It takes Fatima Bio only a moment to respond when asked about her experience as an asylum seeker in London.
“Better than being married to an old pervert,” she says deadpan, before laughing – a reference to her father’s plans to marry her off as a teenager.
A lot has changed since then. In the years that followed, she became an actress, then met and married Julius Bio in London while interviewing him about influential Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora. He is now Sierra Leone’s president.
As the country’s First Lady, Fatima Bio is seen as a compelling yet divisive figure. Some young people view her as a refreshing voice in politics, advocating for women and girls, while others argue she has overstepped her remit, being too vocal and involved in her husband’s party affairs. She has faced criticism, including being booed by MPs and questioned over a video she shared featuring a notorious drugs dealer, whom she denies knowing.
She quickly stops laughing and composes herself to share the story that inspired her to champion a law banning child marriage in Sierra Leone, which came into effect in 2024.
A Childhood Escape
She was almost a child bride herself. By the age of 13, her father, a diamond miner, had arranged her marriage to a man in his 30s, whom she had known as an uncle figure since childhood. “There was no discussion. It was decided,” she recalls.
However, just before the wedding, when she turned 16 in 1996, Sierra Leone’s civil war created enough distraction for her to escape with the help of relatives and seek asylum in the UK.
Fatima Bio landed in London on Christmas Eve at Gatwick Airport, wearing a T-shirt, shocked by the cold but relieved by the opportunity for a new life. She moved in with a distant relative.
“England was my amazing grace. I went to England, I got my voice,” the First Lady adds. “I got my independence, and then I was able to fight for myself. And now I can fight for as many young people as possible.”
Something else she gained in the UK was a council flat in Southwark, central London, a home she still maintains today where her children live. Council homes, a form of social housing, are typically cheaper to rent than private accommodation, with applicants needing to meet specific criteria.
Controversies and Criticism
The fact that a sitting First Lady, who resides in a presidential mansion in Freetown, retains a council tenancy has drawn criticism in both the British and Sierra Leonean press. With over 18,000 people on the borough’s housing waiting list, the council’s website notes that “even people in the greatest need can face several years’ wait.”
She defends the situation, stating: “My children are all British citizens. I’m paying for my council house myself. I have not committed any crime.” In a statement, Southwark council told the BBC that it does not comment on individual tenancies but “if there is doubt that tenants are meeting the obligations in their tenancy agreement, we carry out regular checks and investigations to determine that those obligations are being met.”
We are at the family’s farm, about an hour’s drive from the Presidential Lodge in Freetown, where she usually lives with her husband. Julius Bio, a former soldier, became president in 2018 and was re-elected in 2023.
Here at the farm, the First Lady appears far more at ease than at formal functions. Wearing jeans and an Arsenal football shirt, she takes us for a walk to see her many animals, including chickens, cattle, and goats.
It is this accessible, aspirational image – a fresh face for Sierra Leone, where international narratives have long focused on child soldiers, British colonial rule, and blood diamonds – that has garnered her millions of likes on social media. She posts regularly, often dancing and engaging directly with her followers.
She addresses taboo topics such as period poverty. Sierra Leone lacks a national policy guaranteeing free sanitary products in schools, unlike Kenya, Botswana, South Africa, and Zambia. Groups, including UNICEF, have reported that girls in Sierra Leone often miss school during their periods due to fear of dirtying their uniform.
“Girls were missing at least 80 days of school a year because of menstruation,” says Bio. “If you miss 80 days of the school year, it is almost like missing an entire term. They are still not getting the equality they deserve. That’s why I regularly visit areas to distribute free sanitary towels. I want girls to get the education so they can be at the table, making decisions for themselves.”
While this has won her supporters and led to her election as head of the Organization of African First Ladies for Development (Oaflad), many believe she is overstepping a role traditionally considered largely ceremonial.
She is an active member of the ruling SLPP party, openly championing her favored politicians, and speaks at campaign rallies even in her husband’s absence. She has also issued video statements on her social media channels challenging politicians (including those in her own party) and the Speaker of the Parliament.
During the State Opening of Parliament on August 7, 2025, Fatima Bio was booed by some MPs. Local media reported that they sang a derogatory song about sex workers. She responded by putting on her earphones and listening to music.
The First Lady insists that the jeering did not upset her. “It just shows that not all men are educated,” she says. “Not all men believe in women’s empowerment and women’s equality.” “I have been an activist for far too long to be a calendar wife,” she says, explaining she does more than organize the family diary. “I listen to the people and I bring it to the government. I listen to the government and I take it to the people. So that’s how we work.”
Sierra Leone’s Challenges and Future Ambitions
Over the days we spend with her, Fatima Bio expresses her desire to refresh her country’s image. At a graduation ceremony at the Choithram International School, where she is the keynote speaker, girls stop to chat with her as they collect their diplomas. She highlights that the first girls’ high school in sub-Saharan Africa was built in Sierra Leone and describes the country as a place marked by religious tolerance.
Like 77% of Sierra Leone’s population, Bio is Muslim. Her husband, however, is part of the 21% who are Christian. She tells us the couple attend both mosque and church services.
It was after a church service that she received some of her most intense criticism. In January 2025, Reuters news agency reported that Jos Leijdekkers, also known as “Chubby Jos,” one of Europe’s most wanted drug dealers, had allegedly appeared in a video posted on First Lady Fatima Bio’s social media channels. The footage allegedly shows Leijdekkers, 34, standing a few rows behind the First Lady and the president at the church service.
Leijdekkers has been sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison by a Rotterdam court for smuggling cocaine into the Netherlands. West African countries are often used as a route for drug trafficking from Latin America to Europe. The BBC has not independently verified the video, which has since been deleted.
When asked by the BBC how one of Europe’s most wanted drug kingpins was able to get close to the first family of Sierra Leone, she denies knowing him. “I wouldn’t know because I’m not a criminal,” she says. “I don’t bring people into church. I’m not a Christian. I’m a Muslim. So I don’t know who was in that church. You don’t talk about what you don’t know.” She also denies rumors that Leijdekkers allegedly has a child with her step-daughter, the president’s daughter from a former relationship. “These are all the lies I am not going to validate,” she says.
Analysts suggest that most people in Sierra Leone are more concerned with the daily struggle to make ends meet than with thinking about Leijdekkers. Ever since British geologists extracted diamonds in the 1930s, the country’s mineral wealth has rarely benefited ordinary people. A brutal civil war from 1991 to 2002, fueled partly by the diamond trade and backed by Charles Taylor’s forces in neighboring Liberia, killed tens of thousands and forced millions more to flee their homes. Recovery has been repeatedly set back by the 2014 Ebola epidemic, Covid-19, and rising fuel and food prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2022, protests over the cost of living broke out in Freetown, resulting in the deaths of at least 20 civilians and six police officers.
Against that backdrop, where daily economic pressures dominate public attention, other criticism of the First Lady’s own wealth has surfaced, including over several properties. She refuses to be drawn when asked if her family occupies mansions in The Gambia and how they were paid for. “I don’t have to deny it. I don’t have to acknowledge it. When they come out with the proof that what they’re saying is the reality, then we’ll have a conversation.”
It’s this confidence that has many political analysts in Sierra Leone and beyond wondering if Bio is setting the stage to one day run for the presidency herself – perhaps when her husband’s term runs out in 2028, as he is not eligible to run again. He too has faced controversy, including criticism over his management of the economy and questions about transparency in the 2023 election. The electoral body insisted mechanisms had been in place to ensure a fair vote.
“I’m not hungry to be president,” says First Lady Fatima Bio. “It’ll have to be the will of God. I’m a very fervent believer that when God wants something, he does it… If it is what God wants, no man can stop it.”
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