When the government slipped the National Security and Intelligence Act 2026 through the cracks, they told us it was to safeguard Sierra Leone’s internal and external security. The Act created a “War Cabinet.” (Part II Section 4(2)(e))

Seated at this table are the President and Vice President; the Chief Minister; the Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Defence, Internal Affairs, Local Government, and Information; the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice; the Chief of Defence Staff; the Inspector-General of Police; the Director-General of the Central Intelligence and Security Agency; the Secretary to the President; and the National Security Coordinator.

But what they have actually created is a shadow government, that is to say, one designed to run parallel to the Cabinet recognized by the Constitution. And it will not go away.

I remember the 1990s. We all do. We remember what happens when men in uniform decide they no longer answer to civilians. We buried the dead. We rebuilt the Constitution. We swore: never again. President Kabbah’s words still echo in our ears: “Jaw-jaw-jaw, not war-war-war.”

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Now, that “never again” has returned, dressed in a business suit, carrying a briefcase and a government stamp.
Here is the ugly truth: this law takes a handful of people, such as the President, the intelligence chief, the General, and a few loyalists, and hands them the keys to the entire country. No debate. No parliamentary oversight. No judge asking questions.

The official line is that the War Cabinet only operates during “imminent threats.” Sounds reasonable, right? Except the law defines “threat” so loosely you could drive a truck through it. A protest over fuel price hike? Threat. A journalist investigating military spending? Threat. An opposition rally ahead of the 2028 elections? Definitely a threat.

Once they flip that switch, the regular government, that is, the Ministers for Agriculture, Education, Economic Development, and Health, gets sidelined. They lose control of their budgets, their police, and strategic mappings. The War Cabinet takes everything.

And here is the raw deal: the war cabinet don’t have to tell us anything.
The 2026 Act explicitly locks the public out. No Freedom of Information requests. No court can force the release of their minutes. They could authorize warrantless wiretaps on you, me, or our neighbors, just for criticizing the President, or a Party Chairman, and we would never know until the knock comes at 3:00 AM.

I have watched the region. I have seen what happens elsewhere. Once you institutionalize a military seat at the highest decision-making table, the civilian government becomes a ghost. It looks alive, but it has no power.

Proponents will scream: “We need this for state security! For terrorism and violence!” I agree we have crime. We have real problems. But the answer to bad security is not the end of accountability. The answer is not to hand our hard-won freedoms to a secretive bunker of generals and officers who answer to no one except the man who appointed them.

This War Cabinet is a loaded weapon. Right now, they say it is pointed at criminals. But what happens when elections draw near? What happens when the opposition starts gaining ground? A weapon that can be aimed can always be turned.

We did not survive a civil war just to vote ourselves into a police state with a nice piece of paper. The National Security and Intelligence Act 2026 must be torn open and fixed: short time limits, parliamentary oversight, and a clear, unmovable wall between political dissent and actual treason. If we do not demand that now, today, then do not be surprised when the War Cabinet decides it no longer needs elections at all. They call it security. I call it a slow, quiet coup against the will of the people. And we are the only ones left to stop it.

Let us call on President Bio to do the needful: return this Act to Parliament for further consideration and for the survival of our democracy.