Should the Election Investigation Committee (EIC) recommend fresh election which is the hope of a vast majority of Sierra Leoneans, President Julius Maada Bio will not stand again, an SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) has told this press.
“He has exhausted his chances in the SLPP according to the party’s constitution,” he said although he did not cite any provision.
The SLPP politician who spoke on condition of anonymity told this press that President Bio had disappointed South-Easterners, the main base of SLPP and there is no way the party could go with him for another election. “The Party is looking for another suitable candidate to take us to another election,” he said.
Although he declined to comment on how Bio has disappointed the people of South-East, it was clear that the unconditional release of former President Ernest Bai from ‘house arrest’ could be a major deception for the people of South-East regions, strongholds of the ruling party.
The former President was said to have fuelled and financed an “attempted coup” that nearly ended Bio’s presidency for which South-Easterners were not happy. Treason is the most felonious crime in Sierra Leone’s legal system, and convict could go down for life imprisonment.
As a result, they wanted to see the ex-Head of State placed behind bars for life as they already convicted him before trial.
Even key SLPP members in the diaspora remain less comfortable with President Bio for allowing the former President to leave Sierra Leone for Nigeria. One of them even threatened to wage war against him should he set Ernest free.
The fear that the former President would be the key planners at ECOWAS (Economic Community Of West African States) headquarters to end Bio’s rule remains high among SLPP camp.
SLPP members became aggrieved with Bio owing to the promise he made in the campaign that he would detain the former President if he failed to comport himself.
“I will put Ernest in a tight place if he does not behave like a statesman,” he assured his party members in Kailahun town amid thunderous claps and cheers. Bio also made similar comments in PortLoko district in the Northern region and other towns during campaign trails.
The promise to detain the former President formed one of Bio’s key campaign messages throughout as he accused him of funding the social media ventroliquist, Abdul Will Kamara.
The Koroma factor could be the immediate cause for Bio’s unpopularity in the South-East regions, but there are other latent factors that could cost Bio’s candidacy in the ruling party for any future elections.
President Bio, during 2018, made several promises to the people of South-East that touched on their livelihoods. In 2018, Bio promised to fix the roads in the South-East regions with the rough-and- rugged Bo-Mattru Road placed on top of the priority list.
In his maiden address before parliamentarians in April 2018, President Bio reiterated his stance to see that the road to his hometown transformed into a first-class for vehicles to ply unhindered.
To date, little has been done on the over 102km road which would have taken just months to complete has gone for over five years.
The Bo-Matotoka highway also remains in poor state throughout Bio’s rule, and even key streets in Bo and Kenema cities have seen no facelift.
Few exceptions however exist for Mattru Road, New Gerihun Road and Mattru on the rail in Bo city where a semblance of infrastructural improvement is felt.
But, it is just a drop in the ocean when one looks at the promises contained in the 2018 people’s manifesto.
Bio also promised the people of South-East regions that there would be enough on the dining table once Tomabom and Gbondapi bolilands in Bonthe and Pujehun districts in the South are cultivated. The promise, according to SLPP members, is a play on the people’s emotions as hunger was one of the biggest problems for Sierra Leoneans. Global reports have always rated Sierra Leone the hungriest country.
Campaign songs in 2018 showed that the people were hungry.
“TOLONGBO NOR DAE SIDOM YA, ANGRY BOKU” were the voters’ most favourite songs.
Currently, a 50kg bag of rice is close to NLe1,000 or Le1, 000, 000 (one million Leones) here in the capital city talk less of Kailahun, Kenema, Bo, Bonthe, Pujehun, Kono, Moyamba located far from the city.
It could be worst for the villages whose roads are not meant for vehicles to ply. One of Bio’s manifesto commitments in 2018 was improving the economy by controlling inflation and the exchange rate.
But, these promises appeared to have been only ones on paper if a comparative analysis is done between 2018 to present time. Before Bio took over state governance, a $100 was just NLe700 or Le700, 000 (seven hundred thousand Leones).
Currently, the same amount of dollars could take as much as NLe3, 000 or Le3, 000, 000 (three million Leones), one of the main causes of the frequent price hikes in the country.
No sign that Sierra Leone would come out of the economic quagmire exists as the situation worsens at every tick of the cock. Owing to the prevailing situation, an economist, Abu Bakarr Turay has described the economy as “one that is hand-to-mouth survival or it is about seeing tomorrow.”
Even government’s flagship project, the Free Quality Education received little accolades as SLPP miserably failed the people of Sierra Leone. Although the project attracted huge sums of money from the international community particularly the United States, little is seen on the ground.
Sierra Leoneans’ expectations were high when the project was initially launched by President Julius Maada Bio.
Had the project been properly implemented, the perennial welfare issues especially salaries would have been resolved, schools constructed to end the two-shift system, text books provided to ease learning and scholarship schemes developed for quality pupils and students in tertiary institutions.
Government’s abysmal failure in the education sector compelled the international community to stop funding the project. Little wonder that parents now pay for their sons and daughters to access education in various schools in the country.
The situation in the classroom is one that is nothing to write home about, and a teacher, Mohamed Allieu Kamara does not hesitate referring to the education project as a “mere masquerade.”
These failures are hunting the former education minister now Chief Minister as the United States has reportedly opened corruption investigation against him.
Notwithstanding the poor performance, President Bio was bold enough to say in a UN summit that every parent in Sierra Leone could serve as much as $500 owing to the Free Quality project in Sierra Leone.
Perhaps the worst disappointment for South-Easterners was a seeming renege on the promise of not handing over power to APC made by President Bio.
Bio recently promised South-Easterners that he would never hand over power to APC, but signs of a political transition are quite clear as the June polls are being probed with a view to recommend a rerun or Fresh elections.
The promise of not handing over power was re-echoed by SLPP Chairman, Dr Prince Harding while addressing SLPP supporters in Freetown. “SLPP will not hand over power to APC,” he told supporters.
But, the supporters fear a power transfer at any time in the future as it is now clear that Bio could not withstand pressure form ECOWAS, AU, EU, UN, US, UK, Germany, France, Ireland and others.
At the moment, SLPP’s biggest headache is to go in for a new candidate to head SLPP.