President Julius Maada and the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) appear restless, with sleepless nights roaming the country without substantial campaign message about what the Bio-led SLPP administration has done since April 4th 2018 to date, except the failed quality education. The scheme is indeed free with poor deliverable indicators amidst mass cooked passes in the West African Senior Secondary School Examination with faculty requirements though good number the candidates were unable clear universities’ entrance diagnostic tests, conducted by authorities at Fourah Bay College, Njala University, University of Makeni etc. Yet Bio the administration is all over the place shouting here and there about its free quality education, in bid to secure votes to make a smooth comeback in after 24th June 2023. This is not achievable come 2023. So the SLPP party and Bio must prepare safe exit to give a bit of respite to the people, for they are no longer prepare to continue with the slow pace of socioeconomic livelihoods. Therefore talks of “No man born of a woman can stop Bio from earning a second term” by Chief Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa should stop before we delve into the analytics of such an unfortunate outburst.
To the much talked about shame education strategy, it widely seen as a deceitful policy which Bio is using to seek a fresh andante for second term from the people, after almost five years of retrogressive misrule, with nothing tangible to show for the stewardship at the presidency. This has to a large extent cost Bio, paopa and the SLPP serious credibility drought, trust and public confidence, in that nobody is anticipative of sound future under the Bio hegemony, as dozens of Sierra Leoneans are tired, fed up and want a change for a brighter future.
In the continuing challenging circumstances, backed by high level of public awareness, the people are calling for reforms from all fronts. This time around a change with a new political system that is capable enough to offer pro-people socioeconomic, democratic and political freedom policies for the general good. So pleas with dissenting sentiments from all corners of the society are opting for change of directions of the country, demanding political and democratic reforms on grounds that promises made by Bio and the SLPP party to fix the ‘broken economy’ they inherited are yet to be materialized to improve on the standard of living of the people.
Rather, the state of affairs continue to reverse from bad to worse, more than how it was before the Bio led SLPP party took up office in 2018. In other words the Bio regime has reversed gains made by his predecessors in all sectors of governance. A misrule Sierra Leoneans will hardly forgive Bio and the paopa version of the inept SLPP regime for.
Though he tends to be exceedingly confidence of winning the June 24th 2023 multi-tier elections, Bio somehow remains perplexed and edgy about the worrying condition abound his presidency and the country as a whole. This is indeed worrisome to an extent that the president Bio now hardly spend normal working weeks at Fort Thornton in Freetown, not to talk of him giving attention to the already flop job, all because of his jump the gun rush political campaigns ahead of elections timetable. He has even ignore governance and preoccupied himself with political campaigns far ahead of the multi-tier elections, which is why he’s busy touring the country especially the south and eastern provinces, where he is bent on hoodwinking the gullible masses through divisive preaching of regional and tribal sentiments aimed at earning him votes come June 24th 2023. But the people are aware of the failures of the Bio government in the last five years. And reflecting vividly on Bio’s vows to fix what he described as rots, much is yet to be realized in addressing the problems. He has instead opened more avenues for public expenditures drains from the thin Consolidated Revenue Funds amidst the ‘broken economy’, wherein government has exorbitantly increased salaries of public/civil servants, ignoring the escalating suffering of the people, whose tax payers moneys are being used to pay the very poorly performing workers he keep hiring. These among several other related issues highlighted earlier are factors that are actually militating against the second term bid of president Bio and the SLPP party, rendering the whole regime unfit for re-election purpose of a fresh mandate from the people, all because Bio and his team didn’t work for his second term. That is why he’s troubling himself campaigning tooth and nail for it. On a more serious note, second terms are tenure political leaders hardly campaign for, and as records could have it former presidents Koroma and Kabbah of blessed memory never campaign for second term. They worked very hard for their respective second terms and they rewarded by the people for their dedicated service towards nation building. Now this is a whole different thing here much as the SLPP party and the Bio second term bid is concerned. And if it comes in the wake of the current unbearable state of affairs, then it will be largely considered as another huge national mistake by the electorate. It will also speak to the fact that Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad do not know what they want for their wellbeing. Any attempt at re-electing Bio for the second term will be considered as deliberate ploy to continue to deprive the masses of their socioeconomic needs, it also beg concerns as to why should the people reward Bio another mandate inflicting hardship on them for five years and grant him an extension of another five years. Towards the mitigations of misrule in the body polity of the country, Sierra Leoneans the world over are prepare to kick out the Bio led SLPP regime and bring to an end his sinking nation characterized by adverse foreign exchange rates, poorly manage national economy with huge fiscal indiscipline, unfriendly business, trade, commerce and investment policies with high tax burden on the private sector.
A national predicament the private sector has long frowned at, and foreign and local investors are fed up and very much tired with.
With these baggage of poor governance performance backed by massive failures of the Bio led SLPP administration, ranging from incompetent in handling the fight against endemic public sector corruption, fiscal indiscipline, miserable national economic status, rampant disregard for the rule of law, reverse in democratic consolidation, peace and national unity, good governance and the seizure of the liberties of political opponents et al won’t earn Bio and the SLPP party a second term at all. Moreover deliberate refusals to follow procedures and due processes as well as disregard for human and people’s rights, form part of key reasons why so many Sierra Leoneans have vowed to democratically unseat the failed government, and replace it with new hopes for reforms in the aforementioned deteriorating public sectors under the weak presidency of Julius Maada Bio, who deserves no second term from Sierra Leoneans
