Opinion
By Sullay Adekulay, London, UK.
Many Sierra Leoneans at home and in the Diaspora have constantly been debating about whether Sierra Leoneans should be celebrating or reflecting on the occasion of our national day.
My take on this debate is that it should be a moment of celebration as well as reflection on achieving this milestone of 49 years of nationhood. Of course there is a legitimate reason for celebration, when one reflects on the 180 years of subjection of our sovereignty to British imperialism, a period in which Sierra Leonean compatriots had little or no say in the policies or decisions that shaped the political and economic destiny of our nation.
There is also a justification for celebration, owing to the fact that, despite attempts being made by our British colonial masters to create ethnic divisions by recruiting predominantly ‘Krios’ to work in the civil service, giving them access to the best schools and business opportunities in the country , while well educated protectorate people were marginalised in the civil service, Sierra Leoneans today still boast of having more common features that unite them as compatriots than those that divide them.
Did I just say there are no ethnic divisions in our country? Of course that is not what I am insinuating here. Historical accounts and evidence of our present political party memberships indicates nothing other than support based on ethnicity lines. It is an open secret that in the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) formed in 1949, with Sir Milton Margai as its leader, who led our country to independence on 27th April 1961, membership was and is still predominantly of Mendes of the South and Eastern regions of our country.
Even though Sierra Leoneans were able to pressurize Britain to grant us self rule via the formation of a political movement called the United Front, the dominance of Mendes in Milton’s cabinet did not reflect the makeup of a United Front. On the other hand, the All people’s Congress (APC) owes its support to Temnes, Krios and Limbas of the Western Area and the Northern Province of Sierra Leone respectively.
In spite of these ethnic loyalties, there are no serious tribal issues among these ethnic groups in our country. What we have at best is what I will describe as a loose ethnic divide. For these reasons alone Sierra Leoneans should celebrate when thinking of the fact that we never witnessed and will never, I hope) the ethnic fratricide that often characterised hitherto failed African states like Rwanda. We should also celebrate, in cognisant of the fact that we gained independence from our British colonial masters on a silver platter, a complete contrast to countries such as Kenya and former Rhodesia (now Zambabwe) that achieved theirs by waging bloody wars of independence.
However, on reflection, it is important to note that the signs of Sierra Leone becoming a failed state were evident as early as 1964, when Sir Milton Margai died and the reins of government passed on to his brother, Albert Margai. Albert’s reign was renowned for corruption and he was on record as the first leader in Sierra Leone to attempt to amend the constitution with the aim of creating a one party SLPP run state. Those who think one party politics was the initiative of late Siaka Stevens should now review their wrong political historical records. In fact, Albert’s distasteful appointment of a cabinet full of Mendes caused the minority Krios in the SLPP party to pitch tent with the APC. The trade unionist, Siaka Stevens, was catapulted to the seat of the presidency when Albert lost the 1967 Presidential election to him.
As usual, Sierra Leoneans were full of optimism that the former ex-mayor of Freetown and trade unionist will reverse the negative economic trends in the country, when he assumed power in 1967. Siaka Stevens inherited a gradually dwindling economy from Albert Margai, although certain areas of the economy were also assessed to be sound in terms of trade in diamonds, iron ore, food, coffee and cocoa production that was rising at an annual 4% rate around 1965 and 1973. In the period under review, the average per capita income was also steadily rising, while life expectancy improved from 37 to 47 in 1949.
Economic decline began to set in due to Stevens’ lack of knowledge of the complex economy and governance structures he inherited from Albert. Matters came to a head when the 1973 global oil crisis coincided with a fall in diamond and iron ore prices. Such a development was caused by Stevens’ refusal to adopt economic policies such as cutting down public expenditure, devaluation of the currency and implement export diversification policies that would have turned things around. The consequences of this economic meltdown were a decline in real wages for civil servants that resulted in free for all graft and pilferage activities by government functionaries.
Stevens handed the reins of government in 1985 to Joseph Saidu Momoh , a former army general with lesser state-craftsmanship skills compared to Siaka Stevens. The consequences of his deficiencies in the business of governance were the perpetuation of illegality and corruption as legitimate sources of livelihood by civil servants. In the latter part of 1980, Momoh, upon receiving an IMF loan was under pressure to introduce sound economic reforms and he did.
Though the reforms scored success in the areas of liberalization of trade, exchange rates and an effective revenue generation exercise through taxation, real economic progress however remained elusive. One thing any well meaning Sierra Leonean cannot take from Momoh is the fact that it was during his reign that the constitutional review team he commissioned recommended the restoration of a multi-party system in Sierra Leone in 1991, away from Stevens’ one-party rule.
Although political pundits have it that Momoh had no option but to comply with the wind of political change that was blowing right across the world, it was the same change that saw the demolition of the one party communist system in the former Soviet Union. Momoh’s tenure was brought to an end by the military take over of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) in April 1992. The NPRC came with the common rhetoric associated with new governments in making lofty promises of their capacity to deliver the much needed goods to the Sierra Leonean populace. But only to be found wanting via embezzlement of state funds.
The NPRC’s poor governance record galvanised the movement of various civil society groups, led by prominent women like Zainab Bangura and Amy Smythe that brought pressure to bear on the NPRC, which culminated into the 1996 presidential elections and the eventual handing over of power to a democratically elected government. Even though Karefa Smart cried foul about the blatant irregularities that accompanied the elections,the electoral commissioner, Dr James Jonah, declared Ahmed Tejan Kabbah as the legitimate winner. The most surprising development was when James Jonah defied the moral principles of an electoral commissioner and accepted a cabinet position in Tejan Kabbah’s government.
This sent tongues wagging among many Sierra Leoneans and Jonah was accused of covering up blatant election irregularities so as to be compensated with a cabinet appointment. President Kabbah’s reign could be remembered for a myriad of problems. Notwithstanding the fact that Kabbah inherited the civil war, his diabolical decisions and controversial pronouncements like, like for example accusing the Northerners of being responsible for the war(because the RUF rebel leader, Foday Sankoh, was from the north) and for this reason, they owed the south-easterners an apology as well as reneging on the Abidjan peace accord signed between him and the Revolutionary United Front leader, Foday Sankoh, by ordering his arrest in Nigeria damaged his grip on power and respect of many Sierra Leoneans.
Those pronouncements by Kabbah intensified regional and ethnic divisions in the country and the later led to the worsening of the war. Kabbah also created a situation wherein the national army played second fiddle to the ‘Kamajors’, a civil militia formed to maintain the SLPP status quo. Kabbah’s initial cabinet, upon assuming office, was Mende dominated, but on his return from his eight months exile in Guinea, while the infamous AFRC forcefully took over the reins of government, he reshuffled his cabinet to reflect representation of the various ethnic groups in the country, although most civil service, diplomatic, military and police appointments were still dominated by Mendes and his Mandingo tribes men.
Kabbah’s mishandling of the economy and the war caused his handpicked SLPP candidate, Solomon Berewa to lose the 2007 presidential contest to Ernest Koroma. Though Berewa disputed the election results because of the cancellation of 100% votes casted in the famous Kalahun Court Barray and other places, some of us knew fully well that he had no chance of winning that election. Berewa is known to be a vindictive politician and he was alleged to have urged Kabbah to horridly certify the execution of 24 soldiers, who were mostly northerners. However, Kabbah should be credited for preventing another blood bath in our country by refusing to back Barewa’s application for an injunction to be imposed on the final results that declared Ernest Koroma the winner in 2007.
Many political commentators argue that it was not the APC’s popularity that won Ernest the election; it was just that the Sierra Leoneans needed a change by any means, and even a serpent should have been voted into that coveted presidential seat in order to achieve the much needed change Sierra Leoneans dearly wanted. A lot of people who know the quiet president predicted that he was the right man for the governance business.
True to his promise of restoring electricity within 100 days from his assumption of office, he did just that, but no sooner Ernest accomplished this task, the opposition’s knives came tumbling out to tear him apart, as the megawatts capacity of the generators could not provide electricity for the whole of Freetown. Ernest did not rest on his initial laurel on this stop-gap electricity restoration measure, he ensured that he personally supervised the Bumbuna hydro-electric dam project so that it could complement the Kingtom generators in providing electricity that will cover the nooks and crannies of Freetown, the capital.
Again, true to his promise of empowering the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), he championed the enactment of the legislation that gives special powers to the ACC to prosecute those suspected of corruption. Evidence of the usefulness of this legislation could be seen in the spate of indictment of government ministers by the ACC. Notwithstanding this achievement; members of the opposition had unreservedly condemned Ernest for firing their Mende tribes’ men or party loyalists and replacing them with his northern and Krio party cohorts.
I will conclude by saying that we must spend more of our time reflecting on the question: Have we lived up to the dream of self governance? My answer to this question is: We are a distance away from achieving that dream, as we have done little or nothing to improve on the colonial infrastructure and the economic legacy we inherited from our colonial masters. What our compatriots, our leaders, had achieved since we attainined independence in 1967 was wreaking havoc on our infrastructure and the economy. And to add salt to injury, the present role of the British-led Advisory and Training Team (IMATT) in the national army and the attachment of former Brtish Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s Open African Governments Initiative staff in various government departments indicates nothing other than neo-British imperialism. I hope Ernest will reverse these distasteful trends otherwise our independence will remain meaningless.
Editor’s note: Sullay Adekulay(photo) holds a Higher Teachers Certificate (HTC) in Economics and Government (Milton Margai Teachers College), a BA combined honours in Education and community development studies with sociology (UEL), an MSc in NGO and Development Management (UEL) and an MSc in Social Work (London Metropolitan).
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