By Dr. Fatima Babih
Since becoming President in 2018 and after his 2023 electoral coup d’etat that has kept him in power in Sierra Leone so far, Julius Maada Bio has appointed a few women and youth in national leadership positions. His supporters have lauded these appointments as a noble gesture for promoting gender equality and opportunities for the youth in Sierra Leone. However, upon careful examination of those appointments, we find that nearly all are based on nepotism at its highest level.
Take, for instance, the first case in this series, the appointment of Ms. Isatu Aminata Bundu, who has been Sierra Leone’s High Commissioner to Kenya since 2021. On February 24, 2021, the headline of an online newspaper A-Z Multimedia Corporation read,
In keeping with female and youth empowerment…Parliament Approves Ms. Bundu New High Commissioner to Kenya.
See References
Who is Ms. Bundu?
When President Julius Maada Bio appointed her in 2021, and Parliament approved her, Ms. Bundu was 38 years old, making her the youngest High Commissioner in Sierra Leone’s recent history. In her position, Ms. Bundu is also the first female High Commissioner to Kenya, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Sierra Leone to the UNON, UNEP & UN-Habitat, accredited to Angola, Burundi, Malawi, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
On the surface, Ms. Bundu’s appointment to such a high-level position would seem to be a commendable effort by Maada Bio to promote gender equality and youth empowerment in the country; until you find out who is Isatu Aminata Bundu.
Who’s Her Daddy?
Ms. Bundu is the daughter of the current Speaker of Parliament of Sierra Leone, Dr. Abass Chernor Bundu. He became Maada Bio’s choice of a Speaker at a time when members of opposition parties were not present to cast their vote for a Speaker in 2018; many Sierra Leoneans have viewed him as a Maada Bio-imposed Speaker of Parliament (see references below).
Dr. Bundu has been in Sierra Leone’s politics for at least four decades and has been linked to corruption (see reference below). Maada Bio and Abass Bundu have been best friends for decades, as they worked together in the military junta government, National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), which was formed by Maada Bio and his fellow low-level comrades when they executed an army coup d’état during Sierra Leone’s decade-long bloody civil war. Dr. Abass Bundu is believed to be the primary mentor and adviser to Mr. Bio before and since he became president in 2018.
According to an online newspaper, politicosl.com, after Parliament approved his daughter’s appointment, Dr. Bundu assured the press that she was appointed based on merit and not because he was her father. However, Dr. Bundu did not describe the extraordinary qualifications his daughter possed that made her stand out above other young women in Sierra Leone who may have been qualified.
The idea that Mr. Maada Bio appointed Ms. Bundu to promote women and youth in Sierra Leone raised a couple of key questions: Would Maada Bio have appointed Ms. Bundu had she not been the daughter of the Speaker of Parliament, Maada Bio’s mentor? As a Presidential appointee who happens to be the daughter of the Speaker of Parliament, was there any chance of the Parliament of Sierra Leone not approving Ms. Bundu’s appointment?
Even though Ms. Bundu’s qualification is not the topic of this post, we believe that she did not possess any extraordinary credentials that made her more eligible than her disadvantaged counterparts who were born, raised, and struggled to attain education in Sierra Leone. The only qualification she had that the underprivileged young women in Sierra Leone did not have was that her father is a political big wig (no pun intended) in Sierra Leone. It is also apparent that President Bio being good friends with Ms. Bundu’s father, who is the Speaker of Parliament of Sierra Leone, had everything to do with Maada bio selecting her for the position.
The injustice here is the unfair advantage Maada Bio gave Ms. Bundu and the fact that Bio uses such appointments to impress international donors that he is adhering to gender equality best practices. Such impressions translate to donor funds in the names of women and the youth who never benefit from such funds.
Meanwhile, the masses of ordinary young women and men continue to languish in poverty in Sierra Leone; a patriarchal country where women are grossly disadvantaged in all spheres; a country with one of the highest youth unemployment rates in the world.
We want the public to be aware of the issue of nepotism in Julius Maada Bio’s appointments in Sierra Leone. He claims to promote gender equality and youth advancement in the country, but looking at his appointment of women like Ms. Bundu, with her connection to the Speaker of Parliament, who happens to be President Bio’s mentor, we question the merit of such an appointment.
We are also concerned about the negative impact of such nepotistic appointments on women’s struggle for gender equality and youth’s struggle for equal opportunities in the country. These nepotistic selections make the playing field uneven and very steep for the masses of ordinary women and disadvantaged youth in Sierra Leone.
Stay tuned for the next nepotistic appointment in this series!
References
A-Z Multimedia Corporation Ms. Bundu New High Commission to Kenya
Parliament Confirms 38-year-old as Sierra Leone’s new Ambassador to Kenya
Kenya: Abass Bundu’s Daughter Now High Commissioner to Kenya
Sierra Leone: The Great Passport Mystery SLPP, Abass Bundu in Grand Conspiracy?
Rt. Hon. Dr. Abass Bundu Pariliament of Sierra Leone
Opposition walks out as Sierra Leone elects speaker of parliament
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 