PRESIDENT MAADA BIO HAS MADE PARLIAMENT AN EXTENSION OF HIS POLITICAL PARTY, THE SLPP
By KABS KANU
One of the dangerous developments in Sierra Leone today is the political capture of state institutions by the ruling SLPP government led by Retired Brig. Julius Maada Bio.
In Sierra Leone today, Parliament has become the political party in power —-The SLPP . MPs are elected to serve the people and protect their interests but in Sierra today, MPs serve only the SLPP regime. The danger is not only found in Parliament. State institutions in Sierra Leone have all become arms of the SLPP government .
There is therefore no greater danger to Sierra Leone’s democratic future than the politicization of the institutions that are supposed to protect the Republic from becoming a tool of the government.
The present constitutional crisis in the country where Parliament surreptitiously enacted controversial constitutional amendments is an existential threat not only to democracy but the survival of the state.
A government is elected to govern. A political party is elected to pursue its programme. Both cannot be merged. We have drummed home this point repeatedly to the SLPP , but our appeals have not only fallen on deaf ears but have earned us insults, threats and bad name from rabid supporters of the SLPP. And yet the fact remains that the political party cannot become the state, because the state belongs to the people. That distinction must never be blurred as the SLPP has done to Sierra Leone.
When the police, military, judiciary, Parliament, public service, media, civil society, professional organizations and other institutions of the state become extensions of the governing party, the country loses it soul, politics loses its substance and democracy begins to lose its essence, even when elections continue to take place.
What Maada Bio is doing to our country is not merely a partisan issue. It is a national emergency.
The International Monetary Fund’s Governance and Corruption Diagnostic on Sierra Leone, published following an assessment conducted in 2025, identified politicized appointments, elite networks and institutional weaknesses as factors constraining the independence and effectiveness of key state institutions. It warned of risks of institutional capture, uneven enforcement of accountability and a “winner-takes-all” political dynamic in which changes of government can affect access to public resources and opportunities. These findings should concern every Sierra Leonean, regardless of political affiliation.
THE STATE MUST NOT BELONG TO THE PARTY IN POWER. One of the most damaging traditions in African politics is the belief that winning an election gives a political party ownership of the state. This has been an existential problem since Sierra Leone became independent in 1961. Both the SLPP and APC are guilty of this misplaced mindset . President Siaka Stevens did the same thing and this was one of the reasons for the deadly 11 years war that killed over 250,000 people and destroyed our infrastructure.
Because Parliament has been politicized and converted into an extension of the Bio SLPP government, a serious constitutional crisis has broken out in Sierra Leone.
President Bio has rubber stamped Parliament as an extension of his SLPP government. This should not have been done where a President cares for accountability, because Parliament is supposed to scrutinize the executive. Its responsibility is not simply to approve government policies because the governing party has a majority. The SLPP is abusing its majority vote in Parliament .
The SLPP and its extremist supporters do not even know that parliamentary majority does not abolish the constitutional responsibility of Parliament to vote in the interests of the people. Going by word on the streets and social media and the reactions of some independent bodies like the Sierra Leone Labour Congress, which represents workers all over the country, and the Religious Council , Sierra Leoneans prefer First Pass the Post and not the obnoxious Proportional Representation. They are also opposed to the 50+1 system of determining winners of the presidential elections. If MPs actually represent the people in Parliament, how can they vote otherwise ? But even with the SLPP votes, the constitutional threshold of two- thirds majority of all votes of parliamentarians was not met. Yet, the SLPP Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Segepoh Thomas, went on to commit Treason by declaring victory for the SLPP.
The governing SLPP cannot afford these treasonous acts as it needs Parliament to keep it honest just as much as the opposition needs Parliament to challenge it. When MPs vote according to party or presidential instructions even where constitutional principles or national interests demand independent judgment, Parliament loses its role as a check on executive power. The result is dangerous: the executive becomes stronger while the nation is robbed and denied its rights.
The IMF has raised concerns about Parliament’s ability to provide effective oversight and noted declining public trust in the institution. This anomaly should be speedily redressed.
Sierra Leone needs parliamentarians who understand that their first loyalty is to the Constitution and the people—not to the political party that placed them on a ticket.
We hope President Bio will listen to advice and reject the criminal constitutional amendments.
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