By Idrissa Bangura

After the completion of President Bio’s mandate, he sought another mandate through the creation of the big five game changer’s manifesto.

This manifesto has craved for a lot of public attention which almost everybody in the country sits and waits to see the success of the said manifesto and to know which of the fives is going to be the big -changer.

In this big five game changer, agriculture is given a top priority than other priorities in Bio’s second term mandate.

And human capital development which was the key priority of development of President Bio’s first term of office is now seen ranked as second development priority in the big five manifesto.

The reason why President Bio is giving agriculture the leading position in his ‘big five agenda’ is a question that runs in the minds of many Sierra Leoneans.

Some political thoughts have said that the idea of making agriculture a priority area is as a result of the wide spread hunger in the nook and cranny of the country.

And this will give us the responsibility as Sierra Leoneans to take off our problems especially that which has to do with hunger. Sierra Leone has a more fertile land for her citizens to grow their food they eat.

This way, by doing agriculture, some observers said it would lessen our dominance on foreign importation of foodstuffs which annually, is hitting very hard on the national economy.

But, other informed people also have added their voices, criticizing government for not continuing with its first term (running for since April 4, 2018 to April 4, 2023) priority area of human capital development.

This point also rings an alarm bell on the earing of many citizens, has made other Sierra Leoneans to suggest that, SLPP government was unable to fund human development agenda captured in their 2018 manifesto.

But SLPP’s government and most followers have argued that there is already a feeling of satisfaction and that the government has planted the seed whose growth will be made possible with the help of the second manifesto, 2023, on the aspect of human development.

SLPP politicians would say with time this seed sowed on the progress of human development will continue to grow into success as human development is given a re-consideration.

On the cultivation of SLPP’s human capital development seed, other people of critical minds may feel that government might not bring much success on human capital development like it was in the past.

Analysts still doubt that the growth is going to be long time and in government’s second term the first term priority area is seen taken second which might want to further ask the question of government inability to fund the free quality education, giving it less attention this time around in Bio’s term of office.

This might be a tactical move by the government to shy away from the previous mandate because of the battered economic crisis the government is going through, according to a popular view.

The people might want to know the intention of government to prioritize agriculture and what areas of agriculture would be the main focus area if the agenda on hunger reduction and feeding Sierra Leoneans are to be prioritized.

Talk to people now, they want government to focus more on rice farming since rice is considered their staple food.

The citizens also call on government to partner with donor funding organizations to be able to fund key sectors of agriculture in order for the government to achieve its second term manifesto promises.