A thick red line has been drawn flowing a warning issued by President Julius Maada Bio to former President Ernest Bai Koroma. The warning seems comic but strong and compelling.

“If the former President does not wash his hands properly, we will reach a stage in which we will stop to respect him. When we reach there, everybody will know,” Bio ordered the Apprentice, Alpha Khan to tell his former boss. The time is soon to reach as general elections fastly approach.

The method bio will employ to disrespect the former President remains unclear. President Bio also insinuated that former President Koroma has still not grown since he still meddles with party politics.

Bio issued the warning while in a commissioning ceremony in Koya chiefdom in th northern district of Port Loko Bio has always insisted that the former President should take his hands off national politics and be real statesman.

The current President is not pleased with the ex-President who still occupies the post of chairman and Leader, the highest seat in the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC).

President Bio made reference to President Ahmed Tejan Kabba of Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) who left politics after he ruled for two terms. “After Tejan Kabba left power, we would have still made him Chairman and Leader. But he said no, let’s give chance to the young ones to learn,” The late President advised SLPP elders.

Bio however appreciates former Vice President victor Bockarie Foh and former Minister of Information and Communication Alpha Khan who have show statesmanship. President Bio quoted the former Vice President to have said: “My politics is now over; I no long belong to nay political party. I am now a statesman,” President says he respect the former Vice president.

This is not the first time SLPP is calling the former President to take his hands off form politics. The call was made barely over a month when SLPP took over governance. Head of Strategic Communications, Joe Sesay has been insistently urging the former President to stop down as APC Chairman and Leader if he wanted his respect. He would always say a former President who still plays politics did not deserve respect.

The call continues to date. Arguments favourable to former President Koroma have come from APC members as well the public. These arguments have held that the former President’s occupation of chairman’s seat is never an SLPP affair.

“What concerns SLPP about an issue within APC?” This question has been posed several times by APC members. As usual, the former President has always remained tight-lipped about calls of stepping down.

Bio and Koroma have never seen eye-to-eye since the latter handed over power to the former in 2018. Former President Koroma who still enjoys great influence among the people of Sierra Leone appears quite unsatisfactory with Bio’s governance style.

The former President who is quite critical of President Bio initially seemed a bit diplomatic but blunt in recent times. Claims that President Bio will go in 2023 come what may is a statement Bio and SLPP members would not like to hear form the former President.

The statement is a constant source of worry for Bio whose achievement in state governance remains at a record low, Koroma’s threat that Bio will go in 2023 seems more worrisome as it came after a meeting between diplomats and the former President in the northern capital of Makeni.