Apart from the resistance President Julius Maada Bio will face in his own party, the youth in Freetown and other parts of the country have threatened to boycott and undermine Bio’s 2023 campaigns. Most of the Youths how spoke to this press indicated that they had been disappointed by the President. They expected that their welfare must have improved under a Bio’s presidency considering the promises made four years ago.

A youth who resides in the eastern Freetown, Alimamy Conteh, not his real name, has told this press that the youth would boycott Bio’s campaigns and take every action to undermine him so that he could not come back again for the second time. Conteh cited economic hardship as the main cause. “We started to see hard life the day President Bio took over as President in Sierra Leone in 2018.” Conteh told this press. Price hikes are Conteh’s main concern in the country’s economy. He made reference to the price hikes in transport fare, food and other products and services in Sierra Leone.

The price increases, Conteh said, were deliberate. The rapid shoot up in the price of fuel brought about a ripple effect on the prices of other goods. “A price for a bag of rice which was just above Le200,000 (two hundred thousand Leones) is now close to Le400,000 (four hundred thousand Leones). Even the price of personal wearing has also increased. Trousers and jeans once sold Le60,000 (sixty thousand Leones) are now sold at Le120,000 (one hundred and twenty thousand Leones),” Conteh told this press.

These prices are sure to rise in the future, a situation that caused the youth’s confidence in Bio to erode.
With just one year more to go, what else can Bio achieve,” Conteh expressed hopelessness. Other youth sound the same. They have taken a hard stance not to listen to false promises no more form president Bio. “We are tired of lies. We need real politicians that will lift us out of conditions of poverty,” he cried.

He went on to sate that most of them went against their neighbours in support President Bio owing to his promise, but now they have deeply regretted it. Even the youth in the southern districts of Bo and Pujehun told a similar story. Except Bio works out a miracle, it is clear like crystals that he would never achieve his promises as one cannot fatten a pig on the market day. Campaigns will soon start, and next year, we go to the pool. What will Bio show to the youth?

“We have been disappointed by Julius Maada Bio. We voted him in some time ago with the hope that he would work more than President Julius Maada Bio especially in the south and east. But now we have known that Bio cannot do it, a disappointed youth in Pujehun anonymously told this press.

The youth factor was very prominent in the SLPP Manifesto, 2018. In P.43 of the youth, women and the disadvantaged saying development is about people and by the people. President Bio further assured the youth in his manifesto that the first priority of the New Direction government is the development of the human capital of Sierra Leone. The youth, no doubt, is an integral component of the human capital, and that their development is necessary for the improvement of Sierra Leone.

“In the New Direction, SLPP will consider human development as both a means and an end to the development process. This will require investing in youth groups…. to increase the productivity our workers, and improving the working technology and technical advice to youth so that they could take part in commercial agriculture and agro-processing agriculture.

These promises did not only stop at the National Youth Service, agriculture, job creation but also in other areas highlighted above. Close to five years in governance, it is now clear that President Bio’s promises were mere rhetoric to the 2018 votes. The youths still remain in protecting areas where the youth can be gainfully employed to make a living, those areas have considerably derailed by government. A great number of youths in Sierra Leone an employed in the commercial motorist (Okada) trade. For many, the Okada trade is to make ends meet in homes, and for others, it is about meeting financial obligations in secondary schools, colleges, and universities.

But many have been frustrated owing to government’s rampant restriction on where commercial motorists should tread especially in the city. Armed Police and military officers have been let loose on the streets to raid the riders. The raid sometimes is lethal as many riders have lost their lives. In situation of fatalities, government would hardly come in to investigate and bring officials responsible to justice. Owing to the president harassment, most of the youth have lost interest in the Okada trade which they now see as a game now worth going into.

The brutal manner in which Corona rules and regulations were implemented at the initial state by the state security operatives also became a source of discouragement for the youth the police and the army would go into shops and youth outlets in the name of enforcing Covid-19 rules. The youth are most times victims of these raids.

According to Nightwatch Newspaper, those who were aspiring to become entrepreneur too have lost interest. In a country where government wants to encourage and attract investment, the army and the police should be taken off the streets. These forces of law and order which have recently relegated to tools of terror and oppression should be restricted to the barracks or areas that require tight security. SLPP has never listened to such advice as the army and the police continue to lord it over the people. The fear to invest creates a situation of hardship that touches everybody in the city with the youth being the hardest hit.