An Opposition group and those who so consider themselves as being in the opposition are always on the right side of history since they see the wrongs of the Government or administration in power and can state theoretically what their alternative option and call it the best for the people and country.
When he was in opposition well before 2018, President Julius Maada Bio heavily criticised then APC (All People’s Congress) government for what he called “a sky-rocketing inflation” in Sierra Leone.
He bemoaned the prices of basic goods which, he said, had shot up beyond the reach of the poor thereby worsening the people’s vulnerability.
President Bio, then opposition leader said, during interviews with international media that “the people of Sierra Leone are not supposed to buy a bag of rice at NLe200 since it was left NLe50 by then then SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) government.” President Bio made the statement close to the 2018 election which he won at that time owing to his bitter condemnation of the then regime.
Going by such criticism, the people hope to see bread and butter under Bio’s rule with the price of a bag of rice going back to NLe50, the old price, left behind by late President Ahmed Tejan Kabba.
SLPP’s campaign songs on the streets at that time “TOLONGO NOR DAE SIDOM YA, HUNGRY BOKU” resonated with Bio’s campaign messages about the suffering masses.
The Krio parlance means that then incumbent party, APC would no longer remain in governance because hunger and starvation was too much for the people.
Without any doubt, President Bio, then opposition leader was looked up to as the man who would take them to the right destination under the NEW DIRECTION and threw their weight behind him.
President Bio, then opposition leader, attributed the high prices to what he referred to as APC (All People’s Congress)’s uncontrollable corruption under whose weight the people had suffered for too long.
He therefore promised an economic framework to right the wrongs of the past for the betterment of all Sierra Leoneans under his leadership.
The people’s hopes were further heightened when Bio’s former Finance Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa declared “a bread-and-butter economy.” Saffa’s declaration means food on the table for the ordinary man, and everything about the economy would be pro-poor and people-centered tied in with the over-used mantra of the ‘Human Capital Development.” Few months into President Bio’s first term, the people felt deceived, betrayed and disappointed as the fabulous promises of turning Sierra Leone into a land of milk and honey went unfulfilled.
The price of a 50kg bag of rice that was at the time sold at NLe200, sky-rocketed to NLe1.200 or Le1, 200 (One Million, two hundred thousand Leones) under President Bio’s watch.
By the time government could work out solution to fix the price of rice, another problem also emerged as the price of fuel also shot up.
When President Bio took over state governance, the fuel price stood at NLe6.50 and transport fare within the nation’s capital, Freetown was a bit easy. But, all of a sudden, the price for a liter of petroleum, diesel and kerosene hit a record high increasing to over NLe30 thus worsening the transport situation all over the country.
Fares within the city which hovers around NLe1 (one Leones) to NLe5 (five Leones) reached its highest peak in history starting from as low as Le10 (ten Leones) to NLe50 (fifty Leones) within the city. It is no gainsaying that movements here in Freetown stalled owing to the high prices, talk less of prices for traveling to the provinces.
Drivers could demand over NLe100 or Le100, 000 (one hundred thousand Leones) from Freetown to such Northern towns as PortLoko, Makeni, Kambia among others while fares for South-Eastern destinations remain the worst and most terrible. Transport owners or operators plying from Freetown to Bo, Kenema, Kailahun and Kono among others could ask for prices ranging from NLe150 to NLe300 or Le300, 000 (three hundred thousand Leones) just for a trip and returning to one’s destination is another thing.
Similarly, regular movements from South-Eastern towns to the provinces were considerably strained and curtailed.
Instead of coming to the city to see their loved ones, a phone call became enough, and in such situation, the once thriving transport sector became weak and moribund with a spillover effect to other sectors of the economy. Even prices of goods locally produced here succumbed to the same fate with palm oil being the worst-hit.
A jerry can of palm oil which was a NLe100 rose to NLe400 or Le400, 000 (four hundred thousand Leones), and smuggling of the product to neighbouring Guinea also creates its own new burden on the economy.
The prices of goods listed above are not the only ones affected but prices of every commodity in Sierra Leone as those of personal wearing, toiletries, food at restaurants and hotels take a price beyond the reach of an ordinary man, and the situation became hazardous and worrisome so much that the President had cause to make a clean breast of himself when he said “I cannot protect the people from the high prices.” The President’s statement was taken to a higher level when his Chief Minister, David Moinina Sengeh recently said “Even if Jesus Christ comes down, Sierra Leone’s economic problem will still remain unsolved” and with no overstatement, the people lost confidence in the regime and all hope in the future. However, for years, the people showed patience and resilience until a time came when they made it clear to the President that situation was unbearable and the time for change was at hand. The people of the South-Eastern regions demonstrate their resistance to the Bio regime by failing to turn up for registration in their usual large numbers, a bad situation for a President eyeing his second-term mandate.
Bent on protecting his political existence, the President embarked on quick-win solution through frequent changes of finance Ministers with the then first PAOPA Finance Minister, Saffa being the first casualty.
Today, Ahmed Fantamahdi Bangura is the man on the hot seat struggling to turn situation in SLPP’s favour, but the sad economic situation still lingers on.