Before his hoisting to the vice presidency of Sierra Leone, he was a largely anonymous figure in political circles but an established academic and diplomatic doyen. After completing his doctorate degree in France, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh had a brief stint as a lecturer in one of the universities in France, but grabbing a lucrative United Nations job that gave him the opportunity to serve in the Sahel region, where his diplomatic skills were honed and harnessed. His appointment to the running mate slot and subsequently vice president was as shocking to him as it was surprising to many. After all, he was an unknown variable in the political matrix of a society that thrives on name recognition and not necessarily results. In a highly competitive and supinely volatile political atmosphere candidate and now President Julius Maada Bio exhibited his sixth sense and clairvoyance by looking beyond the rabble rousers and hand picking Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh as his vice president.
Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has not only been a blessing to the President Bio government but a divine gift to the people of Sierra Leone. A quiet and unassuming but quintessentially ingenuous character Vice President Juldeh Jalloh has an uncanny way of producing the much desired results for the government and people of Sierra Leone. He is so steeped in the New Direction manifesto of his boss the President Julius Maada Bio, that every step he takes is geared towards actualising the hopes and aspirations of government for the overall good of the country. In a little over 3 years, he has established himself as an able assistant to President Bio who seems to have so much confidence in him that he often leaves the country in his care whilst he is away on official and private matters.
As chairman of the Police Council, Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has championed the reforms within that very complex institutions, and he has done it with aplomb. The image of the Sierra Leone Police before now was at its lowest ebb, but under the astute guidance of the Vice President it is gradually gaining respectability once again. In the history of the SLP, it is under the leadership of the Vice President that offending officers have been relieved of their duties and charged to court for crimes committed against civilians. It is under his watch that independent inquiries have been conducted for offences perpetrated by police officers irrespective of rank. The professionalism which the police in recent times are displaying is a reflection of the man who leads them. This has gradually seen a turn around in the once sordid image of the SLP, and the public is beginning to get confidence in them once again.
As the man responsible for coordinating the country’s Millennium Challenge Corporation Compact Program, Vice President Juldeh Jalloh is showing why he was not a mistake by President Bio. His ability to consult, pick the brains of others and crystallise thoughts for effective action, compelled him to lead a team to Senegal recently to study their compact program for possible replication or domestication for the country’s MCC Compact Program which is to commence soon. Such is the inclination of the Vice President to work as a team, that he has brought on board, all critical people necessary for the design of the country’s compact priorities. The result will be another spectacular one that will reverberate all over the country for decades.
As a budding politician, Vice President Juldeh Jalloh is showing savvy and mastery of the game more than the veterans and has endeared himself to the people of this country. He has infiltrated deep into hitherto opposition strongholds and is warming his way to the hearts of people once thought to be hostile to the green house where he belongs naturally. His political dexterity is proving to be an additional value to President Bio and the SLPP party in general.
In a country where the unpredictability of events can be as slippery as an eel, Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh is fast emerging as the oasis of stability in the country and the catalyst for development under the New Direction government of President Julius Maada Bio.