The wife of Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, Mrs. Fatima Bio, has said her husband holds a Ph.D. degree in staging coups, and therefore nobody can overthrow him.
According to a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) report yesterday, she was referring to the violent protests of August 10th in opposition strongholds which left 31 people killed, including six police officers. The president blamed the protests – which were generally about the high cost of living – on the opposition, alleging that they were part of a plot to overthrow him, leading to the dismissal of the top three in the army.
Speaking at the weekend during a fundraising event in the United States, Mrs. Bio accused unnamed people of wanting to overthrow her husband. “Maada Bio has a Ph.D. in coup d’état. Can you remove him?” she asked rhetorically, before reiterating that: “The man has a Ph.D. in (staging) coups; how can you remove someone who teaches people how to stage a coup?” the First Lady said, in a video shared on Facebook.
The First Lady was making an apparent reference to the fact that her husband first came to power in April 1992, as part of a group of young military officers who overthrew the civilian government of Joseph Saidu Momoh of the All People’s Congress, the party he defeated at the polls in 2018, and whom he accused of being behind the August protests. The opposition party vehemently denied the allegations.
Many observers have condemned the statement, even with some of the moderate elements within her Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) condemning it. Mrs. Bio, a prolific user of Facebook and TikTok social media platforms, has been known to make controversial comments.
She has not responded to the reactions following her coup comments, nor has anyone in the Presidency.
