Alpha Amadu Jalloh – The Fox: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 25 May 2024:
President Julius Maada Bio recently convened a cabinet retreat in the City of Bo, a significant move aimed at addressing the multifaceted challenges facing Sierra Leone.
Many Sierra Leoneans, including myself, awaited this retreat with cautious optimism, hoping it would herald meaningful solutions to our economic woes and social issues. However, what emerged from this gathering was disheartening—a declaration wrapped in threats rather than hope, epitomized by the statement, “Come with a bullet, a bullet awaits you.”
This phrase, laden with aggression, underscores a squandered opportunity to foster unity and development. While Sierra Leoneans are weary of the enduring economic hardships, there remains a collective belief that progress is achievable through proper leadership and inclusive governance.
The cabinet retreat was a chance to galvanize this belief, to present a strategic vision involving both local and international development partners, and to engage all citizens in building a better Sierra Leone.
As a concerned citizen, I have consistently highlighted the missteps and failures within our society and leadership. Yet, I also believe in acknowledging when something positive is on the horizon. Unfortunately, President Bio’s approach has again diverted from constructive dialogue and effective governance, leaning instead towards divisive rhetoric. This is particularly troubling given the anticipation that the retreat would yield actionable plans to address the pressing social malaise.
The President’s post-retreat statement should have been a clarion call for unity and collaborative effort, emphasizing strategic partnerships and the collective strength of Sierra Leoneans. Instead, the ominous tone alienated those who yearn for genuine leadership and inclusive progress. The people of Sierra Leone were looking for assurances of development, strategies for economic recovery, and commitments to social stability—not threats.
It appears that President Bio is more focused on impressing certain factions rather than fulfilling his role as the leader of the entire nation. The time for politicking is over; the elections have concluded, and the President’s allegiance must now be to the nation as a whole. His second and final term is an opportunity to leave a lasting legacy of progress and unity, but this can only be achieved through humility and a genuine commitment to inclusive governance.
Moreover, President Bio must recognize that some of his closest advisors are not serving the nation’s best interests. It is imperative that he recalibrates his approach, surrounding himself with individuals who are genuinely committed to the welfare of Sierra Leone. Leadership is not about threats but about inspiring confidence and fostering a cooperative spirit among all citizens, regardless of their political affiliations or regional backgrounds.
Therefore, I urge President Julius Maada Bio, our leader and father of the nation, to shift his focus towards constructive and inclusive governance. The rhetoric of threats must be replaced with messages of hope and strategies for development.
Bullets are unnecessary; what Sierra Leone needs is unity, humility, and a collective effort to build a prosperous future. Let us move forward together, with a renewed sense of purpose and a shared vision for our beloved country.
It is a shame to claim logical reasoning when failing to confront well-known dictatorial regimes and call them what they are. What sort of logic seeks to balance the so-called achievements of notorious dictators against the indescribable evils they committed? Were the mass exterminations relating to Stalinist Soviet Union, Hitler’s Third Reich and Idi Amin’s Uganda mere fabrications by the West?
And zeroing in on the situation in Sierra over the last six years or so, one must ask: what is wrong with calling out the egregious violations of the rights of ordinary Sierra Leoneans, particularly their basic right to life, perpetrated by President Death Bullet Bio and his murderous regime since 2018? Do we have to balance such atrocities against the regime’s much trumpeted but vacuous Free Quality Education policy?
Criticizing Bio and his regime’s failures and atrocities in strong, forceful language is necessary. Such criticism is an essential anarchistic blast against a government whose security forces have carried out wave after wave of killings since assuming power.
Pademba Road Prison, Hastings, Tombo, Makeni and Binkolo come readily to mind, not to mention the bloody repressions on 10 August 2022 and the hecatomb resulting from last December’s alleged coup plot.
No reasonable Sierra Leonean commentator would seek to split hairs or make nuances in the name of logic, reason, or objectivity when assessing a leader and a government that have presided over such appalling loss of Sierra Leonean lives. Their reaction would naturally be visceral: the recurring fratricidal bloodletting is gut-wrenching and should shake them to the core. They should not be emotionally dead or wedded to cold pragmatism, utilitarianism or amorality.
If there is a time for reason and logic, it is not now. These unmitigated brutal acts by those whose primary duty is to safeguard all Sierra Leoneans call for an entirely different approach—one that puts outrage and unambiguous denunciation front and centre. To consider such outrage and denunciation as mere tribal party-political sentiments is to equivocate, to refuse to take sides, and to call fair foul and foul fair. Where is one’s moral fibre?
For some of us, the rationalisation of the atrocities committed by authoritarian leaders is a non-starter.
Leo Africanus, please reread your history with acute, unmitigated analysis. Most importantly, endeavour not to take things out of context. Idi Amin did what? !!. Do you know how many of his compatriots Stalin killed in the name of holding on to power. He became so scared of what rivals might do to him that he isolated in his dacha at Kuntsevo where he died. You don’t have to kill your compatriots to stay in power – just do the right thing. Does Bio do the right thing. Read what Dauda Yillah wrote.
Do you know how many people died in World War Two, including Sierra Leoneans? Who started it? Specifically how many Jews were slaughtered in that war? You seem to think that Bio is immortal. Prove it. What sustained development has Bio brought to the country in six years?
You’re probably living in the diaspora where you go to bed everyday with a filled stomach , the plight of the majority of Sierra Leoneans doesn’t concern you as you sit in your armchair daydreaming. If you’re living Sierra Leone, you’re bound to be within the immediate circle of Bio, where people like Paran Tarawally operate, so you are short of nothing.
Please delve into the cohesive instincts of Bio and explain them to us in unambiguous terms – hold nothing back please.
I do apologise, if I do not take western propaganda hook, line, and sinker. Stalin industrialised Russia, if it was not for Stalin, WW2 would have had a different outcome. Hitler created the Autobahn, the Volkswagen and rescued Germany from the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic. My point being that these people had some attributes,as such do not compare them to a nonentity like your president. Now,as for Bio, kindly explain where in my statement, I supported Bio. If you were not so blinded by your tribalistic love for your APC which is in reality another curse to the nation, you would have read my assertion from a logical instead of an emotional basis.
President Bio, Sierra Leone’s current Fountain of Honour and Justice? What a misnomer! Indeed, a rebaptism is well in order here, and the sooner, the better for our country. Surely, a demented, uncontrolled, grotesquely gushing ‘Fountain of Dishonour and Injustice’ is more like it. A Fountain of Death whose specialty is spewing bullets, gloating as he does so over the havoc – the ever-mounting piles of Sierra Leonean corpses – wrought by his presidential expertise. The heaps of corpses – the more of them, the merrier – constitute the foundation of his power and the measure of his reign.
But Death, it must be said, is merciless and unsparing, particularly to those – Bio and his ilk – who have the audacity to hijack its lethal sting for self-serving political ends. Nothing lasts, including the most powerful of men. Proof? Remember these words from Shelley’s “Ozymandias”:
“[…] My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
Admittedly, the inspiration behind Shelley’s sonnet – the greatest of Ancient Egyptian Pharaohs (Ramesses II) known to us – did achieve lasting fame.
By contrast, Bio is known and will be remembered for his infamy – a purveyor of death among his compatriots. MashAllah. Amina Yarabi.
A great opportunity missed like the writer indicated but for which the take home for those in the audience and the nation at large has left a bitter taste. The stern warning to underperforming ministers was widely welcomed only to throw spanner in to the works.
The president’s utterances were in variance to what is expected of someone occupying the highest seat in the land and to see senior government officials laughing and clapping was disgraceful.
The President should lead by example but has clearly shown he sanctions threats made by supporters and officials within his government. The President is angry that things are not going his way due to failed leadership and lack of funds from financial partners but that does not warrant threats of any kind. President Bio needs to bring the Country together not divide it further.
I personally believe that President Maada Bio, who is the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces and Fountain Of Honor has the RIGHT to inform the CITIZENS and discard the LIES that have been perpetrated by some UNPATRIOTIC AND DELUSIONAL supporters and sympathizers of the All People’s Congress (APC) party.
Based on his experience, some APC members and supporters have decided to engage in constant THREATS, INTIMIDATION AND VIOLENCE against our citizens when their expectations of RE-RUN of the 2023 Presidential Election is not conducted after the TRIPARTITE COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS. The APC party now has to choose between BALLOT in 2028 and BULLET to carry their threat as they did in August 10, 2022 and November 26,2023. The international community have already vaccinated our nation with the TRUTH VACCINE, so most of our citizens are now immune to the LIES AND THREATS from some factions of the APC, just to create FEAR and scare investors away.
Despite the economic and energy challenges across Africa, the last thing we need is another military coup. President Bio simply stated that “ There is nothing to fear, but fear itself”.
I wonder why should Sierra Leoneans should be astonished or amazed at these imposters rhetorics. Look a thug is always a thug, regardless of the man being an imposter so-called president.
Bio is a dysfunctional, defunct lawless thug informs and infunction, for genuine and rational good thinking Sierra Leonean. This man possesses acute mental frigility and instability which is basically unhealthy for him and the country.
Bio’s judgment capacity has been eclipsed by regional and tribal identity politics which is unhelpful. Look at his bogus statements, shows that yes indeed, Bio should have never been given the country’s mantle of leadership because he’s basically not a responsible man. He’s a reckless driver, not fit for any purpose.
So former president koroma’s dicision to hand over power to this reckless man was indeed reckless behaviour against the people of Sierra Leone and by extension his APC political party. Dr. Koroma’s betrayed of his country and party is an abomination by itself.
It’s so sad and disheartening. Look at the destruction these clueless people have now done to the economy, country, on human rights, image of the country, to name but just a few. So sad.
25.05.2024. President Bio – and his like-minded – confirmed that he has nothing civilised, constructive and progressive to offer all Sierra Leoneans. He failed to identify the essential list of current problems our nation is enduring; proffering solution options with allied management of essential changes due to his low standards of ethics and intellectual bankruptcy! Seton During.
The nation must understand that Bio lacks leadership qualities, even with his military background, where he promoted himself at will, just like the butcher of Uganda, Idi Amin, who died in exile, and the Ugandan government refused to have his body returned home for burial – he probably lies buried in an unmarked grave in Saudi Arabia.
It is more suitable to refer to Bio as an outlaw, a gangster, a bully, whose so-called popularity and governance are confined within his tribespeople in the south and southeast. The nation should take solace in the knowledge that all such leaders meet a tragic end. Remember Samuel Doe ?Remember Idi Amin ? Remember Mabutu Sesseco? Remember Hitler? Remember Stalin who died alone in his dacha?
Bio does not have any unifying instinct or quality, and increasingly becoming afraid of his own shadow, hence his constant issuing of threats to kill on a mass scale to hold on power – a passing thing just like life itself.
Bio wants a divided Sierra Leone. He should be accorded his wish after he has been kicked out together with his unelected co-president, Fatima Bio. Hitler escaped capture by the Russians by the skin of his teeth by committing suicide. How will Bio escape when his time is up? May be by crawling into a hole like Sadam Hussein of Iraq .
With all due respect, faults those leaders may have had, true. However, the comparison with the president is an insult to people like Stalin (changed Russia from an agrarian to an industrial society) Idi amin( Bought jets and navy ships for Uganda, making them a military power) Saddam (the Iraqi currency was higher than the U S dollar) Hitler (genocidal, however, he did deliver Germany from hyperinflation).
President Bio’s speech yesterday, left me very concerned. He continues to miss opportunities to speak to the nation, rather than his own constituents. Rhetoric of bullets for bullets, threats of death, are unhelpful. People are hungry and dying. We want food and yearn for peace