With less than three months to the 24th June 2023 general elections, the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) has been engaging in what many patriots have described as “illogical, immature and no-solution” political propaganda in the quest to take over national leadership.

The majority of Sierra Leoneans continue to be surprised by the campaign messages of the APC. Till now, the main opposition has not presented any workable alternative solutions to the many problems we face as a nation.

Now, the common APC campaign tool is price comparison; comparing prices of commodities in the first term of APC Ernest Bai Koroma (2007-2012) and the first term of incumbent President Julius Maada Bio [2018 to date]. Interestingly, in doing such an economically irrational comparison, the APC has never taken into account that in the first term of SLPP Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabba [1996-2002] some prices on the APC list were 5 to 10 times cheaper. The dynamics in the global market and changes in demography and demands are enough to tell any sane person that things can’t be static anywhere.

What they are failing to recognize is the fact that prices of those commodities in other countries have equally been increasing and have nothing to do with the governance style of those countries.

While raising heads from the mud, APC propagandists continue to funnily criticize the economy under the Maada Bio presidency. We all know that the APC left the nation under an extremely harsh economic situation. By then, the government was borrowing almost everything. Contractors were left unpaid. International bodies lost confidence in Sierra Leone. We were among the worst-performing nations in the world in almost all global ratings. Everything was not working.

Nations across the world are still struggling to keep their heads afloat as the ravaging consequences of COVID-19 and the Russian-Ukraine conflict remain evident in all sectors.

In all of these hash global economic realities affecting Sierra Leone and other countries, the Julius Maada Bio-led government continues to roll out the country’s unprecedented Free Quality Education project, pay salaries on time, expand electricity nationwide, provide university scholarships for all female school leavers opting STEM courses, provide incentives for importers importing some essential commodities, pay huge national debts left by the APC, among many development pointers.

At this point, what Sierra Leoneans want to see and hear are situational analyses of challenges and their corresponding workable solutions better than the laudable development efforts of the incumbent.

It is childish propaganda to only compare the prices of commodities five to ten years ago to current ones. The electorates know the realities as they are not unique to Sierra Leone. After declaring austerity and losing the confidence of international development partners, what would have been the economic situation of Sierra Leone by now if the APC was still in power? The answer is obvious. There would have been far worse economic consequences.

The APC presidential candidate, Samura Mathew Wilson Kamara, was bank governor, finance minister, and foreign affairs minister in various intervals of the APC two-term government. Those were the days, the APC government officially declared austerity and our foreign service was nothing to write home about. Samura Kamara and his APC failed woefully in almost all global ratings. So, what is new about Samura and the APC?

The worst of everything is that Samura Kamara and the APC have not presented to Sierra Leoneans any situational analysis and the way forward on each national challenge. All they are doing is playing on the emotions of people.

Samura Kamara and the APC are scared to tell the electorates that they are going to use the previous Ernest Bai Koroma government model which ended in austerity. They are also scared to tell the electorates that they are going to take a completely different development trajectory because those who led the country to austerity are still in full charge and control of the APC. Therefore, all the APC is left with is a price comparison and verbal attacks on the incumbent.

Knowing fully well what President Bio has achieved in just five years, the APC not being a better alternative, and the mass exodus of influential opposition heavyweights to the SLPP, it is now much clearer that President Bio is going to secure a second-term first-ballot victory with a wide margin.