By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
What Are You So Afraid Of, Mr. President?
Mr. President, let me ask you a question that the people of Sierra Leone have been quietly whispering: what exactly are you afraid of?
Are you afraid of a free and open election that may not end in your favour or the favour of your chosen successor? Are you afraid of accountability from the very citizens who placed you in power, hoping you would change their fortunes, not protect your own?
You came to power with promises of a new direction. But now, the direction seems to be backward. Inward. Paranoid. Your administration has turned politics into a personal shield, the government into a gated club, and public service into a platform for loyalists.
You’ve now made it nearly illegal within your own party for anyone to suggest they can be president too. This, Mr. President, is not leadership; it is monarchy in disguise.
We hear reports of gag orders issued to SLPP members who dare speak about succession. Threats of expulsion, intimidation of internal critics, and silencing of youth voices who once believed in your message. Is this the democracy you fought for?
You’ve reduced governance to loyalty tests, where competence is discarded if it comes with an independent mind. Every minister, every director, every appointed official seems to speak not for the people, but for your ego. Even the Information Minister, who should speak clearly for the nation, speaks in riddles that only serve to confuse and distort.
The people are not stupid. They understand what you are doing, Mr. President. They know when the government is preparing for a third term by stealth. They know when “national security” becomes a cloak for political survival. They see the war rhetoric for what it is: a plot to activate Article 49(2) and bypass term limits. And they also know about your Guinean counterpart, Mamady Doumbouya, who is also attempting to test the waters of constitutional manipulation.
Is there a quiet pact between you two? A gentleman’s agreement to mutually hold onto power by stoking fear and declaring emergencies? If so, then it is not just your party you are betraying; it is the very republic you swore to serve.
Let’s examine the evidence, Mr. President. In Guinea, Doumbouya came with a promise: he would lead a transition and return the country to democratic rule. But the longer he stays, the more obvious it becomes that his interest lies not in restoring democracy, but in reshaping it to fit his ambitions. He’s testing the waters, changing rules, and preparing the ground for a constitutional bypass. Sound familiar?
In Sierra Leone, your administration has made it a crime to speak freely. Dissenters are watched. Internal party democracy is crippled. And the people have become subjects of suspicion rather than citizens of a republic. While you parade internationally, boasting of your democratic credentials, at home, democracy is being dismantled brick by brick.
Your Minister of Information and Civic Education recently held a press conference. But instead of clarity, it was a mess of contradictions. One minute he says you’ll step down, and the next he hints at emergencies and exceptions. Why the confusion? Why do the double speak? Because the truth is uncomfortable. You do not want to leave.
Now, whispers from the State House suggest you are entertaining the idea of declaring a state of war, not because we are at war, but because you wish to exploit that clause in our Constitution that allows a president to stay on during a crisis. You want to rule through emergency powers, bypassing Parliament, elections, and, most importantly, the people.
We’ve seen this play before. Africa is no stranger to leaders who manipulate fear to cling to power. And Sierra Leone has paid the price for such delusions in the past. We fought to rebuild our democracy after the dark days. We cannot afford to return to a place where one man’s fear becomes a national crisis.
Mr. President, let me remind you: Article 49(2) is not your inheritance. It is a safety clause designed for real emergencies, an invasion, a war, or a natural disaster. It was not written to shield incumbents from defeat or protect egos from humiliation. Any attempt to use it to extend your tenure without the people’s mandate is an abuse of the Constitution.
Let me be clear: a war fabricated in the media, a war invented in the minds of political strategists, a war designed in backroom deals between you and Doumbouya will not be accepted as justification for violating the will of the people.
This is a democracy, not a dynasty.
If you believe you have served your nation with honor, then there should be no fear in handing over power. If you have built strong institutions, as you claim, then those institutions will survive your departure. But if your government crumbles the moment you step down, it only proves that your leadership was a cult, not a system.
What is a legacy, Mr. President? Is it the number of years you cling to power or the strength of the country you leave behind?
A wise leader prepares others to lead. He does not silence them. He does not intimidate them. He does not criminalize ambition.
What of the younger generation? Those who rallied for your New Direction? Do you want to teach them that democracy is a lie, that power must be hoarded, and that the rule of law is just a tool to protect the powerful?
We know, Mr. President. We have read between the lines. We have seen your reluctance to let go. We have seen how you have systematically weakened every voice that dares to rise independently. You have made loyalty to you the only political currency. And yet, loyalty is not leadership.
Look around the country. Look into the eyes of the youth who can’t find jobs. Look at the civil servants who are overworked and underpaid. Look at the hospitals, the schools, and the broken roads. Look at the mothers in the provinces who still give birth on dirty floors. Is that the legacy you want to defend with a fabricated war?
Power is not worth more than peace. No amount of fear will convince the people that dictatorship is salvation.
Your party, the SLPP, is not your personal property. It is a movement with history, with heroes who believed in justice and democracy. You are betraying that legacy every day you cling tighter instead of preparing for transition.
Mr. President, your fear is not of war; it is of elections. Your fear is not of coups; it is of democracy. And therein lies the danger. Because no leader afraid of democracy can ever be a democrat.
Why not trust the people who once trusted you? Why not nurture new leadership in your party instead of suffocating every seedling of hope?
A true leader builds successors, not suspicions. A statesman opens the door for others, not shuts it with fear and intimidation. You are not supposed to be afraid of being replaced. You are supposed to prepare for it.
There are no invisible enemies, Mr. President, only the consequences of broken promises and unmet expectations.
The real emergency in Sierra Leone is not external. It is internal: corruption, impunity, joblessness, injustice, hunger, and hopelessness.
But none of those will be fixed by holding onto power through loopholes and emergency declarations. They will be fixed by building institutions, not cults of personality.
So I ask again, Mr. President, what are you so afraid of? The voice of the people? The judgment of history? Or simply the truth?
Courage is not in winning another term. Courage is in walking away when the time comes.
History watches.
Sierra Leone watches.
And we, the people, are not afraid to speak truth to power.
Can we still talk, Mr. President, before it is too late?
