By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
It’s the morning after a very successful town hall in London, as I write this. United Kingdom hosts a critical core of Sierra Leoneans in the diaspora, in mass and in substance. They are engaged, informed and deeply invested in Sierra Leone’s future.
So a public engagement of any sort, is a high pressure moment. Good things start in London, they could also end in London.
In my household, this town hall was supposed to compete with the world cup, giving its timing. But it didn’t, instead we had a watch party for the town hall, football be damned.
In London, the Vice President, Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh was the man at the center. Flanked by key government ministers, this was a big moment for him but most importantly for the government. This had to go well, there was no margin for error.
For a man who has not thrown himself at the spotlight over the last eight years, anyone could be forgiven to think that he will struggle through this. But he did not, instead, he flourished. Navigating through topics like the economy, health, foreign policy, trade and more. There were moments where he even enjoyed it, you could see the occasional grin on his face, while he was basking in the moment at Westminster Chapel.
There were times when this town hall genuinely felt like a policy lecture led by the Vice President, with students keenly listening while some are in awe.
The new things I have learned about the VP
Delivery has to always meet substance, and it did. VP Jalloh covered a lot; from how he delivered on an assignment President Bio gave him to win the $480million MCC grant, to government getting an American private sector company to build a gas plant that will guarantee higher electricity output in the capital by mid next year.
He said: “The number one priority for the government in the next five years is the economy. To drive economic growth, we must heavily target infrastructure—specifically energy, the road network, connectivity and water supply. Our second priority is job creation to improve household income, which remains low despite our successful commodity price stabilization efforts.”
This town hall thought me some new things about the Vice President. Eight years of covering this man, from a journalist to a communications expert, I am finally beginning to see the pattern of his policy thinking. For years, I have heard the fragments in speeches, at home and abroad, but am finally catching on to see the bigger picture.
Firstly, he is clearly passionate about market linkages. He has always called for market integration, inter African trade and creating linkages instead of barriers for trade. He has advocated for this, every chance he gets. Back in 2020, at the height of COVID, VP Juldeh Jalloh gave a speech at the Ministry of Finance, Budget Hearing Opening Ceremony. I was in the room, covering it as a journalist.
In his speech, he challenged those in the room to be bold and invest in corridors that will open up Sierra Leone to regional markets. Six years after his speech, he has travelled to countries like Liberia, Senegal, Ghana and Mauritania to explore this and establish new markets for commodities we are producing back home.
Second thing I learned is that he is deeply passionate about child nutrition, he spoke about this at least three times in this three hour long town hall. His office hosts The Scaling Up Nutrition Secretariat, an office dedicated exclusively to addressing child malnutrition.
He spoke about the policy success, so much so that there is an exclusive budget line addressing this specific challenge across government; with ministries like health, agriculture and education all allies to this very important issue.
Important side note, I never knew the VP has already built two nursery schools in Port Loko and he visits every three months to hold PTA meetings with the parents.
The Challenges
Anyone with the right scale of judgement understood that, the VP did not just talk about comfortable issues, he also spoke on difficult subjects; like government’s effort to tackle drugs and drug trafficking. He spoke about job creation and how much government is doing to multiply household income. He acknowledged the high cost of travel back home and the layers of fees families have to pay. He did not whitewash any of the issues. He addressed them head on and he promised action on some.
Glimpse of the future?
Perhaps this is a glimpse of the future. A leader, voluntarily putting himself up for scrutiny, accounting for his stewardship, on one of the toughest stages in the world. He has absorbed all of this from the very best, President Julius Maada Bio, but he has also set his own standards.
Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has set new standards for future Vice Presidents in Sierra Leone. And the standards are; Serve with humility. Have a quiet authority. Keep your dignity. Don’t chase virality. Be willing to enjoy anonymity. From hereon, whatever happens, he will be the reference point.
12-18 months from now, we could reflect on this high pressure moment and say: ‘this is where he laid the marker’, this is where it all came together’, for him. No one is flawless, but this was a pretty flawless performance from Vice President Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh.
Mohamed Jaward Nyallay is a Strategic Communications Adviser at the Ministry of Information and Civic Education and a former award winning journalist. Opinions expressed in this article are totally personal.
