April 12, 2021
By Ilyasa Baa
President Maada Bio’s third year in office has sparked serious debate between opposition political party members and members of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party (SLPP) wherein the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs, Lahai Lawrence Lima, who doubles as the Publicity Secretary and mouthpiece of the SLPP, in his attempt to put the records straight, has said the pieces of evidence put forward by the Africanist Press don’t suggest in any way that there is corruption within the ruling government.
Lahai Lawrence Lima made this disclosure at a recent debate after President Bio had visited a number of media houses defending his stewardship having taken three years in office out of his five years mandate. “ The Africanist Press lacks the requisite knowledge about the New Direction government and did not take its time to study the Auditor General’s Report well prior to its publications due to the fact that they had misleading thoughts in their mind not being aware of the provision of the Finance Management Act which makes provision for the Minister of Finance to disburse money towards relevant issues such as the Hands Off Our Girls campaign rolled out by the Office of the First Lady”, Lima dilated, adding that the alarmist conspiracy theory about his government would not in any way derail the course of emancipating the country from the bad governance of the All Peoples’ Congress. He said when the SLPP came to power three years ago, they placed premium on the fight against corruption increasing the powers of the Anti-Corruption which did not have prosecutorial powers during the reigns of the APC. He lamented that when they came to power the country was rated 49 in the world corruption index and rapidly progressed to the 79th position hitting the pass mark globally in terms of how serious the government is in the fight against corruption. According to Lima, APC has no morale standing when it comes to talking about corruption and violation of human rights citing that when the SLPP came to power, opposition party members including those belonging to the APC thought the SLPP was going to chase previous corrupt officials but did not do that, he expressed, adding that the party used peaceful means to go after corrupt officials by instituting the Commission of Enquiry (COI) and subsequently releasing the Government White Paper.
He accused the Chairman of NGC, Dr. Denise Bright that he had tried to cajole the SLPP to forget about COI business.
Dr. Denise Bright denied the accusation pointing out that not much is being done in the fight against corruption. He said the SLPP needs to review the Free Quality Education and reduce the number of government officials which he argued increases burden on the consolidated fund.
Acting Publicity Secretary of the APC, Cidi Yayah Tunis described President Bio’s three years as mere play of politics noting that corruption is rife under this administration. He argued that the current administration could not unite the country noting that the opposition has not been enjoying democratic freedom in the country since the SLPP came to power.