold, the Electoral Commissioner, acting under duress and some say with a loaded gun pointed at his head, announced President Bio winner of the elections.
This infuriated the United States so much that she immediately put a hold on the Millennium Challenge Corporation ( MCC ) $500 Million Compact grant the country had won and also imposed travel restrictions on government officials and all who helped to undermine democracy in Sierra Leone.
Liberia has stripped Sierra Leone off every veneer of respect and shamed us by demonstrating how distantly they have overtaken us . While we in Sierra Leone are wallowing in backwardness, criminal governance, blood-spilling, bully pulpits, false narratives, shameless cover-ups and scandalous incivility, the Liberians went and showed us that they have moved streets ahead of us in the promotion of democracy and peace consolidation as a post-conflict country.
While we have a conscienceless barbarian and criminal traveling all over the world on useless, vainglorious trips as head of state and followers no better than him stealing elections and justifying it with a straight, shameless face, Liberia has conducted one of the best elections in Africa, in which a sitting president was actually beaten, and to crown it all, the president called the opposition leader and conceded defeat and congratulated him for his victory.
I am sure President Maada Bio, Elections Commissioner Mohamed Konneh, Chief Minister David Sengeh, Vice-President Korthor Juldeh, Speaker of Parliament Abass Bundu , SLPP Chairman Prince Harding and all the criminals who participated in the broad daylight robbery in Sierra Leone are this moment wiping eggs off their miserable faces. Liberia put us to shame and even demonstrated that they are more civilized than us. But wait and see how the demented SLPP rabid sycophants will cast it. It is APC’s fault. Everything is APC’s fault. They stopped thinking when Infa Allie gave them victory in 2018.
One only hopes that President Boakai, om assuming power in Sierra Leone, will respect the pain and suffering of the Sierra Leonean people and not collaborate with Maada Bio to continue to deny our people their constitutional and human rights which Maada Bio has trampled under feet and under the barrel of the gun.
BOAKAI AND A FORLORN GEORGE WEAH.
ELECIONS COMMISSIONER DAVIDETTA BROWN
