By Abu Shaw
Failed Sierra Leone president reading PR speeches abroad as citizens live in misery
The Sierra Leone President reading a speech at Harvard University over the weekend clearly emphasises Julius Maada Bio’s Public Relations deceit.
Travelling abroad and reading speeches to unsuspecting audiences around the world are some of the best things that satisfy President Bio today. He is clearly not interested in governing Sierra Leone for the benefit of his compatriots. The untold ongoing suffering nationwide since April 4, 2018, when the SLPP government came to power is indicative of the uselessness of President Bio. Overseas, President Bio is seen as a leader who is the epitome of democracy. But at home, the majority of the people see him and his SLPP government as absolute failures and celebrated thieves. Most citizens describe President Bio as someone who is more of a publicity-crazy President than a leader who is pragmatic and resourceful.
Maada Bio has made more trips overseas than any other Head of State in the world in COVID-19 time. Taking pictures and posting them on social media for PR purposes have been the specific State House instructions for the SLPP Media Team to carry out on a daily basis. (Photo: President Bio reading a speech at Harvard, another classic PR stunt to fool the public).
Grasping the reality is not President Bio’s kettle of fish. He and his corrupt SLPP government have failed to realise the fact that Sierra Leoneans do not live on empty speeches and Public Relations pictures on social media. Factually, the Sierra Leone President is making a strong impression internationally and his Harvard University speech PR agenda is meant to hide his inadequacies because back home impoverished citizens are not impressed at all. When the SLPP government came to power, one of its main ambitions was to rebrand Sierra Leone but the SLPP government did it the wrong way. They are more interested in helping the image and reputation of the ruling SLPP government than the country at large.
In this regard, President Bio spent millions of US dollars on PR campaigns by contracting selected local and international media organisations for this purpose. And the PR contractors have indeed done a very good job to disguise the true identity of President Bio abroad. However, Sierra Leone Diasporans are exposing on social media the hidden agenda of President Bio. Rampant corruption, the lack of civil liberties and human rights in Sierra Leone, the arrest and detention of critics and opposition politicians – the hallmark of the SLPP government’s regime – are now in the public domain. President Bio has led a government that has been classed as the most corrupt, the most undemocratic, the worst regime in terms of human rights, and democratic governance in Sierra Leone. But because of the millions of dollars spent on selected local and global media and PR outlets, these heinous crimes being committed by President Bio’s corrupt regime were never reported to the outside world. (Photo: President Bio also gave a speech at the Boston Cathedral Church. And when he and his wife Fatima Jabbe Bio arrived in the US).
It was and still is one of the greatest con games implemented by President Bio to deceive the world about what is happening on the ground in Sierra Leone. While Sierra Leoneans continue to suffer in the country, due to the above vices including economic bastardisation and so on, the corrupt PRs continue to blow the triumphalism horns to praise President Bio’s violent-oriented government. The millions of dollars expended by President Bio’s government on PR have helped President Bio to wine and dine with famous and rich personalities around the world to provide acquaintances with the likes of billionaire Bill Gates etc. Pictures of President Bio and global personalities have been splashed on social media around the world to give the impression that President Bio is a indeed ‘saint’ and a ‘democrat’. What a wrong formula to deceive the world!
The speech at Harvard over the weekend is all part of the grandiose plans to improve the reputation of President Bio’s failed SLPP government. The greatest deception to ever graced Sierra Leone! But Sierra Leoneans are no longer fools to be fooled by fools like President Bio and his crop of thieving caboodle. Citizens recently laughed at the praises levied by Bill Gates on the performance of Dr David Moinina Sengeh, Sierra Leone’s Basic Education Minister and Director of Science and Technology. Everyone in Sierra Leone knows that education has reversed immensely for the worse in the country since 2018. The government’s ‘Free Quality Education’ agenda is a con game. (Photo: The Harvard Programme).
Even some patriotic supporters of President Bio who voted for his SLPP government in 2018 are now fed up with the abysmal governance of his regime. Diehard SLPP supporters like Narudeen KaiKai of Virginia in the USA could not hide his disappointment in President Bio’s terrible tenure in office. Narudeen Kaikai wrote: “Our country’s debt has ballooned to unsustainable levels topping 85% of Gross Domestic Product GDP – exposing us to very high risk of debt default. Most of our tax revenue is used to service our debts, uncontrollable fiscal spending, and the effect has been the introduction of several new taxes since President Bio came to office.
“This has led to rampant increments in the prices of goods and services. This is primarily responsible for the hardships Sierra Leoneans are going through right now. President Bio and his SLPP government must accept that it is their mismanagement of the economy, their thirst for consumption expenditure, and the desire to spend beyond our means in order to win elections that have plunged us into the current crisis. Eighteen months left for President Bio and his corrupt SLPP government to deliver and change the current hardship and extreme inflation of basic commodities. I strongly believe the people of this country will vote their conscience in 2023. I supported Maada Bio in 2018. So far, he has not delivered to my expectations. It is a sad reality and must say the truth. God bless Sierra Leone.”
President Bio landed at Logan Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States last week for the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York. But he was also invited by Harvard University where he spoke on Sunday, September 19, at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Auditorium, according to the Sierra Leone Embassy in Washington. President Bio was also invited to speak at the Cathedral Church in Boston. All this PR stuff was geared towards polishing the President’s image. But in the eyes of the suffering masses in Sierra Leone, President Bio is clearly an empty vessel, he remains a despot, a corrupt leader whose SLPP government has plunged the country three decades into the precipice.
