The failings of the New Direction government having spent almost three years in office are now visible for every Sierra Leonean to see.
It is now extremely difficult, almost impossible, for the failings to be swept under the carpet.
The Bio regime is slowly riding into the sunset every at every tick of the clock and there is nothing The President can count on.
One fundamental question is most frequently asked: On whose platform President Bio would campaign in the not-too-distant future?
The question which seems to be rhetorical is quite relevant to currently politics in Sierra Leone as it is a deciding factor for President Bio to be returned to office.
The 2023 bell rings; It is the death-knell for the New Direction dispensation comparable to Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
The Bio regime, most Sierra Leoneans say is almost the same as a fisherman who embarks on a night fishing expedition whose fate he could not tell.
Sierra Leoneans, to a large extent, has been disappointed by the current administration despite the beautiful promises made during the campaign.
The government has failed in the basics of contemporary governance such as human rights, respects for the rule of law as well as international treaties and conventions let alone concrete achievements.
Almost all international reports on human rights and good governance have indicted the current government.
The US state department report on Human Rights, 2019 and the Anti-Human Trafficking Report, 2019 among others have all indicted the New Direction government.
The Anti-Human trafficking report labeled Sierra Leone as a transit and spring board for human trafficking and the government does nothing to stop it.
The report tacitly says that human trafficking is allowed to flourish and the menace costs the country millions of dollars in aid.
Current trends indicate that the Bio government is no longer enjoying the cordial relationship it hitherto enjoys with the diplomatic community.
Loans and donations are no longer coming as usual, businesses are closing, foreign investors are leaving the country, inflation is spiraling out of control and suffering for the man in the street is worsening every passing day.
Now, time is running fast and time is up for the New Direction to render an account to the electorate on how they run the country.
The report card is weak and now the only thing the new direction Government is to participate in blame game to cover up their failure.
Even those in the diaspora have picked up the failure and now calling on President Bio to embark on radical reforms to bring about the change he promised the people of Sierra Leone under the New Direction governance model.
Eminent political analysts and social commentators who are closely following political events in Sierra Leone have accused the SLPP government of starting with the wrong step when they assumed state governance sometime in 2018.
Key officials in the Bio Government, Chief Minister, Prof. David Francis and the Minister of Finance, Jacob Jusu Saffa hoodwinked the President into believing that a commission of inquiry to investigate the Koroma government is needed.
Poised to embark on a spree of vengeance or vendetta politics, a team of SLPP stalwarts was hurriedly set up and a half-baked investigation into ministries was carried out.
In a twinkle of an eye, a report was put out accusing the then government of an ‘organised criminal enterprise.’
The phrase connotes that APC government have been looting state resources at the detriment of the common good despite strong defences put up by the main opposition.
The SLPP administration used all means at their disposal to set up a commission of inquiry that did not enjoy majority vote in parliament. The debates that preceded the setting of the commission of inquiry would go down as the most controversial and rancourous in the political history of Sierra Leone.
In fact, the SLPP government convicted former President Koroma and his ministers in the court of public opinion to demonise them so that the people would support their politics of reprisal.
However, they were not successful in their venture as majority of Sierra Leoneans still consider former President Koroma as a force to reckon with considering concrete evidence of political leadership.
One of the recommendations of the commission of inquiry is to ban APC politicians from holding public office for a period of five years. It is a political gimmick to halt arch rivalry in the 2023 polls.
Being afraid of what they have created, the SLPP government is today blaming the opposition for their failure.
The government tagged the APC as a terrorist organisation responsible for most of the violence in the country, but fresh evidence has emerged that vindicates the APC.
The Institute of Governance Reform Report, for instance, has indicated that the violence that erupted in Sierra Leone is a direct product of government action and inaction.
A Sierra Leonean living in the UK has supported the IGR claim. He argued that the Tombo Riots emanated from the defence for one’s right to survival as authorities there stopped fishermen from going to fish, a trade they depend on to eke a living.
In Lunsar, the diasporan argued, the cancellation of SL Mining’s licence throw thousands of youths into joblessness despite repeated calls to allow the company to operate.
“An idle mind is the devil’s workshop,” says the Sierra Leonean diasporan.
Today, dozens of Sierra Leoneans are in police cells waiting for arraignment in courts with trumped up charges.
But, no matter the gimmicks, the people are quite aware of the failings of the government and they are determined to teach the SLPP government a strong lesson in the ballot box.