With ten days to the 24 June elections and the current impasse between people wishing to express their feelings through public protest that has the nation on a standstill, top executives of the main opposition have said if the people of Sierra Leone give Dr Samura Kamara of the APC the mandate to lead by electing him president, the first thing the new regime plans to tackle is the bread and butter issue.
We know that failing to solve the bread and butter issue was and still is the key point of digression for the New Direction regime. Failing to solve this primal issue resulted to the fallouts on all other critical governance issues such as price hikes, protest actions, state security operatives shooting and killing protesting citizens, a lack of peace and national cohesion, open tribal, sectional and regionalism, etc.
All People’s Congress –APC executives that spoke to this medium yesterday in the midst of a protest action have said that the APC plans on resetting all prices back down to appreciable levels for the people to be able to get their hands on their basics especially rice. With APC they assured that everybody will be guaranteed of having breakfast, which assumes that something must have been had for dinner the previous night.
‘Look, the majority of our people that want to leave Sierra Leone for greener pastures are going to places where they have sorted out bread and butter issues where the issues at play have nothing to do with the teething problems we are still grappling with here in Salone. After 231 years as Freetown and 62 years officially as Sierra Leone and with such an excellent and arable land Sierra Leone should have long sorted out the bread and butter issue. We should be discussing putting satellites in orbit now, not still having to deal with lack of adequate and consistent water and electricity supplies, road network especially the critical farm to market roads, healthcare and the like.’
‘If APC wins we the executive of the party are alongside our flagbearers Dr Samura Kamara and Hon Chernor Maju Bah will fix the economy. We have a doctor of economics as our flagbearer. It is his life’s work to fix failed and unhealthy economies. The people of Sierra Leone will do good for themselves by electing Dr Samura Kamara as president. The first move will be to reduce inflationary pressures on our economy good enough to put a plug on the exchange rate between the leone and other international currencies, impose subsidies on critical goods and services especially as they relate to the poor, the most vulnerable and our budding business people and leadership class. We plan on going back to the 60s when the leone was on par with the pound and 20 cents higher than the US dollar,’ said a top executive of the new APC.
The APC executives say the party government in waiting plans on improving on the training and ensuring that the salaries and perks of members of the security sector are paid on the expected dates. There is a serious need in Sierra Leone for members of the police force not to be seen by the public as enemies, and vice versa. The police are the people’s protectors against a big government that is acting too powerful for the people. The members of the state’s security apparatus will be trained on how to properly treat the governed and the governors, but always making it clear that they stand on the side of the people who they serve and protect, that also pay their salaries by the taxes they pay every day.
‘Our police force need a re-orientation on how they see their role in the society especially as it relates to how they handle protesting civilians. The right of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and peaceful protest is a hallmark of a democratic society. Any society that tries to prevent citizens from protesting using force of arms is not a democratic society. The police should be there to provide support and protection to protesters, not prevent them from demonstrating this basic right in a democracy. So the police will get trained and they will have their salaries and all other monthly perks such as their bag of rice routinely supplied to them. Presently the police and the citizens are on opposite sides when they should be on the same side,’ the strong APC executives reminded.
Should the APC win the 24 June elections its top brass are promising the people of Sierra Leone that respect for the rule of law and the procedures that govern how the governors behave will be one of the key failings of this present regime the APC plans to rectify. Lack of respect for the rule of law has led to all the lawlessness we complain about in government and the general public.
‘Dr Samura is a disciplined and well seasoned professional. He knows and respects the rule of law as the rule of God Almighty. Under his leadership he will respect the constitution and its procedures. We will have the proper channels to addressing issues of public or national concern properly set up. The APC party government will not bribe parliamentarians to have our way with the law at the detriment of the people. Bribery blinds the eyes of all involved in its scheme. Any regime that is full of bribery is full of blind people. Dr Samura Kamara has worked in every government of Sierra Leone since 1992, the NPRC under Strasser and Bio, President Kabbah, and Ernest Bai Koroma.’
‘Having already been married Dr Samura Kamara will certainly not have an elaborate wedding at the expense of the state. He has already built his homes using his own hard earned money from his training as an economist of global standing. So we don’t expect him to steal from the state to build more houses. Besides all this he is a trained economist and understands how to keep an economy healthy,’ the APC executives promised.
To close the information gap between government and the governed, the new APC regime according to top executives will connect with the people via the media by regular meetings with the president and the media. This will kill off the tendency of people outside government making pronouncements that the people should expect to flow from the government or its many mouthpieces.
‘This will kill off the tendency for fake and misleading news. President Ernest Bai Koroma made himself really accessible to the public by the relationship he forged with the media. President Samura Kamara plans on continuing with this trend,’ they promised.
Lastly, the APC executives pointed to the current lack of peace and national cohesion that has affected the peace and security of the state. The people of Sierra Leone generally don’t trust and or respect members of the police force. The people see them as a force for bad more than the force for good they are purported to be.
‘We plan on working with the police force to restore public faith and trust in this very critical governance institution when it comes to law and order. We will allow for a respect for the freedom of choice, association, assembly and peaceful protest as enshrined in our constitution. We will also review the constitution to see where there is a disconnect between the law and how its passage is treated by the people who will be expected to obey such a law and suffer the consequences for not obeying. As a party of institutions we have the technocrats and business people to handle all our governance issues,’ they promised.