By- Aruna Rashed Toma Bangura

The Human Capital Development initiative of President Bio’s New Direction administration has received huge accolades from both local and international non-governmental organizations as human capital is pivotal towards any nation’s development.

The Medium Term National Development plan llaunched by President Maada Bio speaks volume about the essence of human capital because a nation cannot thrive with development if the citizens are not fully equipped with skills to help bolster the economy.

Political commentators have described President Bio as a man that has strong passion and compassion for humans, hence his keen focus on human capital development.

One takes into cognizance his flagship campaign project, the Free and Quality Education, which has helped to curtail massive dropouts in remote communities where parents cannot afford a single dime to send their children to school.

The swift intervention of Bio’s free schooling has helped to bring back smiles on the faces of vulnerable children who had been longing for school.

And despite challenges surrounding the Free and Quality Education, there have been huge praises been showered on Bio’s initiative which has seen children enrolled in school for free.

However, even though President Bio has been commended for his human capital initiative, there is also huge cry for job employment among graduates from universities and colleges every year in the country.

The latest crop of graduates is from the three constituent colleges, Fourah Bay College, Institute of Public Administration and Management, College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, of the University of Sierra Leone.

The issue of job employment has been a topical issue among and between members of the public. Unemployment has been a looming crisis for the government as it cannot afford to employ the over hundreds of thousands of university graduates who are wandering on the street seeking for lucrative employments.

The private sector which is the largest employer is faced with huge tax being levied on them and causing them to do staff redundancy and therefore creating and piling more burdens on the less privilege homes that find survival to be very excruciating.

A major fraction of the private sector has reduced on their staff due to hyper-inflation of commodities and basic services and even making some businesses to fold up their operation.

The mining sector that was seen employing thousands of the youthful population has recently been hit hard by bad mining policies and letting these mining companies to flee to other countries where the mining laws soothe their operations.

According to statistical analysis, over 70% of students who graduated from university for the past five years are still unemployed and are finding difficult to gain employment due to their region, ethnic, family background and political party allegiance.  While those who have gained employment succeed because of their region, ethnic, family background, bureaucracy and allegiance to a political party.

The government gives employment based on regional and tribal sentiments as there are few jobs with more graduates, according to popular opinion by Sierra Leoneans.

But critics say government should create jobs based on one’s qualifications rather than on political and tribal lineage which have over the years caused civil servants to pay allegiance to these political parties rather than the state.

Political scientists are calling on the incumbent President Bio to embark on massive job creation if he is able to emerge as winner of the forthcoming elections.

These pundits believe youthful employment and the provision of food and basic social services for all Sierra Leoneans should be in the lips of President Bio as his flagship campaign this time.