By Dr. Fatima Babih
Sierra Leone today is a nation yearning for genuine leadership and progress. Still, we witness a stark reality contradicting the glossy narrative spun by an inept and deceitful leadership. Our illegitimate President, Julius Maada Bio’s recent expedition into agricultural showmanship is not just disappointing—it’s a slap in the face to every hardworking farmer in our beloved country.
The Charade of Leadership
On Sunday, September 15, 2024, the scene that unfolded was shamelessly deceitful: the man who calls himself president of Sierra Leone, Julius Maada Bio, wading through a pool of water, pointing at fish as if he’s discovered the solution to our nation’s hunger. This image, meant to portray him as a man of the people, a leader in touch with our country’s agricultural backbone, is nothing more than a carefully orchestrated illusional sham.
Within 72 hours of his “farming” display, Bio was airborne again. He was jetting off to Europe on a chartered flight that bleeds our treasury dry. Each of these trips—and there have been more than 16 already this year alone—costs the people of Sierra Leone a staggering $750,000 one way. Let that sink in. While our children go to bed hungry, while our hospitals lack basic supplies, the man who claims to be president indulges in luxury travel under the guise of representing our interests abroad.
Julius Bio, his camera crew, and his entourage of ministers toured his luxury farm, which cost the people of Sierra Leone millions of dollars. Before this tour, the only other time Sierra Leoneans had seen Julius on a farm was a few years ago when he and his wife were speed-racing their expensive scooters on a farm. The couple has never been seen planting, raking, or weeding on any farm before or after that. This is the extent of Julius Bio’s farming experience and efforts to “feed Salone.”
The Delusional Farming
The farm Bio showcased in his photos and videos is not a testament to his agricultural understanding. Instead, it is a marker of his excesses as custodian of the country’s resources. This farm does not represent the reality of farming and farmers in Sierra Leone. Our actual farmers, the backbone of our nation, toil with little more than hoes and shovels. They battle against poor infrastructure, lack of funding, and the ever-present threat of environmental degradation and land grabbing.
How can Bio claim to inspire when he flaunts a luxury farm before people who can barely afford seeds? This vanity is not inspiration; It is a cruel mockery of the plight of farmers in Sierra Leone because, as Bio poses for cameras, our farmers face real, crushing challenges, including:
No Access to Funding: Most farmers have no access to essential resources, let alone the high-tech equipment Bio paraded in his photos and videos. Julius Bio could have used the millions he squandered on one farm to provide needed funds to farmers nationwide. Without funds, farmers cannot acquire good quality seeds, safe fertilizers, farming equipment, and other necessities that can help improve their productivity and even feed their families. Bio’s flashing of a luxury farm in their faces only leads to discouragement among struggling farmers and communities.
Crumbling Infrastructure: Poor roads mean that produce rots before reaching markets, crushing the sweat and hope of our farmers alongside their harvests. Rural areas in Sierra Leone suffer from poor road networks, which hinder the ability of farmers to transport their goods to markets efficiently. Why produce more than you can eat when you cannot take it to the market? The few farmers who try to market their produce often suffer post-harvest losses, with their perishable produce often ending up spoiled before reaching markets.
Environmental Degradation: Let’s not blame it all on the unpredictable weather patterns, including floods, droughts, and erratic rainfalls that have negatively affected farming in Sierra Leone. Deforestation and poor land management, exacerbated by Bio’s involvement in timber exportation, are destroying our fertile lands. Julius Bio is heavily involved in timber logging and trading in Sierra Leone. When he became president in 2018, he monopolized timber exporting by appointing Leadway Trading Company Sierra Leone as the sole timber export agent. Of course, the face of that company is one of the men in his Paopa network, Babadie Kamara, the CEO. It is an open secret in Sierra Leone that Julius Maada Bio and his equally corrupt wife, Fatima Jabbie Bio, own the company.
Furthermore, the people in mining areas such as Kono, Tongo Field, Rutile, and many others can attest to their serious environmental problems. As Julius Bio shows off his fishing yield in an artificial pool, the people in Kono have lost most of their rivers and marine resources to corporate diamond mining and have to live without eating fish or buying at an exorbitant cost.
Land Tenure & Land Grabbing: Land ownership is a complex issue in Sierra Leone. Many farmers, especially in rural areas, do not have secure land rights, discouraging long-term commitment to farming. To make matters worse, land grabbing by foreign corporate farmers has become a common issue plaguing smallholder and subsistence farmers in the country.
Socfin in Sahn Malen: A Case Study in Land Grabbing
A glaring example of land grab in Sierra Leone involves the Socfin Agricultural Company (Socfin), a Luxembourg-based agribusiness. This company operates a large oil palm plantation in Sahn Malen chiefdom in Pujehun District, southern Sierra Leone. This project, active since 2010, continues to face significant local opposition due to ongoing disputes over land, compensation, and environmental degradation in the chiefdom.
The primary problem with the Socfin deal, which President Ernest Bai Koroma’s government brokered in 2010, is that the government did not properly consult the landowners and communities before they grabbed and leased their land to Socfin. The government, the paramount chief, and other political elites made the decisions that now adversely affect these communities without the informed consent or proper representation of landowners.
Some of the adverse impacts of the Socfin land grab deal on local communities include displacement and loss of livelihoods of smallholder farmers who relied on the land for subsistence farming. Consequently, widespread food insecurity has taken hold in the chiefdom as local communities lost their primary means of producing and supplying food to others.
Many affected farmers did not receive adequate compensation for their land. Most of the financial benefits of the deal went to those who were at the table: the government, the paramount chief, and other politicians. The people have been left with no land or money to replace the long-term value of the land they lost.
The ongoing Socfin saga in Sahn Malen chiefdom is a festering wound, a stark reminder of broken promises, deceit, and displaced farming communities. This case illustrates the ongoing struggles over land rights, land grabbing in farming communities, and the socio-economic impact of large-scale foreign corporate agricultural investments in Sierra Leone.
The plight of the people of Sahn demonstrates the disconnect between Julius Bio’s words and actions. It is fair to say Julius Bio’s regime did not initiate the Socfin land grab deal. However, during his 2018 election campaign, Bio promised a resolution to the people of Sahn Malen if they voted for him. They did. Six years later, he turns deaf ears to their cries for justice, which continue to echo unanswered.
As the situation in Sahn Malen has worsened since Bio took office, instead of solutions, the people of Sahn Malen have received police crackdowns and violence. These crackdowns have further escalated tensions between Socfin and the communities. But Socfin always has the protection of the government and local authorities. The Bio government’s method of dealing with this issue is not leadership. It is not leading to progress. The Bio government’s handling of the situation is a betrayal at the highest level.
Sierra Leoneans Must Wake up and Demand the Leadership We Deserve
As I have suggested previously, Julius Bio’s activities in the country are only geared to attract external attention and funding. His televised visit to the people’s farm, which he claims to be his, was one of those activities. As evidenced by his State House News page report, Julius Bio told his audience at the London event that the moment to partner with us is now. We must walk the talk and implement everything we discuss today” (www.statehouse.gov.sl). Need I say more?
So, instead of staying in the country long enough to understand the issues affecting the people and find practical solutions, Julius Bio squandered taxpayers’ money to jet off to an international symposium on chartered flights to deliver hollow speeches and invite more large-scale corporate agribusiness vultures like Socfin. It is time for Bio to truly walk our fields, listen to our farmers, and implement real solutions. The people of Sierra Leone deserve better. We need a leader who is willing to:
- Invests in our farmers, not in photo ops
- Address land rights and stop land-grabbing
- Improve infrastructure to support agriculture
- Provide access to funding and resources for smallholder farmers
Julius Bio cannot speed ride expensive scooters to resolve these problems, nor can he solve them with a camera crew and online praise singers.
As he stands on international stages, spouting empty rhetoric about “feeding Salone,” our people are literally dying of hunger—not just for food but for honest, effective leadership. The luxury farm and chartered flights are causing starvation for the people of Sierra Leone.
It is time to demand that the nation channel its resources into empowering our farmers, protecting our lands, and building a sustainable agricultural future for Sierra Leone.
It is time to see through Julius Maada Bio’s sham and demand real change. Our farmers—the true heroes of our nation—deserve nothing less. We must not be fooled by staged photos and empty promises. The future of Sierra Leone’s agriculture and our nation’s prosperity depends on action, not acting in front of expensive cameras.
Julius Maada Bio must stop spending people’s money on private jets and luxury farms and genuinely feed Salone.
References
‘They took it over by force’: Corruption and palm oil in Sierra Leone
Timber Trade And Its Downbeat Socio- Economic Effects
Sierra Leone News: Timber export brings in over $3.3m to Gov’t
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 