Maada Bio calls for dialogue within the SLPP
The former Head of State and 2012 flagbearer of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio has called on fellow SLPP party members to dialogue within the party in the interest of peace and unity. The Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio made this call during an interview on the popular good governance programme, Monologue, on Saturday, 17th May 2014.
In his interview with the David Tam Bayoh, the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio said that the SLPP has a moral obligation to the people of Sierra Leone and as such it is about time the party should be united and peaceful. It is in that light that, he is ready to dialogue with any SLPP member who has a grievance against him.
“I am ready to sit at the table with anyone who has a grievance against me so that we can dialogue in the interest of peace and unity within the party” Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio added.
When also asked by David Tam Bayoh that if he is in a room with SLPP national executive on the one hand and young people on the other hand what will be his message to the two sets of people, the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio said: “I will firstly admonish the young people that, they should desist from violence and from any attack on other party members whether verbal or personal; that they should respect the laws of Sierra Leone; that they should respect the elders within the party and abide by the constitution of the SLPP. To the national executive I will tell them that they have a moral obligation to leave their offices and go out in the country to talk to the people on the things that matter to them. I will also advise them that they need to travel out of the country to the diaspora and engage with the SLPP members in the diaspora branches whether it is in United Kingdom, United States, or Europe”.
Also Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio used the opportunity to re-echo his criticism of the All Peoples’s Congress (APC) government on their political manipulations of a court decision which gave both constituencies 05 and 015 to the APC . The Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio went on to say that you cannot have a constituency where the majority of people are represented by the votes of the minority because that is not democracy. Asked if he did not think that the decision on the two constituencies was solely a court decision rather than an APC government decision, the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio responded that the court has been compromised by the APC government which has undermined the purpose of the courts to represent fairness and justice in society.
In the interview, the Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio also spoke about his recent open letter which he addressed to President Koroma on the widely condemned issue of Third Term or extension of presidency. When asked why he decided to write the letter, Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio told David Tam Bayoh that as a former Head of State and a political stakeholder he has the moral obligation to advise the president and give out a position statement on such a very serious issue dealing with the sacred constitution. He went on to state that he was adding his voice to the numerous voices of Sierra Leoneans including the Press and Civil Society Organisations which have opposed any Third Term or extension of the presidency. He stated that there are more pressing important issues that the president should be focused on rather than Third Term. He identified those pressing issues as: the deteriorating electricity situation in all the provincial cities except Makeni; the poor road conditions; the growing youth unemployment; the fight against corruption; the weakening of the Judiciary; the high incidence of diseases; the limited access to safe drinking water; the poor educational and health standards; the limited access to adequate and nutritious food; the poor conditions for our workforce; the growing land-grabbing propensity and the deprivation of the rural poor.
Towards to the end of the interview, Rtd Brig. Julius Maada Bio also expressed serious concern about the recent reported arrest of an artist in Kenema believed to be an SLPP member for the printing of t-shirt with the inscription “After Gbagbo, Na U”. The Rtd. Brig. Julius Maada Bio said that we cannot continue to live in a country in which certain group of people are told to express their freedom of expression with the slogan “After U na U” whilst someone else is being arrested for an exercise of his freedom of expression just because of where he comes from and which political party he belongs. “That is not democracy” he added.
By Yusuf Keketoma sandi
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