Sierra Leone and the Jos Leijdekjers Effect
By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
Sierra Leone has reached a point where the word chaos does not fully describe what we have become. We have descended into a NACO state, a place of national confusion, national anxiety, national collapse of order. This is not a political slogan. It is a lived reality. It is a daily observation of how institutions have rotted, how authority has fractured, and how citizens now walk in uncertainty about who truly governs the country. Is it the elected government or the emerging networks of drug cartels and criminal gangs that operate with confidence under our noses.
The recent kidnapping of a Sierra Leonean, allegedly on the instruction of the notorious Jos Leijdekjers, is one of the clearest signs that Sierra Leone is slipping into a parallel system where gang leaders give orders with the same boldness that government ministers give press statements. When a criminal operating internationally can reach into our society and order the seizure of a man because he allegedly double crossed him, and that order can be executed without resistance, it means the walls that should protect the people have completely collapsed. It means the assumed presence of law enforcement is merely decorative. It means our police, our intelligence units, and those charged to defend the nation have lost the monopoly over law and justice.
What is worse is the deflection by the Sierra Leone Police. Instead of confronting the real criminals, instead of dismantling the networks shipping drugs into our communities, instead of following the money and the masterminds behind these cartels, the police spend their time chasing people like Natasha Beckley with politically motivated energy. They run after consumers of Kush and Tramadol while leaving the suppliers untouched. They arrest the users but ignore the importers. They parade children and addicts on camera while the powerful men bringing in the drugs pose in nightclubs, drive tinted vehicles, and enjoy full protection from those who should be investigating them.
This is why Sierra Leone is gradually becoming a NACO state. Not because we lack intelligence personnel. Not because we lack police uniforms. Not because we lack institutions. It is because the institutions now serve the wrong masters. Too many people in high places are suspected of benefiting from the very criminal enterprises they pretend to condemn. Too many senior officials behave like guardians of the drug trade rather than guardians of the state. Too many government functionaries speak loudly about law and order but operate silently as protectors of syndicates destroying the youth of Sierra Leone.
The kidnapping of Alan Jalloh is a clear example of this moral collapse. A citizen can disappear, allegedly abducted by individuals linked to an international criminal boss, and the government behaves as if nothing has happened. There is no urgency. No strong statement. No mobilisation of the security apparatus. No determination to prove to the world that Sierra Leone is not a playground for drug lords.
Instead, we have state silence. We have deliberate ignorance. We have a government that pretends the situation is under control when everyone can see it is not. We have a police force that is suddenly confused and helpless. And we have communities whispering in fear because they do not know who will be next. The fear is not only about kidnappings. It is about the growing belief that criminals now dictate their own justice in Sierra Leone and the state is too compromised or too frightened to stop them.
The media, once the loud voice of democracy, has gone disturbingly quiet. Not because they do not care. Not because they lack information. Not because they are uninterested in exposing the truth. They have gone quiet because they are receiving anonymous calls warning them to back off. Journalists are being threatened by unknown voices telling them to stay away from stories involving powerful criminals. When the press becomes silent out of fear, when truth tellers hesitate to speak, when newspapers choose survival over reporting, it means the country has entered a dangerous era. It means the environment is no longer free. It means the gangs have grown confident. It means the state has lost moral authority.
Sierra Leone is now at the crossroads. Either we reclaim the country or we surrender it to drug empires. Either we strengthen the rule of law or we accept that the rule of gangs will govern us. Either we rise to the challenge or we sink deeper into a NACO state where justice is replaced by jungle law.
We must be honest with ourselves. The kidnapping of Alan Jalloh is not an isolated incident. It is a symptom of something larger. It reveals the networks operating freely across the country. It shows the fragility of our security institutions. It exposes the political interference that cripples effective policing. It demonstrates the vacuum of leadership in a moment that requires firmness and clarity.
What the people are demanding is simple. Put Sierra Leone first. Put the safety of citizens above political friendships. Put law and order above party interests. Put justice above fear. What happened to Alan Jalloh cannot be ignored. The call is not only for his release. The call is also for transparency and accountability. If he is innocent, release him unconditionally. If he is involved in any drug cartel, let him face the full force of the law through the courts, not through jungle justice. Sierra Leone cannot afford to create a system where gangs conduct trials and deliver punishments without oversight. Such a system will not only destroy individuals. It will destroy the nation.
If we fail to stop this now, we are setting a dangerous precedence. Today it is Alan. Tomorrow it could be any other Sierra Leonean. Once criminals realise they can abduct people with no consequence, they will not stop. Once they realise they can silence the media, they will extend their silence. Once they realise politicians will not challenge them, they will buy the politicians. Once they realise the police will not pursue them, they will recruit the police. A state does not collapse overnight. It collapses piece by piece when fear replaces accountability and silence replaces responsibility.
Sierra Leone must not become the next example of a West African nation hijacked by criminal influence. We are already witnessing too many signs. Rising drug consumption. The mysterious disappearance of containers. The unexplained wealth of public officials. The shrinking independence of security agencies. The quietness of institutions that once protected the people. The presence of gang affiliated individuals walking boldly with confidence that no one will question them.
The country needs courage. The country needs a government bold enough to declare war on these criminal syndicates. The country needs security institutions that are independent from political manipulation. The country needs a police force that focuses on real criminals rather than easy political targets. The country needs a leadership that understands the danger of ignoring a kidnapping linked to an international criminal mastermind.
We must act now. We must demand stronger oversight. We must demand justice. We must demand the immediate and unconditional release of Alan Jalloh unless there is evidence credible enough to charge him in an open court. The world is watching and Sierra Leone cannot afford to showcase itself as a nation unable to protect its citizens from criminals who feel untouchable.
If we allow this to pass, if we shrug it off, if we pretend nothing has happened, then we are accepting that Sierra Leone belongs to gangs. And once the gangs become the shadow rulers, the country will face consequences that will haunt it for generations.
This is the defining moment. Sierra Leone must choose the path of law, not fear, the path of justice, not silence, the path of courage, not complicity.