{"id":4983,"date":"2022-04-28T13:23:25","date_gmt":"2022-04-28T13:23:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate"},"modified":"2022-04-28T13:38:42","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T13:38:42","slug":"61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate","title":{"rendered":"61 years of independence: Female opposition politician says there is nothing to celebrate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. <\/strong><\/span>Femi Claudius Cole, the only female Presidential aspirant that runs for presidency under the Unity Party (UP) in the 2018 presidential elections has on independent day questioned what to celebrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is there to celebrate, the bastardization of the constitution, arbitrary arrests and intimidation, corruption in high places? No consultation, no inclusion, a judiciary of adjournment after adjournments, a police force on steroids, clueless about the constitution?\u201d she questioned.<\/p>\n

It is 61 years since Sierra Leone gained her independence. Sierra Leone became a sovereign state on 27 April, 1961 after being colonized by Britain with Sir Milton Margai as its prime minister.<\/p>\n

Ten years later, on 19 April,1971, the country became a republic, with an elected president, Siaka Stevens as the first executive president of state.<\/p>\n

Despite the many regime change, the country as described by many Sierra Leoneans, has woefully failed to achieve the true meaning of independence as expressed in the country\u2019s motto which includes Unity, Freedom and Justice, which imply oneness of purpose among its people, freedom from political, economic social and cultural backwardness and equal rights and justice for each and every citizen as enshrined in the 1991 constitution.<\/p>\n

61 years after, Sierra Leoneans are still desperately in need of services that are supposed to be provided for them by the state including electricity, potable water, and good roads among many others.<\/p>\n

Femi Claudius described the Sierra Leone People\u2019s Party (SLPP) government as a government of photo ops, seminars, launchings, workshops, flying and no substance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people continue to LACK a basic standard of living. This government needs GPS, they have lost all sense of direction. May God continue to protect the people of Salone,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Sierra-Leone<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Sierra-Leone. Femi Claudius Cole, the only female Presidential aspirant that runs for presidency under the Unity Party (UP) in the 2018 presidential elections has on independent day questioned what to celebrate. \u201cWhat is there to celebrate, the bastardization of the constitution, arbitrary arrests and intimidation, corruption in high places? No consultation, no inclusion, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,10],"tags":[291,293,292],"class_list":["post-4983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-parties","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-sierra-leone","tag-sierra-leone"],"yoast_head":"\n61 years of independence: Female opposition politician says there is nothing to celebrate - Sierra Leone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Femi Claudius Cole, the only female Presidential aspirant that runs for presidency under the Unity Party (UP) in the 201 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"61 years of independence: Female opposition politician says there is nothing to celebrate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Femi Claudius Cole, the only female Presidential aspirant that runs for presidency under the Unity Party (UP) in the 201 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sierra Leone\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-28T13:23:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-28T13:38:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_10-626a98c54639d.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"450\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"258\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"61 years of independence: Female opposition politician says there is nothing to celebrate\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-28T13:23:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-28T13:38:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate\"},\"wordCount\":300,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/sites\/16\/2022\/04\/postQueueImg_10-626a98c54639d.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Sierra-Leone\",\"Sierra-Leone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"parties\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/sierra-leone\/all-news\/61-years-of-independence-female-opposition-politician-says-there-is-nothing-to-celebrate\",\"name\":\"61 years of independence: Female opposition politician says there is nothing to celebrate - 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