By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
Author of Monopoly of Happiness: Unveiling Sierra Leone’s Social Imbalance
Recipient of the Africa Renaissance Leadership Award
Mr. President, can we talk?
The truth is bitter. But it must be told. Because silence is betrayal. And Mr. President, the silence from within your government is deafening. Not the silence of contemplation, but the silence of incompetence. The silence of laziness. The silence of micromanagement that has paralysed a nation already gasping for air.
Mr. President, your ministers are not working. Let us stop pretending. These are not leaders; they are benchwarmers. They sit in luxurious offices, enjoying allowances, traveling for summits, and issuing press releases, but doing nothing measurable for the people. They act only when you instruct. They wait for your cues. They speak only when you give them the lines. You have turned capable institutions into puppets dangling from the strings of your executive hands.
Mr. President, governance is not a solo act. Yet, everything in Sierra Leone revolves around your desk. The president must approve. The president must launch. The President must appoint. The president must fire. The President must comment. It is as if the ministers are mere ornaments, placed there to decorate the system while you run every detail of governance yourself. That is not leadership. That is control. That is micromanagement. And it is failing us badly.
Why appoint ministers who cannot take initiative? Why appoint heads of departments who must wait to be told when to breathe? Why call it a cabinet if only one man is doing the thinking? Mr. President, even the Almighty delegated responsibilities. Why must you bear every decision alone, only to then complain that you are tired, misunderstood, or overwhelmed?
Mr. President, micromanagement may feel like control, but it breeds incompetence. It disables leadership. It discourages innovation. And worst of all, it protects laziness. Because the ministers have learned that they will not be held accountable as long as they stay quiet, stay loyal, and stay close to you. That is why nothing moves. That is why we are stuck.
The citizens do not even know who the ministers are anymore. What do they do? Who do they serve? What have they delivered? The Ministry of Works is silent while roads are impassable. The Ministry of Energy is nowhere to be found while blackouts swallow the nights. The Ministry of Agriculture is a ghost while hunger grips our children. And the Ministry of Information, instead of enlightening the nation, has become the government’s gossip factory, issuing statements to suppress criticism and massage egos.
Mr. President, in a sane democracy, underperforming ministers are reshuffled, retired, or removed. But in your case, the more someone fails, the closer they seem to get to power. Failure has become a ticket to promotion. Loyalty has replaced merit. And corruption is forgiven if done in silence.
And as if that were not enough, you continue to appoint more people into government. Mr. President, this country is not a dumping ground for party loyalists. This is a nation. A struggling one. You have more advisers than advisors. You have more special assistants than special accomplishments. You have created more offices, envoys, and coordinators than the entire West African region combined. Every week comes with a new appointment. And every new appointment comes with new salaries, new vehicles, new privileges, and new burdens on the already bleeding economy.
Mr. President, how can you justify expanding government while the nation contracts under poverty? How can you speak of austerity in one breath and increase political employment in the next? What is the job of a presidential adviser on climate if our cities flood every time it rains? What is the job of a youth envoy if young people are wasting away under drugs and joblessness?
These appointments are not about service. They are about survival. They are about political compensation. They are about keeping your inner circle intact and your party machinery oiled. But Mr. President, Sierra Leone is dying under the weight of that machinery.
The economy is on life support. Inflation is draining every household. Prices are rising. Families are starving. Students are dropping out. But in the midst of all this, Statistics Sierra Leone has the audacity to declare that we are now a single-digit inflation country. Mr. President, how is that possible? Are they living in a different country?
Ask the market woman who can no longer afford a bag of rice. Ask the commercial driver who pays triple for fuel. Ask the unemployed graduate who eats once a day. Ask the pregnant mother who cannot afford basic drugs. Ask them, Mr. President. Not your statisticians, not your ministers, and not your party supporters. Ask the people who live this suffering every day.
Statistics Sierra Leone may be cooking numbers, but the kitchens of ordinary Sierra Leoneans are empty. Their tables are bare. Their pots are cold. There is no dignity in that suffering. No decimal point in that number. No mathematical formula to explain that pain.
Mr. President, let us not forget that false data can be more dangerous than no data. Because it gives a false sense of progress. It makes leaders complacent. It misleads international partners. And most of all, it insults the intelligence of a suffering people.
You cannot feed us lies and expect gratitude. You cannot give us manipulated statistics and expect silence. The people know the truth. They live it. And no graph or inflation chart can cover that up.
Mr. President, the question now is simple. Are you building a legacy of hope or a pyramid of denial? Are you steering this nation toward growth or dragging it into deeper confusion? Are you surrounded by thinkers or flatterers?
You have one term left. One. The promises have been made. The time for blame is over. The time for results is now.
Clean the cabinet. Let go of the dead weight. Empower your ministers or replace them. Appoint fewer people and demand more from them. End the era of loyalty over merit. Demand measurable performance. Reward bold ideas, not blind submission. Let your government reflect the aspirations of the people, not the desires of the party.
Mr. President, the laziness in your government is not accidental. It is structural. It is cultural. And it is political. It is the result of a system that rewards silence, punishes initiative, and fears competence. If you do not break that chain, it will break your legacy.
Mr. President, can we talk?
