By Francis Senesie*
President Julius Maada Bio will face his main rival challenger and opposition candidate of the All-Peoples Congress Dr. Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara in this June 24th elections, an elections believed to be another tightly contested elections in the West African nation.
Bio, who has ruled the country for nearly five years, is however favoured to win for another five years’ term as the country goes to the polls. A recent survey by the Institute For Governance Reform (IGR) said his party, the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) stands a chance of winning majority seats in the next parliament with a range of 53 %- 59% whilst the main opposition All People’s Congresss (APC) to retain its place as the main opposition occupying 37% to 46% seats followed by other parties.
In 2018, whilst running for President, Bio campaigned on the ticket of the Free Quality Education, curbing corruption, to name a few. Like any other politician, every President comes with his own agenda, but most of these agendas have been cosmetic, but President Bio ushered in a new era, with his focus being the development of the academic strength of the young generation, whom he believed to be the ‘’human capital ‘’ of any nation. He believed they would be the future leaders that would put the country on a firm footing. This priority area lays the foundation for all future development of any nation, because experts believe that an educated society will be a developed society.
‘’I promise a New Direction for Sierra Leone as a united, peaceful, progressive, dynamic, confident, enterprising, and happy nation where the people have unlimited access to jobs, food, education and health services and where there is equal justice and equal opportunity for all. We must transform Sierra Leone into a Middle-Income Country of the 21st Century. This is my vision for Sierra Leone. The flagship of our strategic priorities will focus on developing the country’s human capital through free education. We believe in giving every child a good education so that they can develop themselves, support their families and build our nation for the future,” Bio said in 2018 during the launch of his party’s manifesto. Thus, top in his manifesto promise for 2018 was Free Quality School Education. President Bio is convinced that when you educate a nation all other things will fall in place. There will be diversity of knowledge and skills that will contribute greatly to the development of the nation. When he introduced this idea, his critics wondered how he was going to do it, but he was not perturbed by their pessimism, he kept his eyes on the goal, and today, FQSE is here to stay.
Through this program today, there are more kids in school than at any other time in the history of Sierra Leone, and even child-mothers have a place in school. To further enhance skills training among adolescents, His Excellency encouraged the establishment of vocational institutes, where young people who were unable to complete schooling for one reason or the other now have the opportunity to learn some trade that will make them self-reliant.
Having ensured that the FQSE has taken root, His Excellency embarked on other development drive, among which is the infrastructure, which included building roads that will link various parts of the country and enhance transportation of goods and services across the country, thereby enhancing trade among citizens. Roads were being constructed across the country, as well as feeder roads in almost every region, being rehabilitated to facilitate accessibility. Bridges like the Rogbere
and Mabang were constructed, thereby opening the country to other areas, as well as reducing the time of travel to the provinces. Roadworks from Freetown to Liberia and Guinea have been improved by the new road network undertaken by his government.
As accessibility has been enhanced, President Bio embarked on the development of agriculture, with the setting up of a Seed Certification Agency (SLeSCA), charged with the responsibility to examine, test and certify all seeds for production in the country, with premium put on rice seed. Today, the rice seed used by farmers are all grown in the country, thanks to the new policy shift where no rice seed is being imported by the government for farmers. The past two years have been example of what Sierra Leoneans can do when given the opportunity to. Enough rice seed was produced that the country no longer imports rice seed for cultivation, which reduces the amount of money spent on importation of rice seed.
When President Bio took up office in 2018, he inherited a cosmetic electricity generation and distribution process, with the government spending huge sums of money on a power generating ship. He renegotiated the terms of agreement with the owners of the power ship and arrives at a reasonable agreement. But that did not deter him from exhausting other means of power generation. Under his leadership, the regional power pool was introduced in the country, with certain districts benefitting from the system, which is currently being rolled out across the country, albeit slowly. Whilst that is on-going, His Excellency also engaged development partners in respect of other energy generation means, and today there are several mini-grids in several districts.
To enhance tourism and facilitate traveling abroad, His Excellency embarked on the construction of a modern state-of-the-art airport terminal at Lungi, which has now increased the country’s image and now has opened the airport to more and bigger air traffic and will attract more tourists to the country.
In the area of employment, the New Direction government of President Bio constructed various car wash centres across the city, thereby providing jobs for hitherto idle youths who were open to all vices. A Youth Corp was strengthened to provide training for youths from universities and schools, exposing them to the professional world through internships in business establishments across the city. Some of these have gained employment where they went for working experiences. More nurses and teachers have been recruited and given pin codes, and their salaries reviewed.
In his bid to improve the health sector, President Bio’s administration has been able to reconstruct and rehabilitate hospitals across Freetown and provided equipment for the facilities. The main referral hospital has been rehabilitated with new beds and other medical facilities provided. To address deaths from late transportation of patients to hospitals, the government introduced the Free Ambulance services across the country. Now pregnant women, who normally died on the road to hospitals for delivery or give birth on the roadside on their way from their villages to the nearest health facility, were now conveyed to the hospital by the free ambulance service. All they have to do is to call a toll-free line and the ambulance picks them up.
The New Direction under Bio’s leadership saw in October 2020 the expungement of the fifty-five yearlong Seditious Libel Section of the Public Order Act of 1965 that criminalized free speech and limits freedom of the press. This gave Journalists the latitude to practice their profession without being barred in solitary confinements for speaking up against politicians and other powerful individuals. This attempt was to expand democratic spaces, consolidate a more just and peaceful society, enhance the media industry promote and good governance.
The Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act of 2022 (The GEWE Act) passed into law by Parliament and signed by President Bio. A monumental legislation that gives women the single largest increase to political participation in the history of Sierra Leone. The legislation gives women the opportunity to access finance, employment, equal pay, maternity leave, and political representation. The law provides for 30% quota of women serving in governance both appointed including cabinet ministers, ambassadorial appointments, directorates, and elected offices including parliamentary, mayoral, and local government councils.
Amidst the above facts, President Bio has a passion for the development of the country, and if given another chance, he will do more for the country.
The Anti-Corruption Commission Act of 2008 as amended in 2019. Under Bio’s administration, fighting corruption occupies the first five agenda items in his Manifesto. Given corruption as adverse effect to economic and social development, direct foreign investment, effective service delivery equal opportunity, and access to justice and the Rule of Law. Bio appointed a young, but rather learned and determined commissioner to lead a robust team in the fight against corruption. 2019 Bio signed into law the Anti-Corruption Amendment Act of 2019 in fulfilment of both manifesto and public commitment to wipe out corruption and make it unfashionable in the lives of Sierra Leoneans especially those serving in public trust. Established a special Anti-Corruption Division within the High Court system and appointed five judges to sit on ACC cases exclusively and expeditiously. Bio’s leadership introduced the Integrity Management Committees in all Ministries, Departments and Agencies. In the international arena, Sierra Leones reputation on corruption control has been enhanced including Transparency International’s Corruption Afro-Barometer, ranking Sierra Leone third in 2019 among 35 countries in Africa for Government’s effectiveness in the fight against corruption. 66% of citizens believe in the government’s seriousness in the fight against corruption. Sierra Leone current score stands at 79% in the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) since Bio came to office in 2018. A huge improvement from its failing 49% score with his predecessors. A newly constructed ultra-modern facility officially opened 5th June, 2023 to serve as ACC Headquarters in Freetown in addition to remodeled and equipped regional offices across the country to accommodate employees in their work.
Bio has enjoyed a lot of support from international partners, the private sector, and multilateral institutions operating both locally and foreign. Among such organizations in the diaspora is the Senesie Empowerment Foundation founded by Francis Senesie and wife Wendy Senesie. Since its formation, the foundation has contributed immensely to the development of Sierra Leone.
In 2020, the foundation as a way of complementing the government FQE, it distributed and donated over 80 million Leones worth of school materials to vulnerable children in Moyamba district, Southern, Sierra Leone.
The foundation also during the SLPP North America fund raising event for Bio’s re-elections donated the sum of $5,000 in education project of the country. In addition, it has also donated the sum of $16, 000 to support healing and health care in Sierra Leone to help boost health care infrastructure and system in the country.
With this kind of huge mark Bio has made , as stated in his recently launched manifesto dubbed ‘’Peoples Manifesto ‘’ will prioritize in feeding Salone which entails an ambitious programme to boost staple food production to drastically minimize our reliance on food imports ,increase our exports , create jobs , boost economic growth and reduce poverty , Human Capital development for nurturing skills for 21st century industry , with a gender focus , a Youth Employment Scheme to create the desired results . Clearly Bio deserves another five years to do more!!
* Francis Senesie is a son of the soil, a progressive and patriotic citizen of Sierra Leone. My wife, Wendy and I started the Senesie Empowerment Foundation in 2019 as a way of giving back to the community and a thriving nation still lingering under the scars of eleven-year civil war. The Foundation’s work centers around fostering positive change on the vulnerable population through advocacy for women empowerment, youth empowerment, providing education assistance to youth, and mobility assistance to persons with disability. The views in this article are his.
Culled from June Issue of Pan African Visions
