When President Julius Maada Bio was running for President, he described Ernest Koroma’s APC as spending the country’s money like “drunken sailors”.
Yes – the APC was reckless with spending. And Emerson even called them out in his “munku buss pan matches” song. But if there was any hope that we’re turning the corner with fiscal prudence, our country’s First Lady has surely cast a doubt over it—-At least, on the face of the evidence of her extravagance and flamboyant use of state resources which she is strenuously trying to justify.
This country belongs to us all. We can’t treat it like an ATM. Imagine the hundreds of millions of Leones her office spent on furniture alone – from taxpayers money – when there are classrooms all over the country that are starved of basic furniture. And this was done within few months in power.
There’s the allegation of about a million dollars spent on her honeymoon (the First Lady herself said she was on honeymoon in Lebanon when word went round that the President was on medical vacation that State House couldn’t confirm). If this indeed was a honeymoon; done in the middle of a pandemic and amidst dire economic straits for many people, it’s simply unconscionable.
This left me thinking: the things that people would never imagine to do with their own hard earned cash but don’t care when it comes to state resources. Where’s the empathy for the poor Sierra Leonean who struggle to eke out a living? Is there dignity in living a big life when those you claim to represent suffer?
It’s even more painful that her office – which has no legal basis to receive state funds – was funded more than many legally constituted ministries. And the government keeps balkanizing ministries.
Creating new ones without giving them the resources they need to do their work but can somehow find money somewhere to fund the office of the First Lady. How can we be so wicked to ourselves!
Parliament must summon the Ministry of Finance to explain the rationale and legality of some of these allocations when at this moment, universities are closed over pay and conditions of service.
Yet someone can easily demand a million dollars to go on a honeymoon and buys furniture for fun.
Dis na witchcraft bo!
