By Abdulai Fasineh Dumbuya
87% of Sierra Leoneans are worried about the current state of the economy and the continuous hike in prices of food and other essential commodities; this is according to the Executive Director of the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR) Andrew Lavali.
He said that nearly nine out of ten Sierra Leoneans are concerned about the economy of the country, as he released the IGR survey report at a press conference on the 14th of September 2023.
Lavali told the press that they actually did trend analysis using Afrobarometer to arrive at getting such data.
Addressing the methodological concerns, he said that they used a random selection of 1, 200 respondents, with margin error of 3% at a 95% confidence interval and thus using face-to-face interviews to collect data.
He said that while 87% of Sierra Leoneans are saying that the country is either bad or very bad, he said 72% of Sierra Leoneans are saying that the country is heading in the wrong direction which he said dovetailed very well with the people's perception of the direction of the country.
He stated that when President Bio took power, the negative perception about the direction of the country ranged from 40% but he said the current survey ranged from 72% which he said has gone way above the previous survey in terms of wrong perceptions of the direction of the country.
"You can see the huge percentage drop in the confidence direction of the country. This is almost second to the 2015 economic status when Ebola was raging in the country. It was that time 80% of Sierra Leoneans said their country was heading in the wrong direction," he said.
He added that the 72% is actually a gray picture of how many Sierra Leoneans feel about the nature of the economy in the country.
Speaking on citizens' perceptions about democracy, he said that according to the data they collected from all the West Africa countries –using the latest Afrobarometer report, it indicated that Sierra Leone is the highest with 88% of people considering democracy as the most preferred system of government.
He went on to say that despite the fact that there is massive economic hardship in the country and the questions about the election, people still prefer democracy to military rule.
"People still need democracy because the survey shows that 92% of Sierra Leoneans are saying leaders should be chosen through regular and open elections," he said.
He pointed out that Sierra Leone is still promising when you look at the wider amount of citizens who are really committed to a democratic system of giving.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (15/09/23)
