By Foday Moriba Conteh
One of Sierra Leone’s outstanding female personalities, Cassandra Garber, who happens to be a former Principal of the Freetown Secondary School for Girls has, in a stunning article addressed to the leaders of women-led organizations in the country, urged those organizations to address the negative utterances of the country’s First Lady, Fatima Bio saying that her elevated position in the country demands exemplary behavior to all ranks and levels of the citizenry.
Cassandra Garber noted that as Sierra Leone clocks 60 years of political independence this year, 2021, she is thanking God for His mercy, adding that it is a blessing for her to be one of the few Female Senior Citizens to be alive.
She pointed out that she honours her responsibility as a citizen of Sierra Leone and that the State has likewise recognized her contributions and has twice awarded her National Honours or Awards, furthering that she therefore regards it as a national obligation to voice her disappointment and displeasure at the new and repulsive habit of exchanging coarse language on social media platforms especially at the level of the country’s leadership.
Cassandra revealed that globally, the spouse of the Head of State is instinctively accorded respect and courtesies by all nationals and non-nationals within a country and that correspondingly, that spouse is expected to exhibit the highest Code of Conduct.
She categorically stated that ever since the country gained a Republican Status in 1971, all former First Ladies, including Mama Rebecca Stevens, Hannah Momoh, Patricia Tejan-Kabba, all of blessed memory, and Sia Koroma, behaved with the dignity expected of their position.
“I therefore lament the present scenario in which Sierra Leone has a First Lady whose general approach is unbecoming, and whose language is very often not only offensive but also unprintable (by acceptable decent standards). I recently became aware of verbal tirades conducted by the First Lady. Sadly, she appears to relish taking on citizens; the practice of retort and exchanging ‘un-pleasantries’ by the First Lady has now become quite commonplace! In addition, she seems to revel in the use of filthy expressions! Her description of the proposed punishments for rapists will go down in the history of her very own project ‘HANDS OFF OUR GIRLS’. It is a pity that people in the Corridors of Power do not perceive this behavior as undermining the country’s level of international respectability,” she lamented.
She revealed that she had lived through the dawn of independence and witnessed the elegance and elocution of First Ladies of Sierra Leone and other countries in the West Africa sub-region and she cannot help but recall the outstanding wife of the late Ivorian President, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Marie-Therese, a fittingly pioneer First Lady, adding that she married in 1951 at the young age of 21; an inexperienced debutante but she went on to perform her state duties so magnificently that she was dubbed by the White House in 1962, “Africa’s Jackie Kennedy”.
Cassandra furthered that another First Lady, equally young and inexperienced, Njaimeh Jawara of the Gambia, maintained the remarkable standards expected of her position. From the legacies of these women, it is clear that age is not the determinant of Good Performance, according to her.
It is against such a background that she stated that it is time the various strata of Women’s Forum in the country must address the negative utterances of the country’s First Lady and that her elevated position in the community demands exemplary behavior to all ranks and levels of the citizenry.
She said with the customary display of Pride shown by their respective Ex-Pupil Associations, she do hope her alumnae co-members will take this as a wake-up call to rescue the reputation of their Alma Mater.
“The First Lady has abundant energy for directing her many projects. We welcome a change in her behavior and approach,” she concluded.
The article was addressed to women leaders of female organizations which includes Coordinator, Campaign for Good Governance, President, 50/50 Organization, Centre for Public Enlightenment & Dialogue for Peaceful Conference, President, Sierra Leone Association of University Women, President, Zonta International Sierra Leone, President, Business and Professional Women of Freetown, President, Sierra Leone Mothers’ Union, President, Sierra Leone Muslim Women’s Network, President, Women’s Network of the Methodist Church Sierra Leone, President, Soroptimist International of Freetown.
