President Bio’s London Calling… Lessons From Sierra Leone Worth Emulating.

This year’s Global Partnership for Education summit in London brought together donors and key players across the world towards giving access to education.
The Global Education Summit Financing (2021-2025) seeks to raise Five Billion United States dollars to support education in deprived countries, especially in Africa.
It was an opportunity that, leaders across the world had been yearning for to see how they could present a convincing reason to benefit from the fund.
And Sierra Leone being a country that is successfully rolling out the Free Quality Education program for all across the country, organizers of the summit saw it as a perfect opportunity to learn lessons from Sierra Leone.
The success stories of the Free Quality Education program, the Hands Off Our Girls campaign, the massive enrollment of children in government and government assisted schools, allowing over 2000 pregnant girls to return to school after delivery, and how the government has dedicated 22% of the national budget to education, were worth emulating hence the need for President Bio’s invitation to share lessons on Global stage.
Back home, critics were wondering if President Bio was invited and why would he have to travel for the summit when other leaders could access the summit virtually.
Even the press, took it out of context as we saw bizarre headlines in local tabloids justifying why the President should not have traveled.
Newspaper headlines on pro-opposition newspapers like the Nationalist on Tuesday, July 27th, 2021 reads: President Bio Travels Again!
In the Times SL, it reads: Bio’s trip to attend virtual conference in the UK justifies reckless spending, wastage of resources, more per diem, Paopa for don Salone money.
Well, as we saw it, President Bio’s invite was never meant to be virtually but to be among other panelists such as President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Mohammad Buhari of Nigeria, and others.
While addressing the summit, President Bio showed the world how Sierra Leone considers access to quality education as a fundamental human right, and how his inclusive radical approach to education is working for women and girls who for ages continue to experience gender disparities.
Even a lunatic in his or her wild imagination would not think of President Bio appearing on such a global stage let alone had a fruitful engagement with the United Kingdom Prime Minister, Boris Johnson without invitation.
Ironically, telling President Bio not to attend the summit is like telling the government to abandon the Free Quality Education program which is mainly donor-funded.
President Bio and his astute Minister of Basic and Senior Secondary Education, Dr. David Moinina Sengeh, thrilled the summit by showcasing gains made despite the challenges.
Therefore, downplaying or trivializing such an important summit is a betrayal of one’s conscience.
Under President Bio’s leadership, Sierra Leone is now considered a serious nation whose presence is needed in making global decisions, and President Bio attending the Global Summit in Education signifies how his policies have attracted multinational nations.