With court cases everywhere, President Julius Maada Bio will fail again in his second term despite much-trumpeted ‘Big Five’ game changers contained in his 2023 manifesto with ‘Feed Salone’ as the flagship.
Provision of jobs for jobless men and women in Sierra Leone, entrepreneurship, infrastructure and energy also remain key promises in the manifesto.
They are big and ambitious projects that are financially demanding. If President Bio means business, by this time, he ought to have sought effective ways to bring in technocrats as well as project and policy experts to lay the foundation for the transformation of Sierra Leone.
For the provisions of jobs, investors in different fields must be here at this time. Civil and mechanical engineers must now go into action to start the ball rolling, innovators must also flex their muscles for the entrepreneurship project among others. But, this foundation is conspicuously absent after six months of Bio’s rule. The ‘Feed Salone’ initiative is one of the brilliant projects that would lift this country out of the doldrums of poverty and under-development if it is properly implemented.
Sierra Leone, according to government, spends over US$200m annually on food imports and that such huge amount of foreign currency will be saved if Sierra Leone is food-sufficient.
World Bank and other global reports have shown that Sierra Leone is one of the hungriest countries in the world although it is blessed with vast arable land. Gbondapi and Tomabom bolilands in Pujehun and Bonthe districts in Southern Sierra Leone alone could take care of the food problem in the country.
If Bio really means business this time particularly revamp of agriculture to feed Sierra Leoneans, agricultural productivity ought to have been revamped by this time by bringing in agricultural experts, extension workers to teach local farmers about improved methods of agriculture.
Sierra Leone is blessed with agricultural expertise as the country takes pride in the appropriate right human resources with the agriculturist, Professor Monty Jones being the man in the right place and at the right time for now although he may not be an SLPP member.
Jones is an agricultural researcher who discovered Nerica Rice variety that is doing well in the tropical and temperate zones. It was a ground-breaking research as most of the rice varieties were doing well only in the tropical zones but could not do well in temperate areas.
By this time, jobless youth in the city and other urban centres in the country must be seen to be taken to the provinces to till the land for the common good. Most of the youth even in the rural areas are no longer in the farms as they have taken to commercial or ‘okada’ riding.
Approximately 2, 500 Sierra Leone youth, according to the President for the Bike Riders Union, Mohamed Taillie Bah, most of the youth are into bike riding, a move that raises doubt about the success of Bio’s ‘Feed Salone.’
How will government make agriculture very lucrative to bring the youth to the farms should be government’s top priority at the moment. If agriculture also is to succeed, it must start at the local level: it must begin from the village, section, chiefdom, district, regional and national levels.
Sierra Leoneans will never be surprised if they see village farms, section farms and even national farms as a confidence-building measure for the agriculture. In the absence of all these facilities, it will be difficult for Bio to succeed in the agriculture and even other sectors of the economy although he has been attending food summits and agriculture seminars and other parts of the world.
However, political analysts and social commentators have observed that Bio has to tackle the legitimacy crisis he faces locally and internationally if he is to succeed in his second term projects.
Bio can earn and enjoy legitimacy if he extends an olive branch to opposition forces, heal old wounds by dropping all trumped up charges, release political detainees and create a broad-based government of national unity in accordance with politics of positive compromise.
A government of national unity will foster peace and national cohesion even without calling for a Bintumani Conference. President Ahmed Tejan Kabba did not call for a peace conference after the 1999 Lome Peace Accord but he strengthened the pillars of peace by ensuring that every tribe and region was represented in his government. North-Westerners held sensitive posts in his government to such an extent that no one felt marginalised.
Momodu Koroma, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Education, Alpha Tejan Wurie, Alfred Bobson Sesay, Lands Minister, Dr Kadie Sesay, Minister of trade and Industry, Alfred Tom Carew, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Minister of Agriculture, Okere Adams, Chief of Defence Staff, Tom Carew, Inspector-General of Police, Brima Acha Kamara and Chief Justice, Dr Abdulai Timbo among others were North-Westerners.
Other key government posts were reserved for the South-Easterners. With such a fine blend of North-Westerners and South-Easterners in state governance, the nation sailed smoothly along turbulent waters despite post-war economic hardship.
Peace reigned and investors knocked at the doors of Sierra Leone for business.
The trend continued on to the time former President Ernest Bai Koroma took over from his predecessor, a factor accounting for the rapid development projects Sierra Leone saw at that time. The people of Sierra Leone would also want to see President Bio treading on similar path for the consolidation of Sierra Leone.
This moment also offers an opportunity for Bio to strengthen relations with development partners particularly the US, UK, EU, UN, France, Germany, World Bank, International Monetary Fund and the list continues. These bodies are the main traditional donors that have been a lending a helping hand to past and current Sierra Leone governments for the development of the country, and therefore wrong for Bio to be at logger heads with them.
Bereft of sound advice, Bio is here again with a barrage of court cases against the army, police and opposition politicians including former President Ernest Bai Koroma. 27 soldiers and police officers are currently standing trial before a court martial in Freetown owing to allegations of plotting to overthrow President Bio and take over state administration.
12 others including ex-president Koroma are also answering to treason charges in a magistrate court in Freetown while several others have been declared wanted. Several opposition politicians are also on the run seeking asylum in different countries.
A good number of those in custody are people of North-Western backgrounds, a move that provoked feelings and comments of tribal conflict whose signs are quite clear.
What is happening today with the Bio regime is reminiscent of his first term between 2018 and 2023 when President Julius Maada Bio had good plans embodied in SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party)’s manifesto, but too many cases made him fail.
He promised free quality education, sound health, agriculture, energy, infrastructure and other essential services to the people Of Sierra Leone, but dozens of cases became the biggest setback throughout his administration.
He spent most of his time chasing APC politicians and forgot to serve his people. Instead of bringing in experts to lay the foundation for history.