My husband has PhD in coup d’etats – Sierra Leone First Lady

Sierra Leone’s First Lady, Fatima Bio, has controversially stated that her husband holds a PhD degree in staging coups.

Her comment was to buttress the point that nobody can overthrow Julius Maada Bio, who will be seeking a second and final term in office during upcoming general elections.

According to reports, she made the comment last weekend at a fundraising event in the US.

“Maada Bio has a PhD in coup d’état, can you remove him?” The man has a PhD in [staging] coups, how can you remove someone who teaches people how to stage a coup?,” the First Lady stressed in a video shared on Facebook.

Violent protests took place in opposition strongholds last month leading to death of 31 people including six police officers.

Maada Bio in an address to the nation, blamed the incidents on opponents despite reports indicating that it was over high cost of living. He subsequently changed the security chiefs.

The president is known to have been involved in two coup d’etats in the West African nation’s history.

First, he came to power in April 1992 as part of a group of young military officers who overthrew the civilian government of Joseph Saidu Momoh of the All People’s Congress, APC.

Four years on, in January 1996 he staged a palace coup and succeeded Captain Valentine Strasser as head of state. Two months later he held elections and handed over to a civilian rule.

Maada Bio came to power in 2018 on the ticket of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP). He beat the then candidate of the ruling APC, which had Ernest Bai Koroma as outgoing president.