PRESIDENT TRUMP, SIERRA LEONE’S PRESIDENT MAADA BIO IS WORKING TOWARDS BRINGING CHAOS BACK TO THE COUNTRY AND WEST AFTICA . WE NEED SERIOUS U. S OVERSIGHT TO PREVENT ANOTHER HUMANITARIAN DISASTER
By Kabs Kanu
Firstly, thank you very much President Donald Trump for assuming the U. S ‘ long – cherished role of the global power tring to extinguish the fires of the many conflicts raging around in our present chaotic, bipolar world. Our sincere wish is that the U. S continues this amazing international leadership role to make the world safe and secure for everybody.
We also commend your recent expressed and demonstrated commitment to promote constructive engagents and socioeconomic and political relations with African states, culminating in your invitation of several African leaders to the White House for a strategic engagement on shared bilateral goals .
We in Sierra Leone however have daunting challenges threatening the peace, safety and security of our people and we crave your urgent and undivided attention to them, Your Excellency . President Maada Bio , as even manifestly highlighed in the U.S State Department annual Country Reports on Sierra Leone , has no respect for democracy , good governance, the constitution and the Rule of Law in Sierra Leone.
Strangely sir, international stakeholders are contributing to make the ruling SLPP and President Bio continue their dangerous politics and other violations capablrvof plunging Sierra Leone into another war .
For those who would want to say it is not the business of the international stakeholders to address these issues, they are wrong, Mr. President.
Sierra Leone is still a fragile and conflict – prone country and the mandate committing international stakeholders to help Sierra Leone not to go back to war is still in force . That was why the former U.S ambassador, UN Representative and former British High Commissioner were very proactive in guiding the government to ensure that democracy and the Rule of Law prevailed and that human rights observation was ensured. They were not interfering in our national affairs . They were adhering to the U. S foreign policy objective that any country receiving U. S socioeconomic, political csl and military assistance must adhere to the principles of good governance, democracy and respect for human rights .
What we are seeing however is a lackadaisical attitude towards the enforcement of these principles by your present ambassador and other international stakeholders, especially since President stole the 2023 elections that brought much furor in the nation and condemnation from international elections observer tesms, including the Carter Foundation . Let off the hook through citizen inaction, weakness of the opposition parties and lack of moral will and commitment from the civil society, the intelligentsia and integrity institutions , President Bio is perpetrating every perfidy he wants to threaten peace and security in Sierra Leone and he seems to be getting away with it.
The so- called Agreement of National Unity signed by the goverment and the opposition after the stolen elections , which led to the establishment of the Tripartite Committee, is just a facade and a gimmick . The APC Presidential candidate in the rigged 2023 elections, Dr. Samura Kamara , has since abandoned the process and it is a one- man show of the ruling undemocratic and oppressive SLPP . The SLPP is only peripherally implementing some of the recommendations that suit it , while the instititions thrust with the responsibility to ensure and conduct free, fair and credible elections in future remain untouched and unchanged and are loaded top and bottom with cronies , supporters and tribesmen and women of President Bio. Regardless of whatever recommendations of the Tripartite are implemented, the situations of undemocratic and rogue elections will not change if the president’s henchmen and women remain in control of the Elections Commission and other accountability and transparency institutions.
Additionally, President Bio has shed horrendous blood by killing opponents in cold blood —crimes that your country’s corrupt Millennium Challenge Corporation ( MCC) has decided to deliberately ignore in assessing the government’s eligibility to get the U.S $480 million Compact Award. The MCC and your present ambassador have empowered Bio immensely to continue his spate of crimes in Sierra Leone and to worsen the spirit of impunity with which he continues to trash the constitution and the Rule of Law.
America is supposed to be a model to Sierra Leone and a restraining force as it used to be, but today America has become one of the greatest forces of empowerment and enablement of the dictator, President Maada Bio, thanks to the kind of ambassador your country has in Sierra Leone and the MCC.
What we need in Sierra Leone now is strong, robust oversight of the manner President Bio is conducting business politically and otherwise, which is not in the interest ofvthe people or promotive of peace, safety and security. Your present Ambassador, Mr. Bryan Hunt, does not appear to be providing and reporting the necessary oversight like the previous ambassador.
President Bio is machinating divisive policies and plans that are capable of plunging the whole West African region into chaos once again. He is not allowing democracy to prevail. The people of Sierra Leone are still fuming for the elections he stole in broad daylight in 2023. To add insult to injury, President Bio is working on also rigging the forthcoming 2028 elections . He is not even planning to hand over if he loses the elections and that is why he is now pushing for a change in the constitution to create a nebulous governance mechanism that will force the winning party to still share power with his losing SLPP.
Unless President Bio is fully monitored to stop him from polarizing and destroying Sierra Leone, a timebomb is being allowed to continue to tick in the country. The people of Sierra Leone are very angry and a resultant chaos has the potential to spill over in neighboring countries and create another humanitarian disaster in West Africa.
Thank you very much in advance, sir, for your urgent attention to the dangerous situations prevailing in Sierra Leone.
Sincerely,
Ambassador Leeroy Wilfred Kabs- Kanu
Former Minister Plenipotentiary to the UN and Coordinator of the African Union Committee of 10 African States on the UN Security Council Reform.
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