By: Samuel Karim, And Chief Abdul BeroKamara

(Consultants, Researchers, Academics, and Socio-Politico Analysts).

31st December 2025

There are nations where the presidency is a fortress, and there are nations where the presidency is a rumor. Sierra Leone, under the Julius Maada Bio–led government, is fast drifting toward the latter where even a bag of rice can vanish from the Presidential Lodge, and a member of the Presidential Guards can be shot dead at the nation’s principal international gateway, the Freetown International Airport.

If power is measured by how well it protects itself, then these two incidents are not minor embarrassments; they are loud sirens screaming state failure.

A Presidential Guard trained, armed, and tasked with protecting the Head of State falls to gunfire at the very airport meant to welcome presidents, diplomats, and investors. At the same time, within the supposedly impregnable walls of the Presidential Lodge, a bag of rice is stolen. Rice. Not gold, not classified files, not weapons rice, the most basic symbol of survival in Sierra Leone.

If a grain cannot be protected, what about a citizen?

In functioning states, the Presidential Guard is not just a unit; it is a statement. It tells the world: this state is organized, alert, and in control. When one of its own is gunned down at an international airport, the message sent is chilling: insecurity has breached the highest levels of the state.

And when food disappears from the Presidential Lodge, the satire writes itself. If thieves can casually walk away with supplies from the seat of executive power, then the Lodge is no longer a symbol of authority it is merely another compound in a city struggling with lawlessness.

Citizens are told daily that security is improving. Yet reality responds with bullets and empty rice bags.

It is impossible and dishonest not to draw historical contrast. During the Ernest Bai Koroma administration, incidents of this nature were unheard of. The presidency was secured, disciplined, and treated as a national institution, not a casual residence vulnerable to petty theft. Airports were tightly controlled. The Presidential Guards were respected, feared, and protected.

Today, under the current administration, the state appears distracted, politicized, and dangerously complacent. The instruments of security seem more focused on intimidating political opponents than protecting national institutions.

Security collapses from the top downward. When the Presidential Lodge is porous, communities are naked. When a soldier dies at the airport, market women, bike riders, students, and farmers know instinctively that they are on their own.

A government that cannot secure the presidency cannot convincingly secure the nation.

This is not about party politics alone; it is about national dignity. Around the world, the presidency is sacred ground. Even in poorer nations, the seat of power is protected with seriousness because it represents the soul of the state.

These incidents force a painful but necessary question:

Is the government still governing, or merely occupying office?

Because when rice is stolen from the Presidential Lodge and blood is spilled at the airport, governance begins to look like theater loud speeches masking a hollow core.

The people are watching. History is recording. And satire, sadly, has become the most honest form of commentary because reality has become too absurd to ignore.

A presidency must inspire confidence, not comedy.

A nation must protect its guardians, not bury them.

Until the gates of power are secured, Sierra Leoneans will continue to live with the terrifying truth: if the presidency is unsafe, the people never stood a chance.