By Prince J Musa in Kenema
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communication, Mamadi Ngobeh Kamara has on the 12th April 2021 engaged stakeholders in the Eastern region on the government achievements of President Julius Maada Bio over the last three years in office.
The event hosted in Kenema attracted paramount chiefs from Eastern region, councilors from local councils, youths groups, civil society and other walk of lives including media practitioners to evaluate the work of government within three years in office and to highlight areas in the New Direction manifesto that is yet to be implemented.
Addressing the meeting, the deputy Minister of Information and Communication said, the government has thought it necessary to stage outreach session in order to inform the people on its developmental strides since assumption of office in 2018.
In her analyses of the government interventions, she said that president Bio’s pronouncement of the free quality education was a dream to many as most people were not confident that it will be possible to implement it but through strong focus and dedicated leadership free education has been actualized. “Many children have dropped out of schools because their families could not afford to pay fees”, said Mamade Ngobeh Kamara.
The Deputy Minister stated that to assure commitment in fulfilling the campaign promises government has provided all necessary tools to support the education sector. “Government has allocated 21% of national budget to education to help develop human capital investment “stating that government knows that the free quality education will not succeed if teachers are left behind and therefore over one thousand teachers have been approved with pin codes which qualify them to get their monthly salaries. She said government has ensured the construction of five hundred and ten new classrooms across the country as way to address overcrowding in schools and that three thousand schools have been approved nationwide.
She reiterated that to ensure the development of the middle -level man power, government has focused on instituting technical vocational institutes in all the districts and that ten TEVET institutions are now functioning while the remaining six will soon follow as 25% trainees from different skills training have been enrolled in those institutions.
“Any government that intends to put the citizens in to darkness and poverty will neglect education but this government supports education to reduce poverty and improve the lives of the citizens”.
The Deputy Minister of Information and Communication further stated that for tertiary institutions government has awarded 4,904 scholarships to students at various academic institutions through government grant in aid program and has revived the existence of national students union which was banned over the years, to allow students to interact with each other and plan for the development of young people.
Talking about the fight against corruption, Mamadi Ngobeh Kamara told the audience that President Bio vowed to fight corruption in the country and that a lot has been achieved in that vein which led to the international community to trust the system by giving support to the government. She stated that the image of this country was put into disrepute because corruption was becoming the order of the day but the president promised to transform the country to attain the respect due by the outside world. She said: “Some people that were named in the Commissions of Inquiry report have appealed their matter but the good aspect is some have started paying back the money”.
She pointed out that the fight against corruption by this government has made Sierra Leone for the first time ever in history to qualify for the MCC grant because the efforts and the commitmentof leadership of this government. “We have some enemies against this nation who don’t want that grant to come to Sierra Leone since they have failed to attain that status,” she noted.
On the side of Agriculture, the deputy minister stated that government has developed chiefdom youth farming of which government is fully supporting the agriculture sector and that it is against that background that government through the Ministry of Finance procured tractors and power tillers to support farmers and also ensured the involvement of private public partnership in agriculture which will help in food productivity in the country. She said the Torma bum agricultural rice production project and others have started including onion production in Tonkolili district which will all help to bring development in to the country.
The deputy Minister said government has constructed forty eight hospitals across the country including eight mini hospitals at strategic locations such as Tonkolili,Gbinti ,Falaba among others and used the opportunity to tell business people to makes good use of the Munafa loan scheme which stands to improve and develop the business sector.
Abubakar Joe Sesay from the Strategic Communication Unit told the audiences that this government inherited huge foreign and domestic debts from the past government and that as a responsible government they have been paying back the loans of the past government.
He maintained that,”the inflation rate has been reduced from 31% to 18% “.
Sesay stated that the government has helped to clean up the Accountant General’s payroll and the issue of ghost workers no longer exist under this government which has led to massive recruitment of public workers and increment in salaries for civil servants. Paramount chief of Njaluahun chiefdom Kailahun district,James Sheriff Coker Jajua commended government for all the developments undertaken to help transform this country.
”Free Quality Education is a blessing for this country but we will realize it in future” said chief Jajua.
He stated that, before the introduction of the free education, most of the problems to help the vulnerable parents with children was on them as chiefs in their chiefdoms but with the coming of this free education the burden has been reduced. Paramount Chief Bockarie Soloku of Toli chiefdom Kono district commended the government for the first time thinking to meet the people and tell them things the government has done.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (16/04/21)
