President Bio’s Conversion From Saul To Paul 

By Mohamed Sankoh (One Drop)

During the 1980s, while attending Sunday School regularly at the Ebenezer Methodist Church at Circular Road in Freetown’s Central One of old, one of the biblical stories that always fascinated me was that of Saul who was persecuting Christians until he was struck by a “blinding heavenly light” on his way to Damascus.

As I was stumbling my way through the formative academic labyrinths at the Buxton [Methodist] Boys Primary School at Charles Street in Freetown’s Central Two of old; every time the story of Saul came up in our Religious Knowledge (What we called “RK” in those days.) class, my fascination with that story became fascinatingly fascinated. After that “blinding heavenly light” incident on his way to Damascus, and after losing and regaining his sight; he was later baptized as “Paul” by Ananias. And lo and behold, he became more Christian than the early Christians so much so that he is credited to have written majority of the Books in the “holy” Bible.

Despite today I’m an unapologetic non-church-going Christian; the story of how Saul became Paul still fascinates me. And whenever, in my mischievous academic moments, I try to juxtapose the initial and later activities of Saul with how President Julius Maada Bio is now trying to position himself from being the chief persecutor of members and supporters of the All People’s Congress (APC) to a newfound preacher of peace and national cohesion; the fascination of the Saul-to-Paul story becomes fascinatingly fascinating!

Like Saul, President Bio started his presidency in 2018 with his administration persecuting and prosecuting APC members and supporters. Decent and right-thinking Sierra Leoneans saw, in comic horror, how 10 elected APC Members of Parliament were de-MP-nized by judicial sleight of gavels. They also saw the tragic comedy, from live television, how the current National Secretary General of the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Umar Paran Tarawallie while he was the Clerk of Parliament, invited security forces into the well of parliament to manhandle sitting APC members who were literally dragged by their collars from the Chamber of Parliament. And decent and right-thinking Sierra Leoneans were also witnesses to the climax of President Bio’s prosecutions of APC members through the guilty-before-trial Commissions of Inquiry (COI) that made the “show trials” of Josef Stalin looked like dressed rehearsals!

And also, like how Saul was determined to persecute those who were following the teachings of the Great Teacher, President Bio appeared to have been determined, at the start of his presidency, to denigrate and tag APC supporters and members with epithets that seemed to make them look like leprous people in the eyes of decent and right-thinking Sierra Leoneans. That’s why he deliberately used demeaning descriptions like “Ayampi” and “terrorists” (his national address of 8 May 2020) to describe APC members and supporters. He later told Asmaa James of Radio Democracy, in a live exclusive one-on-one interview, that former President Ernest Bai Koroma was not his friend and would never be one in both the literal and figurative senses (He even told off the poor lady for suggesting a friendship with his successor.)! And President Bio appeared to have hated members of the main opposition party so much so that he even allegedly prayed for early death on any of his tribesmen in his Bonthe home district who would vote for the APC.

And President Bio was not alone in his Saul-like activities and utterances. Those around him, or those he appointed, appeared to have followed his cue. That’s why for the first Chief Minister, Professor David Francis, members of the erstwhile APC government were running “a racketeering enterprise”, engaged in countless “infractions”, and were sinfully sinful in their partisan sinfulness. The First Lady, Fatima Bio, believed that “only SLPP supporters are [the] true Sierra Leoneans”. Abu Abu, the former Resident Minister North, reportedly threatened presumed APC members in Makeni that their parents would mourn their deaths if they challenge the SLPP government of Bio. Former Deputy Internal Affairs Minister, Lahai Lawrence Leema, appeared to have regarded APC members as the “wretched” of Sierra Leone that should be used as guinea pigs during internal “peacekeeping missions”. And after the seemingly erratic prodigal cabinet minister, Dr Denis Sandy, had repeatedly engaged in countless political incorrectness against the APC and its members; the current Chief Minister, Dr David Moinina Sengeh, iced the Saul-ian cake by saying that the APC was full of, and with, citizens who were seriously unserious!

And, so, members of the APC were systematically targeted for selective justice. While former President Ernest Bai Koroma was charged with “treason and misprision of treason”; SLPP’s Kadiru Kaikai went scot free even when he’s caught on camera discussing wholesale chaos for Sierra Leone if he was not chosen to lead the SLPP in the 2028 Presidential Election. While the APC National Secretary General Lansana Dumbuya was “invited” by CID headquarters for making what appeared to be fair comments laced with all fairness; the SLPP Chairman, Batilo Songa, had made what seemed to be reckless statements that should have, at least, receive some form of reprimand from President Bio. And while APC aspiring flagbearers like Ady Macauley and Joseph Fitzgerald Kamara (JFK) have seen the inside of CID and prison cells for merely voicing out their legal opinions on constitutional issues; SLPP’s Hon. Lawyer Gavao never receive even a frown from the Bench for allegedly lying that the Speaker of Parliament had a running stomach like an emaciated child suffering from cholera.

And that’s not all. The persecution and prosecution of APC members and supporters were, and are, even pushed to partisan strongholds. Whenever disagreements occur in SLPP strongholds that later deteriorate into chaos and threats to state security; the security forces show extreme professionalism in handling the situation(s). But the manner in which the security sector undertook “peacekeeping missions” in APC strongholds like Makeni, Lunsar, Mile-91, Tonko-Limba, and Tombo appeared to indicate the Saul-ish mentality of the Bio-led administration.

But all that might now be ancient history if President Bio genuinely meant what he said on 26 October 2026 (last Monday) at the Bintumani Conference Centre in Freetown, during the opening of the Peace Conference organised by the Independent Commission for Peace and National Cohesion (ICPNC). For the first time in eight years, he surprisingly called former President Koroma his “Big Brother” which might have shocked Asmaa James and all those who watched that infamous exclusive one-on-one interview on Radio Democracy. He pledged to intensify “efforts to consolidate peace, strengthen democratic institutions, and address longstanding grievances.” And he even swallowed his seemingly pre-Paul hawkish pride and apologised to war survivors and victims’ families with hesitant humility!

So, with the above, I can cautiously state that President Bio might have now transformed himself from being Saul the persecutor to Paul the peace maker. Like Saul-cum-Paul; Bio’s conversion might not have occurred out of conviction or from his own freewill. It might have been forced through some powers beyond his control. And I’m suspecting that his own “blinding heavenly light” might have been triggered by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), and the European Union (EU)!

You do not have to take my assumption hook, line, and sinker on Bio’s seemingly conversion. But I know what I know which is only known to those who know knowingly! And if you are one of those who know what I know; you also know why our once-upon-a-time hawkish Commander-in-Chief is being peacefully peaceful in his newfound peacefulness!

Medsankoh@yahoo.com/+232-76-611-986