As her husband, Julius Maada Bio, continues to hold on to power as the illegitimate President of Sierra Leone after his electoral coup d’état, Mrs. Fatima Maada Bio continues squandering the country’s resources. One example is the recent extravagant wedding of her younger sister Jariatu Darboe in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
“Younger sister of First Lady of the Republic of Sierra Leone, Jariatu Darbo, has married her partner Anafieu Tejan Cole in a two-day wedding over the weekend at Presidential Lodge. The wedding was hosted by her sister Madam Fatima Bio herself, and husband President Julius Maada Bio.“
SarahKallay.com
The wastefulness of Jariatu’s wedding was exceeded only by Mr. and Mrs. Bio’s 2020 Catholic wedding, which cost taxpayers of Sierra Leone millions of dollars.
Jariatu Darboe is Mrs. Bio’s biological sister of the same mother but with different fathers. Since Maada Bio became President of Sierra Leone in 2018, Jariatu has been on the taxpayers’ payroll as a bogus Office of the First Lady staff member. She has also been a member of Mrs. Bio’s entourage, accompanying her on more than 500 foreign travels since 2018. For each trip, Jariatu and the many other family and friends in Mrs. Bio’s entourage withdraw thousands of dollars in foreign currency for travel expenses and per diem.
The young groom, Anafieu Tejan Cole, is a happy camper who has obviously married a wealthy woman who never worked a day to earn that wealth.
Jariatu Darboe is the daughter of Mrs. Bio’s Gambian Mandinka stepfather and her Sierra Leonean mother. Jariatu’s parents are alive and live in Banjul, the Gambia. Usually, in the strict traditional practice of Jariatu’s father, the Mandinka people, a woman’s marriage occurs in her father’s home, even when that father is not alive. The wedding is also customarily sponsored by the groom’s family. But in this case, Jariatu’s wedding took place in Freetown and was sponsored by Mrs. Bio. There was no sign of her living parents. Why? The couple with the stolen loot to waste on such an elaborate wedding lives in Sierra Leone, Mr. and Mrs. Bio.
On the SarahKallay.com website, the writer further stated that,
Jariatu and the first lady are known to share a closer bond than most siblings, akin to that of a mother and daughter, and this is reflected in the kind of wedding organized for her.
The above statement clearly shows that this grand wedding was sponsored by Mrs. Bio for her sister. It also signals that as her husband continues to hold on to power, even though he lost the elections, Mrs. Bio will continue squandering taxpayers’ money on a luxurious dream life for herself and her family.
Meanwhile, as Mr. and Mrs. Bio were busy squandering taxpayers’ money on yet another extravagant wedding in a country where 80% of people can hardly afford one meal per day, the poor, disadvantaged women who pay those taxes continue to be marginalized by Julius Maada Bio’s illegitimate government. On July 27, 2023, we posted about the Bio government’s destruction of market stalls in Abacha Street. The story of those market women is an excellent example of how the masses of women continue to suffer in Sierra Leone from various angles. That market was run primarily by women to support their families, and now it is gone, with no alternative source of livelihood provided by the Bio government.
In a video on social media, the narrator explained that the women were taking to the streets in protest against the government’s decision to destroy their marketplace. As of this publication, no alternative has been provided for women who are mostly uneducated and have no job market skills. In another video, a female narrator said that by taking this action against them, the government was pushing market women into prostitution for their livelihood and families’ survival.
Jariatu’s wedding and the Abacha Street market women’s ordeal paint a clear picture of women living in two worlds in Sierra Leone. One woman, Jariatu Darboe, enjoys life to the fullest, eating, drinking, dancing, and throwing cash around at her wedding like paper, even though she has never worked a day to pay taxes in that country. Another is the poor Abacha Street market woman (we will call her Musu, which means woman in Mandingo), who suffers daily in the heat of the tropical sun and the harsh monsoon rains to sell in the market, pay taxes, feed her family, and educate her children.
Yet, Maada Bio, and by extension, his government, spend Musu’s tax money to sponsor a lavish wedding for Jariatu but bullies Musu out of her livelihood. As Musu wonders how she will put food in her children’s mouths from now on, Jariatu enjoys her honeymoon at a luxurious resort that Musu’s taxes will pay for in a faraway land Musu will never dream of visiting.
Through the lens of Jariatu Darboe’s wedding, the inequality and gross marginalization of the masses of women in Sierra Leone lay bare!
Women’s struggle for equality in Sierra Leone continues as it is jeopardized by the actions of a wicked Bio government and a woman like Fatima Maada Bio, who squanders the country’s resources with impunity because she is married to the man in power.
A luta continua!!
Source: SarahKallay.com
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 