By Alpha Abu arraigned
With barely a month to the polls, President Julius Maada Bio has presented his party’s manifesto to the populace as he seeks re-election for a second and final five-year term.
At a jampacked Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Hall on the Campus of Eastern Technical University (ETU), the president mentioned his party’s Feed Salone initiative which is the thrust of the party’s commitment should they have a second term in office. He said “This initiative entails an ambitious programme to boost our staple food production to drastically minimize our reliance on food imports, increase exports, create jobs, foster economic growth, and reduce poverty’’.
He also mentioned Human Capital Development to fit the needs of 21st-century industry, and the introduction of an expansive Youth Employment Scheme to create 500,000 jobs in the next five years, the other two areas of the manifesto his government will pursue
“The fourth initiative is revamping the public service architecture through delivery efficiency and professionalism’’, President Bio stated.
He said the goal ‘’is to attract, support and retain the best and brightest to serve the people of Sierra Leone”.
He said his government will invest more in Technology and Infrastructure as the fifth pillar of his party’s focus in the next five years.
Generally in the educational sector, the SLPP government said it will formalize a new 1-6-3-3 system of education that will be based on reception or foundation, basic and senior secondary education that would have a year’s pre-primary education, six years of primary education, three years Junior Secondary education and three years Senior Secondary education including technical and vocational.
The party has committed to establishing new and upgrading existing technical and higher educational institutions with the presence of teacher training institutions in every district of Sierra Leone.
Healthcare was heavily supported in the last 5 years and maternal deaths dropped drastically much to the admiration of the World Health Organisaion and other partners.
Now the Bio administration has promised to ramp up its support to the health sector. It says it will build on existing successes, expand access to and improve the quality of healthcare services. Also, social health insurance is to be operationalized, health infrastructures upgraded or expanded, build the capacity of health workers, and improve their conditions of service, the manifesto continues.
Strengthening pandemic preparedness, disease prevention and control and enhancing the health supply chains using innovative technologies and fortifying health emergency services are the priority areas of the health sector between 2023-2028, according to the manifesto.
“Our new Direction agenda we embarked on five years ago has launched a remarkable journey of lasting transformation in every aspect of life in Sierra Leone”, President Bio stated.
He said his government dealt with the many problems inherited from the All Peoples Congress (APC) administration in the face of “unprecedented global upheavals’’.
The president acknowledged the enormous challenges his government continues to face saying “Our hardest challenge is the rising cost of living resulting from the multiple global shocks which started with the COVID-19 pandemic less than two years into our stewardship”. He said his resolve was for them as a government to do all they can to shield the people from the economic shocks that emerged.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (24/05/23)
