By A.S.k

In an exclusive interview on AYV Wake Up Sierra Leone show over the November 26 attempted coup, American Ambassador, H.E. Bryan Hunt, encouraged the government to treat suspects of the said attempted coup, individually, adding that the government should not link the incident to any political party. He expressed belief that no political actor would back what happened in Sierra Leone on 26th November 2023.

However, the Ambassador’s statement did not go down well with Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, who many see as someone desiring attention and would go to all lengths to get it. While claiming membership of the main opposition party (APC), Sylvia’s posts and utterances have all been geared towards putting the party and its leadership in bad light, often, without reservations for a party that had brought her to the limelight, openly attacking the former President and other top officials of the party as “jihadists”, a description that has not been lightly taken by the bulk of the party’s membership and sympathizers. Thus, her recent outburst against a moral guarantor of the country’s peace and security, the American Ambassador, has met with huge criticisms, with many warning President Bio to becareful of her ill- motivated statements, which has the potential of landing the government in the bad books of its development partners and the risk of losing the much needed support they provide.

Unfortunately, Sylvia Blyden questioned whether an African Ambassador has ever condemned the operations of any American President or governmentl on a local TV station in the USA. To many who reacted to her question, their response was that Sylvia merely be sleep-talking and lacked coherence. They maintained that the US Ambassador was simply representing the strategic interest of his government, to ensure that democracy is maintained in the midst of investigating an attempted coup. Furthermore, the US is providing huge financial support to the country from their tax payers, and would not want to see it destroyed in any chaotic situation. Many say that the US has the right to give its candid opinion on such matters that touches on the maintenance of democracy and the Rule of Law, and more so as its money is being spent by the government. On the other hand, no Sierra Leonean government has ever given a dime to the US government as support, and so has no right to make any statement about their affairs. No African country has ever granted aid to the USA, UK or EU, they stressed.

Sylvia has been described by many Sierra Leonean as someone who is self-centered and is only involved in the political game for recognition and propaganda, and that her likes can only participate in Sierra Leone politics and nowhere else.