By Jariatu S.Bangura & Emmanuel Gborie
Following the State Opening of the Fifth Session of the Fifth Parliament by President Bio, Members of Parliament yesterday commenced debate on the speech delivered by the president.
At the commencement of the debate, Leader of the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP), Hon. Matthew Nyuma, said the president did promise to stabilize the country’s economy, a promise he fulfilled as there has been steady economy.
He said the government provided Le500 billion special credit facility for the importation and distribution of essential commodities.
He said the National Revenue Authority helped maintained the availability of essential commodities in the country, especially rice, fuel, and health supplies.
He stated that 80 to 90% of what citizens consume were being imported and that the country as it stands now was fighting to stabilize the inflation rate.
He called on his colleagues do a comparison between the four years governance of President Bio and that of the past government’s eleven years in office.
All People’s Congress Party (APC), Hon. Abdul Karim Kamara said the President during his 2018 speech to Parliament promised to increase the health sector support to 15%, but in 2022, an increase of 12% was made, which, according to the lawmaker, was contrary to what he said.
He said he was thinking the government should be boasting of how they worked on achieving the promised 15%.
He noted that the speech writers of the President should be mindful of what they write for consistency sake.
Coalition for Change C4C Hon. Paul Saa Sam commended the ongoing project of the 72 kilometer road linking Kono and Guinea as it will now increase the business sector within his constituency.
He called on the government to allocate a million tree of the proposed five million trees to Kono that the ministry of Environment want to plant across the country.
