๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐œ ๐“๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ก๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐Œ๐ž๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ข๐จโ€™๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ

๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐œ ๐“๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ก๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐Œ๐ž๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ข๐จโ€™๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ

๐๐ฒ ๐€๐›๐ฎ๐›๐š๐ค๐š๐ซ๐ซ ๐๐š๐ก, ๐‘๐ข๐ฒ๐š๐๐ก, ๐’๐š๐ฎ๐๐ข ๐€๐ซ๐š๐›๐ข๐š

The Fifth Democratically Elected President of the Republic of Sierra Leone, His Excellency, Brigadier (Rtd) Dr. Julius Maada Bio who was re-elected last year for a second term, on Tuesday, 23rd July, 2024, once again set another milestone, as Fountain of Honour and Commander-in-Chief of the Republic, to subject himself in a townhall meeting. This did not happen in an election year. The event is an accountability engagement with the citizens of the country to provide a platform and opportunity for the masses to ask the President any question regarding his one year rule since his re-election last year.

We witnessed for the first time in history, a radio and television simulcast showing a mammoth assembly at the Bintumani Hotel International Conference Centre in Freetown, citizens having an open engagement with the President through a medium (krio) that majority of the countryโ€™s population understand.

๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐œ ๐“๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ก๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐Œ๐ž๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ข๐จโ€™๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ

During the town hall meeting hosted by the Ministry of Information and Civic Education (MoICE), the President was subjected to answering unfiltered questions. The Minister of Information and Civic Education, Hon. Chernor Abdulai Bah (Cee Bah), as moderator, presented to the President the very tough questions that had been sent by citizens through the link provided by the Ministry.

Dressed in white traditional attire and black hat, His Excellency President Bio exhausted the questions linked to the thematic areas that were sent by over 860 Sierra Leoneans across the country and the Diaspora, before the second segment of questions taken from the audience within the Bintumani Conference Centre.

The questions covered issues bordering on national cohesion, efforts to tackle hate speech, the economy, education, foreign policy, climate change, his governmentโ€™s Big Five Gamechangers โ€“ FEED SALONE, and Sierra Leoneโ€™s achievements at the U.N Security Council as a non-permanent member, among others. What was initially scheduled for one and half hour was doubled to three hours to provide much more room for citizens to get the questions across to the President. By so doing, President Bio opened the culture of accountability by removing the concrete and securitized walls that often exist between the presidency and the citizenry, thereby giving the masses the opportunity to make their voices heard and for them to freely express their feelings on governance issues.

๐“๐ก๐ž ๐‡๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐œ ๐“๐จ๐ฐ๐ง๐ก๐š๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐Œ๐ž๐ž๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐š๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ž๐ฌ๐ข๐๐ž๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ข๐จโ€™๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐ก๐จ๐ฐ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐’๐ญ๐š๐ญ๐ž๐ฌ๐ฆ๐š๐ง๐ฌ๐ก๐ข๐ฉ

On Foreign Policy, the President spoke about the remarkable achievements of his administration, which has taken Sierra Leone back to the United Nations Security Council as a non-permanent member after 53 years. โ€œWhen I became President, I promised to change the image of our country. And, like Chinua Achebe said, โ€œIf a child washes his hands he will eat with Kings. As your leader, that is exactly what I have done for our country,โ€ President Bio said. He added that 188 countries voted in favour of Sierra Leone to take the seat at the U.N Security Council. โ€œFew years ago, we were the beneficiaries of peace and security from the U.N Security Council as a result of the war in our country, but today we are part of this decision-making body to foster peace in countries like Palestine, Sudan, and Ukraine,โ€ President Bio said amidst a sharp and thunderous applause.

On Human Capital Development, the President justified the reasons for rolling out the Free Quality School Education (FQSE) during his first term, noting that at this 21st Century โ€œif you are not educated, you are nothing. We should take education very seriously by ensuring that our children are well educated in diverse fields like engineering and the sciences, or acquire skills from technical vocational institutions. This is part of the Human Capital Development I am talking about,โ€ President Bio said.

Amidst all this, there was an unpleasant scene created by a lady whom the President was magnanimous enough to listen to, and the Minister was calm, experienced and mature enough to handle. The lady came in late to the hall but was still insistent to ask the President a question even though the Minister had announced an end to the question and answer session.

The President immediately used his microphone to interject by saying โ€œAllow her to speak up and ask her question.โ€ The young lady was given the opportunity to ask her question, which she centred on the hike in prices of local commodities.

Responding, President Bio thanked the young woman for asking her question, noting that she has right as a citizen to ask whatever question she wants to. โ€œShe has right to talk to her leader, besides, she is a woman and we give high places to women. The only thing is that, I am not sure my sister or daughter was attentive during the meeting,โ€ President Bio responded in a cool and calm manner.
The President furthered that he had spoken on agriculture lengthily -and the reasons for the skyrocketing prices of basic commodities. He frankly told the townhall meeting that the rising cost of rice will only be alleviated when we grow our own staple food abundantly in the country and stop depending on imported rice from China, Pakistan and India, as these countries determine the prices based on demand. He said that a documentary had been shown in which the Ministry of Agriculture clearly displayed the efforts he and his government were doing to ensure food self-sufficiency in the country.

The President encouraged all Sierra Leoneans to support governmentโ€™s efforts by engaging in rice farming and other agricultural activities, to achieve food security and economic growth for a prosperous nation by 2028.
In a whole, many citizens, especially those who attended the meeting, lauded the initiative of Hon. Cee Bah and his MoICE team for this fantastic national civic engagement the President had with citizens and urged them to continue.

A popular female politician of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), Dr Sylvia Olayinka Blyden, had this to say in the WhatsApp group, โ€˜Salon Reflectionsโ€™: โ€œ*What I honestly liked about the whole scenario was the voice of the President using his own microphone to call out for the woman to be left alone to ask him questions. You can hear President Bio’s voice distinctly amidst the raucous calling for calm and for the woman to be given FREE space to ask questions .Even when the President could not decipher the question amidst the raucous, he was still willing for the woman to repeat her question. It was then the information minister explained that he extracted that the question was about high prices. I’m NOT a big fan of H.E. President Bio, but he does enjoy moments that are splendid for him. This video illustrates one such splendid moment. It was statesmanship at its best. Kudos to Mr. President. Kudos to Hon. Minister Chernor Bah – Girls Activistโฉ as well. That was a Class Act.”

If an opposition politician would say this about the president, it tells you about the good leadership attributes of the President.

Rome was not built in a day, and definitely Sierra Leone, a small country in West Africa which got its independence from Great Britain in 1962, has gone a long way, and remarkably achieved a lot especially towards free speech, press freedom and leadership accountability. Since the 1970s, when citizens were arrested for โ€œcareless talkโ€, today a young lady would scream in front of the president during a town hall meeting just for her to be heard. The President intervened during the commotion just to ensure that the lady was given the free will to ask her question. The President would then go on to respond to the question.

Gone are the days of repressive regimes of One Party State, or arbitrary arrests of journalists due to the obnoxious criminal libel law, which was in our law books for over half a century. Today, we are blessed with the goodies of a transformational leader like President Bio, who has made several legislative reforms to strengthen our democracy. He repealed the criminal libel law, which his predecessors were hesitant to do.

As a Press Freedom Champion, President Bio went as far as even giving the umbrella body for journalists, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), subventions since he became President in 2018 to date. These landmark achievements by President Bio would be catalogued in the portfolio of President Bioโ€™s successes by historians, political and social commentators for many, many years to come, something future leaders and governments will definitely learn very good lessons from.

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