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Sierra Leoneans, over the years, have come to a common understanding that elections and change of President and party do not bring them the much anticipated benefits of democratic rule by voting for this presidential candidate or that political party.
Generally speaking, what the majority of poor voters that queue patiently in lines across the country want is a better standard of living for them, their children and their loved ones. Since the return to democracy in 1996 when voters defied a brutal RUF to cast their ballots they have lamented that democracy has brought them more pains than gains.
Take for example what the value of the Leone to the dollar in 1996 was and what it is today and the effect of this on the living standards of the vast majority of Sierra Leoneans who eke out a bare living as subsistence farmers, stone breakers, daily wage labourers or belong to the vast pool of unemployed youths and adults that populate the urban areas. So for the vast majority of Sierra Leoneans, it no longer matters which President or party rules them but which can deliver them from economic underdevelopment and its attendant poverty and associated social ills.
Beyond the empty manifesto promises that they make to the people during elections, our leaders know that only robust sustained economic growth and development will result in increased individual and national income. Yet how much have Sierra Leone’s GDP and GNP grown since 2000, compared to over well governed developing countries like Botswana, Tanzania, Rwanda, etc.
By now, our political parties and leaders should know that the people are no longer captivated by their empty promises of deliverance from poverty. What the people want to see is cheap affordable food on the table, affordable public transportation, affordable housing, good health care that they do not have to pay through their noses for, schools that function well and most critically an economy that is growing dynamically capable of providing the jobs that enable people to earn their livelihood in decent respectable ways.
Any President and party that can prove adequately to the people that it is capable of delivering this can have the constitution changed for him to rule for as long as he wants like Kagame.
