By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
Mr. President, I come again, not to provoke but to speak truth on behalf of the voiceless. Mr. President, the time has come for us to confront the dangerous illusion you continue to promote. That of a leader gaining global credibility while losing all legitimacy at home.
Mr. President, your recent assumption of the ECOWAS Chairmanship should have been a moment of pride for Sierra Leone. But instead, Mr. President, it has become yet another platform for distraction. You did not win that position based on moral authority or democratic excellence. Mr. President, you lobbied, you maneuvered, and you convinced your Senegalese counterpart, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko, to step aside. Not for the good of the region, Mr. President, but to fulfill your personal ambition.
Mr. President, your game is clear. You want power without accountability. You want platforms without performance. You want titles without results. Mr. President, you are now Chairman of ECOWAS, but what have you done for Sierra Leone to justify such a regional role? What legacy have you left behind that ECOWAS can be proud of? Mr. President, the answer is nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Mr. President, even before the ECOWAS applause could settle, you were off to Brussels for a health summit. A summit, Mr. President, while Sierra Leone’s health system is crumbling. A summit, Mr. President, while hospitals in your own country run on candlelight. While doctors protest for pay. While mothers bring buckets and bedsheets to deliver babies. Mr. President, how can you stand before global health experts and speak about systems you have failed to build at home?
Mr. President, this is the pattern. You flee the mess you created. You run from responsibility and call it diplomacy. You abandon your people and call it international engagement. Mr. President, you use global stages to mask domestic shame. But Sierra Leoneans are not blind. We see through the charade.
Mr. President, you now speak of Africa needing a seat at the United Nations Security Council. Noble words, Mr. President, but from the wrong messenger. Mr. President, how can you champion Africa’s representation at the UN while failing to represent your own people with honesty and respect? Mr. President, you silence voices at home and then pretend to be the voice of a continent abroad. That is hypocrisy.
Mr. President, the bid for an African seat on the Security Council should come from leaders with credibility. Mr. President, you have lost yours. You lead a nation mired in poverty, corruption, and youth despair. You preside over a government that jails critics, manipulates elections, and silences the press. Mr. President, what legitimacy do you have to speak for a continent crying out for justice and fairness?
Mr. President, ECOWAS itself is in crisis. Mr. President, three countries have walked out. Others are barely holding on. And yet, under your leadership, Mr. President, there is no clear vision. No roadmap. No reform. Just more meetings. More flights. More photo ops. Mr. President, what does ECOWAS gain by having you as its face? What message are we sending to the world? That failure is rewarded and incompetence is elevated?
Mr. President, your leadership is not healing West Africa. It is hurting it. Your presence at the top does not inspire hope. It raises alarm. Mr. President, when leaders like you are elevated, it tells young Africans that integrity does not matter, that governance is a game, and that personal ambition trumps national service.
Mr. President, let us look at the ruins you leave behind everywhere you go. Free Quality Education. Dead. Mr. President, your flagship promise is now mocked by students sitting on bare floors and under leaking roofs. Agriculture. Dead. Mr. President, the farmers you promised to uplift still wait for seeds, tools, and roads to transport their produce. Healthcare. Dead. Mr. President, our hospitals are graveyards. Justice. Dead. Mr. President, your courts serve your political interest, not the people. Youth. Dying. Mr. President, the Kush epidemic is wiping out a generation under your watch.
Mr. President, everything you touch dies. Every institution. Every hope. Every promise. Mr. President, your leadership is a slow poison that is draining the life out of Sierra Leone.
Mr. President, how do you sleep at night knowing that every new title you gain means a new wound for your country? Mr. President, how do you justify to your conscience the contrast between your flashy foreign engagements and the misery that defines the lives of ordinary citizens?
Mr. President, this is not what leadership looks like. Leadership is not running from problems. Leadership is facing them. Leadership is not applause in foreign lands. It is action at home. Mr. President, true leaders build nations. You, Mr. President, have been busy building a personal brand.
Mr. President, the people are watching. Sierra Leoneans have grown tired of your rhetoric. Tired of your drama. Tired of your excuses. Mr. President, no chairmanship, no award, no international stage will erase your record. Mr. President, you have failed this country.
Mr. President, you can still salvage what remains, but it will take humility, something you have shown very little of. Mr. President, come home. Come down. Come clean. Talk to your people. Face their pain. Mr. President, fix what is broken before you chase more illusions abroad.
Mr. President, ECOWAS will not protect you from your legacy. The UN will not fix your credibility. The world may listen to your speeches, Mr. President, but Sierra Leone will remember your silence in their moments of suffering.
Mr. President, you were not elected to lead West Africa. You were elected to lead Sierra Leone. Mr. President, stop running. Stop hiding behind suits and spotlights. Come home and do the work.
Because, Mr. President, if history has proven anything, it is this. Everything you touch dies.
