By Alpha Amadu Jalloh.
Author of Monopoly of Happiness: Unveiling Sierra Leone’s Social Imbalance
Recipient of the Africa Renaissance Leadership Award 2025
Mr. President, we must continue this conversation because the issues gripping this nation are too many, too painful, and too dangerous to ignore. The people are gasping for breath under the weight of silence from a leadership that was once sold to us as the dawn of a new era. Mr. President, can we talk? Not in whispers, not through diplomatic statements, but with honesty and urgency.
Mr. President, what is happening in our hospitals is unforgivable. We are hearing now, loud and clear, that cost recovery systems, the very structure responsible for providing essential medicines and basic treatment to the poor, are being privatized. Mr. President, you have handed the soul of our public health system over to businessmen who care more about profit margins than dying citizens.
Mr. President, let us be blunt. How can you justify turning Connaught Hospital, our national referral hospital, into a commercial outlet? How can the poor be expected to survive when every tablet, every injection, and every lab test is now priced for profit? Mr. President, health is not a luxury. It is a right. It is a constitutional guarantee. But under your watch, it is becoming a privilege for the few and a punishment for the poor.
Mr. President, why would any serious leader allow such a disaster to unfold? Is it laziness? Is it neglect? Or is it something more calculated? Are you compensating your political allies, those who have waited patiently on the sidelines, hoping for their slice of the national cake? Is this how you repay loyalty, by auctioning our health to the highest bidder?
Mr. President, the people deserve an answer. The doctors and nurses working tirelessly in underfunded, overcrowded hospitals deserve an answer. The mother who watches her child die because she cannot afford a simple drip deserves an answer. Sierra Leone deserves an answer.
Mr. President, when you first assumed office, you spoke with passion about human capital development. You spoke about education, health, and innovation. But today, hospitals are becoming markets. Pharmacies inside government hospitals are being leased to private contractors. And patients who once paid modest recovery fees now face outrageous bills or are turned away altogether. Mr. President, how did we get here?
Mr. President, where is the accountability for the billions of leones allocated annually to the health sector? Where is the money from the international donors who said they would support our hospitals and maternal care? What happened to the free health care initiative? What happened to the promises made to our nurses and community health workers?
Mr. President, you cannot keep pushing these questions into the dark. You owe the nation a full report, not a political speech, but a clear, itemized, publicly published account of how every health-related grant, loan, and budgetary allocation has been spent since 2018. The people are not interested in slogans anymore. They want figures. They want facts. They want receipts.
Mr. President, let us not forget that this same privatization scheme is quietly creeping into other sectors. Education, agriculture, and water supply are all falling prey to the same model. Foreign contractors are now managing state functions while Sierra Leonean professionals are either ignored or underpaid. Mr. President, is this what sovereignty looks like to you?
Mr. President, even your staunchest supporters are beginning to lose faith. The market women who danced for your motorcade, the schoolchildren who sang your praises, and the civil servants who defended your policies on radio and television—they are all questioning what your leadership truly stands for. Mr. President, are you leading for the people or for a small circle of profiteers?
Mr. President, the time for excuses is over. The economy is in ruins. The leone is depreciating beyond control. Businesses are collapsing. Families are being forced to make impossible choices between food, rent, and medicine. Yet you continue your foreign escapades, appearing more at ease in European cities than in the communities you vowed to uplift.
Mr. President, since you came to power, billions in aid, grants, and development loans have been received in the name of Sierra Leone. From the IMF and World Bank, from the African Development Bank, from ECOWAS, and from the Chinese and Arab partners, these funds were not gifts to your administration. They were entrusted to you for the benefit of the people. Mr. President, where is the report? Where is the transparency?
Mr. President, how much did we receive in COVID-19 support, and where did it go? How many roads were promised, how many were built, and at what cost? How much funding was committed to the agricultural transformation you spoke of, and how many bags of locally grown rice are we seeing in our markets today?
Mr. President, accountability is not optional. It is your duty. It is your contract with the people who elected you. And every day that you remain silent on these questions is a day your contract is being breached.
Mr. President, the public has not forgotten the promises. You said you would end corruption, yet the Audit Service continues to flag unexplained expenditures and missing funds. You said you would fight for women and youth, yet many remain unemployed and unempowered. You said you would secure the borders, yet parts of Kambia and Karene are reportedly being infiltrated while you are nowhere to be found.
Mr. President, even now, at a time when the territorial integrity of Sierra Leone is allegedly under threat, you are in London. Doing what? Meeting whom? Addressing which crisis? Only Allah Subhannah Wa Ta’ala knows. But the people are not fooled. They see the avoidance. They feel the betrayal.
Mr. President, the nation needs leadership, not ceremony. The country needs truth, not press statements. The Republic needs a president who stays and fights, not one who flies and hides.
Mr. President, if your heart is no longer in it, say so. If you are tired, let the people know. But do not sit in silence while everything falls apart. Do not smile for the cameras abroad while Sierra Leoneans cry at home.
Mr. President, the hospitals are not working. The schools are not working. The roads are breaking. The salaries are delayed. The investors are leaving. The youth are angry. The elders are disappointed. And still, you travel.
Mr. President, can you hear the people? They are not asking for miracles. They are asking for honesty. They are not calling for perfection. They are calling for responsibility. They are not demanding kings. They are asking for servants.
Mr. President, do not gamble with this moment. You still have the opportunity to turn things around. But that window is closing fast. The people are watching. History is recording. And God is judging.
Mr. President, can we talk before the last voice that believed in your promise goes silent?
