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The National Grand Coalition has examined the four years in office of President Julius Maada Bio government.
The NGC stated “four years ago in the Republic of Sierra Leone, there was a peaceful transition from the All People Congress regime to the Sierra Leone People Party Government led by his Excellency Brig. Rtd. Julius Maada Bio. The destiny of the people changed hands and we all hoped that the newcomer who promised to take a new direction would lead us all to a “betteh Salone”.
According to NGC “We assumed that the first priority of the new regime on gaining power, If they were a responsible party, was to cater for the basic needs of the ordinary citizens; especially since JJ Saffa, the man who was to become the Minister of Finance and later Chief Minister had faithfully promised at campaign time that if elected, his party would resolve the bread and butter issues.
“The National Grand Coalition therefore, assuming our responsibility as an opposition party, adopted a very simple way of monitoring the performance of the newcomers. We systematically recorded the prices of basic food items in the market that every family needs to survive since March 2018.”
They noted that the report they represented to commemorate the paopa regimes fourth year in office is eighty such report since they started in 2018.
“Paopanistas initially ridiculed this exercise, called us the idle party goes to markets. But here we are today with another snapshot of the way this regime has impoverished our people, another report card for the “talk and do”. Please read it well and see for yourselves, NGC stated.
NGC noted, “Everything has increased since 2018; today the lowest increased recorded is the price of a bag of rice, Le 430,000 or 83% increase although a cup of rice has increased by 150% al Le 3,000 per cup. Note that these prices are from markets in Freetown and can be higher in the provinces (a cup of rice now cost Le 5,000 in Jendema). Interestingly but not surprisingly, the produced items such as dry bonga fish (1100% increased), tie plassas (700% increased), pepper by cup (757% increase). It is not surprising because the local producers; the fisherman, plassas and pepper grower need money to buy other things that have also become expensive.”
Our chop money budget, that is the estimate of the price of items needed by a family of four persons (papa, mama and two kids) to prepare their daily meal, stands today at Le 82,500. This means that for a low-income family that depends on one person earning the minimum wage of Le 600,000, if they spend all the money on preparing food, that family will eat for only four days. This is the reality of the ordinary man. No explanation about high world prices for fuel or COVID or Ukraine, can convince a man whose salary lasts only four days on just food. If he can no longer feed his family for twenty-six days in a month, pay his rent, send his children everyday to school or buy top up, but hears that one Big Man in his country is ready to pay two billion Leones in a church as bus fare to go to heaven, he is bound to be angry.
According to Awoko Newspaper, NGC further stated that, “This Government cannot blame the opposition for their failure. By their ineptitude and arrogance, they are very successful in campaigning against themselves. They refused to take us seriously when we told them to address the issue of hardship as a matter of urgency”.
