A Drug is always taken to the villages when it expires because villagers do not look for expiry date. So be it for Sierra Leone People People’s Party (SLPP) which is now being taken to the villages for clueless villagers. Being distant from the capital city, the villagers cannot understand SLPP’s failures in the cities.
The absence of smart or digital phones makes matters worse. Before the whistle for campaign is blown, government officials have streamed into villages with disguised campaign messages. The messages are nothing other than fake promises and lies.
A senior government official, Ibrahim Swarray was in Kenema giving them new hope about what they would implement if voted in for the second time. Appeals for the people to register were also made during the visit.
A member of parliament, Momoh Bockarie was also in Kenema almost two weeks ago calling on his constituents to register, but the calls seem have been rebuffed. The registration figures captured so far could testify to the claim that South-Easterners have made up their minds this time. No turning back.
The voters have already resolved to try another party this time owing to the abysmal failure of the ruling party. Approximately two months after the collapse of the main bridge along the Bo-Mattru highway. A government official, this time, the Minister of Lands, Turad Senessie was in Bonthe with messages of assurance that the bridge would be fixed although no specific time was declared. Equipment have been handed over to the local authorities, but, handing over the equipment alone to the communities is not enough, but work must be seen being done.
The minister’s visit to the community probably the first after SLPP (Sierra Leone People’s Party) came to power did not end without reminding the people of promises made by President Julius Maada Bio.
“When President Bio came to power, he promised the people that he would fix the Bo-Mattru Road. The equipment on the ground testifies government’s willingness to do the roads,” the Lands Minister assured his people.
Unwary and clueless, the people accepted hook, line and sinker the minister’s assurances. The promises are mere campaign messages to throw dust to the people’s eyes for the second time.
They successfully achieved their mission in 2018, but chances are unclear whether they would succeed for the second time. The bridge has been in a dilapidated state since President Bio came to power four years ago.
In most of his public addresses, Bio would always assure his people that the construction of the Bo-Mattru highway is on top of the national agenda. He came to realise that he had failed only when time was no longer in his favour.
Time has run out, and One cannot fatten a pig on the market day. SLPP made similar mistake in 2007 when Solomon Ekuma Berewa was flag-bearer of the party. They realised that they had failed only when time had gone.
Berewa’s last option was to go to the villages for campaigns. Indeed he went there, but he could not make it as he had slept for long.