Commentary
When news broke out a couple of days ago that the former presidential candidate of the main opposition party (the SLPP), Julius Maada Bio, has taken a new wife in London, my first reaction was to ignore it. It’s the man’s personal business, who cares if he marries ten wives?
But thinking about the matter again while sipping my orange juice after a hard day’s work, I suddenly realized that this man could have been our President if he had won in 2007 and he could have taken us from one national embarrassment to another. Di man miss for bi wi prezident, myne!
Imagine a self-professed Catholic politician marrying, albeit secretly, another woman, a Muslim woman, without the knowledge of his legally married Christian wife struggling in another country with their four children. Imagine!
Imagine what would have happened if that politician were your President, how he would have been torn apart by both the local and international media!
I think Mr. Maada Bio has made another big blunder among a list of many blunders (blocking the president’s motorcade, moving around with thugs etc, etc). He should carefully weigh his thoughts and actions and pay more attention to media perceptions because I am told he wants to take another shot at the presidency in 2018.
He does not seem to know what he is doing or does not seem to be mature enough (no wonder President Ernest Koroma refused to have a debate with him in the last election campaign period). I also think he is inflicting unnecessary pain on his long-suffering supporters who I am told are mostly tribalists, supporting him because of a shared ethnicity or cultural background.
I have nothing against Fatima, the woman Bio has recently married, but it must be said she also displayed poor judgement knowing fully well the man is a Christian, married with kids. Indeed Bio would have done nothing wrong if he were a Muslim (Muslim men are allowed to marry more than one woman, but not Catholics).
What is the solution for this latest Bio snafu? I would suggest that Bio converts to Islam and become a Muslim so that he can get as many wives as he wants. He should also go to Mecca next year and become an Alhaji. Alhaji Julius Maada Bio? Nice.
Photo credit: Awareness Times, Freetown.
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