Opinion | “Maada Bio is going to win this 2023 election, and he’s going to win it almost easily” – Hassan Tejan Paso Mansaray

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The African Dream’s editorial stance. This article is originally published by Hassan Tejan Paso Mansaray

I don’t talk much about politics now, but I feel a pressing need to say this:

Make a screenshot of this post and keep it somewhere so you can use it against me if I’m wrong, which I won’t. I might be wrong if APC reform now. Maada Bio is going to win this 2023 election, and he’s going to win it almost easily. No, he wouldn’t need to rig it much to win. He will be voted in the same way he was voted in the last time.

I’ve never seen a more lackadaisical opposition as the APC. Look at the strength of the SLPP campaign back in 2018. Look at the strength of the SLPP campaign right now. Compare it with what the APC is currently doing. What is the APC campaigning at all?

I keep insisting that you don’t rely on public opinion to help you depose a government. Yes, an overwhelmingly public majority of Sierra Leoneans hate this Bio Government but that is not enough to make APC win. The practicalities of electioneering are different. Very different. We can be here insulting Bio from now till tomorrow but when voting comes most of us are just passive contributors. The electorates are a different ball game.

The North is perhaps the clearest example of my point. The current SLPP administration is like the most despised government ever. Like, Bombali people utterly hate this regime. There’s no one person in Bombali who likes Bio who is not directly benefitting from his government. No nonpartisan person without any political interest likes Bio. Meaning on a general scale, Bombali People, on average, hate the SLPP government yeah? Yet look at the results of the bye-elections results from the North. Look at the penetration of Bio in Kambia, Koinadugu and Falaba.

People who love Bio love Bio because of nothing. You get? That sort of cult likeness. When someone has cult followership he’s not going to be judged by his followers on his deeds. He’s going to be loved by those people regardless of what he does. If Bio shoots a person in broad daylight today these people would dig out a defence for him. It is a fanatical type of love. The type only enjoyed by pentecostal pastors. So it is not a matter of Bio performing poorly. Bio loyalists don’t give a shit about how bad he does. They just made up their minds to be with him to death. Unfortunately, he has over 1 million of these people as voters.

It doesn’t matter how much hardship they are suffering from the policies of this government. It’s a special form of Stockholm Syndrome. Yes, they’re hungry. Yes, things have gotten worse. Yes, they will vote Bio.

No one would say, “because Bio did poorly in a debate I’m not going to vote him.” If these people could be with Bio till now, nothing, absolutely nothing can turn them away from him. Bio’s supporters are clear on their objectives— Bio, whatever happens. They don’t give a shit about whether or not he’s boycotting opposition, abusing court processes or violating human rights. They don’t give a shit about all that big grammar nonsense. Maada Bio winning is what they want. The love they have for Bio is greater than the hate we have for him.

And then while they are all unequivocally in support of Bio, the rest of us are here saying shit like “it’s a shame that we have to choose between Bio and some 76-year-old man.” The hate they have for Bio is not enough to motivate them to go out and vote for APC. Like, they are not even behind APC lol.

And make no mistakes, the South East is NOT divided between APC and SLPP. Bio has the South East solely to himself. ONLY him. Bio represents the quintessential South Eastern man filled with all the extremist ingredients that the South Eastern man wants.

Brace yourself, folks, we’re finished.