By Kabs Kanu
Where truth is concerned, most Sierra Leoneans want to be extricated and redeemed from the brutish, tribalistic, oppressive, suppressive and corrupt governance of the Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP ) government of President Maada Bio. They have demonstrated it times without number by risking their lives to protest against the government , which led to the brutal Bio sending his troops to kill and maim many of them.
Sierra Leoneans’ abhorrence for Maada Bio was also demonstrated on June 24, 2023 when they overwhelmingly voted against him in the presidential elections. Even though , through a fake census and criminal registration process , Bio had stacked the cards in his own favor before the voting, he still could not win the elections as proved by the National Elections Watch ( NEW) and international elections observers . Bio had to perform a brazen and shameless daylight robbery to steal the elections and declare himself President – a criminal act that forced the U.S. to block the Millennium Challenge Corporation ( MCC ) grant and impose travel restrictions and also put Bio on collision course with international stakeholders who have stopped funding his illegal government.
However, despite their revulsion for Maada Bio and his tribalistic and human rights -abusing government, most Sierra Leoneans, by nature, would rather see Bio removed from power by any other means but a military coup. Since 1968 when they rose up against the National Reformation Council ( NRC ) government of Brigadier Andrew Juxon-Smith and repeated it in 1996 by forcing the National Provisional Ruling Council ( NPRC ) government of Maada Bio to return to the barracks and in 1997 by opposing the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council ( AFRC) of Johnny Paul Koroma to a standstill, Sierra Leoneans have clearly demonstrated their dislike for military juntas.
Therefore, it needs no gainsaying the fact that if , indeed, the November 26 disturbances were an abortive coup as the government is claiming, most Sierra Leoneans would not have supported it willingly and of their own volition. Even we at COCORIOKO who criticize Maada Bio everyday also condemn any endeavor by anybody to assume power in Sierra Leone through military coups.
However, while we Sierra Leoneans continue demonstrating that we prefer democracy over illegal seizures of power, we know that our country has deep-seated problems , the principal one being the illegal activities and brutality of the Bio government which most Sierra Leoneans hate with a passion because of the heinous things it has done and the needless blood it has shed, while destroying the economy and our nascent democracy since it came to power in 2018.
Given the headaches Maada Bio’s misrule is causing for everybody, the expectation is that those who label themselves stakeholders and moral guarantors of good governance, peace and stability should acknowledge our problems and help us genuinely and sincerely to solve them as the United States of America is doing. The least Sierra Leoneans expect is for stakeholders and moral guarantors themselves to turn a blind eye to our teething problems and connive with our oppressor Maada Bio to exacerbate our sufferings and cause Bio to continue to oppress, suppress and rob us blind with impunity. Yet, it seems like this is the modus operandi of the morally-bankrupt ECOWAS, not only in Sierra Leone but other West African countries. ECOWAS creates the platform for dictators, demagogues, elections thieves and criminals to flourish and perpetrate themselves in power in West Africa.
When West Africans are being harmed to extremes by their governments, ECOWAS will never speak out or act on behalf of the people ; rather, they will become dumb dogs, doing and saying nothing. West Africans cannot remember when ECOWAS ever stood up on their behalf to condemn repression , killings, corruption and nefarious acts by sitting West African governments. They cannot remember when ECOWAS ever pronounce bogus elections in West Africa illegal and support moves by Supreme Courts to overturn them. ECOWAS is always in support of bad , corrupt governments and bogus elections. And why should anybody be surprised ?
Most of the men ruling West Africa and whose countries are members of ECOWAS are criminals and democracy – hijackers themselves. They are morally bankrupt and have no moral integrity. Why should anybody therefore expect anything better from the father of election thieves, Bola Tinubu, the President of Nigeria, who , like Maada Bio, stampeded his way into power through criminality and elections rigging ? Tinubu and other West African leaders, like Maada Bio, have skeletons in their cupboards, so they will never take a definitive stand against bad governance. ECOWAS is a shameless club of criminals.
It is therefore not surprising that whenever there is a crisis in any West African country, ECOWAS will deliberately avoid addressing the root problems and will rather throw their nebulous weight behind the offending government and assure it of military support. By their action, ECOWAS are not fit to be called stakeholders or moral guarantors. They are collaborators with bad and abusive governments.
While on the surface it appears innocent and salutary that ECOWAS has promised the dictator military support, I think they could and should have done much more to demonstrate neutrality and a genuine desire to help Sierra Leone extricate itself from perpetual chaos.
The gunfire had hardly subsided in Freetown when ECOWAS hastily sent a high-powered delegation to Sierra Leone . One would have expected such an ECOWAS delegation to have arrived on a fact-finding mission or to help in calming passions in the country , but no. It was to sympathize with Bio and promise him a standby force to protect his government, if necessary.
ECOWAS did absolutely nothing to sit down with Bio, examine the incident holistically from a neutral position and find out why the shooting occurred and if there were pieces of advise they could have given Bio to avoid the chaos recurring—Or whether in fact it was stage-managed coup attempt . They just blindly supported Bio and his government and promised Bio military support . Given such assurance of military backing, why would Bio not continue to expatiate the spirit of impunity in Sierra Leone ? What would stop him from continuing his atrocities, killing of innocent people to perpetrate himself in power and hijacking democracy. ECOWAS just came and gave Bio a blank check to continue shedding innocent blood , mismanage the economy and steal more elections. Whatever happens, whether it is his fault or not, ECOWAS has demonstrated that they will always support Bio blindly and militarily. The question for ECOWAS is, what if it is a genuine uprising and the Sierra Leonean people do not want Bio anymore ? Will ECOWAS impose Bio on them militarily instead of addressing the underlying causes ?
We want Bola Tinubu, the grandfather of political criminals, and his acolytes to answer this question, because what they are doing does not augur well for good governance and peace in West Africa.
