By Emma Black
President Dr. Julius Maada Bio landed in Türkiye on Thursday, April 10, 2025, and wasted no time shaking up the 4th Antalya Diplomacy Forum (ADF2025). On Friday, he took the stage at The Nest Convention Center, slamming the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as outdated and unacceptable, demanding urgent reform to give Africa its due voice, his call delivered with the weight of a continent electrified a summit wrestling with a fractured world.
Welcomed by Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Bio joined a global cast of leaders, diplomats, and thinkers for the Forum’s opening, themed, Reclaiming Diplomacy in a Fragmented World, sharing a high-level panel with Slovenia’s ex-President Borut Pahor and Cameroon’s former Prime Minister Philemon Yang, now UN General Assembly President, Bio didn’t mince words: Africa, with over a billion souls, has zero permanent UNSC seats, that’s not oversight it’s exclusion.
Bio, as Coordinator of the African Union’s Committee of Ten (C-10) on UNSC reform, argued the Council’s 1945 blueprint ignores today’s realities, it marginalizes Africa, sidelines our crises, and mutes our solutions, he said, he traced his years-long fight once met with shrugs now gaining traction, with all five permanent UNSC members nodding to Africa’s case, Denial’s fading; action’s overdue, he pressed.
Drawing on Sierra Leone’s scars from civil war, resolved through talks not tanks, Bio pitched diplomacy as the antidote to chaos, peace works I’ve seen it, he said, warning against a third World War in a nuclear-armed age. But he swiped at so-called democracies whose recent stumbles don’t suit nations like his, still knitting democratic roots, we need respect, not templates cooperation, not control.
Running April 11–13, ADF2025 tackles Gaza’s future, terrorism, food crises, and Africa’s rising clout, alongside education and youth as growth engines. Bio’s voice honed by steering Sierra Leone past conflict carries extra heft here. Beyond his panel, he’s set for bilateral talks with leaders, brokered via Sierra Leone’s Ankara embassy, eyeing deals on trade, security, and tech. These aren’t just chats they’re lifelines for my people; he noted.
Antalya’s Governor Hulusi Şahin greeted Bio’s delegation at the airport, relaying Erdoğan’s warmth. Türkiye, a bridge between continents, sees Sierra Leone as a key African partner Bio’s presence seals that bond. His push aligns with the Forum’s core: diplomacy must bend, not break, under global strain.
Bio’s not just preaching reform he’s demanding a new world order where Africa isn’t an afterthought. Sierra Leone, small but scrappy, knows exclusion’s cost; its 1990s war barely nudged the UNSC’s radar. Now, as tariff wars loom and tensions spike, Bio’s urging unity African blocs, regional muscle to face threats head-on, we don’t need chaos, he said, we need a seat.
As Antalya hums, Bio’s words ripple proof a West African leader can jolt global debates. By Sunday, his deals and defiance could reshape Sierra Leone’s path, and Africa’s, in a world desperate for fairer rules.