By Dr. Fatima Babih
In my book, The UNBECOMING Mrs. Fatima Maada Bio of Sierra Leone: A Case of First Lady Syndrome, (Chapter 13), I described the epic saga of how Mrs. Bio, the queen of divide and conquer, pulled off a feat to destroy the Sierra Leone People’s Party’s (SLPP) Women’s Wing – infiltrating the group using its weakest members and eventually hijacking the group and replacing it with her fraudulent “JMB Women.” It’s a tale of intrigue, betrayal, and the timeless divide-and-conquer tactic, Mrs. Bio’s trusty Swiss Army knife of political maneuvering, and apparently her go-to tool for all of her life’s challenges.
When I published my book, Mrs. Bio’s first reaction was to try to disparage me, mainly on social media. Her first move was to engage in a battle of wits, primarily on the battleground of social media. And who did she recruit for this digital jungle justice? None other than Sierra Leone’s crowned queen of vulgarity.
Additionally, Mrs. Bio hired a boy in my mother’s family as a snitch. This snitch was already a Paopa thug, and he is the same boy who, in 2022, before I published my book, together with his brother, viciously attacked their elderly cousin in Tuba Village in a mob justice style (see this article).
Mrs. Bio’s Access to our Personal Documents
The boy Mrs. Bio has hired in my family is supposedly the son of my late uncle. That uncle was more than just a sibling to my mother – he was her confidante, her most trusted keeper of her important possessions, and a second father to me. It was a strong sibling bond between the two! So naturally, my mother entrusted her brother with all her valuable belongings.
When we lost my uncle, one of his widows in the village decided to play curator to his belongings, including those sentimental items given to my uncle for safekeeping by my mother. An outright theft by that widow called “Seffu,” who happens to be the mother of the boy Mrs. Bio has hired as a snitch in our family–Kansu Mansaray, known on Facebook as “Tuba Pikin.”
For reasons only known to him, Mrs. Bio’s hired snitch saw it fit to hand over every last scrap of my late mother’s personal documents to Mrs. Bio and her vulgar confidante. It’s like handing the keys to your diary to a tabloid journalist!
These documents and treasured photos are the very ammunition Mrs. Bio’s vulgar confidante thought she needed for her thrilling escapades in her cyberstalking internet jungle justice against me, my family, and my friends. You might be wondering what diabolical endgame Mrs. Bio had in mind when she sent her agent to share my late parents’ cherished memories and documents with the world?
Frankly, it’s still as clear as mud, but from the cryptic Facebook messages of her vulgar agent and their trusty thug, it appears the goal was to embarrass and harass me into silence. This was evidenced in their reaction to my recent open letter to Mrs. Bio, thanking her for visiting Tuba Village. She and her agents misconstrued my letter, and started spreading lies that it was a letter of appology. And that Mrs. Bio would only accept my appology when I “retract” my book. This misinterpretation of my letter shows that not everyone who can read understand what they read.
Having realized that her cyberstalking escapades were about as effective as a chocolate teapot, Mrs. Bio decided to revert to her comfort zone: “divide and conquer.” Although, in this case, it’s more of an illusion than reality in intelligent strategy.
She’s busy hoodwinking her followers into believing that she has achieved a great feat by singlehandedly causing a division between me and my mother’s family. Mrs. Bio clearly has a twisted definition of “achievement” to view causing division among people, like she has done in the Sierra Leone People’s Party women’s wing, as an achievement.
Mrs. Bio is now proclaiming herself the new addition to our Tuba family. If this proclamation is based on genuine intentions, it would be a great thing for Tuba, at least for the mean time that her husband is still president. Genuinely adopting Tuba is just the political connection the village needs to gain some development it has been deprived of for long. But time will tell if indeed Mrs. Bio is genuine in her promises to the people of Tuba.
For the past several days, my inbox has been flooded with messages from well-meaning friends and family, sharing the countless falsehoods that are being propagated by Mrs. Bio’s vulgar confidante and her apprentice about my family condemning me for my book. It’s a sad spectacle to witness our country’s First Lady’s office plunge into the depths of pettiness and cheap vengeance.
Who’s Fooling Who?
The facts here are that Tuba is a small village that was established by my grandfather and his brothers–the Mansarays, who settled there along with a number of other respectable families, including Sannoh, Saccoh, Sillah, Jabbie, Jalloh, as an enclave for the Muslims of Sembehun 17. These families have lived together amicably as one for decades.
But now, with politicians like Mrs. Bio in our midst with her divide and conquer agenda, a new breed of Tuba family members is on the rise and are set to not only bring division but figuratively set the village ablaze for personal gain.
Tuba Village is the smallest section of Sembehun 17, which is nestled in the chiefdom of Tikonkoh and has always been a stronghold for SLPP, way before Maada Bio ever thought of running for president. Even the supposedly neutral Paramount chief of Tikonkoh is not shy about pledging allegiance to Julius Maada Bio and his Paopa regime. One of my aunts even holds the prestigious title of SLPP chair lady in that village.
I understand that not everyone is delighted when activists like me start spilling the beans on corrupt politicians like Maada Bio and his thieving cabal, including his wife. So, while many of my mother’s relatives may secretly applaud my book, they’ve wisely chosen to keep their praise private – who can blame them? After all, it’s a jungle out there with Maada Bio as President of Sierra Leone.
So, dear followers of Mrs. Bio, are you truly that gullible to buy into the notion that it took Mrs. Bio six whole years as First Lady to realize her “ancestral home” was right under her nose, conveniently after my book’s release?
Do you honestly believe Mrs. Bio has the power to sever the familial ties that bind me and my kin for her own shallow gain? And as for that motley crew she paraded into her office yesterday, do you genuinely think they represent Tuba Village?
A Visit as Reward for Mrs. Bio’s Hired Snitch
A visit to the office of the First Lady of Sierra Leone, regardless of its occupant, is indeed an ego booster for any ordinary Sierra Leonean. The truth, however, is that this was a reward for Mrs. Bio’s hired snitch, and only he handpicked who could join him on the trip, within the limit Mrs. Bio gave him–8 to 10.
The snitch himself and the rest of the bunch could have never come close, even to the gate of the office of the First Lady, had I not published my book. These are the people who always wear t-shirts to swell the crowd whenever politicians gather and call them to parade in their circus, but these politicians are normally far out of their reach.
I am, therefore, happy and proud that one of the benefits of my book is to have made it possible for my village people to breathe the air inside the Office of the First Lady of our beloved country.
In addition to the ego boosting photo opportunity with the country’s First Laday, Mrs. Bio also gave this broke unemployed bunch a hefty $2,000. This in itself is testament to Mrs. Bio’s corrupt nature and it makes one wonder how many teachers in the country are deprived of their livelyhood because our First Lady hoards large sums of money in her office.
Hefty as this amount is for a first lady to just pull out of her desk to gift her visitors, it is also too small to do anything substantive for the 10 or so people in this bunch. The bunch also made many personal requests of Mrs. Bio, ranging from request for employment, scholarship to study abroad, money for business, etc., all in exchange for their loyalty to her in her vengeance against me for writing my book.
I do hope and pray that Mrs. Bio will deliver some real positive lifechanging benefits to each and all of them. Sadly, none of the requests from this bunch had anything to do with the rest of the Tuba community, and rumor has it that there is a fight among the bunch over how to share the miserly amount Mrs. Bio gave them as a group. This is where the seed of the real divide and conquer has been planted !
Nevertheless, a closer look at these photos going viral on social media about this bunch visiting Mrs. Bio in her office, only two of the individuals actually reside in Tuba Village. And none of this visiting bunch holds any important position in the affairs of the village. Not even the village’s acting section chief nor the young man whose institute Mrs. Bio inaugurated last week was part of this fraudulent SLPP Paopa bunch.
To add a final touch of absurdity, Mrs. Bio’s hired snitch has craftily adopted the title of “Chief” on social media, which is in an attempt to confuse and mislead the unsuspecting public into believing that he is the chief of Tuba. It’s all part of the grand tapestry of deceit woven by Mrs. Bio and her merry band of jungle justice agents.
This whole charade being stage-managed by Mrs. Bio has left us wondering: Even if there were a genuine rift between my mother’s diehard SLPP family members and me due to my book, one must wonder – how does that concern Mrs. Bio and how does she benefit from such a rift in the grand scheme of our nation’s issues?
What exactly is Mrs. Bio contributing to the greater good of our nation with this ridiculous display of vengeance against the author?
It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, and I’m here to unfold the layers one sentence at a time! Stay tuned!
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 