At the end of the day, president Julius Maada Bio will be leaving the SLPP in the same wilderness he met them before 2018 at the end of his very disappointing tenures as democratically elected Head of State. This is the contention of ranking SLPP stalwarts about the one-time junta leader who they have said will be leaving the country and people in a worse position than he met them in 2018. There is widespread speculation that the president plans on leaving the country after 2028, much in the same way he after handing over to President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.
News reports that President Julius Maada Bio plans on stepping down after the 2028 elections has raised speculations within and without the ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) with regards who will replace the outgoing president, an issue that continues to elicit blank responses from State House.
But before the SLPP wastes time trying to figure out who the president will support or name to replace him, ranking party strategists have informed Nightwatch that instead of focusing on who would replace president Bio the party should consider where the president has taken the country from where he met it in 2018 and who in the party is capable of reversing the economically, socially and politically draining issues that have dominated the highly debatable terms that ushered Julius Maada Bio as our Head of State.
“When we took over from President Ernest Bai Koroma in 2018 although the president had said there was no reserves, the then Bank Governor had clarified that. The price of a bag of rice was between 170,000 and 200,000 old Leones and the exchange rate with the dollar was 750,000 old Leones for $100. We also met subsidies in place for fuel, education, rice, EDSA, and there was relative transparency and accountability in governance. But the most important legacy we inherited from Ernest Bai Koroma is that there was regional balance in public employment and granting of contracts. Actually the civil service was dominated by people from the southeast holding positions not limited to permanent secretary, directors, and the like. Many people from across the country benefitted from educational and other training programmes overseas,” the SLPP strategist informed this medium.
The ruling partisans say from inception in 2018, the SLPP government, headed by Julius Maada Bio, started making a mess of things with their focus on retaliatory politics with the approval of the work of the commissions of inquiry to look into how members of the outgoing regime had spent the public purse.
“The first thing we did that was wrong was when we fired members of civil service for allegedly wearing opposition T-shirts at opposition political rallies. This led to this regime increasing the wage bill without the money to meet the cost. We also erroneously cut off the subsidies that were making life a bit easy on our people. We also cut off duty waivers, increase custom duties on 20 and 40 foot containers, increased electricity and water tariffs and the exchange rate which is presently at close to 2.5 million old leones for a $100. We have also seen rises in the cost of a bag of rice, cement and other building materials. We focus on the bag of rice because it is the staple food and its price determines so much more in our body politic. The rice is presently at over 1 million old leones for a bag,” another SLPP executive noted.
The SLPP stalwarts have said during the Ernest Bai Koroma presidency the minimum wage was at 500,000 old Leones, a reality that was palatable for even the poorest of the poor who could afford to buy two bags of rice and still be left with change for other purchases.
“Now the minimum wage is Le1 million old Leones yet you cannot even afford a bag of the premium rice, the Jasmine. The exchange rate has ballooned up to 2.5 million old Leones for $100. As if all this is not enough come January next year we should expect for all the prices to shoot up again. At that time we expect a further 10 per cent import duty on rice and other imported foodstuff. At present there is no regional balance in the civil service and in terms of the awarding of government contracts. We see that all public appointments and employment have been going to one part or one dominant tribal grouping. This is not good. With the stress that comes with being jobless hard on all of us, imagine being a qualified citizen in a country where quality education is lacking yet you don’t have a job, not even from the largest employer in any economy, the government,” the SLPP strategists noted.
The men question who in the party government that will be able to undo all president Bio has done to the economy, the peace and security, and even the image of the Office of the President. A serious point of contention among SLPP strategist with regards who will replace president Bio is about accountability. Who is the person or partisan in the SLPP that will be able to fix the mess the president has created so as to encourage the people to hand him their votes?
“We have not resolved the killings of our citizens who were out to protest their living condition and the discredited announcement of president Bio as last year’s presidential election winner. Who will give an account of all those killings? With regards the president’s successor, the question for him or her would be who is capable of restoring the peace, security and stability of the state and economy? Who can make a success of where president Bio has failed and what plans does he or she has to accomplish this? This is what we should be hearing from who hopes to replace the president and party leader. If president Bio is to name any successor he must see that the person is his true supporter who can articulate all the president’s plans and how he or she plans on incorporating some of his campaign promises to make it a matter of continuity because many of what the president promised and couldn’t deliver are all sound plans for the people and state that can be a matter of continuity. So the question is: Who will succeed president Bio and convince the people of Sierra Leone to vote for him or her after the people’s experiences under president Bio?” the SLPP strategist demanded.
The million dollar question remains: Who will succeed president Bio as head of the SLPP and flagbearer? The president, who had severally said he would not hand power over to the APC has of late been saying that he will step down and hand power over to the winner of the 2028 presidential vote. This brings us to the question of what does Bio’s successor plans on telling the people and what does he or she plans on doing different from what Bio has done? Speculations abound that the president plans on leaving an open field for his intended successors to battle it out for supremacy without his contribution. But what is clear is that the one-time junta and democratically elected head of state plans on leaving the party in the wilderness he met them before 2018.
The SLPP have their work cut out for them. On the one hand they have a regime that has not delivered on campaign promises going on ten years while on the other hand they have ambitious people who would want to take over from Bio.
However, the overriding question remains: What do these flagbearer hopefuls plan to do different aimed at convincing the disappointed voters to re-elect yet another SLPP president and government? Lonta!