*President Bio Should Not Be Consumed By Any Of The Agendas.*
*By Saikujohn Barrie*
After the unfortunate riots which led to the deaths of scores of police officers and civilians,this writer has been observing different agendas fighting for supremacy in the country.
Like in previous pieces,this writer will continuously continue to call on the government to diligently investigate and bring to justice all those involved in the recent violence through the established legal system of the country.
This writer believes that embarking on extrajudicial killings wont help both the government and the general citizenry identify the architects of the recent violence in the country.
*Conflicting Agendas Within The Government Circle*
It is conspicuously conspicuous that from statements, reactions and actions from government officials and supporters that there are different agendas being pushed by various factions.
From what this writer has deduced,some in the government have an agenda to revenge and teach the opposition lessons that they would never forget.
This is because some of these officials were mistreated, abused and sacked from their jobs during the past government thus they think this is the right time to settle old scores.
In addition,there are some who think no matter what it cost,the Paopa government(SLPP) should win second term by all means.
(Dont misconstrue this statement as a support to the uprising or illegal means of taking over power as I am a believer in democracy.)
But the truth is,some of the SLPP party supporters or government officials have seen the recent recent barbaric and ill-motivated for violence as an opportunity to weaken the opposition in order to make it easy for the governing party to win the 2023 elections.
Also, there are the tribal begots within the system who want to get their ways using the recent violence in the country.
*Agendas Within The Broken APC Party*
This writer remember how the SLPP was divided when Maada Bio wanted to lead the party.
Sierra Leoneans saw many factions amongst the SLPP from which the Paopa group succeeded, while KKY movement ended up or metamorphosed into NGC.
Similarly, since they lost the 2018 elections,the APC is broken into tiny pieces and every strand seemed to be pushing it own agenda in order to emerge as leader of the party.
This has manifested itself to the extreme that there are allegations ( allegations because there is no independent investigations that has come to such conclusion) going round that the APC is the arhitect of the deadly protests aiming to dethrone the Bio government.
In fact,the government has directly accused the APC as a whole while the current APC chairman has refuted the allegations levied against them by the government that the APC is behind the recent unrest.
However,pundits are saying some APC elements are behind the violent protests in the country.
Furthermore,there are allegations floating around that there some elements in the APC which are now allegedly colluding with government and security apparatus accusing their comrades of being the designers and perpetrators of the recent violent.
According to sources many people have been arrested and detained as result of these agenda of gaining supremacy within the APC party.
*The SLPP V APC Agenda*
Ordinary Sierra Leoneans are not necessarily divided along tribal lines, rather the country is deeply and most times toxicly divided along APC v SLPP line.
But one may get the propensity to over look or ignore the divisions when situation is normal in the country.
This is because in normal times,politicians from the the two parties hypocritically feign to be united hence working in the interest of national cohesion and unity.
However,when there are elections e.g bye elections or crisis like what happened recently ,you see the manifestation of political hates and intolerance wherein neighbours falsely accusing their political opponents or a friends pointing fingers at their friends just because they had political arguments at either Ataya Bases or when watching football etc.
APC V SLPP Backward Political Has Ignited Intra-Tribal Confusion and Bitterness.
The APC and SLPP mentality of always being at each other’s throat and machinations against each other has spreaded its tentacles like an octopus and seemed to have affected our ethnic groups.
This fact was apparent during the APC reign by some of the dominant tribes in the South East and other parts of the country.
Those who were benefiting under the APC were always fighting to maintain the status quo while their tribesmen in the opposition were bitterly fighting to gain power.
You would see people of the same tribe at each others throat just because they belong to different political parties.
I know this same scenario was existing within most of the tribes in the country.
*History Repeating Itself.*
This writer has observed with intrigue the manner in which some of the fula social media activists purporting to be Paopa and VP’s supporters displaying aggression against anyone of their tribe man who writes or makes comment against the current SLPP government.
Anyone who dares make any statement or write about the lapses of the Paopa government will be automatically tagged as APC thus conclusively branded as anti-fula agent or anti VP and quickly be called supporter of the former running mate and current leader of the APC in parliament.
This writer also believe this form of political aggression runs across most of the ethnic tribes in the country.
Today,many Sierra Leoneans fear to express their opinions on national issues, no matter how negatively the issues affect the ordinary man. They fear to be tagged as members of the opposition,or anti government agents.
There seems to be no room for neutral and dissenting voices in the country.
Most of the members of these two political parties myopically think Sierra Leoneans could either be APC or SLPP, period.
Despite the fact that some of these agendas may help the President in his quest to secure a second term,this writers believes that most of those behind them do not have the interest of the majority of Sierra Leoneans or the country .
These people dont care about the interest of the poverty-stricken masses rather they want their narrow agendas of self interests to succeed.
This writer pray for the President to get divine wisdom to overcome all the aforementioned agendas competing for supremacy in the country.
As the ECOWAS chariman told President Bio and many dignitaries at state house on yesterday 15th August 2022, having different political ideas in a country does not make people enemies.
Therefore,President Bio must not allow any of the agendas to consume him.
I rest my case.
