By Alusine A. Sesay
The latest scandal gripping Sierra Leone has left citizens at home and abroad both bewildered and outraged.
The question now reverberating across the nation is simple: Who authorised a Sierra Leonean diplomatic passport for an alleged cocaine trafficker?
The Foreign Minister, in his carefully worded statement, claimed that as of yesterday, he had not received any diplomatic correspondence confirming that the individual arrested in Turkey for drug-related offences held either a Sierra Leonean diplomatic or ordinary passport.
His statement, cautious in phrasing, was the very definition of diplomatic ambiguity.
Meanwhile, the Sierra Leone Immigration Department (SLID) released its own statement, announcing that President Maada Bio had instructed an investigation into how the said diplomatic passport was issued.
But here’s the thing: according to Sierra Leonean law, only the President has the authority to approve the issuance of diplomatic passports. The Immigration Director has no such power.
So, should we genuinely believe that President Bio was unaware of this particular issuance?
The matter grows murkier still.
The accused individual, Abdullah Alp Üstün (alias Don Vito), is reportedly the brother-in-law of Maada Bio’s son-in-law, Bolle Jos—which, by extension, makes him a member of the President’s extended family. That connection alone raises eyebrows.
Rumour further suggests that it was through the “recommendation” of Bolle Jos that this so-called “diplomat” was granted the passport in the first place. Hmmmm.
So, are we honestly expected to believe that Maada Bio—the sole authority empowered to sign off on diplomatic passports—knew nothing? Really?
So again, one must ask: who is fooling whom?
In the grand Sierra Leonean tradition of political amnesia, it seems the answer depends on which press release you read.
And speaking of press releases—another one has landed, announcing yet another “investigation.”
But in Sierra Leone, that word has lost all meaning.
Government “investigations” have become little more than stage plays.
One might recall the Cocaine Ambassador Affair in neighbouring Guinea just months ago, where an alleged probe was launched. Since then? Nothing but silence.
No findings, no accountability, no closure.
So, what makes this new inquiry any different? Huh?
Beyond the current scandal lies a far more serious reality—the outsourcing of our most sensitive national documents to foreign contractors.
Our passports, national IDs, and driver’s licences are all designed, printed, and managed outside the country by foreigners.
This gross dependency poses grave national security risks, if you ask me.
How did a nation that once prided itself on being the first in West Africa to establish a modern printing press—in Freetown, in 1794—fall so far that it must now rely on foreign entities to produce its own identity documents?
Over 231 years later, we seem to have forgotten the very legacy that once made us a printing pioneer.
Let me ask again: how can a country that once led the continent in printing technology now entrust its very identity to outsiders?
It’s not just embarrassing—it’s perilous. Every time we allow foreigners to manage our identity systems, we hand them the keys to our national security.
By now, Sierra Leone should be fully capable of designing, printing, and managing its own official documents within its own borders, by its own citizens.
In fact, this scandal is not about one passport.
It is about a pattern—a culture of impunity, denial, and deflection that corrodes the nation’s credibility from within.
Sierra Leone’s governance seems trapped in an endless loop of scandal, denial, and silence.
Until genuine accountability replaces the performance of “investigations,” and until our national institutions reclaim the capacity to manage our own affairs, Sierra Leone will remain vulnerable—not just to foreign interference, but to its own complacency.
Because, in the end, this isn’t just about a forged passport.
It’s about a country still struggling to recognise its own reflection in the mirror of governance.
