AN ANALYSIS BY ALIMAMY LAHAI KAMARA (Opinion)
I keep following President Julius Maada Bio; tracking his political choices; and analyzing his diplomatic and political attitude in so far as it relates to the political governance of Sierra Leone, and how it influences international politics. It will appear a difficult task to do, but it will also make a brilliant move to attempt. Of his political behaviour, I see soft politics; I see diplomacy; I see liberalism; I see democraticness.
“I am heartened by our collective decision to engage in meaningful dialogue despite our differences. This gathering exemplifies the power of redemptive goodwill and shared commitment to the peace, prosperity and stability of our beloved Sierra Leone.” He made this statement in the well of parliament. Addressed the Second Session of the Sixth Parliament of the Second Republic of Sierra Leone on 6th August, 2024. President Julius Maada Bio! Festoon of exuberance! Colourful! Full House; every seat occupied; every desk attentive; across delineations, a sense of Saloness spiraled in the air, whispering an anthem of national cohesion in the political diversity characterizing political behaviours in a society whose history of resilience predates it very existence.
His words are deliberate and in the meanings ‘redemptive goodwill’ seem to make draw attention to the recent November 26 failed putsch. It was an invasion that tested the tenacity of Sierra Leone’s democracy, tested the political resolve of her people – even those behind bars at Pademba Road rejected violence and escaped their invaders in honour of a national resolution Sierra Leone has taken against bloodbath macabre of political unrest, and tested a political maturity of a people whose democraticness, unrivalled across the sub-region, has produced three elected presidents in the last twenty-seven years or so without a single bullet fired, without a single political opponent jailed, and without a single political party banned.
In exhibition of Sierra Leone’s democraticness – in shared commitment to peace, the law was applied, treason trial commissioned, the perpetrators tried, and judgment passed on account of the failed coup d’état in 2023. It heralds a democracy that shapes the hopes and aspirations of its people who have chosen peace over conflict, stability over instability, and prosperity over poverty. And because of stability over instability, in the true meaning of redemptive goodwill, he fled his trial. Seamlessly painlessly! He is now resident in Nigeria. And so Bio reminded Parliament of the power of ‘redemptive goodwill’. Julius Maada Bio! This is what political compromise is; and this is why no man should take up arms unlawfully in favour of a politician. He will die, while he (the politician) lives! Lives in enjoyment!
In his second address on 2nd December, 2023, regarding the November 26th failed coup d’état Bio says: “one thing remains constant through all these grave challenges since our nation gained independence – the resilience and determination of our people – the hope of a brighter future. [That is] a future of peace, justice, security, and dignity for all.” You, who take up arms unlawfully in support of a politician against the state, your justice and security is serving a sentence in jail; your peace and future is physical, emotional and psychological confinement in jail; and your dignity is deprivation of your own clothes and beddings, your own food, and your social gratifications. You will be condemned a condemnation that haunts you for life. And the politician and his family live a life laced with all the appurtenances of social and economic merriment.
Hoffmann (1987: 396) appears to have discussed the political disposition of Bio at length in his argument in favour of political liberalism which to him relates to self-restraint, moderation, compromise and peace. Bio’s political attitude relates to liberalist tendencies. He wears clothes of a democrat, building the democracy of this democracy, and exporting the same democracy abroad. He meets his political choices; he takes scrupulous steps. The Tripartite Committee! A long path of convoluted streams of dialogue – rancorous discourses as the engagement at Brook-fields Hotel where parties held onto their boots as they winnowed a compromise – Bio has mastered the concept of inclusive political governance through dialogue. Rourke (2007: 26) believes that humans can cooperate in order to achieve a mutual benefit. Bio understands this. Politics is about interest! Most times a partisan self. In rare times, it is in the interest of the state. And when it is, there will be unity in diversity. Bio acknowledges this during the August 6, 2024, State Opening of Parliament: “this fully constituted Parliament is a living embodiment of our nation’s diversity and unity. Each seat in this esteemed chamber represents the voices, dreams and aspirations of our people, making it a true reflection of our democratic values.” This is where Bio’s political behaviour leads. Political and social harmony! Democraticness!
It appears to me that there has been a sense of urgency in Bio to get the country to this stage, to this state where at home there is a political and social stability which can be exported to nations bedeviled by political misadventures that have metamorphosed into full-blown conflict or in militarism plaguing nations across the African sub-region. Bio knows the clout Sierra Leone has mustered among it colleagues, and the respectability it commands in internationalism. Sierra Leone is not only treated as an equal, it is even being treated as an elder. An elder in political maturity! Bio chairs C-10: an African Union Committee of ten heads of states on United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reform. This is the command he carries; this is the respectability that surrounds him; this is the political vitamins he shares. And his colleagues, the African continent of 54 countries, acknowledge him. Julius Maada Bio! At one session he told C-10 that Africa’s under-representation is not just a statistical oversight, but a significant barrier to global governance, indicating a profound historical injustice that must be rectified. That rectification is today being championed by Sierra Leone.
However, the process has begun by first taking a seat as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council since 1971; being the President of the UNSC for August, 2024, to preside over security and peace in Africa and the world; advocating for an expansion of the UNSC to include 2 permanent and 3 non-permanent seats for Africa. Political buy-in to this endeavour has been astounding. On 13th August, 2024, at a bilateral meeting with Bio, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres favoured an expansion of the UN Security Council to end marginalization of the African continent. On 4th September, 2024, on the eve of the 9th Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), president Xi Jinping acknowledged Bio’s role to global peace and security and reaffirmed support for reform of the Security Council as called for by Africa. On 7th May, 2024, Foreign Affairs Minister Musa Timothy Kabba held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Moscow where both affirmed shared commitment to promote global peace and security. Minister of Information and Civic Education continues to inform the world of Africa’s call for reform of the UNSC. In one session, Chernor Bah spoke to DW AfricaLink Podcast on the signification of the UNSC reform for Africa to allow it to determine and shape the future of global governance. On 12th September, 2024, United States announced support for 2 permanent seats for Africa on the UNSC. According to Reuters, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield was addressing Council on Foreign Relations in New York. On 16th May, 2024, Ambassador Wang Quing, Chinese Ambassador to Sierra Leone, at the China-Sierra Leone Relation symposium in Freetown, called on both countries to increase the strategic significance of their bilateral relations and make greater contributions for a more just and equitable international order. Quing called for an opposition to hegemonism and power politics, and work to build an equal and orderly multipolar world. In Seoul as in Paris, Bio continues to build relations, strengthen friendship, and solicit the necessary partnership and cooperation that will continue to place Sierra Leone in the center for championing reform of the international order in the interest of Africa to command a voice in global governance.
These endeavours also empower Sierra Leone to negotiate trade terms on fair gesture, attract investment as in the US International Development Finance Corporation’s $412 million Western Area Power Generation project; and obtain development grant in infrastructure as in the Arab Bank for Economic Development’s $65 million for enhancing educational infrastructure of government schools in southern and eastern Sierra Leone and colleges elsewhere.
Bio has not extricated himself from occurrences in his backyard in so far as they relate to political governance, political peace and political instability. On 21st June, 2024, He addressed virtually the African Union Peace and Security Council on the situation in Sudan and warned that Sudan faces profound challenges that required an immediate and unified response. He has also travelled to Nigeria, Abuja, for talks on reinstatement of the democratically elected president of Niger.
In the last four years, political instability has swept the African sub-region, leaving in its wake noxious battles and innumerable deaths. The Sahel is in crises: Mali, which experienced coup d’état in August 2020 and May 2021 led by Colonel Assimi Goita, is in the brink of a state of collapse; Niger, where on 26th July, 2023, a coup d’état ousted president Mohamed Bazoum detained by his presidential guard junta leader Abdourahamane Tchiani, is crippled by an extraordinary insecurity in Niamey; Burkina Fasso, where on 30th September, 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traore toppled Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, has witnessed an unprecedented resurgence of terrorism and an unimaginable humanitarian crisis. And in Guinea the value for human life has escaped a junta that has entrenched itself in power in a country where precipitous hardship defies ethnicity.
It remains unclear when the dust will settle in these countries beleaguered by political crises attracting rouge elements in countries that are settled for now. Sierra Leone has faced it; was engulfed in a failed coup in November 26, 2023. Nigeria just jolted out of a violent protest in August 2024 dubbed as End Bad Government in Nigeria that saw waving of foreign flags and calling of the military to invade the country.
The relative success of coups d’état, the fact that they are not overturned neither are democratic elections held in their place remain the motivating factors for coups in Africa. Flexibility, pragmatism and skilled diplomacy are needed to avoid exacerbating the precarious situation (Aubyn, Ziblin and Apau, 2022: 2). AU and ECOWAS have started it; Bio is in the forefront. Months ago he traveled to Burkina Fasso for talks with the military junta.
This is what Sierra Leone has become: a democratic champion and an international peace moderator. Under his leadership – Julius Maada Bio.
As a writer, I am just researching President Bio so that it is known that someone is taking note. I remain Alimamy Lahai kamara.
