Mohamed Konneh with Julius Maada Bio – The biggest electoral fraud Africa has ever seen
The politics of the past five years in the West African State of Sierra Leone can easily be turned into a blockbuster movie capable of raking in millions of dollars because of its huge potential of becoming a top 10 movie hit. The main actors being a cacophony of the current leadership and the first lady of the republic. The lead player is the president who doubles as a thief and human rights abuser. Julius Maada Bio reportedly sold the country’s passport to corrupt Chinese businessmen for thousands of dollars and diverted the funds to his personal bank accounts. The country’s coastline was also mortgaged to another Chinese company for a pittance. The first lady created an official position for herself as First Lady with an office and staff run from inflated allocated funds directly linked to State House, and paid for by the taxpayer. She fictitiously set up charities meant to help young girls but diverted funds secured from international aid donors to her personal bank accounts. She ended up serving cheap alternatives to menstrual pads to schoolchildren as evidence of having done something. The State House office of the president also presented fake hotel payment receipts to the accountant general’s office as invoices were sent for payment to be made directly to the head of state as expenses on foreign trips.
Then you have the Chief Electoral Commissioner who presided over the biggest electoral fraud Africa has ever witnessed! Even Cameroun’s Paul Biya’s record of fraudulent elections cannot be compared to how the elections were rigged in favor of Julius Maada Bio. The National Election Watch a civil society watchdog made up of several organizations could not comprehend the numbers manipulated at such an alarming rate that the ECSL reported as the tabulated results of the Presidential elections. The figures were so cooked up that journalists were demanding district-by-district tallying to keep up with the huge discrepancies. International Observers have described the electoral process as farcical and lacking transparency with no credibility and the international community has threatened sanctions and refused to recognize the rogue regime until the legitimate winner is installed as Head of State. The National Elections Watch (NEW) a local NGO whose head, Marcella Samba Sesay, had to flee the country under duress after her life was threatened when (NEW) revealed disparities and inconsistencies in the vote tallying process. She was stopped at first from embarking on her flight and it took the intervention of a top diplomat on the ground for her to be allowed to board her flight. She has since reported arriving safely at her intended destination. The country has been turned into a pariah state with a moribund economy and a mockery to the commonwealth of nations as the looting of the state coffers continues unabated by those who are supposed to be custodians of the way of life of the people of this great nation. Julius Maada Bio is the head of a criminal enterprise with an agenda to ruin the country’s economy and create mayhem and confusion in a country that has only known tribal and religious harmony as a way of life.
Supporters of the ruling SLPP party have gone on the rampage destroying properties and sometimes burning down homes of opposition supporters and ransacking market stalls of suspected opposition grassroots supporters. All this happened without the head of state making a single announcement to admonish them to desist from such acts.
It has been reported that the Head of State offered an olive branch to the opposition by dispatching the Catholic Archbishop of Freetown Archbishop Tamba Charles to attempt to mediate the impasse. But it seems the opposition is not keen on any negotiations and has demanded a re-run of the elections within 6 months requesting the establishment of an independent and impartial electoral body and the sacking of all the current commissioners.
The election results must be overturned to give the country any hope of re-emerging from the scourges of a Civil War, Ebola, and Covid as the economy took a toll and the constant assault on the vaults by Bio and his cabal has rendered the state dysfunctional. Restoring the democratic aspirations of the masses may be the first step in the right direction as the country grapples with the effects of having a dictator as Head of State for the past five years. The rampant human rights abuses and the incarceration of opposition politicians for trumped-up charges with Mohamed Kamarainba Mansaray still in prison without due process of the law or legal representation.
You also have the Foreign Minister Professor David Francis. who was until recently the Chief Minister. The man is an expert in manipulating figures. He stole so much money during his tenure as Chief Minister that the government had to print new money to make up for the shortfall. Even the President who is a notorious fraudster couldn’t massage the figures to help him and had no choice but to sack him and demote him to the Foreign Ministry. Ghost workers were created on his watch to enable him to pilfer state funds.
The Economy of Sierra Leone is currently on life support and the country may have to resort to IMF austerity measures to function amidst the current global high cost of living which has seen unaffordable high prices on basic commodities. The recent elections were seen as an opportunity for an overhaul of the system with the re-emergence of the APC government with a track record of economic and infrastructural development having a finance expert as a presidential candidate in the form of Dr. Mathew Wilson Kamara a former world bank and IMF executive and one-time Finance Minister and Governor of the Bank of Sierra Leone.
The regime of Julius Madaa Bio has been characterized by tribal and regional hegemony that has led to the redrawing of political boundaries and a distorted census to suit the party in power and enable them to win the elections in a very fraudulent manner. The onus is now on the International Community to reverse the misfortune that has taken place in Sierra Leone and as moral guarantors of peace and democracy in the country they must hold those responsible to account to prevent the fledging democracy from collapsing into anarchy.
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