That government to publically call on heads of Ministries Departments and Agencies to deliver for Sierra Leoneans speaks volume of leadership failure. Listening to the cry of the presidency from Bo, calling on his team to take their works seriously sounds worrisome for a country like Sierra Leone.
‘We have not been truly inspiring as we ought to be. We have to be optimal in our delivering…the expectations of our people are high and we should work as a team to meet these expectations’, President Julius Maada Bio on Tuesday 21 May 2024 told ministers and deputies at a pre-Tripartite Committee results victory jamboree, held in Bo in under the guise of a ‘Ministerial Retreat’. Bio’s statement to cabinet members and heads of agencies is an acceptance of leadership failure. He should have directed to transformative national development, targeted vulnerable people the Bio regime considered as key opposition figures. He wants a result oriented public service, but one needs to ask him where he is getting that having fired all trained public sector workers he met upon assumption of office.
So how can service delivery be optimised when the sector is over-staffed with incompetent and non-performers? Government should have prioritized service delivery in the first place to get the much desired goal from the sector, rather that lavishing public fund on retreat.
President Bio’s dream of wanting his cabinet to set the Sierra Leone People’s Party–SLPP as one that could deliver on its promises is yet to come true, with challenges overweighing hopes and aspirations, because the SLPP is a non-performer.
The 2023 Bio, SLPP campaign manifesto raised the hopes of many Sierra Leoneans for better living standards. But it seems much challenging at policy implementation level, due to the lack of the exact professionals since the promises were made. It is almost one year on since the president’s second term took off last June. Yet, nothing impressive has happen as mark of achievements under the Bio presidency. The six years scorecard does not worth anything to be proud of as a nation. Bio’s true confession of his leadership failure therefore tells the world a lot about the poorly performed SLPP-led political administration. And as it also sends direct signals that there is not much they can do as at now.
Pledges of the 2018 New Direction and the recent Big Five Game Changers manifesto promises remain unfulfilled. The president’s Tuesday address to ministers and MDA leads informs that much has not been achieved under his leadership in the areas of free education, health, infrastructure, energy and electricity supply, water, fiscal and economic governance, peace, security and stability, national cohesion, political freedom and democratic consolidation. Also marked with seal of governance failures, is the fight against high placed public sector corruption, natural resources management, unfair distributions of mines and mineral wealth, threats to media freedom etc. Real democratic governance core values are yet to be anchored in Sierra Leone since 4 April, 2018 to date. Human rights challenges and fears for civic liberty are major concerns that can be hardly ignored considering the growing state-sponsored arbitrary arrests and detentions of vulnerable citizens by the police and military personnel. Sierra Leone in the said contexts has reversed drastically under the Bio hegemonic rule.
Though he sounded a bit truthful in exposing failures under his watch, Bio urged all workers to up their games and deliver for the people, knowing fully well that the people are earning much from public sector service providers he hired to run the affairs of the state. President Bio is also aware of the facts that most heads of MDAs he hired are bewildered and do not even know what to do anymore on their jobs. Works are all stalled at MDAs, especially amid the current investigations into last June elections by the Tripartite Committee. Everyone seems to be looking forward to the outcome of the committee’s recommendations. That is why after a long while since the commencement of his second term, Bio took his boys to Bo rehearsals, dubbed as ministerial retreat. May the pre-Tripartite outcome victory jamboree restore reforms in the country’s public sector, provided they are in Bo for the intended purpose, or just to disburse daily sustenance allowances, crush babes, chill and resume work.
Be it a pre-Tripartite Committee results victory celebrations or not, everybody knows that the outcome of that investigations hardly disfavour Bio and the SLPP. There is no need to have gone to Bo. You people should have better stay in Freetown and cascade the so-called retreat from the presidency to MDAs if to promises made by Bio during his 2018 presidential campaign to block the leakages, restrict agencies from renting expensive halls out of their offices for the hosting of programmes be actualized. Bio promises were made in a bid to minimize managerial costs of wastages. Nevertheless Bio always takes members of his government to costly luxurious facilities around country for conferences at the expenses of the state as if he didn’t vow to curtail such practices. Is that what he promised? No! Then be marching your words with strong actions Mr President before hold the view that you say one thing and do another thing completely different from what you say. Be synchronising your words with firm actions.
The so-called retreat itself does not worth it. It is a mere avenue of deliberate wastages of public funds that can be hardly recovered by most of these failed MDAs, let alone the primary objectives of the retreat be met, because the right policy experts are not targeted by the process. They are being left out due to regional, ethnic/tribal and political divisions that are tearing the country apart and destroy the public sector they claim to be reforming.
To his ministers, the failed leadership/president charged that they should not leave work on their desks undone for more than an hour…which also means that prior to the jamboree, there has not been work at all MDAs in the country, but workers always receive salaries every month, which also implies that standards have fallen severely, and that something needs to be done to effect the needful changes. Bio’s statement also carefully reminds himself that he has relaxed for too long in his arm chair, failing to note that and the honeymoon is over. Another critical reminder is that Sierra Leoneans are fed and tired with excuses of global economic challenges, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the war in Gaza and the like.
Deliveries to the expectations of the people with positive impacts aimed at improving their living standards are the present expectations. Not narratives of when the Pope was a seminarian. Even avid Catholics at the Vatican are no longer interested in listening to such stories. So, go to work with your team and deliver the people now before you are shown exit come whenever national elections are here. Hard work is need now as past glories cannot save the nation anymore.
Another thing Mr President is that you must bow away from patronage as a national leader if your second term desired goals are to be fully achieved in record time. Therefore fire all non-performers after the retreat and hire top-notch governance policy experts, with what it takes to deliver government’s national development agenda. Even your party-SLPP and the PAOPA cult will spear you and for providing the country with the right workers instead the deadwoods you have now. Such professionals must fully inculcate and practice operational synergies and collaborations amongst their peers across MDAs, so that value for money can be felt without any regret, as Bio now feels for hiring certain worker based on political and patronage. Moreover, place competence and qualification over patronage you can get the desired results. Truth being told, Bio knows very well that most of the he placed square pegs in round holes as most of those hired are not fit for purpose, but theirs were done based rewards and compensations for their loyalties to Bio the SLPP and PAOPA.
As Chief Executive of the state, weed out non-performers and tell them that friendship must stay apart as the jungle is now fully matured. This must be done to save the country from drowning. The people didn’t elect the workers but the president, do the needful Mr CEO before the nation continue to perish under your watch. Sierra Leoneans need a government with effective public sector leadership that optimise sound and efficient service deliveries from all fronts for the general good.
