Sierra Leone Telegraph: 26 August 2021:
Opposition political parties in Sierra Leone are accused of being complicit in the government’s poor performance in delivering its manifesto promise after three years in power, by refusing to consistently and persistently hold president Bio accountable for the more than Eight Trillion Leones his government spends.
With the main opposition All Peoples Congress Party (APC) struggling to put its house in order after a long court battle for control of the running of the party’s affairs by various factions, the ruling SLPP party has invariably been granted a blank cheque which critics have accused president Bio and his ministers of abusing with impunity.
Although the international community, in particular – the World Bank and the IMF are almost in direct control of the country’s development programmes through hundreds of millions of dollars financing package, president Bio and his ministers are responsible for prioritisation of budget spending and the use of funds.
But despite the SLPP government receiving millions of dollars every single month in donor funds since winning elections in 2018, there is marked failure in addressing growing abject poverty in the country and poor standards of healthcare, as unemployment remains stubbornly high at over 70%, food inflation rising by 20%, and economic growth slowed down by the global pandemic after president Bio’s dismal failure to diversify the economy as promised in his manifesto and Medium Term National Economic Development Plan.
Corruption in high places and the abuse of executive powers continue to fuel rising lawlessness and the economic malaise that the people of Sierra Leone experience every day.
So, what are the opposition parliamentarians doing?
Here is Abdul Kargbo, opposition APC MP for constituency 077 speaking in parliament as he tries to hold president Bio accountable for his governance and promises that he made to develop the country and alleviate the suffering of the people:
Please stop spreading false narratives about President Bio’s government. You are failing the people of Sierra Leone by your false assertions. You only represent disgruntled APC diasporans.
– who destroyed the infrastructure of Sierra Leone with Fourah Bay College not able to have residentail studenta because of lack of water and electricity?
– What about provincial roads that President Bio’s government has re-habilitated
– What about APC corruption and depleting all our foreign making the country vulnerable to shocks like Covid -19?
– What about poor health care leading to Ebola under the APC? I know as usual you will refuse to upload my comments.
In any democracy, the role of the opposition parties is to hold governments of the day accountable, and transparent the way business is carried out. And mostly the process is done through parliamentary procedures, and sometimes the use of the print media and television . Clearly in Sierra Leone where the opposition parties are defined as enemies of the sitting government, instead of being an opposition to government economic, political and social programmes that they don’t necessarily shares, both ideologically or through dogmatic held believes the way forward for the country, makes the functions and relevance of the opposition parties very challenging. The challenges of the opposition parties in Sierra leone is made harder because the same executive branch, or the Presidency have accumulated too many powers, not necessarily define by our constitution, but the respect we traditionally have for elders and our traditional rulers.
Clearly if we want to create a strong opposition parties in a Sierra leone, they have to be more visible on our television Sunday talk shows, more opinions pieces on our written media, and more presence on social media . To make themselves relevant and the sitting government in waiting. Whether is the APC or SLPP party in opposition, or any other party for that matter, adapting, and responding to this challenges and new dynamics, will go a long way to establish a clear blue water between the sitting government and the opposition party so voters can make informed choices when they in the polling booth.
According to (Muller and Strom, 1999) “The behaviour of opposition parties in parliament – similarly, of course, to that of governing parties,-is driven by electoral, office seeking and policy seeking goals . There aims is to win votes and implement policies. While these strategic considerations seem to be obvious, they might trigger diverse opposition behaviour “In other words government and opposition are always keeping their eyes on the elections cycle clock. And this is where our problems are rooted. Instead of governments working for the country, they are working for their parties to increase their electoral chances. Not to serve the people but there own selfish ends.