Development is about people. Vice President Dr Juldeh Jalloh has averred that based on the achievements of the SLPP led administration, the opposition All Peoples Congress should forget about any thought of returning to power soon. “Our work will cement APC in opposition forever,” he asserted.

The reason why the SLPP government will succeed resoundingly and beyond all expectation is because, he said: “We are not wasteful. We will deliver 100% on our promises and all our critics will be ashamed because we are determined and aware of the challenges;” whilst firmly maintaining that the ‘New Direction’ will improve every sector of life for the citizens of this country.

In the health sector, he noted that, good health condition is imperative for increasing productivity in agriculture, improving learning and teaching, child survival and development, reducing maternal mortality, as well as increasing investment and savings.
Very soon, Dr Jalloh said, the SLPP Government will introduce malaria testing in all government health facilities for a minimal fee, as malaria is one of the country’s biggest health challenges. He added that the government will also extend the free health care scheme to cover school going children, the disable and the aged.

He explained that the underlying principle of the New Direction in the health sector is putting in place a well-resourced and functioning national healthcare delivery system that will bring about a healthy population, noting that, that the health sector significantly impacts on all productive sectors of the economy.
Thus, the government’s strategic national health objective is to resource and equip the current dysfunctional and inadequate health infrastructure and healthcare delivery system to make it high quality, efficient, reliable, cost-effective, affordable and sustainable.

On the issue of electricity, he said, the Minister of Energy and his ministry staff are working round the clock to ensure that sooner than later, normal electricity supply is returned to Freetown and in the medium term Sierra Leone becomes energy sufficient. “Blackout will soon be a thing of the past,” he said.

With everybody deploring the current state of education in the country, the Vice President said, President Bio has prioritized free primary and secondary education and subsidizing of tertiary education by way of grant in aid and student loans as ways by which access to education at all levels will be guaranteed to all.

Human development is both a means and an end in development. No meaningful development can take place in any nation without developing the human capital. VP Jalloh said, the nation should not be skeptical about the government’s ability to introduce the free education in September.

He said the government will improve education through investments in quality education and provision of technical and vocational skills training.
In improving quality, he said, this government is taking into account poor condition of service, inadequate and poor infrastructure, inadequate facilities for research, unproductive structural organizations, accountability and politicization.

Emphasis, he said, will be placed on enhancing the capacity for education planning, management, monitoring and coordination, setting up of schools management committees, expansion of the schools feeding program, as well as putting in place a robust policy and legal framework for Public-Private-Partnership.

Noting that poor infrastructure is a critical barrier to accelerating growth, enhancing regional integration, reducing poverty and securing development, he said, government will extend infrastructural development to all corners of the country on the premise that the country cannot continue to develop without effective and efficient infrastructure facilities, systems and services.
The investments in critical infrastructure, he said, will cover generation, transmission and distribution of energy; clean drinkable water, water supply, irrigation and navigation and sanitation, road, rail, air, sea transport; ICT and housing.