The Wise Bird is seriously in sympathy with democracy in Sierra Leone as the present situation in the country is very volatile and pathetic.
Since the controversial 2023 election ended, the country came to a standstill. The Wise Bird has been trying to put ideas together by way of talking to people whose tempers are still high to come down as election is not a life and death affair.
The Wise Bird has also been able to follow the discussions on the Streets, at homes, in buses, in pubs, at cenema halls, in poda-podas, kekehs, in markets places, in schools, at universities and even at workplaces. The discussions are almost the same on the lips of people.
What are the common discussions? The people of Sierra Leone have always been talking to themselves that the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) did not win the June 2023 general elections out rightly.
The question people were and still asking is that, what actually prompted the Chief Commissioner Mohamed K. Konneh to announce Maada Bio as winner?
Some people are still allegedly saying that the June 2023 general election’s results were manipulated at State House; others are also allegedly saying that the Chief Commissioner Mohamed K.Konneh was under allegedly a gun-point to announce the results.
After a deep breath, the Wise Bird came to the realization that the people were right to have said that the election was manipulated by the powers that be, and that is more the reason since President Dr. Julius Maada Bio was announced as winner, but still up-to-date no official acceptance is made by the Main Opposition, and day-in-day-out problem after problem ensures.
After the voting, the Wise Bird as usual went out to sound the views of people in respect of the announcement of President Bio as winner of the June 2023 election.
The first port of call was the office of the ruling party the SLPP. Unfortunately the views of supporters at the SLPP office were mixed; the die-hearted supporters the Wise Bird referred to as ‘monofocus’ and who do not have respect for democracy and the shallow-minded supported the announcement whilst others say they have their reservation on the issue.
Bra Parrot spoke to a lot of other people in different quarters, and about 75-80% did not support the announcement of Bio as winner because according to them; the results were still coming when the Chief Commissioner took upon himself to announce the result.
When the Wise Bird finally landed at the All People’s Congress (APC) party headquarters on Old Railway Line at Brookfields, the narrative was very clear. Some senior members the Wise Bird spoke with described the situation as unfortunate saying democracy is gradually dying in Sierra Leone.
Some say, because Bio did not win that poll and that is why today the Tripartite Committee is set up to look into the election process that is the 2023 election and subsequent elections.
One senior member of the APC was very clear in saying that the APC won the votes and SLPP won the count. And upon hearing that, the Wise Bird burst into laughter as its sounds very interesting for one person to win the votes while the other wins the count.