WE WANT PEACEFUL TRANSFER OF POWER IN SIERRA LEONE IN JUNE ; WE DON’T WANT ANY ‘GBONGBOSORO’ OR BLOODDSHED
By Kabs Kanu
President Ernest Koroma deserves a lot of praise for handing over power to Maada Bio willingly when it was decided that SLPP had won the 2018 elections . President Koroma acted like a true patriot, democrat and a civilized person .
President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah did the same in 2007 and he has entered history as one of the greatest democrats of our country.
But from the utterances of his supporters , Bio himself, his wife Fatima Bio , this tribalistic , trouble -making and undemocratic president called Julius Maada Bio seems bent on testing the people’s resolve. He will not want to accept defeat or hand over to the APC . That is where his downfall will come, like the late President Samuel Doe of Liberia or President Gbagbo of Ivory Coast. SLPP people will not understand when we make these parallels but only a fool does not know Sierra Leone faces a dire danger of going back to war under President Bio, due to his desires to steal power in June.
Well, Bio better be warned in no uncertain terms that the international community , like the people of Sierra Leone, have read through him. That is why the EU, Britain, U . S State Department and Amnesty International have become so active to speak out in Sierra Leone in recent times. From the diplomatic messages they have been giving, it would appear that they will not accept any monkey tricks from Maada Bio. If Bio thinks Sierra Leone is his father’s cassava farm and he can do what he wants , there is a big shock in store for him.
You can clearly see that President Bio is not intent on conducting free , fair and credible elections or a peaceful transfer of power if he loses in June . His imposition of a fake midterm census , questionable registration process that has given his Southeastern base a big advantage , the proportional representation system and continued harassment of political opponents , using the compromised judiciary system, the Political Parties Registration Commission ( PPRC) , the security forces to engage in brutality and murder and keeping the APC flagbearer , Dr. Samura Kamara , mired in a bogus legal case and now plans by the PPRC to ban street campaign rallies are all manifestations of President Bio ‘s machinations to stage a mockery of an election against the wishes of the people. Bio is also planning for votes not to be counted in polling stations as has been the practice, but in regional centres where he hopes to do ballot – stuffing. All of these diabolical moves show a desperate president priming himself to steal the people’s mandate in June.
While planning all these anti- democratic maneuvers , Bio is strongly advised to take a cue from the August 10 demonstrations that the people of Sierra Leone are not afraid of him and will go the deep end with him to stop him , if provoked . What is holding back the people is not cowardice but the Sierra Leonean’s legendary love for peace and tranquility . But we have seen from history during the 1968 NRC Juxon Smith era , the revolutionary 1977 demonstrations , the historic 1997 civil disobedience against the AFRC junta and the August 10 people’s power demonstrations against Maada Bio that Sierra Leoneans can act decisively , if pushed to the wall. If Maada Bio carries his demonic Paopa and “Rikishi “ tactics to the 2023 elections, he will regret for the rest of his life. The people of Sierra Leone are ready for him .
Bio and his rabid, lousy, loquacious supporters on social media, who are living in deceit and an illusory world , do not understand. All they are engaged in are spreading lies , bigotry, political and tribal intolerance , hateful ideas about the opposition and Northwesterners and mounting insidious propaganda against the APC and its flagbearer , Dr. Samura Kamara.
The SLPP government has done nothing to deserve a second term and they cannot force it down the throats of the people . They have trashed and destroyed the Sierra Leone currency and the economy and have made this era one of the most painful for our people ‘s lives, with prices of food and basic commodities going through the roof due to the SLPP government’s shambolic economic policies and the massive corruption, tribal -influence peddling and racketeering going on in all spheres of government.
The SLPP do not deserve a second term because Bio has been a horrendous human rights abuser, a tribalist who has marginalized the Northwest and his security forces have killed hundreds of protesters and so President Bio must not try to impose himself on the people.
If President Bio steals the elections to have an undeserved second term, it might not end well for him with the kind of frustration that has gripped the nation , which SLPP leaders and social media rabble – rousers are pretending not to see. Sierra Leoneans are really suffering and international polls adjudged us as the third most unhappy the world and the most unhappy in Africa . We are also among the 10 most hungry people in the world.
The people of Sierra Leone are not only hungry for food; they are also hungry for a change of batons at State House and they will have it. Any attempt by Maada Bio to subvert the aspirations of the people will not bode well for him. He must pack his bundle and leave , because Sierra Leoneans are tired of him . When Bio is defeated, we want a peaceful transfer of power because we want no chaos in Sierra Leone.
