ECOWAS has been and continues to be the chief architect of the destruction of democracy in Sierra Leone. This West African grouping not only aids and abets dictatorship, cocaine trade, bribery and corruption, but has also lost credibility in the eyes of the global partners. (Photo: Dr Samura Kamara, the President-elect, is a peaceful leader during his US visit).

That is why ECOWAS is no longer in the driving seat to resolve the fraudulent June 24, 2023, elections in Sierra Leone. This is because of its ongoing corrupt practices, visible deception, and overt and covert betrayal of the people’s mandate in the 2023 elections.

The 2023 presidential winner, Dr Samura Kamara, the most peaceful Sierra Leone leader in history, has consistently warned all Sierra Leoneans to exercise maximum patience and avoid making trouble that would lead to upheaval and unnecessary loss of life under the Bio regime. Dr Samura Kamara does not want anyone to be killed for him.

This is apparently the primary reason why the President-elect, Dr Samura Kamara, has made it abundantly clear that he is not aware of or has not approved any protest today or tomorrow that has the propensity to give ammunition to the brutal SLPP regime to cause havoc on innocent citizens.

“I do not know anything about the protest. I only heard about it in the media. I am advising every Sierra Leonean to stay calm and wait for the outcome of the international community,” the words reportedly said by the President-elect, Dr Samura Kamara, yesterday. (Photos: Illegal President Bio and his son-in-law Jos Leijdekker, the Dutch drug lord hiding in Sierra Leone. And Dr Samura Kamara).

Many negatives have come out of the attitude of ECOWAS in recent years. Even fools know ECOWAS’s hopelessness. What did ECOWAS do when Bio and his APC party collaborators stole the 2023 elections? Nothing! Instead, the then ECOWAS chairman, Sissoco Embaló, secretly congratulated Bio.

Days later, the ECOWAS commission, embarrassed by what Embaló did, replaced the former Guinea-Bissau president, Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló, as ECOWAS chair because of the massive blunder of congratulating the illegal President Julius Maada Bio. That was the only positive thing ECOWAS ever did.

Look at the abundance of negatives under ECOWAS’ watch. When the APC office was ambushed by Maada Bio’s Kamajor police and murdered Matron Mahawa Dumbuya and White Boy in June 2023 and nearly assassinated Dr Samura Kamara in the office, what did ECOWAS do? Nothing!

When peaceful APC protesters were arrested in front of the APC office holding placards that read ‘We Want Our Election Results Now, ‘We Want Our Democracy, what did the ECOWAS delegation meeting at the same venue in 2024 do? Nothing! Zilch, zero.

On August 8-10, 2022, during the protest, Maada Bio ordered his Killer Minister Lawrence Leema to murder innocent youth who were dragged out of their homes and shot to death in front of their families in Freetown. What was the response of ECOWAS? They did nothing! Zipped mouths. (Photo: ECOWAS is useless beyond compare).

Maada Bio’s Kamajor police and soldiers killed innocent citizens in Makeni, Lunsar, Tombo, Thonko Limba, Mile 91, etc. But ECOWAS did nothing. In 2020, hundreds of defenceless prisoners were butchered to death by Bio’s security at Pademba Road Prison. What did ECOWAS do? Nothing!

The killing spree continued until Maada Bio got fed up and tired, and then publicly confessed on national radio that he would now open the political space, adding that he would not kill anymore. What did the ECOWAS Commission do? Nothing again! Mute!

Instead, ECOWAS responded by compensating the cocaine king, Maada Bio, by giving him the ECOWAS chairman position intended for the Senegal President Bassirou Faye. Bio had bribed heavily to get the chairmanship. That was the insult and pain of the year that ECOWAS gave to suffering Sierra Leoneans.

Fast forward, having suffered from international economic sanctions because of stealing the June 24, 2023, polls, Maada Bio resorted to the drug trade to run his bankrupt SLPP regime. Bio smuggled cocaine to Guinea, Liberia, other West African nations, and to Spain, Germany, Australia, etc. What did ECOWAS do? Nothing!

Now, ECOWAS will be in Freetown for its annual summit, where the regional grouping is expected, among other issues, to appoint its new ECOWAS chairman. If they are true to their consciences, ECOWAS will hand over the chair to the rightful recipient, President Faye. (Photo: Senegal President Faye should be the next ECOWAS Chairman).

However, ECOWAS does not think rationally. Hopefully, ECOWAS will not endorse Maada Bio, who is using the country’s wealth to bribe ECOWAS leaders to get another one-year term as chair. The list of corrupt practices within ECOWAS can be catalogued forever. Why then do the protest promoters want to complain to ECOWAS?

As the protest planners prepare for the worthless protest, the Office of the President-elect, Dr Samura Kamara, is making it clear that they have not authorised any protest. It means Dr Samura Kamara, the non-violent leader, is totally against the planned protest.

Unless and until the people hear from the Office of Dr Samura Kamara in Freetown about lending support to any protest, Sierra Leoneans must reject any protest organised by unknown people whose main goal is probably to seek prominence and want to be noticed.

The power-conscious spokesmen and spokeswomen for democracy who have been conspicuously silent since the emergence of protest nonsense should be brave enough to come out of their hiding caves to condemn or endorse the planned protests.

This is not the time for spokesmen to hide behind others to pull the strings. Step forward now and condemn the protest or be brave enough to endorse it. But keeping silent at this crucial time only makes matters worse for the fake spokespersons. The ball is in your court now. Go for it.

To conclude, a vital issue that has no conclusion, the suffering people of Sierra Leone will never complain to the hopeless ECOWAS, who are worse than any regional organisation in Africa and the world. ECOWAS is today the lowest of the lows in the international arena, comprising fantastic friends from the US, UK, UN, EU, AU and so on. Boycott any planned protests now, as democracy restoration is imminent.