Sierra Leone does not need comforting words – it needs courageous governance

Albert David KAMARA: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 8 August 2026:

In the well‑lit chamber of Sierra Leone’s Parliament yesterday, Friday 7th August 2026, President Julius Maada Bio delivered a speech that, on paper, radiated optimism, stability, and national progress.

The speech that echoed through empty stomachs. Parliament heard a speech; the people heard a lie. Economic miracles on paper, misery in every household.

Outside those polished parliamentary floors, in the markets, the ghettos, the villages, towns and cities, the cramped households, the broken roads, the suffocating transport hubs, Sierra Leoneans felt something entirely different. They felt hunger. They felt inflation. They felt betrayal.

The President’s words soared, but the nation’s reality remained brutally grounded.

Bio spoke of growth, stability, and inflation control. Yet Sierra Leoneans continue to live in one of the most economically suffocating periods in the country’s history.

The World Food Programme’s recent hunger assessment paints a devastating picture: Over 70% of households face food insecurity. Malnutrition is rising. Rural families are skipping meals. Urban families are drowning under food prices that change faster than the weather.

Julius Maada Bio’s speech claimed inflation had fallen. But in the markets, inflation is not a statistic, it is a daily beating. It is the mother who cannot buy rice. It is the farmer who cannot afford fertilizer. It is the trader whose goods rot on roads that have collapsed into mud.

Sierra Leone’s inflation remains one of the highest in West Africa, and certainly one of the most painful in its post‑war history. The President’s speech may have lowered inflation on paper, but not in the lives of the people.

Bio proudly listed the millions of dollars Sierra Leone has received from international partners, World Bank, AfDB, Islamic Development Bank, OPEC Fund, EU, BADEA. These funds were meant to transform agriculture, boost food production, and end dependency on imports.

Yet the country remains dangerously dependent on imported rice, flour, onions, sugar, and basic commodities, all sold at skyrocketing prices.

Where has the agricultural revolution gone?  Where are the promised tractors, irrigation systems, storage facilities, and mechanized farming? Where are the millions of dollars meant for the Feed Salone programme?

The people see no farms. They see no food. They see no change. All they see is hunger, and hunger does not lie.

Bio spoke of infrastructure progress. But Sierra Leone’s roads continue to crumble like stale bread. Farmers cannot transport their produce. Drivers spend hours navigating potholes that resemble bomb craters. Businesses lose goods, time, and money, and entire communities remain cut off during the rainy season. A nation cannot grow when its roads are dying.

The President spoke of job creation. But unemployment remains all‑time high, especially among youth, the very demographic he claims to champion. Every street corner is filled with idle graduates.

Every village is filled with young men and women waiting for opportunities that never arrive. Every household carries the weight of a son or daughter who cannot find work. Employment did not rise today. Only the rhetoric did.

President Bio called for national unity. But unity cannot grow on soil poisoned by selective justice, political interference, and institutional capture.

Sierra Leoneans see a politicised Parliament that rubber‑stamps executive decisions. They see a bias and heavy-handed police force. They see a military increasingly drawn into political optics; they see a Bar Association whose independence is questioned.

Sierra Leoneans see a private sector suffocated by political interference and favouritism. Unity cannot be proclaimed; it must be practiced. And Sierra Leoneans have not seen the practice.

Bio celebrated international partnerships. But Sierra Leone’s economy is now so fragile, so dependent, so exposed, that donor support has become a lifeline rather than a development tool.

Excessive and reckless government spending continues to sink the nation deeper into debt. Budget discipline remains a myth. Financial transparency remains elusive. And the country’s vulnerability has opened dangerous doors, including infiltration by international narcotic trafficking networks, as repeatedly warned by global security agencies.

A nation cannot claim sovereignty when its economy is held hostage.

Bio’s speech was polished, structured, and was presidential. But it was also deeply disconnected from the lived experiences of Sierra Leoneans. It felt disturbing in its denial of reality. Devastating in its dismissal of suffering Sierra Leoneans. Felt undemocratic in its selective justice.

His speech felt deceptive in its portrayal of progress. Misleading in its economic claims. And manipulative in its unity narrative. Constitutionally disappointing in its institutional interference. A betrayal of the average Sierra Leonean’s daily struggle.

This was not a speech of national healing. It was a speech of political performance.

To move forward, Sierra Leone requires real reforms, not rhetorical victories: Depoliticise institutions: Parliament, police, military, SLBA, and regulatory bodies. Auditing of agricultural funds, every dollar, every tractor, every project. Rebuild roads, not with slogans, but with engineering. Stabilise inflation, through fiscal discipline, not through speeches. Create jobs, by empowering private sector growth, not political patronage.

Strengthen anti‑corruption mechanisms, with independence and teeth. Protect civic space, because unity grows where freedom lives. Prioritise food security, not through imported rice, but through local production.

Sierra Leone does not need comforting words. It needs courageous governance.

A President’s speech can inspire a nation. But when the speech contradicts the nation’s reality, it becomes a mirror reflecting the distance between power and the people. Today, that distance felt wider than ever.