By Kabs Kanu
President Maada Bio yesterday heaped more insults on the United States, Britain, the European Union ( EU ) and international stakeholders who have refused to certify the recent presidential and general elections because it lacked transparency and credibility.
A very angry President Bio described the international community as very idle people. He said that Sierra Leone had held elections and “very idle people” were saying what they wanted to say, an apparent reference to these stakeholders who have flagged the elections as lacking transparency in the tallying process and continue to demand that President Bio’s Elections Commission released unaggregated figures of votes polling station by polling station to determine how the decision was arrived at to determine Bio winner of the presidential elections.
Bio said that during the last discussion he had with President Joe Biden, the U.S leader told him that he was not the right person to teach anybody about democracy “because even my own position is contested. ” Bio lashed : “And why do we celebrate Independence if we will truly subject ourselves to the validation of others ? ”
Bio then issued this threat : We have to keep the peace but I think, in defence of our nation, we have to let certain people and certain quarters know that we are an independent nation. And with everything happening elsewhere, we also deserve our own respect. ”
But many Sierra Leoneans are fuming that President Bio does not really know what he is talking, because once these international donor and development partners provide Sierra Leone budgetary support and even pay salaries of public workers while also being the ones feeding the nation, they have a right to ensure that democracy and free and fair elections prevail. Bio seems to be also forgetting that the development partners are also moral guarantors of peace, unity and security and they have a duty to ensure that governments do not repeat the same mistakes that led Sierra Leone to war.
Sierra Leoneans are also wondering what is giving President Bio such confidence to challenge and damn the international community when he is fully aware that Sierra Leone is so poverty-stricken, she cannot withstand any adverse actions the international community might take to punish Bio for his impudence and lack of cooperation with them.
These Western nations and the EU have failed to congratulate President Bio on his so-called elections victory which is a huge blow to the Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP), because come to think of it there is no African government that does not need validation from these Western powers.
Because of this ongoing impasse between the SLPP Government and the international community, Sierra Leone remains tense and on edge and life has yet to resume to full and total normalcy since the disputed polls.
