By Alfred Koroma
Amidst the many political, economic, social and security concerns affecting citizens, President Bio took a step to directly connect with citizens, through what appeared like, a logically staged managed Town Hall Meeting.
It was a tightly controlled event, and the questions the President responded to were predetermined, preventing the opportunity for spontaneous follow-up questions, feedback, deeper discussions, and genuine interaction with the President, as many citizens had expected.
The only spontaneous question was from a female audience. But that itself almost brought chaos in the hall due to an attempt by the Information Minister and other officials to prevent her from asking her question.
The President made some effort to provide explanation on some key emerging issues affecting the country based on the questions provided, highlighting his government achievement, and at some point shifting blame on the previous, All Peoples Congress (APC) Party led government.
Here are some key takeaways from the meeting which took place on Tuesday, 23 July, 2024.
But first, let’s begin from where the President started. He began by sympathizing with those affected by the heavy torrential rainfall for the past couple of weeks and elaborated on the challenges posed by adverse weather affecting the world.
He expressed some frustration over citizens’ behavior towards the environment, such as throwing waste in drainages and those building along water passage lines. He warned that Sierra Leoneans should expect more rain in August, typically, the rainiest month in Sierra Leone.
He called for climate action, saying “Every individual has climate action to take to protect the environment.”
Agriculture and the Economy
Agriculture is a relevant topic for the largely hungry Sierra Leoneans. This was one key area the President touched on.
He said, through his Feed Salone initiative, he wants to make sure food is accessible and make sure malnutrition is dealt with. It is also about creating employment and stimulating economic growth, he said “We choose to feed Salone to make sure that we deal with malnutrition…”
But one citizen did not appear convinced by the President’s explanation. Although she was not given enough space to ask her question which was seen as the only spontaneous question for the President, she managed to get her voice through.
“Five years, you have ruled us but still the agriculture is poor, ” she said, citing the price of locally produced pepper in the market. “You are about to leave, where are you leaving us?”
It became obvious that her question was not desired. And she was attacked by the Information Minister, referring to her as being ‘rude.’
The President however responded: “I will not promise that the price of rice will come down next year. But by 2028, when I’m leaving, Sierra Leone will be producing enough rice.”
Before his coming to power in 2018, President Bio projected himself as one that will come and solve the bread and butter issue affecting the country. Hunger was one key campaign issue his political party used in the 2018 election and one of the factors that contributed to the voting of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) out of governance.
Yet, the President has clocked six years at State House, and more and more Sierra Leoneans still go home hungry. Cost of living has tripped, hitting the poor the hardest.
The President described the question on addressing the country’s economic challenges as the biggest question.
He responded to it by blaming the previous government. “Before we knew corruption was endemic and unchecked in the country. The previous government, the APC, went out of program with the IMF. The IMF got tired and left. They themselves declared austerity before we came.”
He said it took his government nearly a whole term to address the disarray APC left in the economic sector.
Electricity theft
One big challenge the Bio-led government has faced a challenge is being able to supply adequate electricity to Sierra Leoneans and to combat illegal electricity theft. And the President has repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Energy.
In April, he brought the Ministry under his direct control following resignation of the former Minister, Alhaji Kanja Sesay, who resigned due to long weeks of constant blackout in the capital, Freetown.
At the Town Hall meeting, the President again partly blamed the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) for not doing enough to collect light bill from citizens, hitting on the institution’s lack of accountability.
He said EDSA is not effective and is unable to account for all the units of the power it supplies. Some people in the institution hold-on to the light bill they collect, while some help citizens to steal electricity.
“Every unit of power supplied, there’s a cost. So if 500 thousand are getting light without paying, then there won’t be enough money to buy fuel and pay those providing the power. That is one part of the problem,” he said
“If all of us can pay our light bill and EDSA accounts for the money, then there would be no blackout,” he added. “We would have enough energy to give everybody. But EDSA’s problem is that they have people helping some citizens to steal electricity.”
Infrastructure
Another attention grabbing part of the meeting was the President mostly known for his education or now Feed Salone agenda, saying he is the word ‘infrastructure’ himself.
He was responding to a question about how he would address the infrastructure challenges, particularly the poor road network in my parts of the country.
“I would have loved to surprise you towards the end of my term, to show you that I’m the infrastructure. I want to assure all communities, including Bo, Mattru, Pujehun…and the many other road projects. We will continue to work on them and we will finish them,” he said. “The number of bridges we have built since we came to power, no other government has built them since independence.”
Election, Hate Speech and Peace
Again, the President used the meeting to make it clear that there will be no election until 2028 and called on all parties to maintain peace and embrace dialogue.
He vowed to implement the Tripartite Committee recommendations, many of which he said are similar with recommendations considered in the constitutional review process.
But he went further to express outrage that people spend time listening to bloggers spreading hate speech whom he referred to as nonentities.
He emphasized the essence of maintaining peace and recalled his time in the war and how the role he played to bring peace as Military Head of State.
“When you taste war, you will not want war again…We need political stability. It nurtures good governance,” he said. “So as a soldier, I have always sought peaceful means. Because when you fight, you end up on a table. When we fought, we ended up on the table. We sat and talked and got peace since then.”
