Lindsay Barrett
Retired Brigadier General Julius Maada-Bio of Sierra Leone is fast becoming recognized as the exemplary symbol of a new generation of African leaders. He is one of the few (if not the only) African Presidents to have been born after his country became independent and although he initiated a coup when he was a military man the express purpose for that takeover was to enable the return to representative government. This was an unusually altruistic motive for a military coup at the time and when General Bio lived up to his pledge to hand over power and withdraw quietly into retirement from public office for several years he set an example that many young Sierra Leoneans regarded as being worthy of emulation. In the period of his retirement he became a dedicated student and improved his understanding of public administration noticeably. He produced several carefully thought-out papers on issues of development and governance during that period and then after more than a decade of quiet academic concentration he returned to the political arena.
His decision to join Sierra Leone’s oldest political party, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP),z and seek its Presidential ticket signaled a seminal change of the political discourse in Sierra Leonean society. Instead of focusing on regional loyalties and promoting the personalities of charismatic leaders Maada Bio sought to encourage the populace to consider the issues of honesty and efficiency in government as being the paramount concern for electoral choice. This stance placed him in serious conflict with the incumbent Administration led by the All Peoples Congress (APC) of President Ernest Bai Koroma as investigative reports unveiled a host of irregularities in the conduct of the government, which he promised to correct if he was chosen as leader. Since the historic victory at the polls that he recorded a little over a year ago, Maada Bio’s government has been preoccupied with the task of rehabilitating the extensively damaged economy, which he inherited. However, he decided that an important element of this task must be the prevention of activities that could perpetuate the impunity in official profligacy that he had protested against, and which he largely blamed for the dire economic condition that he inherited.
Soon after he took office he instituted a Commission of Inquiry, headed by highly respected judges from both international and domestic judiciaries, the mandate of which was to collect evidence of the irregular transactions that had undermined the principles of probity and accountability in government. When he announced this initiative the members of the defeated APC mounted a spirited challenge based on the claim that he was instituting a political witch hunt against his opponents and that he was simply being vindictive. However, once it was made clear that the intention was to expose genuine incidents of official looting and ensure that those who had engaged in such practices would be made to answer for their actions popular support for the initiative was manifested throughout Sierra Leone. After the sittings of the Commission of Inquiry began, especially those headed by a Nigerian, Justice Biobele Georgewill, which were broadcast live, the process gained further public approval. As a result, the Maada-Bio Government’s signature asset has become its commitment to honesty and accountability in its conduct of public affairs.
This perception of the SLPP government’s real commitment has now been enhanced by recent developments that show that President Maada-Bio is personally committed to ensuring that a new order of absolute integrity takes hold in his administration. In the most recent incident the President has dismissed his Chief of Protocol after she appeared on a TV programme sponsored by a Nigerian religious leader where she revealed that she had been able to complete a palatial luxury home only a few months after her appointment. President Maada-Bio wasted no time. He immediately removed her from office and instructed the law enforcement agencies of the country to institute investigations into her financial dealings and especially into the difference if any between her official declaration of assets and the real status of her assets. In addition to this the President has also ordered a comprehensive review and overhaul of the security and law enforcement institutions that he has inherited from the past regime. The need for this was made manifest a few months ago when Justice Georgewill’s residence was burgled and his laptop spirited away with vital information from the Commission of inquiry contained in its hard drive. President Maada-Bio has signaled his readiness to confront deeply entrenched attitudes and elements of corruption in the national psyche as he sets out to repair Sierra Leone’s devastated economic circumstances.