By Santigie Momoh, Freetown, Sierra Leone
The First Lady of Sierra Leone, Madam Fatima Bio (photo), has in a rare audio message a few days ago lambasted people making negative comments about her Hands Off Our Girls and sanitary pad projects.
She pointed out that she was not trying to protect girls from rape or to provide vulnerable school-going kids with sanitary pads in order to enrich herself because she was earning her living as a professional actress and model long before she became First Lady.
She said the pads, provided by an international organisation, are quite safe and that she will continue her anti-rape advocacy no matter the hate coming from political attackers.
She emphasized that she was not a beggar or a thief and will never be a beggar or a thief but someone merely demonstrating her love for her country and its people.
Madam Fatima Bio, the youngest First Lady Sierra Leone has ever had, is also the first Muslim First Lady in the country’s history. She is moreover the most active both locally and internationally. This stature has attracted both admirers and detractors at home and abroad.
Her detractors are mostly opposition politicians who fear her rise in popularity and by extension that of her husband and the president of Sierra Leone Dr. Julius Maada Bio.
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