By: James Kamara-Manneh
As Sierra Leoneans will head to the polling stations tomorrow to cast their vote; many have been moved by President Bio’s style of leadership and have resolved to cast that one chance they have for the incumbent President to continue his second term.
Based on evidence and facts decent Sierra Leoneans are proud of President Bio’s selfless style of leadership. In the middle of a global financial crisis and pandemic, President Bio was able to provide a stable economy. Throughout his first term, no civil servants ever complained about late salary issues as they all enjoyed prompt salaries, while the hospitals continued to receive medical drugs and other facilities. There are enormous reasons to give this incumbent government led by President Julius Maada Bio a second chance to take this country to where it should be:
In terms of education, Bio’s government had enrolled about 678,000 more children in school, by the end of 2018-19 there was low school enrollment due to limited classrooms and high fees. Another factor was low high school entrance because many rural areas lacked secondary school, and there were very few formal vocational education institutions in the country. However, after the assumption of power it was resolved that the Bio administration was to build over 100 primary schools, recruits over 12000 teachers, brought in about 50 school buses to ease transportation for pupils and establishment of student Loan scheme and many more.
In his crusade for development, Bio’s administration has refurbished the New Freetown International Airport, the hillside bye-pass road completed, the new 2-lane Magbele Bridge completed to make movement easy for both residents and travelers, and many other roads completed.
Another success is Economic stagnation. Under the previous government, banks collapsed under the weight of unpaid loans to politicians, and insurance companies like the National Insurance Company collapsed as RITCORP became the biggest insurance company in the country. Such has changed drastically; banks have been able to pay dividends throughout Bio’s first term.
Furthermore, there is a massive improvement in the Electricity supply in the country. As Freetown was suffering from poor power shortage, Freetown is enjoying interrupted 24hrs electricity. Over 90 small towns have grid electricity, whereas, BO, Kenema, and Kono have regained a constant supply of electricity.
Under President Bio’s leadership, the Anti-Corruption Commission has been to own a standard office in Freetown called ‘Integrity House.’ This is a show of SLPP’s seriousness in subduing the act of corruption to its lower ebb. Sierra Leone has also progressed 10 places upwards in the Transparency International index from 129 in 20218 to 119 in 2019. After four years in office, Sierra Leone qualified for the MCC Compact and is now positioned to get millions of dollars in development assistance.
President Bio is the only leader of our time that has qualified the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone to two consecutive African Nations Cups. His zest for sports did not just stop with the national team but has demonstrated it throughout the country with an effective national league and the first female competitive league competitions. The country all over is enjoying local leagues where young talents are tapped. Billions of leones have been poured into the national team and more is expected of his leadership.
If we are to enjoy more of Bio’s developments, we must avoid violence, intimidation, Unfounded allegations, divisive rhetoric, and vehement hate speech, along with the threats of violence directed at the police, electoral commissioners, the justice sector, and political opponents, do not augur well for peaceful elections and must be unequivocally condemned by all well-intentioned Sierra Leoneans. Such vices can disrupt our hard-earned peace and can also affect the country’s democratic development.
Therefore, the very essence of our democratic processes is jeopardised when false information spreads at an alarming rate across social media platforms. Such distortions of truth have the power to manipulate public sentiment and undermine the foundations upon which our democracy stands.
Therefore, it falls upon each of us to collectively endeavour to harness the potential of social media as a conduit for truth and transparency throughout these crucial elections. Let us fully comprehend the magnitude of our influence when sharing information online and wield this power judiciously.
Especially during these sensitive times, we must not allow ourselves to be used as agents of discord or unwittingly become instruments of violence by those who seek to exploit our differences or revert to the dark days of violence.
The recent spark of violence within Freetown and beyond has sent a strong concern to international communities to focus their gaze on happenings now to the end of the election period. We have come a long way as a nation and we cannot allow this nation to fall into the hands of credit, selfish, and developmentally oriented politicians.
About two decades after the senseless brutal war tomorrow’s election will be the fifth that we as a nation will vote for president and those that will represent us as Parliamentarians. In recent times, we were faced with Ebola and mudslides and later Covid-19. These incidents hindered us as a nation but never divided us because together we fought a fine fight to overcome them and together, we can stand for our nation’s peace.
SLPP and the APC are not the only political parties that are contesting the 2023 general elections, rather other parties such as PMDC, ReNIP, UDM etc, totaling 13 political parties with a population of slightly over seven million five hundred.
However, the focus is placed on the two major players SLPP and APC which have been in the seat of power for 62 years since independence. Both are going head-to-head, actively campaigning and disseminating key messages to the electorate. Voting is expected to be competitive as incumbent President Julius Maada Bio of the SLPP, seeks a second five-year term, against his major contender, Samura Kamara of the APC.
I must end by calling on all Sierra Leoneans in our local language to
“GO Votes Saful, GO na ose Saful, listen to the result Saful, way Bio win celebrate Saful. Meaning go to the poll quietly to vote, listened to results and celebrate responsibly.
