By Rev.S.M.Williams
Where there is a fund of goodwill and sense of humanity there can be scarce need for the enforcement of societal regulations.This does not seem to have been the case in Sierra Leone for the past two decades.Citizens at the lower rungs of the nations ladder had been treated as the scum of the earth.That situation is now being salvaged by President Bio who has undergone suffering in the trenches and therefore has empathy with the hoi po loi.Not so with the late Dr.Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and the living Ernest Koroma.Throughout the years of suffering several articles had been written on behalf of the down trodden in vain. Man’s inhumanity to man is one of the greatest thoughts of the universe.The Bio government has been so distraught that it has had occasion to think of setting up a Wages Bill Commission to work towards an egalitarian society.This became necessary due to the unaccepatable gaps created by a sadistic regime.In a society where heads of departments and principals of schools earn deplorable salaries of less than Le5 million a month while Chief Executive Officers earn as much as Le 74 million a month there is something radically wrong.
Achievements of a minimum wage of Le 1,750,000 is not going to be easy. Payment of the present minimum wage of Le 500,000 is not being implemented by many employers of the private sector mainly because they are either mushroom or cannot afford it .The targeted minimum wage is not even a living wage but in view of low revenue of government as at now it is the only option.
The way a thing is done is more important than what is being done. While the raised minimum wage pension is now Le 250,000 per month there are inequalities in its implementation which can be corrected.With the present calculations a retired Brigadier General earning a pension of Le 70,000 a month will be earning the same pension of Le 250,000 a month as the Non-Commissioned Officer who was serving under him.It is needless to emphasize that it is unacceptable. As a result the Ministry of Finance should go back to their drawing board to get their calculations right.It should be noted that pensions in the upper echelons differ and are appropriate to the services rendered.Why should there be a blanket solution in the lower rungs ? Is that not trending to the same old disparities that are being avoided? Government should take care lest its human face is contorted into a gorilla face through incompetence.