The current economic hardship in the country has left the general citizenry in deep surprise over the leadership of the New Direction government lead by His Excellency Rtd. Brigadier Dr. Julius Maada Bio who is now calling on Sierra Leoneans to give him and his allies a second term of office despite failing to fix the problems of the people.
The Country’s economy is in deep crisis as prices of basic food commodities are soaring everyday due to the high tax rate levied on importers of food stuffs leading to hunger and starvation as the ordinary Sierra Leonean cannot afford their three daily meal per day.
In his 2018 Presidential campaign President Dr. Julius Maada Bio told the nation that his predecessor Former President Dr.Ernest Bai Koroma has led the nation into famine as price for a bag of rice was sold around Le 250,000 during his second term of office. When Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma just came to power a bag of rice was sold at around Le 60,000 and price for a plate of cookery was Le 3,000 and the lives of the ordinary “Salone man” was going well due to sound economic policies that were put in place.
Just after President Julius Maada Bio assumed the throne of President it has not taken too far long that a bag of Jasmine rice is now sold at Le 800,000, Parboiled rice (pusawa) is sold at Le 600,000 with price of palm-oil skyrocketing almost close to a million. Our local produce were reasonably sold to the public but the introduction of the local content policy has led to scarcity of these local produces therefore making very expensive and hard to get in our local markets unless the almost stale ones are taken to the local people. The economy is faced with double deck pricing of goods leading to forceful hardship.
The people were yearning and hoping for a drastic and robust economic reformation and transformation as that was the fundamental reason for a change of the political party that was in governance. One thing that the former President Ernest Bai Koroma was to ensure that there was enough staple food in the country regardless of being imported and as his government was paying subsidies on foodstuffs and petroleum products as a responsible regime.
The country is badly hit with scarcity of petroleum products during the festive month as people are struggling for transportation while commercial drivers are asking for two fares to take you to a single destination. People are queuing for transport due to low turnout of commercial vehicles plying the street due to high cost of price per liters of fuel.
The youthful population is suffocating with unemployment with hundreds of thousands of graduates left in the lurch to fend themselves as most are self-employed in Okada and Kekeh riding for their daily upkeep. There is no incentives or part time job for University students doing their final year as most are having an optimism after spending four good lengthy years in the struggle for academic success being a positive drive to alleviate themselves from poverty. Over a thousand vulnerable students at the Limkokwing University whom were enjoying free grant-in-aid from the past government were robbed off and deprived from their academic success leading many of them to frustration and excess intake of harmful narcotic drugs to set free their minds from such painstaking situation.
Business people are fleeing from high taxation going to neighboring countries were the tax rate is normal. There is no replica of such tax being collected in the lives of the people as the government cannot still provide the people with the basic amenities of good roads, proper and constant free flow of electricity, good health care facilities and so on and so forth. Sierra Leoneans are still embattled with the three most basic common amenities which are food, shelter and clothing.
The former Minister of Finance Jacob Jusu Saffa who is now Chief Minister promised the people that SLPP will bring food to the table of each and every Sierra Leonean irrespective of regional, political and ethnic background. He said the New Direction administration have the wherewithal to give a quick fix to the country’s economy which was plagued with two twin shocks of the Ebola virus and the Mudslide. Jacob Jusu Saffa and his Boss promised the general citizenry heaven if they are voted into governance. It is appalling that Sierra Leoneans are still going to bed to with empty stomachs as some can only afford one meal per day.
The dire economic stagnation took the people to the street on August 10 to protest over the crunching hardship who were later dubbed by the ruling party to be supporters of the main opposition political party.
There is low minimum wage of workers with a first degree qualification coupled with late payment of salaries while families and friends are highly dependent on these meager salaries which leads one to be highly corrupt just to satisfy the needs of their families. The masses are laboring with low turnout expectations.
The First Lady Fatima Jabbie Bio Hands Off Our Girls deceptive and selective campaign is a slap in the face as teenage prostitution, early girl child marriage and teenage pregnancy drastically increasing among girls ranging from ages 13-19 years old.
Surprisingly parents are spending more on education as it used to be by then despite they were not paying school fees. To enroll a child into any level of schooling is highly exorbitant compared to when parents used to pay Le 75,000 as school fees for the whole academic year. The First Lady’s campaign on girls only targets a selected few with huge subvention being disbursed to her office yearly and lot of expensive overseas travelling on private courtesies.
Politics is social contract between the ruled and the rulers wherein if those who are ruling failed to fulfill their political promises should be left with no better alternative but voted out from ruling.
Sierra Leoneans should learn that it is not conventional that a political party in governance should complete two terms of office if they have blatantly failed in their political promises to the people.
The enfranchised populace should bear in mind that politics is not about regionalism, tribalism, party color and sectionalism but voting for integrity and development and collective gains rather than individual success.