Office of Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR
24 Garrison Street, Freetown.
Tel: +232-30-999000
Email: sylvia@blyden.com
Press Statement
UNPROVOKED PEJORATIVE REFERENCES AGAINST DR. SYLVIA OLAYINKA BLYDEN OOR BY 2023 EUROPEAN UNION ELECTIONS OBSERVATION MISSION TO SIERRA LEONE
Thursday October 12th 2023.
European Union (EU) 2023 Elections Observers Report has bizarre contents. The EU (who claims to seek for a peaceful APC, SLPP coexistence) has sought to criminalize a beautiful relationship between APC’s Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR and SLPP’s H.E. First Lady Fatima Maada Bio. They did that in the EU’s 2023 Elections Observers Report released on Tuesday 10th October, 2023.
It is noted that the EU Lead Observer is female EU Member of Parliament, Hon. Madam Evin Incir. Many believe that EU’s Incir should have lifted Sylvia and Fatima’s relationship sky-high as a beacon of HOPE for what APC and SLPP can aspire to co-exist to become. Instead, a woman like Evin Incir, without a scrap of evidence to support her claims and without prior engagement to solicit the side of Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR, has profusely demeaned APC Strongwoman Sylvia Olayinka Blyden for merely being in a sisterhood relationship with SLPP Strongwoman First Lady Fatima Maada Bio.
There is widespread, strong suspicion that Hon. Evin Incir has been used cheaply by hidden hands with no consideration for the reputation of Evin Incir as a honourable MEP. Those hidden hands have treated Incir like one will treat a latrine bucket or a garden hoe because such cheap instruments don’t deserve for their handlers to protect their reputation for them. They are to be used and then dumped with filth on them. We believe this is exactly what has happened to Hon. Evin Incir. She has been used and will now face the music alone whilst her handlers are in the shadows.
Now, I (Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR) am writing this Press Statement to handle two of the five issues about me in the EU’s 2023 Report. The EU wrote about just me, alone, on different issues. There may be more but so far, I have picked up five(5) issues around me in their Report:
i). My Supreme Court Case against the conduct of the 2018 Elections five years ago.
ii). The financial relationship between me and Facebook to the extent of EU Observers stating that they actually went to Facebook Library to diligently investigate the amount, in dollars (approximately $504), that I personally paid from my personal United States of America bank credit card to advertise my personal posts on my personal Facebook page. Even my Facebook post about a personal dinner in London that I took my godson to, for his 21st birthday, was counted as part of “political adverts” by the European Union in arriving at their $504 total. Yes, as bizarre as it sounds, such mundane portions about personal life of Sylvia Olayinka Blyden are allocated right there inside what is supposed to be a respectable EU Elections Observers Report.
iii). Impugning me, with no scrap of evidence, that, a bonafide APC Member like myself, in good standing inside my APC, is now aligned with SLPP. This written, even in the face of me being one of the strongest critics of SLPP to an extent of me making regular strong criticisms against SLPP and President Maada Bio. They try to forcefully place me in same alignment that Hon. Kandeh Yumkella is with the SLPP. The EU Observers even maliciously created a very wide, coloured chart to do a totally needless comparison between Myself (Sylvia Olayinka Blyden), H.E. First Lady Fatima Maada Bio and Mayor Elect Yvonne Aki Sawyerr. Curiously, on the coloured chart, they wrote my name with SLPP green ink, wrote H.E. Fatima’s name in SLPP green then wrote Yvonne’s name in APC red ink. The EU doing subliminal political messaging for their handlers who don’t care about the reputation of Hon. Evin Incir as EU Lead.
iv). The relationship between me and First Lady Fatima Maada Bio.
v). The Contempt with which I hold some of the APC members (aka DE SELL-GAME BUNCH).
I will treat (i) (ii) and (iii) with disregard but it is poignant to see European Union wrote about SYLVIA OLAYINKA BLYDEN in at least five(5) different matters in a Report on an Election wherein Sylvia did not contest, Sylvia did not even vote and Sylvia was not even in the country.
European Union definitely considers me as a MAJOR stakeholder and they clearly find me to be a very powerful stakeholder too!!!
Now, before I go on to handle the two out of above five issues – Let me ask: Who wrote that Report for the European Union Observers? I see MEP Evin Incir taking leadership but how can a strong woman like MEP Evin, who made headlines this year for slamming at her fellow European Union MPs over usage of gender-demeaning language, be the author of a Report that seeks to demean two other strong Women (Fatima and Sylvia) who are, arguably, amongst the strongest ever Sierra Leone women?
Food for thought as I move on to address my two points.
(1) MY RELATIONSHIP WITH FATIMA:
The EU’s pejorative reference to my relationship with Sierra Leone’s powerfully productive, Girls Advocate, Gender-Equality & Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) activist First Lady Fatima Maada Bio is nauseating. I’m so disgusted.
I am considering to write a formal protest complaint of their deprecatory description of my relationship with First Lady Fatima but let me use this chance to quickly remind the European Union, that contrary to their inanity they planted in that their inane paragraph, the truth is my relationship with H.E. Fatima Maada Bio did not start at the 2023 Elections campaign. Our relationship started over two decades ago when Fatima was not even 21 years of age yet. It is not a new relationship but has withstood the test of time because it is built on a rock solid foundation of over 20 years. It has now transcended APC SLPP Politics. It is an example of Political Tolerance. It should be showcased to the World as the power of Sisterhood over Bitter Politics.
(2) MY CONTEMPT FOR CERTAIN APC MEMBERS:
The EU seems very much concerned over me, SINGULARLY. They (or their handlers) have issues over my opinions about some elements of the APC. Just imagine oh!
Without engaging me first, the EU went and raised significant concerns in their Report over the “contempt” that Sylvia Olayinka Blyden has for certain APC Members. Well, again contrary to the statements of the EU Observers who (or their hidden handlers) seem to have an uncanny interest in SYLVIA OLAYINKA BLYDEN, my notable contempt for certain of my fellow APC members did not start at 2023 Elections but dates as far back as May/June 2020 (over 3 years ago) from the time when those APC members, selfishly looked the other way (as did the EU Mission in Sierra Leone) when my constitutional rights (as a Woman and as a Human Being) were egregiously abused during a most unlawful detention that I was subjected to by the State.
That was an unlawful and pre-planned detention occasioned simply because I was by then (May/June 2020), the only leading APC democratic voice who courageously used democratic tools in our Democracy. For example, I used the democratic pathway of filing a case against the elected President, the Electoral Commission & Chief Electoral Commissioner at the Supreme Court. I also presented myself to democratically challenge allegations against me at the Commissions of Inquiry and MOST IMPORTANTLY, I wrote copiously against the excesses of President Bio and the SLPP-led Government – all in a transparent and democratic manner without ever breaking the Law.
For that courage I SINGULARLY showed back then, I was arrested without a Warrant, thrown behind bars into filthy detention cells and treated in nasty, egregious manners that are unprintable. I was detained behind bars for two months from May 1st 2020 to the end of June 2020. Throughout my ordeal, those particular elements of the APC stayed silent. That their silence and their subsequent lapses against expected democratic values are the sources of my contempt for them. Let the EU take due note.
The same contempt with which I hold those APC duty-bearers who kept silent back then is the same contempt that I hold for certain of those Diplomatic Missions (like the EU Mission) back then who failed to SPEAK OUT on my behalf.
I however, am too STRONG a Woman to allow that bitter maltreatment of me by the State to determine my patriotic and trustworthy contribution to the State. I have a character strength that ensures I serve as a role model in PATRIOTISM (Country First!). So I will not allow my deeply bitter experience to derail my personal relationships with those I love and care for.
So my personal relationship and support for the awesome, globally-recognized Girls Advocate & GEWE work of First Lady Fatima, cannot be impugned or sullied by those hidden hands who authored that EU Observers Report and seemingly gave it to Hon. Evin Incir to unfortunately append her otherwise respectable signature on it.
It’s a damn shame that Evin Incir, a woman who recently made headlines for writing to complain gender-based pejorative language in European Parliament, today had to reduce herself to appending her signature on an INANE paragraph in a Report that impugns a beautiful sisterhood relationship between two strong Women!
Hon. Evir Incir is now being publicly challenged to produce EVIDENCE that Sylvia Olayinka Blyden ever aligned herself with the SLPP. In the absence of such, an unfettered Apology is to be publicly given by Incir and the EU Observers – especially as they NEVER engaged me prior to publishing such malicious matters about me.
Hon. Evin Incir has allowed herself to be USED like a cheap garden hoe tool or a latrine bucket item by hidden hands who want to derail the social standing of First Lady Fatima Maada Bio and Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR, two strong women, who have applaudably succeeded to transcend their political differences and co-exist as siblings amidst a bitter political climate that threatens the very foundation of our Multi Party Democracy.
Instead of praising Fatima and myself for maintaining a relationship across party lines, the EU Observers attacked the relationship maliciously.
How can the European Union preach peace and tolerance but smear and impugn Fatima and Sylvia efforts to showcase that peace and tolerance are indeed possible across APC and SLPP party lines? Is it that the European Union wants perpetual Bitterness to overcome Love inside Sierra Leone?
EU Madam Evin Incir, you should hang your head in shame!! What a damn shame of you to sign such a Report indeed. Your claims against me are frankly malicious NONSENSE.
More Anon. Yes, more Anon!
Dr. Sylvia Olayinka Blyden OOR
Freetown, Thursday October 11th 2023.
