President Bio Makes Very Impressive Cabinet Appointments

Julius Maada Bio
President of Sierra Leone 

For those who have been advocating for excellent leadership in Sierra Leone, the list of complete cabinet appointments made by President Julius Maada Bio brings much needed relief.

Even though the attainment of regional balance, a key failure of the Koroma administration, seems to have played heavily in the president's consideration of his cabinet nomimees, President Julius Maada Bio has above all else, focused on the knowledge, expertise, and experience of those he has appointed to crucial political positions in order to help him chart the course of the nation.

Former President Koroma
A Victim of Sycophancy

From Vice President Juldeh Jalloh to the last named cabinet appointee, Sierra Leone's new cabinet is characterized by individuals with proven track records of excellence in their chosen academic and professional endeavors. Many of the cabinet members also have extensive experience working in reputable international developmental NGOS.

Where former President Ernest Bai Koroma was more comfortable assembling a motley crew of personal loyalists, self professed apprentices, untamed sycophants, and the strongest advocates of his ill fated "more time" agenda, President Julius Bio has focused on the selection of individuals who will once more bring respect to ministerial positions in the country, while bringing their knowledge to bear on charting the course for national development. The finance minister is solid, the foreign minister is concrete, the chief minister is exceptional, and so on down the list. 

Sierra Leoneans can now be rest assured that the ship of state is once again in very able hands and one will just pray that the new cabinet does not fall prey to the curse of Sierra Leone; corruption, hedonism and hubris. 

One thing Ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma would be remembered for is his poor judge of personal character in his appointments to public positions. Ministers in the last administration became the public champions of immorality.  A government minister was accused of raping a student in broad daylight, got off free and even had the audacity to put his name forward as a presidential candidate for the APC party in the just concluded election, Instead of being banned from public appointments for life. Two ministers in the Ministry of Social Welfare welfare, Moijueh Kaikai and his visually impaired deputy Mustapha Bai Attila, were recorded quarreling in the ministry in front of their subordinates, using language so crude and foul that we cannot reproduced it verbatim on this blog. Even though the two ministers were hastily fired, their two female replacements decided to up theirs a notch,  taking to the country's airwaves and accusing  each other of corruption and embezzlement, to the astonishment of a mortified public. Even the President's own Chief of Staff was fired from his post, accused of forging the signature of the chief executive in order to facilitate clandestine illegal business. 

Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, one of the sacked APC ministers accused by her deputy of embezzling millions of Leones, and who over the years has positioned herself as one of the greatest political foes of the current President Julius Bio, has grudgingly admitted on social media that President Bio has made very excellent cabinet choices. 

Over the years, Silvia,  a sensational tabloid journalist turned politician, has made it her public mission to ensure that President Bio never again ruled Sierra Leone.

Sylvia Blyden currently has a quixotic case in court, seeking to overturn the electoral victory of Julius Maada Bio in favor of the APC's Samura Kamara, the lackluster personally handpicked candidate of Ernest Koroma, who failed to excite people even in his own political backyard. Samura's campaign speeches were as boring as they were forgetful and he was trounced by Bio in both the first election and the runoff. 

Many view Sylvia's praise of Bio's appointees as an indication that she is slowly starting to accept that her case will is going nowhere. Others believe that public is once again starting to see her chameleon style of political opportunism. Before and after the 2007 elections, Sylvia Blyden was one of the toughest critics of the former President Ernest Bai Koroma. But by the end of Koroma's first term, Blyden was one of his loudest praise singers, for which effort Koroma awarded her with two cabinet level political positions.

Maada Bio in winning the election and selecting a cabinet on the basis of excellence and inclusiveness has put to rest all the allegations made against him in the past that he would embark on a politics of divisiveness if he was ever elected.  The cabinet is not only regionally diverse, but is also composed of some individuals who have been strong political rivals of the President in the very recent past.

One former Presidential candidate, Mohamed Kamaraimba Mansaray whose running mate was appointed to the cabinet the past day became so incensed that he put out an audio clip promising to lecture the new President on the Constitution.

Kamaraimba briefly became a notable political opponent to former President Ernest Bai Koroma after he was kicked out of the APC party for not following party instructions. His party even posed some serious challenge to the APC in byelections and he believed he will be a serious challenger in the 2018 elections.  However, his ADM party was trounced so heavily in the past election that it's survival is now questionable. Kamaraimba has now been reduced to producing angry clips on WhatsApp attacking political opponents and stating that he is employing a long term strategy, as he is still very young.