by Fatima Babih, EdD
Fatima Bio’s paid Ebema Gbi crusaders are flooding social media with adjectives and no proof. They fail to accept that it is a candidate’s record, not her marriage, privileged international visibility, or lobbyist publicity, that can demonstrate the competence and accountability required for the presidency.
Valor. Vision. Integrity. Resilience. Compassion.
These adjectives are being posted daily by Fatima Bio’s paid Ebema Gbi crusaders in hopes of building momentum for her intended presidential run in 2028. Not one of them is a verifiable record.
I am not here to engage in an argument that a woman cannot lead Sierra Leone. Yes, it is time for women in Sierra Leone to step up to this leadership aspiration. It is also not an argument that being married to a president should disqualify anyone. My argument is that being married to a president cannot qualify Fatima Bio or anyone for the presidency.
The presidency of our country is not a family inheritance. Sierra Leone is not a monarchy.
Praise is not proof of competency. Sierra Leone deserves an evidence-based debate. Before asking Sierra Leoneans to consider Fatima Bio for the presidency, her campaign crusaders must answer a fundamental question: what independently verifiable record demonstrates that Fatima Bio is qualified to govern the country?
I examined some of the claims her paid crusaders are circulating on social media. None of them survive the above question.
Claim #1: A woman of valor, vision, and integrity
Such character references are not the evidence Sierra Leoneans want to see. Which hard decisions has Fatima Bio made under independent scrutiny, that prove her courage?
And “integrity” is not a claim her supporters can make while ignoring what has been reported by independent media. In May 2025, OCCRP reported that Fatima Bio, who came into her tenure from government housing for the poor in the UK, acquired multiple properties in The Gambia, including a villa purchased in her mother’s name.
The report identified at least $2.1 million in real-estate transactions involving Fatima Bio and her relatives between 2020 and 2024. According to OCCRP, her response to these findings was that she owed them “no explanation.”
Those are strong words from a woman who is asking for Sierra Leoneans’ trust. Crusaders’ declaration of Fatima Bio’s integrity does not answer a documented financial question, and her “I owe you nothing” response is not the transparency Sierra Leone deserves.
Africanist Press has also published investigations into presidential and First Lady spending that it says rest on bank records and official correspondence. Those allegations deserve answers from Fatima Bio and her campaign crusaders, not dismissal because they are politically inconvenient.
If Fatima Bio’s presidency crusaders want citizens to believe in her integrity, the path is simple: Provide audited accounts, lawful sources of funds, expenditure authorizations, and substantive responses to every investigation.
Praise is not proof, and neither is silence.
Claim #2: Resilience, love of country, tireless dedication
Resilience is praise offered by her paid crusaders. It is not a qualification. Love of country is not a management record.
- What institution has she built or managed?
- What budget has she administered ethically?
- Which of her programs kept working after the launch ceremony ended and the cameras left?
Sierra Leone voters cannot inspect what is in someone’s heart. They can inspect written records, and that is where this debate belongs.
Claim #3: She has represented our nation on the world stage
This claim confuses priviledged visibility with competence. A podium is not a performance audit. A privileged invitation to speak abroad, as wife of a sitting president, is not a public mandate. A moving speech about suffering is not evidence that suffering has decreased.
Fatima Bio’s access to these platforms comes from being the president’s spouse. The same standard would apply to any presidential spouse, male or female. If advocacy is claimed as achievement, Fatima Bio and her paid crusaders need to show the connection between her speeches and outcomes on the ground:
- Which engagement produced which agreement?
- How much money actually arrived, not merely pledged?
- Who administered the funds?
- Which services are operating today, and who independently verified them?
An international audience can applaud a speech. Citizens are entitled to ask what happened next.
Claim #4: Tireless advocate for children and against child marriage
Fatima Bio self identifies as champion for the 2024 child-marriage law and an organizer of its signing ceremony. But Parliament is the entity that passed that law in June 2024, and her husband signed it in July. It was a legislative achievement shaped by institutions and many contributors, not one person’s property. If her crusaders say she delivered it, let them produce the drafting documents, parliamentary records, and consultation submissions showing her specific contribution.
A law does not mean much without implementation: trained personnel, reliable budgets, accessible protection services, support for survivors. What has Fatima Bio delivered on any of these since 2024?
Fatima Bio’s promised state-of-the-art center that cannot be found. In July 2022, her office publicized a hospital project and a “one-stop center of excellence for rape victims.” That was a promise. I have found no independent verification that it was delivered. Where is the facility? When did it open? Is it treating survivors? What are its staffing, services, budget, and patient numbers? Show us the construction accounts, completion certificate, funding sources, and independent inspection.
Government One-Stop Centers and Rainbo services existed long before Fatima Bio’s announcement. Rainbo’s 2024 report describes counsellors working in five government One-Stop Centers. Their existence is not evidence that her promise was kept. A building under construction is not a service. A finished building without staff, supplies, safeguarding procedures, and sustained funding is not a survivor-protection system.
Hands Off Our Girls: where are the results? UNICEF’s Child Marriage Data Portal shows the share of women aged 20 to 24 married before 18 falling from 44.1% in 2009 to 34.8% in 2014 and 29.6% in 2019, the latest national figure. That decline began before Hands Off Our Girls launched in December 2018, and the 2019 figure largely reflects marriages that predate the campaign. So where is the later comparable data? What evaluation separates her campaign’s contribution from existing trends and from the work of ministries, civil society, donors, communities, and frontline professionals?
The same discipline applies to sexual violence data. Rainbo’s 2024 records show 2,607 sexual-assault cases and 434 pregnancies resulting from penetration at its centers. These are service-provider figures, not a national rape rate. Reported cases can rise or fall because of access, awareness, stigma, or barriers to care, not only because violence changed. Nobody should claim success from those numbers without publishing the baseline, targets, annual spending, methodology, results, limitations, and an independent evaluation.
Claim #5: Courage, dedication, and determination
Recognition for a contribution and qualification for the presidency are different judgments. Where is the evidence that Fatima Bio is ready to manage public finances, economic policy, public services, national security, and constitutional responsibilities? Credible evidence would be management experience, policy proposals, transparent financial conduct, and direct answers under independent questioning. Respect does not require endorsement.
- Which vulnerable people received Fatima Bio’s sustained help, and how were they chosen?
- What complaint mechanisms protected beneficiaries?
- What independent assessments verified the results?
All of this can be answered without exposing a single survivor’s identity. Accountability and confidentiality are compatible.
Claim #6: Her supporters believe she is worth considering
A belief tells us only that someone supports her. Which experience? Which responsibilities? Which published results? And how does that record prepare anyone to govern an entire fragile country?
Notice also the sleight of hand. Recently, (October 2026), Fatima Bio’s spokesman discussed the possibility of her 2028 president aspiration, while stopping short of announcing one. So, these daily social media praise singing should be taken simply as a test of the waters.
Citizens should judge an actual record and not allow themselves to be pushed toward a conclusion based on praise singing crusaders’ chosen adjectives.
Claim #7: She deserves to be heard
She does. So do all the women in the SLPP who have similar political ambition but have been silenced by Fatima Bio. She also deserves to be questioned by the same standards as anyone seeking public power.
The right to speak is not immunity from scrutiny.
Fatima Bio’s Ebema Gbi crusaders are asking for a “meaningful conversation” But they fail to begin the conversation with concrete meaningful records.
To begin any meaningful conversation, Fatima Bio and her campaign crusaders need to answer the financial investigations substantively. They also need to show what her promised projects have delivered on the ground. A meaningful conversation does not start by asking citizens to blindly accept crusaders’ desired conclusion before the hard questions are answered.
The bottom line is this: Putting people first means respecting their right to demand evidence, scrutinize funding issues, and question how, as wife of the president, Fatima Bio has used or misused her power, privilege and access to resources.
It means rejecting a candidate like Fatima Bio whose reported unexplained wealth remains unexplained and whose headline promises are unfulfilled and unverified.
Proximity to the incumbent president is not an electoral mandate. Sierra Leoneans who are not convinced about Fatima Bio’s qualifications for the presidency must organize and oppose her candidacy through democratic debates, advocacy, party processes, and public scrutiny.
Fatima Bio and her Ebema Gbi crusaders should not just tell us that Fatima Bio cares. They must show us what she has delivered to girls and women in the country, what it cost for her to do so, who independently verified her activities, and why such activities prove she can govern Sierra Leone.
Today, Sierra Leone is at a critical crossroad, in need of a capable, competent and ethical leader. This fragile, impoverished nation is currently plagued by high youth unemployment, leading to increased drug use among the youth.
The country is now also globally recognized as a Narco State due to its hosting of Europe’s most wanted drug lord, Jos Leijdekkers (a.k.a. Bolle Jos or Umar Sheriff). All under the leadership of Fatima Bio’s husband, Julius Maada Bio.
