By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
“Author of Monopoly of Happiness: Unveiling Sierra Leone’s Social Imbalance”
Leadership is a sacred trust, a duty to serve, and a commitment to uplift the people who entrust their fate to a government. But in Sierra Leone, leadership has become something else: a weapon of coercion, a means of suppression, and a tool for bullying the very people it was meant to serve.
We are bullied by our own leaders, men and women who came to us with smiles, music, and the sweetest words, promising a better future. They danced in our streets, hugged our children, and swore on their ancestors’ graves that they would serve us with humility. We, in turn, gave them our votes, our trust, and our hope. Yet today, we find ourselves in chains, not of iron, but of fear, poverty, and silence.
Sierra Leoneans are trapped, not by foreign colonizers or by warlords, but by the very people we elected. We are bullied into submission, into silence, into pretending that all is well when, in truth, we are suffering. The hunger that gnaws at our stomachs is now an accepted reality. The lack of jobs, the broken health system, and the failed educational system—these are now normal. We are no longer allowed to feel the pangs of hunger because acknowledging our suffering is dangerous.
We are afraid to be hungry. We are afraid to be thirsty. We are afraid to ask for better roads, better hospitals, better schools, because to ask is to challenge, and to challenge is to be branded an enemy.
The leaders we elected have bullied us into submission, forcing us into roles we never chose. We must either become their cheerleaders or risk being labeled unpatriotic. We must sing their praises, even when our stomachs are empty. We must dance for them, even when our feet are tired from walking miles to fetch water. We must defend them, even when their policies suffocate our future.
We are bullied to the extent that we no longer know where our loyalties should lie. We no longer see family as family. Political loyalty now determines who we associate with, who we help, and even who we call brother or sister. Families are torn apart not by war but by political bullying.
A father no longer speaks to his son because they support different parties. A mother curses her daughter for not praising the same politician she does. Siblings insult each other, not over personal disagreements, but over leaders who, once elected, forget them entirely.
How did we get here? How did we allow ourselves to be bullied into a state where we no longer even trust our own blood?
Political bullying in Sierra Leone comes in many forms, all carefully designed to keep us in line.
If you criticize the government, you may lose your job. If you refuse to join the ruling party, your business may suffer. Government contracts are awarded not based on merit but on loyalty. Opportunities are denied to those who dare to ask, “Why are things this way?”
Speak against injustice, and you will be shunned by friends and family who fear being associated with a “troublemaker.” Activists are branded as enemies of progress. Independent voices in the media are drowned out by state-sponsored propaganda.
The law is not a shield to protect the people but a weapon to silence them. Protesters are arrested. Journalists are intimidated. Opposition voices are suppressed. The justice system does not belong to the people; it belongs to the rulers.
Fear is the most powerful tool of oppression. We are bullied into believing that nothing can change, that our voices do not matter, that resistance is futile. We are made to feel powerless, even though we are the majority.
The consequences of this bullying are evident in every corner of Sierra Leone. Our hospitals are death traps because we are bullied into accepting mediocrity. Our education system is in ruins because we are bullied into believing that ignorance is normal. Our youths are jobless because we are bullied into thinking that asking for economic justice is a crime.
We are bullied into waiting for the next election, the next politician, the next government, as if change will magically happen without us demanding it.
But here is the truth: if we remain silent, the bullying will continue. If we keep dancing for those who oppress us, they will keep playing the music. If we keep praising those who steal from us, they will keep looting our future.
So, what can we do? How do we break free from the bullying that has enslaved us?
Fear is the enemy of progress. If we want change, we must be willing to speak up, even when it is dangerous. We must speak up.
