Alan Luke: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 16 August 2023
US Ambassador to Sierra Leone – David Reimer has today made it clear to the Bio-led government of Sierra Leone that the United States government has not and does not accept the results of the June 24 presidential and general elections announced by the country’s chief electoral commissioner.
Speaking on Radio 98.1 in Freetown about the credibility of the 24th June 2023 election results and the implications for US government funded development programmes in Sierra Leone, including the MCC Compact, Reimer confirmed that US government funding is dependent on democratic good governance, and free and fair elections.
Commenting on President Bio’s proposed committee headed by Sierra Leone’s vice president Juldeh Jalloh to investigate the elections process, Mr Reimer unequivocally said that it is just not possible for someone who participated in the 2023 elections to lead the election review.
He said that the US would like to see a person outside of Sierra Leone who is independent of APC and SLPP to lead the review.
He went further to emphasise the need to ensure that anyone leading the review must not have family or ethnic ties with any of the political parties in the country.
David Reimer also made it clear that the results of the June 24th elections is not credible, and that whilst Julius Maada Bio has been declared the president, the US has not congratulated him. This, he said, is the position of the US government, irrespective of his replacement as US Ambassador to Sierra Leone.
Reimer calls for political dialogue to end the crisis that has engulfed Sierra Leone and repeated his appeal to the main opposition APC not to boycott governance.
However, APC representatives must continue to resist calls to participate in governance, until an independent review mechanism has been established, with clear terms of reference that must include:
1) a guaranteed commitment to re-run of the elections, if the election review finds flaws in the way in which ECSL conducted the elections.
2) a guarantee that the entire ECSL leadership will be replaced and that new commissioners are appointed by a group, independent of the Executive, and
3) new elections will be conducted by an external body, preferably the EU or AU. ECOWAS is completely unfit for purpose.
Take a listen to the US Ambassador’s interview:
Our APC propagandists seem to be going through the process of metamorphosis or perhaps emotional roller coaster. Before the June 24th election, he started as a false prophet by predicting “Doom and Gloom’ during the census process, then took it a notch further during the registration process.
Few days before the elections, he was transformed to a “fear monger” just to intimidate the TOUGH and FEARLESS Chief Electoral Commissioner, when he was given a 72 hours ultimatum to resign, even though he was surrounded by his counterparts from over nine African countries in a display of SOLIDARITY.
Currently, he is now a career diplomat bragging about, in my opinion, the misleading headline which in tabloid newspapers , purposely meant to attract or shock readers to develop interest in reading the article. I will confess that it was a perfect headline for most of the depressed and angry APC supporters and sympathizers who will pay any cashier up to $10 , due to the fact that tabloids are displayed in strategic locations in order to capture customers attention while paying for their groceries or medications.
I personally believe that the audio message of the outgoing Ambassador is to set the record straight that, moving forward, President Bio is the NEWLY ELECTED PRESIDENT as President Joe Biden, even though he and former President Trump did not congratulate either president. The Second message he conveyed to the APC party members and sympathizers that are trying to use the global financial crisis to incite their gullible citizens to repeat August 10, 2022, was he categorically stated that , the economic problems is not the fault of the government and even his own country has the same economic challenges.
Finally, I personally believe that the root cause of all this problem started with the lifetime leader of the destructive APC party which is evidence in the below link:
https://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/president-koroma-receives-sierra-leone-constitution-review-report-when-is-the-referendum/
MAADA BIO IS INDEED AN ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENT
THANK YOU very much , Alan Luke for not coating your diction and using the right words and expressions to report this story. And thanks to my buddy, Abdul Rashid Thomas, for keeping the faith by publishing hard-hitting articles, op/eds and editorials.
SLPP supporters would snap at you, bombard you with insults and even defame you as they are doing now, Rashid, but that is the debt true journalists pay.Just as bullets are the debt soldiers owe the society, insults, hostility, jail time and infamy are the debts Journalists owe society. If you ever find yourself being hailed by the public, you are not doing your job and you should worry. A true journalist doing his job will not be hailed by everybody or have friends because men are allergic to truth. Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:26 “Woe unto you when all men speak well of you; for so did their fathers to the false prophets.”
As I always tell you, I am “embalmed” .Insults, threats and slander do not bother me. I started receiving them at a very tender age over 50 years ago when I started journalism with the hand-produced FREEDOM NATIONALE in Form 1 at CKC in 1966, throughout my schooling there and of course at Chuks Press at Fourah Bay College where I gave hell to the archaic college administration and the despotic APC Siaka Stevens government downtown, continuing even when I graduated , until I was jailed at Pademba Road Prisons by the tyrant, Siaka Stevens and late forced to flee the country to be able to survive and live to fight another day. Any journalist who craves the praises and adulation of the world has found himself in the wrong profession. He is a sailor on horse back.
I have always said that one of the reasons the world is swinging out of control is that preachers do not preach the same message. While others deliver the unadulterated word of God to warn sinners of their inevitable doom, others sugarcoat and spend their time preaching only the faith and prosperity gospels. No wonder sinners do not repent and believe that all is well with them. The same principle exists in Journalism. If all journalists refuse to compromise with coconut head leaders like Maada Bio, the world would become a better place. So thanks, guys, for saying it as it is. We have to redeem Sierra Leone.
Thank you for describing dictator Bio as an illegitimate President. SLPP Supporters are so blinded by partisan ways of assimilating even what they hear or read that they were fooling themselves that U.S. Ambassador David Reimer acknowledged that Maada Bio won the elections and is the President of Sierra Leone. Why will these people understand sarcasm and irony ? The Ambassador never acknowledged Maada Bio’s presidency. The guy interviewing him asked him a question that gave the impression that the U.S.was fighting Maada Bio’s presidency. It was to make it clear –He had to as a foreign diplomat-that it was not really the U.S intent . The ambassador said that yes, Bio is the president and there is no doubt about that, but then he quickly added that the U.S. did not congratulate him. If he had acknowledged his presidency, would he have refused to congratulate him ? Why would somebody affirm and accept somebody’s victory but purposedly, on principle, refuse to congratulate him ?
Another error being spread by the SLPP supporters is that the MCC Compact will not be stopped. The SLPP government will hold high level talks with the U.S Government and the decision to put the compact on hold would be rescinded. Should you be surprised, anyway, if SLPP people think like that ? Do you see them as a humble, honest, realistic, practical, pragmatic breed who accept the truth ? SLPP supporters think that the world rotates around them and their their proud , arrogant, pompous, wrongheaded , stubborn , egotistical values and dispensation. They never believe they are wrong . They never believe they have hurt you, even when they do. They never believe that they must be told the truth or sanctioned for wrongdoing. They believe that they can slash your throat and get away with it because they are SLPP. These are the axioms on which SLPP conduct business. That was why the respected Ambassador John Leigh suggested at Facebook last week that SLPP should be given their own world to live because they are not fit to be among civilized people.
The MCC Compact has been put on hold and Maada Bio will never receive that money during his incumbency. The MCC Compact is between the people of Sierra Leone and the U.S. Government so it will not be cancelled. But as long as an illegitimate president continues sitting on the throne at State House, hold will be put on it. Bio will never smell that MCC Compact money.
Once again, guys , thanks for upholding the truth and holding back nothing to let the world know what is actually going on in Sierra Leone.
Oh dear Bilal Coleman, how many times do I have to make myself clear to you and those inclined to support and defend your views ? Put Satan, SLPP and APC in front of me and tell me to choose one of them for the presidency of our dear country. Let me say with all the candour and emphasis that I can muster: Satan will be our president.
I don’t think you ever fully read what I write, that’s why you hoodwink yourself into imagining my train of thought. What Commission has Bio set up apart from the ill-fated COI which was to investigate Earnest Koroma and his gang of thieves , under whose watch Ebola (“kasankay “) and mudslide funds went missing? If you’re referring to the broached committee to investigate the elections of 24th June 2023, well tell me my old pal, would you trust a hyena to investigate the circumstances of your missing goats and sheep ? Common Bilal you have more sense than that. The analogy goes for Vice President Juldeh Jalloh. You know why, I believe in your intelligence.
Me, a surreptitious partisan? How I wish The Telegraph can reproduce what I wrote about Bio at the dawn of his presidency. I stand belittled amongst my friends and acquaintances who cautioned me. I fell for him (head first) when the race came down to him and Samura. KKY had been my man, but he fell in the first round. He has now been cast in the farthest reaches of my mind. I am for mother Sierra Leone. I love fair play, which is lacking within the ranks of SLPP. Do you happen to know that the journalist who conducted the interview with the American Ambassador is in hiding and on the run? He now fears for his life, he doesn’t want to be mowed down by Bio’s assassins.
Brother Bilal Coleman
Thanks to the Almighty, I’m doing fine. It’s just a busy summer schedule.
The reality is, the first port of call for the incoming United States Ambassador will be the Statehouse of our newly elected Commander In Chief and Fountain Of Honor Retired Brigadier President Dr. Julius Maada Wonnie Bio. He has to handover his credentials to our president and will exchange handshake which is the normal protocol for diplomats.
The MCC program will always be a yearly review process by successive ambassadors as was the case with the Ambassadors Maria Brewer and later David Reiner. I believe that if the current government continues to excel in the fight against corruption and over ten more indices in the chart, we will continue to EARN grants for the development of our nation.
Even Cameroon which is undemocratic with the longest serving president in the world has not been suspended from the MCC program, so addressing challenges in our past election won’t change the reality that we are one of the most peaceful and least corrupt country in Africa. Probably, the outgoing ambassador is just playing the favorite music of the APC for the past five years about withholding the MCC benefit , by sending their gullible supporters to challenge our law enforcement officers to show that our is not peaceful and trying to drive investors away. Unfortunately,I can’t predict the future, but based on the information from the head of the MCC (which is an independent organization), who last visited our country , stated that we have EARNED the grants just like the way UN Secretary General stated that we have EARNED the seat of the non permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, regardless which party is in power.
But as the Krio proverb says: Baboo Wok Monkey eat, the APC party members and sympathizers are still dreaming of GRABBING or KAPPU and destroying everything as they did during their 11 years of misrule, after they inherited an almost debt free economy from late President Tejan Kabba of the SLPP party.
Mr. Thomas
The point I’m trying to convey is, just in case Vice President Juldeh Jalloh decide to recuse himself from the investigation, the HEAD or CHAIRMAN of any investigation in Sierra Leone should be a NEUTRAL and NON PARTISAN CITIZEN. The 2018 Commission of inquiry was headed by Justice Bankole Thompson and the rest followed.
Even the Truth and Reconciliation which was comprised of seven commissioners: four men and three women, of whom four were Sierra Leoneans and three were foreigners, Bishop Dr. Joseph Humper was the Chairman and Hon. Justice Laura Marcus-Jones was Deputy Chairperson . Most ordinary Sierra Leoneans have credibility and Integrity as Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh whose background as a political scientist who started his career as a program officer at the United Nations mission in war torn Kosovo. He also served as a member of the board of senior advisers at the United Nations stabilization mission in Mali and the Sahel region. He was also the pioneer behind the MCC program , which over $450 million EARNED by the current government will benefit the lives of Freetonians by providing sustainable electricity and water supply.
Unfortunately, even with the diversification of the judges of the Commission of Inquiry, most of the past APC ministers refused to show up for the hearings which they still believe is a “Witch Hunt”. I also believe that even if they appoint Pope Francis to head this current election investigation announced by President Bio during the opening of the 6th parliament, if the outcome doesn’t include Samura Kamara as the elected president, the APC party members and sympathizers will reject the outcome.
Bilal Coleman, from the moment Sierra Leone became a republic under Siaka Stevens, The English Crown seized to be represented in our country by a governor general. Read your history properly.
If you believe Bio won the presidency fairly, initiate a campaign to urge him to subject himself to an independent investigation of the results, which have been roundly condemned by both local international communities as being unquestionably flawed.
I don’t have time to go in circles with you, you simply cannot match my objectivity. You fight for SLPP, I fight for mother Sierra Leone. If things were reversed I would fight for SLPP against APC.
US Ambassador Reimer has done a superb job during his tenure. The US Government has a skilled diplomat in him. He helped to save Black Johnson Beach from being sold by Bio to the Chinese – a treasonable and unpatriotic act. What is your contention? For as long as Sierra Leone keeps producing people like you, we are going no where for the next sixty two years, by which time both of us will be down under. Oh, and one last thing: US foreign policy is not fragmented. Listen to your interview again to prove my point.
Santhkie Sorie,
I understand the nature of your objectivity. Your objectivity reserves you the right to consistently attack President Bio and the SLPP while surreptitiously supporting the APC. I am also sure that it is this brand of objectivity that allows you to tell the bold-faced lie that President Bio does not want to subject himself to an independent electoral commission for a review of electoral improprieties. Where were you when President Bio established the independent commission? Even the outgoing American Ambassador that you now adore for obvious reasons positively commented on Bio’s commission. His only point of objection was the head of the commission.
It is folks of your ilk that are responsible for Sierra Leone’s backwardness. While the International Community that you are so apt to reference has never disagreed with the legitimacy of President Bio’s presidency, you are so exuberant in spreading lies on social media about the elections that gave the president a second term.
Yes, there were improprieties associated with the elections process. But credible observers on the ground have never challenged the legitimacy of Bio’s presidency. The problem arises when troublemakers like you go around spreading falsities to satisfy their partisan interests. And just in case your so-called objectivity does not allow you to follow international news and expose yourself to the objective reality of the world, be informed that Sierra Leonean government officials are scheduled to meet with their American counterparts in Washington DC next month to iron out the wrinkles in our bilateral relations.
Mr. Thomas
Your answer is on the link below :
But I was worried about our IQ rating based on the unrealistic demands and decisions by our newly elected Members of Parliament and Local government authorities of the APC party. Unfortunately it seems like it has been
downgraded.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rosolu_Bankole_Thompson
Thanks Mr Fallay but my point is that Bankole’s role was to provide legal guidance to the non-Sierra Leonean Judges, as each of the judges including Bankoke had their own specific area of the investigation for which they were responsible. Each of those judges produced a report based on their findings, conclusions and recommendations. Bankole did not command any seniority over the non-Sierra Leonean judges. The inquiry was a team effort. What the US Ambassador and critical minded Sierra Leoneans are saying is that because the elections investigation will look into the claims and counterclaims of all political parties, its highly unlikely you will find anyone in Sierra Leone who is not politically biased one way or the other. Given the absolute need therefore, to produce an impartial and independent report, its absolutely necessary to ensure that those leading the elections investigations are outside of the country. Makes sense, does it not?
I personally believe that the statement from the United States’ Ambassador is very diplomatic in order for the APC party to save face against the unrealistic expectations they made about a re- run election. Now that the international community has agreed that President Bio was re-elected in the June 24th elections, there are still concerns and challenges in our election processes and procedures which needs improvement.
The APC party has the right to accept or reject the outcome of the elections like some party members and sympathizers have done in the past election cycles even after late Vice President Solomon Berewa congratulated former President Earnest Koroma in 2007.
The only disagreement I have with the ambassador is to suggest that we are not capable of handling these challenges and should be handled by a foreigner.
Sierra Leone fought 11 years civil war and the truth and reconciliation committee was headed by a Sierra Leonean, to settle scores of the killings, maiming and destruction of properties.
I personally believe that even if the Vice President decides to recuse himself from this process, another credible and neutral Sierra Leonean should replace him.
I wish Ambassador David Reinier good luck in his next endeavor.
Fallay, if we should take your suggestion that we are capable of heading such critical investigation that has the potential to delve the country into chaos, if not handled impartially and professionally, why did president Bio appoint foreign judges to lead his Corruption Commission of Inquiry which equally had the potential to send Sierra Leone into flames?
Mr. Alusine Fallay,
Long time. Hope all is fine with you. The new United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Mr. Bryan David Hunt, met with Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to the United States, Mr. Sidique Wai, today. And word coming from Freetown is that a high-powered Sierra Leonean Government delegation will be traveling to the United States next month for serious bilateral discussions with US government officials. Expectedly, the mess that the All People’s Congress has created will be on top of the agenda.
Significantly, meeting with Secretary of State, Tony Blinken and/or President Joe Biden will diminish the importance of the arrogant utterances of Donald Trump-appointee, David Reimer, in his capacity as US Ambassador to Sierra Leone. Reimer, as you may well know, has been APC’s lifesaver in his arrogant insistence that the Vice President of Sierra Leone must not be in the electoral review commission. But he will not be at the Washington DC meetings. Since he has been recalled, he will be relegated to a desk job at the State Department with no chance of getting another diplomatic assignment under a Democratic administration.
“To err is human and to forgive is divine”.
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
The declaration of the US Government through Ambassador Reimer is like putting on an oxygen mask in a passenger plane that’s fast losing cabin pressure, a situation which can lead to death within minutes. Most fair minded Sierra Leoneans (both SLPP and APC) should see this development as setting the country on the path of peace and justice, where the government of the day is a mirror image of the wishes of the majority of the people.
Maada Bio and Mohammed Konneh at ECLS know, or should know that both the local and international communities, within hours of Bio being declared the winner of the June 24th election, announced in unambiguous language that the elections were grossly flawed in all elements. But the Bio government activated, forthwith, the bulldozing and intimidating weapons which have become their trademark to silence and ignore objections to the results and imposed their will on the country. Now,
back room diplomacy and entreaties have begun to surface in public.
The American Ambassador could not be more clear. Using his diplomatic skills, he unequivocally stated his government’s position on the elections, dismissing any notion that his successor would take a different approach or stance. For most Sierra Leoneans the Ambassador scored highly when he said that any committee set up to investigate the elections should be manned by outsiders who do not have a stake in the outcome. Therefore,Vice President Juldeh Jalloh should be ruled out, he is a member of the gang.
All Sierra Leoneans who love peace and fairness should thank the American Ambassador profusely, and hence the American Government,for the position taken. With this interview on 98.1 one could safely say the Western world has stood up to be counted under the umbrella of democracy.
Santhkie Sorie,
The last time I checked, Sierra Leone did not have a governor called David Reimer. Reimer is a Donald Trump-appointed envoy who now must worry about his job upon being recalled by a Democratic administration. And things may even get worse if those of us living in America lead a protest against this wannabe despot at the State Department.
There is nothing wrong with suggesting an independent commission to investigate electoral improprieties. Elections are never perfect. But to dictate the composition of that commission is undiplomatic and arrogant.
Despite minor inconsistencies in the process, the elections were won fairly by President Bio. This is the time to govern and not to continue entertaining APC’s foolishness. But if Reimer wants to dance with the APC the same way his former boss Donald Trump is dabbling in foolishness and stupidity in America, then let him be.
Let David Reimer get his rogue stupidity out of Sierra Leone. Was it not the same crap his former boss NOW INDICTED CRIMINAL DONALD TRUMP DID, AFTER HE TRUMP WAS BEATEN BY JOE BIDEN? No wonder he Reimer has been recalled. His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio won that election. Reimer is a big fool to believe he Reimer and gang can replace the Sierra Leonean people in choosing their leaders because of aid. The clown like his former boss Donald Trump are the walking embodiments of falsehood having no regard for the norms and institutions of democracy. Sierra Leone is no overseas territory of any damn country in the world. President Bio won that election. And that is final! The very fact he Reimer has been recalled is enough proof of his diabolical and criminal agenda.
I am available to be considered for leading the investigation of perceived/misperceived anomalies pertinent to Sierra Leone’s 2023 General Elections. Seton During, London, UK.
https://www.costscutters.uk
I applaud ambassador Reimer position on the recent elections in Sierra Leone and the U S stance for not congratulating Julius MADA BIO. An independent investigator is plausible remark
THANK YOU ever so much, Raymond Conteh, my boyhood pardner and primary schoolmate. You have not lost your marbles like the wrongheaded SLPP
supporters lambasting Ambassador David Reimer, for standing up for the truth, the rights of the people of Sierra Leone and democracy around the world. This is what an ambassador of the United States does. He does not compromise with coconut head tinpots and bullies.
I join you in congratulating Ambassador Reimer. That was a very strong and uncompromising rebuke for a despicable tyrant and his dishonest, green tinted glasses-blinded supporters . It is also productive and progressive preventive diplomacy.
SLPP, Learn THIS. America may have her own faults but she has enduring values she cherishes that she will never compromise. In fact, as James M. McCormick postulates in his treasure trove of a book, AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY AND PROCESS ( Fifth Edition, 2010), America’s foreign policy is built around the axis of enduring values like doing the right thing ,especially in governance and dealing with people in a free and democratic world. SLPP never wants to do the right thing and so they will always be at odds with stakeholders and moral guarantors of good governance, human rights and democracy. SLPP had believed wrongheadedly that they would have stolen the June 24, elections and got away with it. But the wiser ones among their mobs of unreasoning and blind supporters will now see that the world can no longer countenance dictators, tyrants and election thieves like illegitimate President Maada Bio.
The reaction of the world has shocked them to the reality that they are not living in an exclusive world and that the world is not LEYMBEMA VILLAGE where they do what they want. SLPP has to learn to be inclusive and walk step-by-step with the civilized world in an era of globalization of everything that matters.
I have been briefed by diplomatic colleagues that it was the same message that the British High Commissioner, Lisa Chesney, went to deliver to the new Foreign Minister, Timothy Kabbah , but the SLPP media put out the most misleading rendition of the meeting.That was the only mistake High Commissioner Chesney made . Unlike Ambassador Reimer, she allowed the SLPP to control the process of reporting the meeting.She should have known that SLPP cannot be trusted with truth.
Lisa Chesney ‘s meeting with Timothy Kabbah was held behind closed doors and we now know that she too delivered poignant truths to the SLPP that the Greens will never report to the public . Ambassador Chesney should have let the British High Commission release their own version through a statement, instead of allowing the SLPP to do so and report only on the parts that sugared their ego. Bio has got away with all kinds of crimes in Sierra Leone, including killings and maiming of innocent youths and adults, human rights abuses ,deceit, corruption etc ( Or that is what he thinks . The ICC might be waiting on his coat tails until he vacates power).
Ambassador Reimer had to bite his tongue to deliver SLPP that strong, unalloyed, unbending, unequivocal and decisive message. Diplomats, by training and orientation, are very economical with words and they use euphemisms but there are times that they need to come out and make their intentions very clear so that their messages and intentions are not misrepresented by a deceitful government like the SLPP. This Ambassador Reimer did.The EU and UN ambassadors in Sierra Leone also understand the deceitfulness of African politicians so when they speak, they do not equivocate.
In Africa, deceitful politicians and supporters do not read through statements. Imagine SLPP acolytes contending that the Ambassador acknowledged that Bio won the elections. What the man said was satiric, but oh, ya, SLPP do not read between the lines. He said yes, Bio is the president but we did not congratulate him. Did that convey any message that he acknowledged Bio’s presidency ? The reason the amnbassador had to come out swinging was that SLPP were becoming too bull-headed in their impunity and beating their chests that they had robbed the world of democracy in broad daylight and they had got away with it. That was why Ambassador Reimer had to give them a reality check for them to know that it is not over yet.
Those disaggregated polling stations results being asked for must be produced and that independent investigation must be conducted by an outside body , otherwise, American government-to-government programs with the corrupt and undemocratic Bio government, including the MCC Compact, will have to be put on hold. Rabid SLPP supporters can downplay it all they want or infuse false hopes into their confused and corrupt minds. Bio will not get away with it and this may signal his downfall, eventually. Let us watch the drama unfold. You don’t trifle with America.
We are thankful to all the foreign diplomats and the international elections observers for the uncompromising stand they are taking against Maada Bio’s dictatorship, tyranny, violence, illegitimacy, illicit government and criminal methods of conducting governance. If Sierra Leoneans had lost hope, Ambassador breathed it back into them with that heavy-handed rebuke.
May democracy and civilized governance be restored in our country.
Long live the United States. Long live democracy.