Is President Bio Serious About Fighting COVID?
By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)
If anyone should take a little responsibility for the rapid spread of the third wave of COVID-19, known as the “Delta variant”, in Sierra Leone; that person appears to be President Julius Maada Bio with his Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) government.
They organised a seemingly super-spreader event on 16 June 2021 at the Siaka Stevens Stadium in Freetown by asking thousands of mask-less citizens to throng the stadium to welcome the national football team, Leone Stars, after defeating Benin in an African Cup of Nations qualifier in neighbouring Guinea.
According to the State House press release of 16 June 2021, mask-less citizens were encouraged “to converge at the stadium at 4:00pm to receive the National Team” and that President Bio “will make a statement of appreciation”, coupled with the fact that “there will also be various performances by [mask-less] artists and other entertainers” there. And to show how seriously unserious President Bio with his SLPP government seems to be in the fight against COVID-19 the Presidential Spokesman, who supposedly authored that press release, quoted himself by urging mask-less citizens to “come out in large numbers to welcome [Leone Stars] and show appreciation.”
All these were done in disregard for the National COVID-19 Emergency Response Centre (NaCOVERC)’s preventive measures like “mandatory wearing of face mask in all public places” and “Social distancing and hand-washing/alcohol-based hand sanitizer use to be observed in all public places”. None of that was done at the Siaka Stevens Stadium that day when the President was trying to score an Off Side political goal!
Even as President Bio and his lieutenants were organising that seemingly super-spreader event at the stadium, evidence showed that they already knew that Sierra Leone was witnessing a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. That evidence was the NaCOVERC Public Notice of 17 June 2021 in which it was stated that, “Sierra Leone is currently witnessing a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. This assessment has been informed by the WHO alert as well as a thorough examination of the epidemiological data particularly for the last one month, which strongly indicates not only exponential rise in COVID-19 confirmed cases, but also increased positivity rates, hospitalization and deaths”. Imagine, the SLPP knew about this “epidemiological data” prior to that seemingly super-spreader event at the stadium. Yet, to score cheap political point they went ahead to urge mask-less citizens to “come out in large numbers to welcome and show appreciation” to Leone Stars.
Now, President Bio is threatening that “NaCOVERC will enforce [the COVID-19] measures strictly.” But I have seen on social media several SLPP events, particularly their lower level elections, in which SLPP supporters are disregarding COVID-19 preventive measures. In most of those SLPP events, “social distancing” is not observed. Yet, enforcers of NaCOVERC’s preventive measures have been keeping mum like tombs because the violators are SLPPers!
Even some of President Bio’s ministers are some of the violators of the COVID-19 preventive measures which the President is now exhorting NaCOVERC to “strictly” enforce. Quite recently, many Sierra Leoneans were shocked to see on social media a photo of the Minister of Sports, Ibrahim Nylenkeh, at a local football match in which he and all those on the high table were mask-less. And behind them were also mask-less football fans.
And while President Bio is strongly urging “every eligible citizen to take the free COVID-19 vaccines that are widely available throughout the country,” (according to his nationwide broadcast of 1 July 2021) it appears as if he is not sure whether all his ministers and political appointees have been vaccinated. He could only vouch for himself and “senior members of Government” despite his Government had earlier threatened not to allow any “son or daughter of Adam” (as my Krio “fambul” would say) in any Government Building if they do not produce the COVID-19 Vaccine Certificate.
Here again I noticed, from the perspective of a trained eye, that the Commander-in-Chief appears to have little time to go over his speeches before he delivers them. Imagine with a population of about 7.5 million people, the President could only confirm that “over a hundred thousand[Sierra Leonean] citizens have been fully vaccinated” coupled with the fact that Sierra Leone could not even boast of having two million vaccines; yet the SLPP government through NaCOVERC has been threatening that, “….Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies will only be accessed by employees and members of the public with proof of at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination” (according to the NaCOVERC Public Notice of 17 June 2021). I believe that if the Government has vaccinated half of the population then such a threat could have been logical. But with the President conforming that only “over a hundred thousand [Sierra Leonean] citizens have been fully vaccinated” means that such a threat shouldn’t have been made in the first place. The point is: not everything can be done “Paopa-lly”! And not everything can be achieved “Paopa-listically”!
And one of the most interesting contradictory “interventions”, proposed by the President on 1 July 2021 in his “Broadcast to the Nation”, is where he says, “Attendance at funerals [and] weddings…shall be limited to no more than fifty persons.” But if he has already suspended activities inside churches and mosques, then where does he expect those “fifty persons” to attend Christian and Muslim funerals and weddings? Or is President Bio, subtly, telling Sierra Leoneans that for the next few weeks they should be doing heathenish (pagan) weddings and funerals? Or is he cloudily telling us that we should now be doing “Ose Marrade” and “Ose Berin”? This doesn’t add up, to quote Dr Sama Banya.
In a nutshell, President Bio’s “Broadcast to the Nation” on 1 July 2021 was, and still is, a sort of carbon copy of the NaCOVERC Public Notice of 17 June 2021 with slight modifications. One of those modifications is where NaCOVERC says “Services in places of worship shall not exceed ninety (90) minutes…”; President Bio adjusts that to “Congregational worship in churches, mosques, and other religious places is suspended for a period of one month….” Another area of copycatting is where NaCOVERC notes that “Social gatherings, including weddings, funerals, receptions, naming ceremonies and the likes shall not exceed fifty (50) people”; President Bio modifies that to “Attendance at funerals, weddings, and other social events shall be limited to no more than fifty persons”.
And where NaCOVERC states that “NaCOVERC will be enforcing wearing of face mask at shops and at indoor and outdoor markets and crowded stalls”; President Bio changes that to “NaCOVERC will enforce these measures strictly…” What I noticed is that the President’s speechwriters just played around with the synonyms in the NaCOVERC Public Notice of 17 June 2021 to come up with the 1 July 2021 “Broadcast to the Nation”.
Now I am beginning to appreciate why the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Hon. Chernor Bah aka ‘Chericoco’ of the All People’s Congress (APC), once accused President Bio’s speechwriters of plagiarism. But probably, just a probability, that 1 July 2021 “Broadcast to the Nation” might have been written by the same author of the NaCOVERC Public Notice of 17 June 2021.
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