Instead Of Bread & Butter… President Bio Delivered Hardship

Instead Of Bread & Butter…

President Bio Delivered Hardship

By Kelvin Jay

In the events leading to the 2018 elections, President Bio’s campaign team, especially the current Chief Minister, Jacob Jusu Saffa, were busy telling the nation that they will deliver on the bre4ad and butter issue, and all the road works undertaken by the former President was not the material thing that people needed. They did not waste any opportunity to stress the importance of bread and butter to the livelihood of Sierra Leoneans than road works. Today, five years in power, the Bio administration has failed to deliver on his promise to make life better for Sierra Leoneans.

It could be recalled that many people voted for Bio when the President and team were preaching how they will transform the lives of citizens, and how the cost of living was too high. They criticized overseas travels of the former President and condemned the wage bill as huge and the cabinet as bloated. Today, the Bio government has a far bloated cabinet than the previous government, and has travelled across the world more than any President that the country has ever produced. Despite inheriting, what President Bio described as an empty kitty, he was able to make all these trips with funds from the consolidated Revenue (Taxpayers money), thereby depleting the country’s reserves.

Since taking up office as President, Bio has not been able to address the economy, and today, the failed policies of his government has taken the country to austerity. The dollar has risen and is continuing to rise at break-neck speed, rendering the country’s Leone a mere waste paper. Compared to neighboring countries, the Leone is the worse currency in the sub-region. It has depreciated so badly that the cost of commodities in the market has skyrocketed, and this has in turn created heavy hardship on the populace. Things got so bad that wo0men traders wanted to protest, and asked female politician Femi Claudius-Cole to lead them. This was denied and Femi arrested. At that juncture, the women decided that they will; make their complaints at the ballot box. Few days from now the country will be going to the polls, and the people of Sierra Leone will be showing Bio that they decide who should rule them, and that all Presidents are at State House to serve the interest of the people and not personal interests.

Five years in governance, the people are yet to get the bread and butter promised them, instead hardship has been brought upon them. The cost of rice per bags has risen to about threefold from 2018 level, and similarly with all other goods. This has made live unbearable for the ordinary man. Many men cannot put food on the table for their families, and today, the country has been ranked among one of the hungriest in the world, and the unhappiest. It is logical to know that a country that is the hungriest will have a population that will be unhappiest. This is where President Bio and his Paopa government has taken Sierra Leone.