By KABS KANU

When President Maada Bio is removed from power, Sierra Leone will need a very bold, dynamic, enterprising and fearless President –A president who will be prepared to take very bold decision to restore the integrity, credibility and national colour of our institutions and governance structure.

President Bio has destroyed every socio-political and economic institution through tribalism, cronyism , nepotism, regionalism and corruption and each and every institution will have to be rebuilt from scratch. Following the war, which ended in 2002, the immediate post-war presidents Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, whatever their faults, did a massive job to rebuild our institutions, which had been destroyed by past governments and the war. What President Maada Bio has done is to reverse all the reforms of the two courageous and nationalistic presidents.

Social, political, economic, democratic, educational and governance institutions have all been stripped off their national outlook and reduced to tribal institutions, with citizens from only one tribe or ethnic group and region at the helm from top to bottom. What President Bio has created is a platform and a recipe for tribal and ethnic fissures, suspicions, distrust, anger and backlash in the future as was seen in Liberia where only one set of people–The Amerigo-Liberians, called Congaus, controlled everything in the country. This frustration from the so-called country people, who were systematically , strategically and institutionally excluded from governance, decision-making and a share of the national cake ,led to the bloody military coup of Saturday April 12, 1980, headed by Master-Sergeant Samuel K. Doe, which saw the ruling president bayoneted and shot to death and most of his ministers executed by firing squad . But Doe himself did no better by creating a state and governance system centered around his Krahn tribe, and this led to even deadlier consequences—the Liberian war that killed over 500, 000 people, including Doe himself,  and forced thousands more to flee the country into exile.

We are constantly praying for Sierra Leone that such a bitter,  dangerous and devastating fate does not befall our country. Our people certainly have learnt from the bitter experiences of countries like Liberia, Rwanda, DR Congo , Central African Republic etc. which were destroyed by the same tribalism, ethnicism and regionalism President Bio is practicing in Sierra Leone. But the onus to avoid this same scenerio in Sierra Leone rests on the shoulders of the next president who should be bold and nationalistic to overturn the system of tribal and regional hegemony that President Bio has built in Sierra Leone.

What plays in the sick mind of President Bio is only understood by himself . How could any sane president contrive to appoint only members of his own ethnic group or tribe to every institution in a country where there are over 12 ethnic groups ? Angry Sierra Leoneans are not wrong to regard President Bio as a devil brought by Satan to overturn all the gains of postwar reconstruction in Sierra Leone. When confronted by a press man once during a national interview on TV  about his tribalized appointments, President Bio had no pangs of bad conscience or shame and admitted :

“I Only Know My Mende People’s Work Ethics”

The mentally-unbalanced President could not even weigh the divisive connotation of such an unnationalistic statement from a statesman expected to show better examples in tribal , ethnic and regional tolerance and balance.

It is for this very reason that nationalistic and patriotic Sierra Leoneans are praying for the next president of Sierra Leone not to be a coward or a weak leader who will only be concerned with lining his own pockets and doing nothing to change the status quo. Sierra Leone needs a bold president who will overhaul every institution and system permeated and stained by tribalism, ethnicism and regionalism. One tribe or ethnic group or region cannot control everything in a country. It is ethically wrong ,  morally reprehensible,  dangerously divisive and inimical to national cohesion, peace and stability. When I worked with the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission Special Sierra Leone Configuration at the UN, that was one of the goals we assiduously  fought to achieve—The creation of a new Sierra Leone built around the pillars of  political inclusion and power-sharing between the 12 ethnic groups in Sierra Leone.

If the next president of Sierra Leone is a coward or compromiser with the tribalized ruling structure President Bio has established in Sierra Leone , it will affect even his own leadership and control of the country. He will not be able to govern smoothly or peacefully because tribal and ethnic cronies of the president pitchforked in all positions of authority will undermine him. We live in an age of  extreme partisan, tribal, ethnic and regional fanaticism  in Sierra Leone.  We experienced the same problem in the APC Government which I served as Minister Plenipotentiary to the UN. Because the diplomatic service, the Foreign , Finance and some key ministries were controlled by residual cronies from the previous SLPP Government of the late President Kabbah, SABOTAGE of government operations was common.

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