It's Africa Day 2019 | Give Her a Break


Almost six months after Sierra Leone’s first lady launched  “Hands Off Our Girls“ (a spin-off campaign from the Bring Back Our Girls movement), Fatima Bio has taken some flak. 

 Fatima (seen standing with former first lady Sia Koroma in an undated photo) hasn't been out of the news since she led a controversial event on April 27, 2019, in a noticeably empty stadium in the capital, Freetown.

A few days later she shared her thoughts on WhatsApp, hoping to silence the critics with revelations about rival factions at State House and Presidential aides who are living the life of Royalty, while poor Sierra Leoneans eke out an existence on $1.20 a day.  

 When that social media PR  didn't do the trick, Fatima put out a video to hex her husband's enemies, real or imagined. Needless to say, all bets were off!

 Now, every other day there are videos from local comedians, which in all honesty send up some of the first lady's worst pronouncements in the most hilarious way. There are also videos from one-time friends who admit they haven't seen her since she held court at East Street Market and ran with the London bus set.

There's also the group who have a field day playing morality police--judging Fatima's life, motivations, and intentions before she married Bio, the soldier-turned-politician who never stopped running for the highest office in the land. 

 First ladies are not supposed to be as chaste as the Virgin Mary, who wasn't really if we think about it. So, how about we give the first lady a break?

And wouldn't it be something if Fatima takes on board what one social commentator calls the “debasement of women” in Sierra Leone, holding herself up as a poster child?

I'd like to see Mrs. Bio partner with organizations that represent teenage mothers, divorced mothers with kids, and the silent majority of great women behind great men the world has never known. 

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