President Bio Vs Samura Kamara…
Who Will Take The Golden Seat?
By Edwina Sia Janga
The die has been cast, Sierra Leoneans will soon be going to the polls, and the nation will know who is who. With the just concluded National Delegates Conference of the APC and the election of Dr. Samura Kamara as Flag-Bearer of the party, President Bio now faces a tough opponent, especially as the economic situation and other conditions seem to be going against him.
Many citizens are of the view that the Bio government has failed to address the very pressing need of the citizenry, namely the cost of living, which has continued to impose heavy burden on the masses. This situation has been exacerbated by the erratic rise of the dollar against the Leone, leading to an exponential increase in the prices of all commodities across the country, including food stuffs.
It could be recalled that during the 2018 campaign, President Bio and his campaign team touted the bread and butter issue as priority over road construction, and promised to usher in a new Direction that will focus on addressing the bread and butter issue. Unfortunately, over four years in governance and approaching the general elections, Bio’s ‘New Direction’ government has not been able to deal with that issue, instead, the reverse has happened. Hardship has been the order of the day. Today the prices of basic commodities have all gone up.
In Bio’s campaign message for the coming election, it is said to be an appeal to Sierra Leoneans to give him a second term to rectify all the areas that have not been addressed. It is being peddled that the twin shocks of COVID, and the war in Ukraine, have been responsible for the deterioration of the economy, as food stuffs, fuel and other basic commodities were scarce in the international market, adversely affecting countries like Sierra Leone that depends on importation for its food and other commodities.
As far as the APC is concern, the excuse given by the Bio government is an attempt to cover its inability to deliver on its promise to make the lives of Sierra Leoneans better, as its slogan implies: ‘Paopa Salone For Betteh’. They are of the view that with Samura Kamara, a development Economist at the helm of affairs in the country, he will do all he can to restore sanity to the economy and change the lives of citizens. They are simply calling on people to vote for the APC’s Presidential candidate if they are convinced that their lives have not been made better under the Bio regime, and to vote for Bio if they believe that they have been living better lives.
As both political giants face each other, the world and the country is waiting to see who will win the Golden Seat. And winning that seat depends on how both candidates will be able to convince the populace that they have the answers to a better future for the country.
