By J. C. Okechukwu
A nationwide curfew has been declared in Sierra Leone after gunmen attacked the country’s main and largest military barracks in Freetown, the capital city, in what many insiders have described as an “attempted coup.”
The detention centers, including the Pademba Road Prisons — which holds more than 2,000 inmates — were attacked and prisoners released, as security forces fought to restore calm during sustained shootouts at the Wilberforce military barracks.
“In the early hours of Sunday November 26th 2023, some unidentified individuals attempted to break into the military armory at Wilberforce barracks. They have all been rebuffed,” wrote Chernor Bah, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information and Civic Education.
“The public is assured that the government and our state security forces are in control,” Bah said. “To enable security forces to continue the process of apprehending the suspects, a nationwide curfew is declared with immediate effect across the country.”
As a nationwide curfew looms, the question on everyone’s lips is “how did this happen and who could be behind it?” I asked these same questions myself, when I set out to investigate what happened.
The plan was to execute the coup while president Bio was away from the country. He was not due back until Sunday, the day the coup attempt was made. But by some stroke of fate, the president suddenly returned the day before Sunday, unknown to many in the country. The mutineers had informants who had assured them the president would be absent. But the president, a former military officer, was on ground to order the cause of the events that have restored relative calm in the country.
From the few sources that I spoke to, there are speculations that the opposition working with some western strategists, may have masterminded the failed coup attempt.
In the June 2023 presidential elections in Sierra Leone, President Bio was declared winner and the opposition APC immediately rejected the results and accused Bio of teaming with the electoral commission to steal the elections. The opposition candidate, known to be a strong protege of the former president of Sierra Leone, Ernest Koroma, refused to concede defeat and rather declared his party will not work with the Maada Bio government on any level. Incidentally, Sierra Leone’s so called foreign partners, including the U.S. and the EU also questioned president Bio’s reelection. In fact, at some point, the US ambassador to Sierea Leone, David Reimer was granting multiple interviews to the media, openly doubting the credibility of the election results and questioning the process that got president Bio reelected – very unusual for a diplomat of his stature, but it happened. Meanwhile, Bio maintains he won fair and square. Some of his aides held that those opposed to his reelection victory were trying to settle hidden scores, and that’s when I got really interested and decided to connect some dots.
The first privileged information that got to me was that some gold/diamond mining contracts and licenses were withdrawn from certain American and European mining companies because they were not giving the country its fair share, even after they had been advised to review their royalty payments upwards. It was gathered that the companies became enraged and openly told Bio that he would be kicked out and replaced by the APC candidate, in whom they have reposed more confidence.
Now, my sources may be right or wrong, but this immediately reminded me of Niger and how French companies were mining and selling uranium at over $200 but were paying less than $6, in fact some reports say $0.8 to Niger! I would never hold the cup for our African politicians but how can anyone better the lives of his people with this level of imperial wickedness? Yet on France 24 TV and much of the mainstream media, you’d hear repeatedly and “romantically” that Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world – zero facts on how the country is made poor daily by imperial forces.
Another information that I got was that Bio was also blacklisted because he was among the two or three African leaders who declined to back ECOWAS’s military mission in Niger. I remember this very well and I in fact reported on it. As I tried to connect the dots further, I remembered how I felt when I saw the west United in their criticism of Bio’s re-election whereas in NIGERIA, despite the painful outcry against deadly 2023 election malpractices of really historic proportions and the calls for cancellations, the same west unanimously endorsed and congratulated Nigeria’s Tinubu without reservations. It was then it dawned on me that my sources may actually be right – Bio must have pulled a Niger trick on the west. And that’s why I’m doing this report. If AFRICA must survive, African resources must be made to serve Africans.
I remember Sierea Leone’s neighbor, The Gambia. When the former president of that tiny country rejected the 5% royalty from natural resources mined and extracted from his country as an insult, the affected western (multinational) companies told him his days were numbered. He called their bluff and soldiered on. Shortly after, on December 30, 2015,, While Jammah was away from the country, a coup was staged to oust him. His men fought gallantly and repelled the mutineers. Two Americans were later charged for masterminding the coup. According to the BBC, the team that masterminded the coup was
“Allegedly led by 57-year-old Texas businessman Cherno Njie, and it had a core of 10-15 members living in the US, UK and Germany – with the US as their headquarters.”
When Jammah was finally forced to leave The Gambia in 2017, he didn’t mince words when he accused the US, the EU and the UN of masterminding his ouster because of his refusal to let them steal his country dry. But before they “hung him”, they first called him a bad name, and got the rest of our people to agree with them that Yahya Jammah was evil. And this was the same way they painted Gaddafi black and called him evil before taking him out.
I may be wrong but I can see the same scenario playing out in Sierra Leone right now. But for Russia, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger wouldn’t have survived. And I believe that if Russia had been this politically involved in African affairs back then, both Gaddafi and Jammah will probably still be there or even if they had to leave power, it wouldn’t be in the manner they did, at the imperial instance of greedy and aggrieved colonials. Now, the question is , should president Bio look more in the direction of Russia or stick with his back-stabbing, so called foreign partners? If you ask me, I would say, Try RUSSIA. It’s not easy to survive these guys. They’re relentless and they will stop at nothing to see you gone! Make hay while the sun shines.
And May AFRICA Win!
