by Dr. Fatima Babih

As he holds on to illegitimate power after his June 27, 2023, heist of the elections, Julius Maada Bio has continued his nepotistic appointments that hold no positive promise for the people of Sierra Leone. 

Bio’s office published a letter dated October 2, 2023, stating that Madam Isata Jabbie Kabbah has been appointed by Bio as Presidential Adviser on Gender.

The headline of one online newspaper, Sierra Loaded, stated, “President Bio Appoints Ex-First Lady Isata Jabbie Kabbah as Presidential Adviser Gender” (October 3, 2023). Did Maada Bio appoint an “ex-first lady?”

Who is Isata Jabbie Kabbah?

Isata Jabbie (IJ Kabba) is neither a former/ex-First Lady nor a gender professional. She is the cousin of Mrs. Fatima Jabbie Bio, wife of Julius Maada Bio. She is also one of the women who married former president Ahmed Tejan Kabba. I say ‘one of’ because I know a few other women who were married to President Ahmed Tejan Kabba by Islamic or customary laws.

Nevertheless, IJ Kabba was the mistress who cohabitated with Mr. Kabba after his wife, Patricia Kabba, Esq., passed away. IJ’s eventual marriage to Mr. Kabba after his presidency was also the only marriage made public of Mr. Kabba’s marriage to other women.

It is an open secret to most people in Sierra Leone, except the younger generation born after Kabba’s presidency, that Isata Jabbie was Mr. Kabba’s young mistress when she was a student at the Fourah Bay College several years before Mr. Kabbah’s wife passed away. Their relationship continued after his wife’s passing during his presidency; however, Mr. Kabbah and Isata Jabbie did not marry until 2008, after Mr. Kabbah’s presidency ended in 2007.

Therefore, it is misleading and a distortion of Sierra Leone’s political history to describe Isata Jabbie Kabba as a former First Lady. But IJ Kabba is directly responsible for this misleading and distorted information about herself, with her social media, for instance, her LinkedIn profile describing her as Former Firstlady of the Republic of Sierra Leone.

As the mistress and wife of the man in power, IJ Kabba became a powerful woman in her husband’s political party, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). As it is typical of women like her who are struck with First Lady Syndrome, IJ Kabba threw her weight around in the SLPP quite a bit, which led to clashes with many of the alpha men in the SLPP, including Julius Maada Bio. There were many times we heard of clashes between IJ Kabba’s and Bio’s thugs, and many times IJ complained about attacks by Maada Bio’s thugs, which prevented her from even visiting the SLPP offices.

But desperation for winning the 2023 elections led Maada Bio to hook up with some strange bedfellows of former rivals. Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella (KKY) is one of those former rivals who competed to be the SLPP flagbearer for the 2018 elections.

IJ Kabba favored KKY. But KKY lost as Maada Bio was declared the SLPP flagbearer for the 2018 elections. After he failed to be the SLPP flagbearer, KKY formed a new political party, the National Grand Coalition (NGC). Through NGC, he contested in the 2018 elections; he lost the presidency but won seats in Parliament, where he served as a Parliamentarian for the next five years.

Just before the 2023 elections, KKY entered his NGC party into a partnership with Mr. Bio’s SLPP (Paopa) against the will of the majority of NGC members. But a handful of NGC members jumped ship with KKY into Maada Bio’s Paopa camp. Isata Jabbie Kabba is one of them.

It is quite evident that IJ Kabba’s appointment as gender adviser to the president is her reward for jumping into the Paopa bandwagon with KKY, who has also been appointed by Maada Bio to a lucrative position. A share of the national pie that Maada Bio and his cabal are known for looting.

IJ Kabbav brings no skills, knowledge, or expertise in the field of gender. Her own success in life and achievements in Sierra Leone politics were all because she had a Godfather called Ahmed Tejan Kabba. It is yet to be seen what value IJ Kabba will bring to her new position for the masses of women who are trapped in a patriarchal society where women are not valued for their ability to be self-sufficient unless they are attached to men in power.  

There are many educated, talented women who are passionate and well-informed about the realities of gender issues in Sierra Leone; women who are way more qualified than IJ Kabba. But those women are invisible to the nepotistic Maada Bio.

His appointment of IJ Kabba is clear evidence that Maada Bio appoints his relatives, friends, and members of his Paopa network for only one purpose: to give them a piece of the national pie through such bogus generic appointments like “Presidential Adviser.”

Meanwhile, the masses continue to suffer untold socioeconomic woes in Sierra Leone.