This piece would like to look at the effect of the austerity measures implemented by the APC government in October last year which was supposed to last for six months and after six months Sierra Leoneans are yet to know whether the measures were worthwhile or otherwise.
Just before the implementation of the austerity measures, the downward trend at which the economy was going was very gloomy. Most people had lost hope in a turnaround for a better economy and for a Godly country like ours, many thought that only a miracle could save the nation’s economy.
That fear was affirmed when President Koroma made an unannounced appearance at a crusade hosted by Pastor Mambu at the National stadium where he, the President admitted that people of Sierra Leone were suffering and called on the people to, as he put, have faith in God.
In October 2016, government published a solemn press release in which it promised the people that necessary measures were to be taken to revamp the economy. It attributed the economic downturn to the ebola outbreak and the fall in the price of Iron Ore in the world market.
Even though the opposition party had deemed the excuse preposterous, the government spokesman called the measures expenditure rationalization. The somber nature of the release was touching with the hallmarks of seriousness written all over it.
The release highlighted measures that the government would take to gain economic recovery. It is of worth to note that one thing the release succeeded in doing was that of exposing the reckless spending of the government in terms of overseas travelling, DSA for local travel, vehicle maintenance, fuel allocation to MDA’s and more. Many believed that with the tone of the release the government would live by their words.
However, in the midst of it all, government resorted to shooting itself in the foot by first of all undertaking massive employment; first a Presidential Youth Aide which most people believed was counterproductive to the austerity measures, then the mass employment at the Foreign Ministry. In the face of it all and to the chagrin of Sierra Leoneans, a sitting minister carelessly and deliberately flaunted a whooping One Hundred Million Leones just for registration processes. In fact at that ostentatious show of wealth in Port Loko, government functionaries coughed up, without a bat of the eyelid, some One Billion Leones.
In the same stride a wannabe President also made a SMALL token of One Hundred Thousand Dollars, yes you heard me right, One Hundred Thousand ****ing dollars to the APC Party, maybe to impress the kingmakers but to the dismay and annoyance of the majority poor.
Many would have thought that at such time those monies would have been used to cushion the economic burden of the country.
On the other hand maybe used to augment the educational or health sector in the country bearing in mind the number of qualified students who could barely pay their university fees or the sick and suffering who could hardly meet their hospital bills.
To crown it all, the champion of the austerity measures, the Bank Governor himself resigned for reasons which many believed had to do with the ascension to the premier seat come the 2018 Presidential elections.
Many saw this as leaving the government at a time he was needed most or was he not satisfied with the trend of the economic and had not the political will to do something about it which he thought he could have done professionslly?
Yet still more burden has been heaped on the people of the country.
The rate of the dollar continues to escalate, from Le 6,000 when the measures were implemented to Le 7,500 just six months down the line. Electricity tariff has soared, fuel pump price jumped from 3,750 a litre to 6,000 a litre, the telecommunication companies also joined the bandwagon in increasing tariff.
Six months on there seem to be no let up as government has failed to tell the people of this country the GAINS made after the implementation of the measures.
