(Feature)
Sierra Leone a mineral-rich country has come a long way with over two decades of multi-party democracy but is still haunted by the eleven-year civil war. The poverty rate has been high among her citizens and so most homes are food insecure. Since the reign of late President Ahmad Tejan Kabba, there have been efforts to make our country food- secure but the desired results have not been achieved yet.
Reasons have been, putting square pegs in round holes, corruption and lack of strong political will. We import a good amount of our staple food, rice which is responsible for the deficit in our economy. The mining sector also tends to divert attention from effective agricultural activities and technology is a missing ingredient in our farming practice.
And the sector is plagued by low preservation and lack of storage facilities, difficult access to the market and limitations in energy supply. With all of the above, a lot of Sierra Leoneans still go to bed hungry.
So, the president of Sierra Leone Julius Maada Bio has thought it fit to make agriculture a priority in his second term of office. This decision of his government is the right one, thinking of where we are coming from. It appears to be a backup of the free quality education program.
This is because as the saying goes that “an army thrives on its stomach.” If the food security drive succeeds then so many other things like health, education, etc are bound to fall into place. Even our economy will be positively impacted. We only hope this time the right attitude and resources are committed to the task.
President Julius Maada Bio hopes to turn things around and leave a lasting legacy so as citizens we must support him on this. Donors have come on board so now the president is mustering the political will to take his people out of hunger. We only hope the opposition does not distract or undermine the process. Their job is to engage constructively and point out when the government is going wrong.
Dr Henry Kpaka is the man tasked with turning this dire situation around in our country. And it looks like the president made the right decision in choosing him. He studied in two prestigious colleges in the world, Havard University and London School of Economics for his Master’s and Doctorate degrees.
He has worked with the World Bank and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help develop the agricultural sectors in Uganda, Tanzania and India. And these are multi-million-dollar projects that he helped implement. So, coming back to work in his native country, Sierra Leone should not be anything strange. We only pray he replicates the good job he did in those other countries. And judging from his academic credentials he is supposed to be equal to the task at hand.
President Bio is serious about the food security drive so he has brought an apparently capable hand to handle this. Dr Kpaka has been away for quite some time so he is going to suffer from culture shock and therefore try to re- acculturate. He is coming back to a different work environment where his attitude is different. He needs the free hand if he must succeed and no doubt, he is going to have the strong backing of the president.
Therefore, as citizens, our hope is to feel, see and touch the realities of food production and not laborious credentials with little or nothing to show.