Increase of Wage Bill

Reckless Spending

Burden on the Masses

More Hardship

More Suffering

Opening of Drainages

Collapse of the Economy

Sierra Leone’s President, Julius Maada Bio has again eaten his words by creating additional ministries, far from what he had condemned his predecessor, Ernest Bai Koroma, for.

Since elected into office three years ago, President Bio has created more ministries, departments, and agencies than any other President Sierra Leone has produced. He is on record to have criticized the previous APC-led government of Ernest Bai Koroma on the same grounds and therefore promised to change the narratives once elected President, and now as President, he has reverted to the same course, with a far more bloated cabinet. Many Sierra Leoneans say that the once very critical man of a bloated government has now doe far worse than his predecessor. Sierra Leone, under the current leadership of President Bio, is heading in the wrong direction. President Bio had promised us a ” New Direction”, but unfortunately, the way things are going, this direction seems to be the worse direction, adversely affecting the livelihood of every Sierra Leonean.

A few days ago, President Bio made a mini cabinet reshuffle where he relegated his most trusted and celebrated heavyweight university lecturer from the position of Chief Minister to Foreign Affairs Minister. Professor David J. Francis’ position as Chief Minister almost rendered the office of Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh redundant. In his first cabinet, President Bio established some new ministries, departments, and agencies, whose establishments have caused more burdens on the country’s economy. Some of the ministries, departments, and agencies established have little or nothing to show other than creating jobs for members of the SLPP. Even though quite a good number of government workers were sacked and replaced with loyalists of the Bio Paopa SLPP, it appears all those jobs created have not positively impacted the lives of party stalwarts. Under his government and in the history of Sierra Leone’s democracy, this is the first time that the country has the office of Chief Minister. There were serious criticisms about the creation of this office, which many believe was equivalent to the position of Prime Minister. Others argued that President Bio action was geared towards paying back to his lecturer by appointing him as Chief Minister.

Other Ministries established were the Resident Minister North-West, Ministry of Environment and the separation of other ministries, have put more pressure on an economy that is unable to feed its people. The President’s three years in office has been viewed by many as failed leadership, coupled with so many allegations of corruption and corruption related offences, as was recently exposed by the United States based Africanist Press.

When compared to other countries on the size of population, as well as gross domestic product of 4,082  million dollars, one would be surprised to know that Sierra Leone, with a population below eight million people, has 70 ministers, whereas countries like the United States of America, which has a population of 331 million and a GDP of 23 trillion dollars has 15 cabinet ministers, including secretaries and the Vice President.

Sierra Leone population is under 8 million, with a GDP of 4,082 million dollars, but has 33 cabinets ministers, excluding 37 deputies. The size of the cabinet and the diplomatic mission are the largest in Sierra Leone’s history under the Kangaroo paopa SLPP government.

No	Ministries	Number of Ministers
1	Chief Minister	1
2	Minister of Finance	3
3	Attorney-General and Minister of Justice	2
4	Minister of Foreign Affairs	2
5	Minister of Agriculture and Forestry	3
6	Minister of Energy	2
7	Minister of Health and Sanitation	3
8	Minister of Information and Communication	2
9	Minister of Internal Affairs	2
10	Minister of Lands and Housing	2
11	Minister of the Environment	1
12	Minister of Local Government and Rural Development	2
13	Minister of State Vice President’s Office	1
14	Minister of Marine Resources	2
15	Minister of Planning and Economic Development	2
16	Minister of Political and Public Affairs	2
17	Minister of Primary and Secondary Education	2
18	Minister of Gender and Children’s Affairs	2
19	Minister of Technical and Higher Education	2
20	Minister of Trade and Industry	2
21	Minister of Transport and Aviation	2
22	Minister of Tourism and Culture	2
23	Minister of Water Resources	2
24	Minister of Works and Public Assets	2
25	Minister of Youth Affairs	2
26	Minister of Sports	2
27	Minister of Social Welfare	2
28	Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources	2
29	Resident Minister North	1
30	Resident Minister North/West	1
31	Resident Minister South	1
32	Resident Minister Western Region	1
33	Resident Minister East	1