An Open Letter to President Julius Maada Bio
By Henry Munda Abdulai
I humble myself before you, Mr. President, whilst I take advantage of this occasion to congratulate you on your assumption of the highest office in this land that we love.
I am humbled, whilst I salute your wild effort to making sure that the dreams you harbour for this great nation are realised.
First, I want to acclaim the war you're waging on corruption and the pervasive examination malpractices across schools. Corruption is a promoter of human rights violation.
Let me also applaud your strides towards the provision of free, quality education.
You're the "talk and do" president of our time. May you succeed!
Emphatically, we as a nation appreciate the free, quality education. This is crucial to the growth of every society.
However, I beg to let you know that your people need more.
A responsible government is one determined by the amount of jobs it creates/provides for its citizens. This helps citizens to live a better life. This helps citizens to at least survive by at least one meal a day.
This engages citizens, thereby reducing the tendency of the commission of crime. Unfortunately, an high number of Sierra Leoneans have lost their jobs during the course of your tenure. Taking Lunsar as a case study, the Gerald Group of Companies SL Limited/ SL Mining Company is on the brink of an indefinite shutdown or has already shut down at the Marampa iron ore mine as a result of a disagreement with your government.
Hundreds of Sierra Leoneans who have probably thousands of dependants have lost their jobs and livelihood in the process.
As if that is not enough inflation and economic instability are rocket high. Families are starving, maternal and child mortality remains stubbornly high. Our sisters, our daughters, and our wives are becoming prostitutes. Ambitious citizens are becoming destitute. Tribalism and tribal tensions remain with us and probably heightening. Yet, Mr President, you are almost always silent.
Mr President, I, together with other well-meaning citizens, am absolutely discontented with your habitual inexplicable silence in the face of all these sour situation. Your country wants to hear from you. The citizens need to hear your voice. Our president needs to talk to us, and regularly too.
When you needed us, you were regularly present at our doorsteps, allowing us quite a little or no time to rest, and we responded adequately with our votes. Why have you chosen to remain almost silent amidst all these menacing happenings?
Mr President, please permit me to submit to us that your administration seems to have an appetite for revenge, paying very little attention to the crux of their mandate which importantly includes the creation or provision of jobs for the citizens, and the security and protection of life and property. We were not, and are not expecting everything to be done overnight albeit at this juncture we should begin to feel the comfort of the cool breeze of hope that blows from the direction of the New Direction.
Today you are there as the boss, but as a servant too. Your people need your diligent services. And shall I make bold to say that your administration is almost failing to demonstrate its commitment to job creation? Until we begin to feed ourselves from our own strategic natural resources, until we begin to manage our very own developmental processes from our own strategic natural resources, the hope for a sustainable development would be far from being fetched. I make bold to suggest that the policy on our natural resources needs to be reviewed.
Mr President, I have come to the realization that the problem with our country is not the ordinary citizens peddling drugs on the streets. The problem with our country is not the citizens who sell cheap and adulterated cosmetics at Abacha Street. The problem with our country is not the average citizens hopelessly gallivanting the streets without jobs. The problem with our country is not those clique boys who consume Tramadol, smoke marijuana or take other types of narcotic. The problem with our country is not our girls who stand at strategic points as prostitutes, selling their bodies if only to make a living.
If our government had their back, they wouldn't be there.
The problem with this country is you and I who are educated. The problem with our country is you who occupy public offices. It's you who want to have des res. It's you who want to have foreign bank accounts. It's you who want to drive in the most opulent and recent cars. It's you who want to go on periodic vacation to Europe and America.
All at the expense of the ordinary citizen.
Sierra Leone is a great country with rich ethnic and cultural diversity. But it's now so much polluted with tribal streak that the voices of reason have become dormant. Remember, we are one people, one country.
Be the welder who would bind us all into one nation. Be the lead, whilst we move doggedly into the same direction with a united motive. If you want to transform this country into a better place, then that transformative character must begin with you. Until then, we will continue to circumnavigate in the wilderness and will never realize our true potentials as a nation.
Your Excellency, I am writing this letter to you against the backdrop of the promises you made to this great nation and its great people. In this regard, kindly permit me to draw your attention to an extract from the last submissions you made at the presidential debate held on the 15th of February 2018:
"I have said this election is about the future of our great nation Sierra Leone. The future of our children. The future of our grand children. The people of this country are suffering immensely under the weight of rampant corruption and mismanagement of the APC. So if you want Democratic change to end their suffering, vote Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP. If you want free education for our children, vote Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP. If you want jobs for our youths roaming the streets, vote Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP. If you want an end to rampant corruption, indiscipline and lawlessness where nobody is above the law and I mean nobody is above the law, vote Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP. If you want good hospitals, good roads, electricity for all Sierra Leoneans, better salary for our teachers, nurses, police, military, prison officers and all public sector workers, then vote Julius Maada Bio. If you want EFFICIENT POLITICAL and ECONOMIC management of the STATE and its NATURAL RESOURCES for the BENEFIT of ALL SIERRA LEONEANS, vote Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP. If you want INCLUSIVE GOVERNMENT, INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT where EVERYONE is IN and NO ONE is out, vote Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP"
Those were your words. On that day, this final submission kept me emotional, these words got me sentimentally attracted to your leadership. But the dysfunctional state of affairs in the areas of YOUTH EMPLOYMENT, the CONDITIONS OF SERVICE of certain civil servants and the lack of INCLUSIVITY in your administration which, like its predecessor, considers party before competence and anything else have begged a lot of questions in me. Amongst the many, were these promises made out of a genuine intention?
I can vividly and fondly remember during my tender age, my father used to tell me that you are someone who would not easily renege on your promises. And I want to be as certain as to be sure that you cannot stand destroying that legacy.
Mr President, we gave you a five-year mandate to determine the fate of this great nation and its great people. If you put Unity, Freedom and Justice at the peak of your modus operandi, then you will be in for another mandate. But the status quo is miles away from being favourable.
I still anticipate a great future!
Long live our president!
Long live this great nation and its great people!
Henry Munda Abdulai is a Law student at the University of Makeni (UNIMAK).
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