The apparent standoff between the President Maada Bio Government in Sierra Leone and international stakeholders over the fraudulent declaration by the Elections Commission that President Bio won last Saturday’s elections continued yesterday as the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee threatened to hold accountable those undermining Sierra Leone’s democracy.
In a tweet, posted below, the Committee confirmed the U.S. Embassy statement that it was closely watching developments in Sierra Leone. It mentioned elections-related violence , intimidation of elections observers and the Elections Commission’s non-transparent vote tallying and results .
President Bio and his Sierra Leone People’s Party ( SLPP) supporters and officials as well as their thugs have become too brazen with their lawless governance and atrocities that they take nothing seriously once they continue to hold on to the reins of power. Never before in the history of the nation has there been this kind of self-assured, self-confident attitude by a ruling president and his vanguard in the degree of impunity they display while committing even horrific atrocities.
Because the Millennium Challenge Corporation ( MCC) continued to give them pass marks and some sections of the international community and donor agencies continued giving the government grants , aid and concessions, despite its horrendous human rights abuses, lawlessness and misgovernance at home, the SLPP has become snug in the assurance that they could do whatever they want and nothing would come out of it.
Until the U.S Senate carry out their threats, SLPP would not take them seriously. All they wanted was power at all costs. Once they accomplished it, the U.S. Senate and other international stakeholders can go to hell. President Bio is an animal that answers to nobody and his supporters owe nobody any duty of compliance to any norms or codes of conduct.
It remains to be seen how this standoff will end.
