There will be more surprises in the pipe line for President Bio as he attempts to manage the socio-economic well-being of the country.
These surprises would mostly come from his very chosen-few he believes are his right-hand men.
To say the list, most of his appointees were presented to him by individuals purported to be his friends or sympathizers during the struggle for power within the party.
Some are ‘lay-belleh’ party loyalists. Others are old folks and school mates or constituent allies.
But this type of recruitment drive hardly exists in the calendar policies of Human Resource Management because one rotten peanut can spoil the taste of the chewing lots in the mouth.
Uncle Charles initiated it all and passed it on to Lawyer Ernest who managed to recruit brother Tengbeh, SCOP Fati and now the MAFS Minister.
All were shown the backdoor because of some in-adequacies of some magnitude.
May be for receiving the BROWN envelopes, or nepotism in chiefdom elections, insubordination, theft of rice bags or unofficial dealings
President Bio would continue to face this dilemma because he has chosen to operate behind tightly closed doors.
“The President is not seeing anybody; he has a tight schedule, ”says his men.
If the President cannot see his people but only sees the jones, why can’t he delegate seeing his people through a specially assigned body? We too have our own story to tell.
President Bio alone cannot identify the real technocrats that are fit to hold those positions in his government.
Much research needs to be done to investigate the background of good contenders for those levels.
Nevertheless, it is not a tradition for African politicians to make convenient choices through references to some senior citizens for recommendation or nomination of various individuals for those positions.
For us in Sierra Leone, as long as a person possesses the PHD degree, he is viewed to have acquired infinitive knowledge in everything and thus can be appointed to manage institutions that have no bearings to his academia.
Most of the appointees are mere excess baggage who should undergo serious training before holding public offices.
This President has been so condoned by these cowards that he sees and hears only what they want him to hear or see.
But if that is the case, then he should be clever to protrude his head and see the outside and to reconcile with the other stories.
How does this go……? He needs to set up better intelligence teams that publicly interface with his people. GET THE OTHER OPINION from the other side.
Let’s go down Memory Lane to search our archives……during his tenure, the late Pa Kabba set up the National Policy Advisory Committee (NPAC) at State House.
These crops of individuals were equipped with packages of experience charged to vet all ministerial proposals before they were presented for cabinet deliberations.
Most Ministers in the Kabba government quitted positions with heads very high; let us recall the likes of Aunty Shalley Gbujama, Septimus Kaikai, Sidique Brima, VP Demby, Okere Adams, Momodu Koroma, Madam Kadie Sesay, Julius Spencer, John Karimu, the great Pa Mara, Abu Aiah Koroma etc.
In contrast, most of Dr. Bio’s appointees have already been massaged, indoctrinated, contaminated, coerced and subdued by their host Permanent Secretaries and Directors.
Undoubtedly so, since their knowledge in administrative/ management principles could be called to book, their business is to toe the line.
Some are busy speedily putting up buildings just like we saw it in the Koroma administration of Gbeshi Gbeshi ; as if they can’t wait for the dust to settle.
My father once said that ‘One cannot be religious in poverty’ because when times are hard or time is beating a hell out of you, one can do anything to survive; steal, lie, hide, crawl/ lay belleh or toe the line.
One of the greatest mistakes a political party may make when in governance is allowing the party executive brass to be grossly irregular and absent from party administrative functions.
The saying goes that; the strength of the warrior bee lies in the proximity of his hive.
The bee never fights a losing battle otherwise he is busy enjoying the nectar.
With this government a serious and heavy pressure is exerted on all the ministers because the party office is in disarray and technically located in the ministerial offices. All complaints are now directed to Youyi Building, House of Parliament, New England Ministerial complex etc.
This has manufactured disenchantment among loyalists who virtually have no business interfering in state governance.
These are the things critics are seeing and are emphatic about saying that this government dwells with managerial deficiency.
A serious government needs to have very strong party structures within its administration, manage public relations matters, personal complaints and intelligence, election matters, recreation, regional and financial matters etc.
Another puzzle to unearth about a regime that cares very little about its party base is that they stand to have very little to do with the party platform upon which they stood to win an election……. For example, it is cautioned for any minister or top government officials to frequent themselves in the party office.
This……if not madness, may be it could be described as blindness for anyone to feel that he is denying the hand that feeds him.
Nobody expects a grown-up man to allow a carcass eating dog to lick his mouth.
A political party needs a very, very, very strong structure. A political party should be an institution that holds its members together not only for the purpose of winning an election.
It needs to have a strong leadership with visions to move the country forward.
Don’t even mind the All People’s Congress (APC) party who are busy shouting all over the place to outwit the Bio government but vividly exposing their fickleness.
The bird that steals in a rice farm always sneaks in the quiet.
A very formidable political party should have shadow government.
It should know its potential contenders for the different management positions that could avoid harlots and thieves in its midst.
Well not all of the times, your detractors may also say that you cannot judge a man by the looks; some people behave differently when in positions of trust.
Their ego matures and grow wings that pears the eyes of others.
But our advice is Dr. Bio must seek to know what is happening elsewhere to avoid nurturing political monsters.