The Julius Maada Bio SLPP Government has started massive retrenchment of the Sierra Leone Armed Forces. Seventy army officers; ranging from Brig. General to Lieutenants, have been forcibly retired. According to the military command, the soldiers were fired for administrative reasons, misconduct and prolonged absence without leave (AWOL).
At a time when “Dog yaiye dey run blood” in Sierra Leone due to the destruction of the economy by the SLPP Government, and everybody is crying about the unbearable hardships in the country, retrenching a large number of officers from the army for whatever reasons is a recipe for disaster.
Given our extended family system, the pots of over 2,000 innocent persons are going to stop boiling. Scores of children, whose fees were being paid by the now jobless soldiers, are going to be thrown out of school.
When the names of the soldiers are released, we hope the victims will not be from one particular region or linked to ethnic clusters. We have also learnt that another mass retrenchment is pending in the Sierra Leone Police Force.
All these adverse decisions being taken against sections of the Sierra Leone army and police and compulsory retirements point to the spirit of impunity that has waxed worse in President Maada Bio’s government.
With the opposition effectively castrated by the SLPP and civil society, media, judiciary, intelligentsia rendered impotent through carrot and stick policies, and the international community possibly silenced, the plight of the ordinary Sierra Leonean continues to get worse by the day.
Everyday we hear of bad news spiced with spectacular propaganda about White Elephant projects that bring nothing on the dinner tables of our people.