by Fatima Babih, EdD
What exactly is holding you down against Madam First Lady? Are you jealous of her achievements all over the world?
This message greeted me today when I opened Facebook Messenger, which I seldom do because it is one of the platforms Fatima Bio’s hired online thugs use to harass me. The sender, like countless others before him, reduces my patriotic duty to speak truth to power into mere jealousy or personal vendetta, because (s)he has no real defence to put up for the most corrupt First Lady in the history of Sierra Leone.
As I cannot change the minds of paid thugs, the purpose of this post is for those who genuinely want to understand why I continue to speak against Fatima Bio’s corrupt ways, despite the harassment, the threats, and the coordinated attacks. This is my answer.
I Gave Her a Choice
When Julius Maada Bio became President of Sierra Leone in 2018, I wrote an open letter to his wife, the new First Lady Fatmata Jabbie aka Fatima Jabbie Bio. It was not an attack. It was a warning born of concern for my country and our people.
In that letter, I outlined two paths before Fatima Bio as First Lady:
Path One: Become a compassionate First Lady who genuinely uses her position to advance women’s progress and girls’ wellbeing in Sierra Leone. Use the platform for substance, not spectacle. Build real programs, create lasting change, uplift the voiceless.
Path Two: Become a famous First Lady who exploits the plight of girls and women as pawns to gain international fame and enrich herself. Collect accolades abroad while doing nothing at home. Build a personal brand on the backs of suffering Sierra Leoneans, especially women and girls.
I hoped she would choose Path One. I prayed she would choose to be compassionate in her position. She crushed my hope.
By 2020, the answer was devastatingly clear: Fatima Bio had chosen to be a fame and wealth-seeking First Lady.
An Oppressive First Lady
What has unfolded before every Sierra Leonean’s eyes since 2018 has not been compassion or leadership in their First Lady. It has been the systematic abuse of power by a woman intoxicated by ambient power. Fatima Bio, due to her proximity to power, quickly became the most powerful woman in Sierra Leone politics, but she has wielded that power like a weapon:
Against Women in Her husband’s party the SLPP:
- She destroyed the political careers of SLPP women who dared to have independent voices
- She threw her weight around, crushing any woman or man she perceived as a threat
- She created a culture of fear where SLPP members had to bow to her or be destroyed
Against the People of Sierra Leone:
- Fatima Bio has consistently appropriated government funds meant for social services
- She has consistently hijacked government projects and rebrands them as her personal projects
- She uses donor funds intended for girls and women to build her international profile
The International Charade:
- Fatima Bio, with taxpayers’ money, consistently hires expensive lobbyists in the US and Europe
- These lobbyists are paid to secure international platforms where she poses as a champion for African women
- She has collected unmerited international awards and accolades, while in Sierra Leone, girls and women received nothing
The Damning Reality: Despite all her international speeches and accolades, Fatima Bio has no systems or programs in place in Sierra Leone. Girls and women in our country continue to suffer from devastating socio-economic issues without any meaningful help from Fatima Bio, the woman who claims to champion their cause.
Why I Wrote the Book
By 2022, I could no longer remain silent. The gap between Fatima Bio’s international image and her domestic reality had become a chasm. Her detrimental behaviors were discussed only in passing, whispered about in private WhatsApp chats, and feared in public.
Someone had to document the truth for prosterity!
So, I wrote The UNBECOMING Mrs. Maada Bio of Sierra Leone: A Case of First Lady Syndrome.
The book detailed Fatima Bio’s corrupt actions; her abuses of power, and her exploitation of vulnerable populations for personal gain and fame. It laid bare the difference between the international brand she has built and the domestic damage she has caused.
Her response? Not to address the issues. Not to defend her record with facts. Not to show evidence of the programs she claimed to have built.
Instead, she hired online thugs to attack me, including a woman known for her vulgarity in Sierra Leone and some misguided and desperate young men from my mother’s family.
Their Attacks Only Proved My Point
The coordinated harassment campaign that followed the publication of my book was enlightening. It revealed several truths:
First, Fatima Bio does not respond to criticism with transparency or accountability, but with intimidation and character assassination.
Second, the resources she uses to pay thugs for sustained online harassment campaigns should raise questions about the source of her wealth.
Third, that my book had struck a nerve. The truth always does.
Rather than silencing me, the attacks convinced me that my work was only beginning. If she felt threatened enough to deploy paid thugs against a single author, then that author must be saying something worth silencing.
This Is Patriotism
To those who ask what I have “against” Fatima Bio, if they are capable of understanding, must know this: I have no reason to have anything against her personally.
She has given me and all patriotic Sierra Leoneans multiple reasons to go against what she does and represents. We are against Fatima Bio’s:
- Corruption disguised as charity
- Self-enrichment masked as public service
- Institutional capture presented as leadership
- International deception while girls and women in Sierra Leone suffer
- Weaponized state institutions used to destroy her perceived enemies
When the First Lady of a nation:
- Accumulates unexplained millions in foreign real estate
- Treats the national treasury as her personal bank account
- Weaponizes the Anti-Corruption Commission against her critics
- Destroys businesses and livelihoods on personal whims
- Plots to extend her power through a presidential run
Speaking against her is not a vendetta; it is a patriotic duty.
Compelling Evidence
My decision to continue speaking out has been vindicated by recent revelations:
The OCCRP Investigation (January 2025) documented how Fatima Bio and her family have acquired over $2.1 million in Gambian real estate since Bio took office, properties they cannot explain given Mr. and Mrs. Bio’s documented economic status as recipients of UK government housing benefits before Bio’s presidency.
The Koidu Holdings Letter (June 2025) exposed how Fatima Bio has weaponized the ACC under her protégé, Francis Ben Kaifala, who openly refers to her as his “big sister,” to harass international investors who refuse her extortion demands.
These are not my allegations. These are findings by internationally respected investigative journalists and statements from affected companies themselves.
Every day, more evidence emerges that validates everything I wrote in my book.
Why I Cannot Be Silenced
To those who are paid to harass me and others on social media, I have this message:
I know you are paid. I know this is your job. I know that regardless of the truth, you will continue to do what Fatima Bio pays you to do.
But know this: Your insults mean nothing to me. They are the desperate thrashing of a corrupt woman who knows that the truth is catching up, who knows history will judge her harshly.
You can call me jealous. You can question my motives. You can attack my character.
But you cannot refute the facts about Fatima Jabbie Bio’s corrupt behavior and actions.
My Commitment
I made a commitment when I published my book, and I renew it now: I will continue to speak against Fatima Bio’s excesses until her husband’s term ends in 2028.
But let me be even clearer: If by some corrupt means Fatima Bio remains in our political space beyond 2028, whether through manipulated elections, institutional capture, or any other mechanism, my patriotic work will continue to focus on her corrupt behavior and actions.
This is not about Fatima Bio’s imaginary personal animosity. This is about protecting Sierra Leone’s democracy from people like her who are bent on destroying it for personal gain.
Some ask why I don’t just ignore her, why I don’t let others take up this fight, why I persist despite the harassment.
The answer is simple: Because we all have to stand against corruption in Sierra Leone by any means possible. How can I remain silent? How can any Sierra Leonean with a conscience remain silent?
To Those Who Seek Truth
This post is not for Fatima Bio’s paid attackers. They will continue their work regardless of the truth we all know. This post is for Sierra Leoneans who care for the truth. You deserve to know that the woman positioning herself as your next president:
- Has accumulated unexplained wealth from our country while you struggle to eat one meal a day
- Has weaponized institutions against you that are meant to protect you
- Has destroyed communities and livelihoods for personal vendettas
- Has built an international reputation on lies while neglecting you at home
You deserve to know that criticizing her is not jealousy; it is patriotism. You deserve to know that the harassment campaigns against critics are not organic outrage; they are paid operators. You deserve to know that every insult her thugs throw at people like me is an admission that they cannot defend her on the merits.
My Responsibility
I did not choose this fight. This fight was thrust upon me when I watched someone with immense power and privilege use that position to enrich herself at the cost of ordinary Sierra Leoneans suffering.
Some might call my persistence an obsession. I call it responsibility. My responsibility to my country overshadows their insults. My responsibility to the truth overshadows their lies. My responsibility to future generations overshadows their threats. And I will not shirk that responsibility, not for comfort, not for safety.
I have nothing against Fatima Bio. I have everything against her corruption, institutional abuse, and the exploitation of vulnerable people for personal gain.
If that makes me her enemy, then I wear that badge with pride. If standing for justice, transparency, and accountability means being targeted by her hired thugs, then so be it.
I will not be silenced. I will not be intimidated. I will not stop speaking truth to power. Not until Sierra Leone is free from the grip of those who are destroying it for personal ambition. Not until our institutions serve the people rather than the powerful. Not until justice prevails for our people, especially girls and women.
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 