By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
This message e is addressed directly to every Fula man and woman who holds public office in Sierra Leone, every Fula minister, member of parliament, senior civil servant, ambassador, commissioner, adviser, and party operative who draws authority from the state while belonging to a community repeatedly placed in danger by reckless speech and calculated incitement. It is also addressed to our traditional leadership, our unions, our associations, and our business community. Silence at this stage is no longer neutrality. Silence is complicity.
What happened on December 15 2024 did not occur in isolation. It followed a familiar pattern in which the Fula people were collectively targeted, profiled, and humiliated under excuses tied to events they neither caused nor controlled. That day should have been a national turning point. It should have forced restraint, reflection, and corrective leadership. Instead, we are here again. And this time, it is impossible to pretend that this recurrence is accidental.
The public statements made by Sitta Turay, a Press Attaché of the Sierra Leone embassy in Guinea, were not slips of the tongue. They were not casual remarks made without consequence. They were deliberate accusations designed to portray the Fula people as conspirators seeking domination, control, and ethnic takeover. When such language resurfaces after December 15 2024, it ceases to be ignorance. It becomes intent.
Intent to sideline the Fula people politically.
Intent to delegitimise our citizenship.
Intent to normalise hostility against a community that has contributed immensely to Sierra Leone in trade, agriculture, transport, education, faith, and national cohesion.
For this to happen again is proof that the lessons of December 15 were ignored by those entrusted with authority.
This is why direct questions must be asked of Fula officials in government. To Fula ministers, what concrete steps did you take when these accusations were made public. To Fula members of parliament, what emergency motions or debates did you demand to defend your constituents. To Fula diplomats and senior civil servants, what formal objections did you raise within the institutions you serve. To Fula advisers close to power, what counsel did you give when silence itself became dangerous.
What exactly have you done.
The danger is not abstract. In Sierra Leone, words spoken from positions of authority quickly translate into action on the ground. When an official frames an entire ethnic group as a political threat, it emboldens harassment, intimidation, profiling, and exclusion. It gives license to those who already believe that some citizens are more Sierra Leonean than others.
December 15 2024 showed us how quickly this spiral begins. The repetition we are witnessing now confirms that unless this is nipped in the bud, Fulas will continue to face disrespect, threats against our lives, and the steady erosion of our rights as citizens of Sierra Leone.
To our Paramount Chiefs, section chiefs, and elders, leadership is not ceremonial. Leadership exists for moments exactly like this. Tradition demands protection, advocacy, and firm intervention when a people are endangered. Endurance without response does not preserve dignity. It invites further abuse.
To the Sierra Leone Fula Progressive Union Sierra Leone Fula Progressive Union, to Tabitaal Pulaaku WAFYA Tabitaal Pulaaku WAFYA, and to every district, youth, and women’s Fula organisation across the country, your mandates are clear. You exist to defend culture, dignity, and welfare. When all three are attacked, statements of concern are insufficient. Closed door meetings are insufficient. This moment demands coordinated, visible, and sustained national action.
To the business community, particularly Fula owned enterprises that keep markets supplied, transport moving, livestock traded, and cross border commerce alive, your contribution has long stabilised the economy. But contribution without protection becomes exploitation. If a government cannot guarantee the safety and dignity of a community that feeds and sustains national life, then peaceful economic shutdown becomes a legitimate civic response. Closing businesses until corrective action is taken is not rebellion. It is constitutional resistance.
This is not a call to violence. It is not a call to chaos. It is a call to organised, disciplined, non violent pressure that forces accountability where silence has failed.
To the President of the Republic, Julius Maada Bio, leadership is tested not in moments of praise but in moments of correction. The continued inaction of your government signals that ethnic incitement is tolerated when politically convenient. That signal must end now. Sitta Turay must be relieved of his duties immediately. An investigation must follow. Where the law allows, charges must be pursued. No community should be asked to absorb insult in the name of peace while the state looks away.
To institutions with authority to act, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Parliament, the Human Rights Commission, the Sierra Leone Police, and the Office of National Security, failure to respond is itself a breach of duty. The constitution does not permit selective protection. National unity cannot be built on the humiliation of one people.
December 15 2024 should have been the end of this road. The fact that we are here again confirms intent. Enough is enough. Until this is confronted decisively, the Fula people will continue to live under suspicion, threat, and disrespect in their own country. That is unacceptable.
Silence must end. Action must begin.
