By Gideon Tucker
That President Julius Maada Bio invited heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to a retreat at Bintumani hotel, Aberdeen in Freetown last month, was something to expect of any sitting government. The event obviously got the public interested to know about the deliberations and outcome involving these very senior public sector workers who form the nucleus of the state machinery.
What however drew a raft of attention was the President’s blunt message denoting ruthlessness, that he clearly sent out to these figure heads; prove your worthiness by providing productive results or you will be sacked. It’s become quite apparent that his patience with some of his Ministers and Directors is fast running out. That Bio had vowed to come knocking at the doors to government offices shows his level of exasperation at the non- performers.
Many people have been unimpressed with the way some of these individuals have been conducting themselves. There is that degree of aloofness or arrogance about some of these our Ministers and Directors; people come face to face with that in their offices, or when these officials go on radio or TV ostensibly to respond to very serious questions concerning their very institutions.
Bio won the 2018 presidential elections amidst a barrage of scathing criticisms of everything about him from his opponents, and naturally would want to prove to them, his staunch supporters, and the general public, that he was more than competent to transform Sierra Leone. And for him to come to realize that the men and women he had so relied on, would have become so distracted or pursuing personal ambitions, could have really unnerved him.
I learned that some Journalists last month visited the President at Hill Station and he was alarmed to know that he was not being presented with the true picture of the feelings of the people including his party supporters. That’s really shocking! Is our President being surrounded by Rasputins? We hope that’s not the case.
In this present setup, those at the helm of affairs in the MDAs are mostly from the diaspora and much is expected of them in terms of their service delivery capabilities, but woefully the ordinary people aren’t seeing that just yet, from quite a number of them.
It is imperative on our senior officials in these MDAs to start showing to the public their accomplishments and mechanisms put in place for sustaining such accomplishments. People can’t just receive hefty salary and leave office with nothing to show for that.
Don’t get me wrong; there are some officials who are hardworking and quite sincere in their stewardship, people who believe in delivering the goods. Take the case of Minister Memunatu Pratt who I have never physically set eyes on, but who has been as outstanding in her capacity as Tourism and Cultural Affairs Minister. She is a woman fired up for her role as a public servant and we are seeing the impressive results of her sincerity of purpose. She is quite a speaker (hahahaha) but she churns out the results as milk at a dairy farm.
Sierra Leone has some of the most attractive touristic sites in the world but neglect by previous governments to tap the sector, then the labels as a conflict, disease and disaster stricken nation had just about distanced us from any meaningful breakthrough in wooing tourists to savour what our hospitality sector can offer. But Dr. Pratt is changing all that and with much telling effect. Her aggressive marketing of Sierra Leone at Tourism fairs overseas are now bearing fruit. Now tourists are coming, hundreds of Danes arrived in Freetown over the weekend, which is great news for the country.
This is not a roll call of those officials who have risen up to the challenge over the past 20 months of the Bio administration, but one cannot stop from mentioning people like Information and Communications Minister, Mohamed R. Swarray and deputy Transport and Aviation Minister, Sadiq Sillah, two good examples, who have been updating the public about the impressive transformation taking place in their respective Ministries.
Various sporting disciplines including football are showing some semblance of sanity once again and thanks largely for having a seasoned sports personality in Ibrahim Nyellenkeh as Minister of Sports.
People don’t vote in a government for stagnation or retrogression. They would want to see an improvement in the provision of basic social needs like access to clean pipe borne water, steady supply of electricity, good roads with a well-organised transport system, affordable housing and healthcare. Moreover, the people expect to see their monthly wages take them through to the next pay day, even if that meant modest but let it be decent living.
Take for instance, The Roads Authority, the ever recurring scenes during the rains of thick mud and rocks being washed down and left there for eternity, forcing vehicles from opposing traffic to dangerously veer away to avoid the mess but almost committing head on collision.
I don’t know the full operational details of SLRA and the Road Maintenance Fund but shouldn’t someone be made to account for dereliction of duty or do they have to wait only for a fatal crash to occur before firm action was taken?
Some heads of MDAs are not sincerely working to change the face of the country but only the weight and sizes of their pockets and those of their cronies. They just don’t share Bio’s vision. We keep hearing reports of some of these senior officials employing close relations, creating no space for other citizens, which is selfishness to the highest degree.
Political parties having won elections should stop the practice of giving jobs to people just because they contributed financially during campaigns, as some could turn out to be inefficient public sector workers, with the tendency of manifesting a lackadaisical approach to work. Such quid pro quo arrangements must be discouraged. It’s been discussed that Bio merely stamped his seal of approval on a good number of appointments having relied on the recommendations of people he trusted.
People want to see the rolling out of all those impressive- looking projects announced by President Bio in the first year of his administration. If they are really actualized then Sierra Leone will experience a great leap forward (not Mao’s though). This is the 21st century and African nations like Rwanda and Ethiopia have visionary leaders with patriotic and highly motivated public servants, and the rest of the world is today taking notice of the strides those leaders are making in their respective countries.
Sierra Leone ought to develop now and with zero excuses. Our public officials must support the President. During the first few months of his presidency, Bio presented himself as a leader ready to develop Sierra Leone, and I want to believe he has not strayed away from that path.
At the retreat the President made a perfect analogy of his government to that of a ship and him obviously being the Captain. And I can bet that by this same time next year, some heads at our MDAs, like unwanted cargo, would have be thrown aboard (dismissed), on the orders of ‘’Captain’’ Bio, rather than allow the weight of their incompetence to sink the ship of state. And that might well be even before the next retreat! That’s Just my take.
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