At the Tuesday, 23 July, 2024 town hall meeting organised by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education at the Bintumani Conference Centre featuring the president’s first year achievements since he started his second term, a young lady held sway and became the unassuming star of the event.
You see a town hall meeting is about performance, it’s about the show, and the young lady gave us quite a show.
Although her microphone was eventually switched off, she still managed to make her point. For the past six years, hunger is widespread. Despite all the talk of billions of dollars flowing into the economy, the people still fail to feel their impacts.
The young lady wanted to talk about the price of locally produced foodstuff like pepper and rice and why they cost NLe15 and NLe6 per cup respectively. She said five years after she had voted for president Julius Maada Bio things have not gotten any better for her and a majority of the population, and how difficult and almost impossible it is to make it as a farmer.
What is interesting about the video is that here you have an SLPP supporter or voter who was openly telling the president that he has not done anything for agriculture and farmers besides spending most of the grant, aid and loan monies on administrative costs and losses from corrupt practices by MDA or public sector workers in the government, but in her case, specifically the lands, labour, trade, and agriculture sectors.
As the president’s government’s plan and focus has now shifted to the Feed Salone initiative, a farming intensive programme, feeding the nation and agriculture people want to know how has the Free Quality Education (FQE) money that was the first term focus was and is being spent, who still pay for things at government schools that should have been free, who sold and approved the sale of land to more than one person or entity, who has encroached on the government’s and protected lands, who is wasting farmlands and what is driving the price of goods and services up without rises in and assurances of receiving monthly salary disbursements from private and public businesses.
But the young lady was guarded by a tight ring of men who could have been mistaken for ushers or hosts of the event but gave themselves away by their attempts to stop the lady from speaking by severally trying to either take the microphone from her or wrestling her from the spot. They ended up exposing themselves as security people who didn’t want the young lady to express her opinion and speak her mind on a national issue that is sorely affecting her and those she know. The men even took a young man down like trained closed protection people. The young man in the video either wanted to also harass or protect the young lady.
Despite the attempts to wrestle the microphone from her grip and taking her down, the young lady stood her ground, expressing her disappointment with the president’s performance since taking over in 2018, the difficulties affecting effective farming across the country, and for being a former SLPP voter. Chances are the obviously informed young lady didn’t vote to re-elect the president based on her assessment of his first term performance especially as it had to do with agriculture, farming, hardships, and the prices of locally produced and imported foodstuffs.
But the most stunning thing she said was that the president will be leaving soon, as if implying that the president will soon be unexpectedly exiting State House; and not his trip to the Paris Olympic Games. It is as if the young lady was implying the president’s much anticipated and expected exit from the Office of the President and him leaving the whole society in the lurch from his failed plans and promises.
There is widespread talk and high probability that the United Nations will get to the bottom of the past election voting data and in the spirit of fair play and adherence to the rule of law upon seeing the actual vote tallying of the 24 June, 2023, presidential election that the president in obedience to the constituted order will be expected to step aside, making a quick dash from State House as an illegal resident or squatter, for the actual winner to take over the reins.
What we should all learn as a people from this brave young lady that once voted for president Maada Bio is that she wasn’t talking as an APC or SLPP supporter but as a Sierra Leonean. She said so herself. She was speaking on behalf of all suffering Sierra Leoneans who had hoped that the president Julius Maada Bio led government was going to change the nation’s development trajectory or narrative. We should all regardless of tribe, region or political party affiliation learn to speak truth to power and be able to tell our chief civil servant in the person of the president how his plans and actions have been affecting us. This freedom of speech must never escape us and mistaken for being rude. We should not allow people to label us as belonging to another political party simply because we are speaking the truth to our party leader/s.
The hope is that the authorities will not shut us out as they switched off the young lady’s microphone, but would listen and get the fact from the horse’s mouth and not from public relations people in government who would want to paint a picture of success with orchestrated and staged true stories and photo opportunities while the average man on the street and the farmer continue to suffer to eke a living, and the prices of goods and services continue to rise beyond the poor man’s ability to have a single meal a day. As it presently is four out of five homes and families go to bed hungry every night across the country.
The truth cannot be compromised. We should allow the young lady and all those who want to speak truth to power, and not trying to please our elected and appointed leaders. Please allow me! Lonta!