Commentary
By Dr. Peter A. Dumbuya, USA.
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Introduction
In his informative and thought-provoking book, Land Tenure in Sierra Leone: The Law, Dualism and the Making of a Land Policy, Ade Renner-Thomas wrote that “The primary use of land throughout Sierra Leone is for agricultural exploitation. It is however significant that though an estimated 80 per cent of the population depends on the land for their living, the majority still engage[s] in farming only for subsistence” (p.3). There is no denying the fact that agriculture is central to the people’s wellbeing and to the country’s economy. It is given pride of place in the Constitution of Sierra Leone 1991. Section 7(1)(d) states that: “The State shall within the context of the ideals and objectives for which provisions are made in this Constitution-place proper and adequate emphasis on agriculture in all its aspects so as to ensure self-sufficiency in food production.” Agriculture has a multiplier effect on the economy. It creates jobs, reduces food imports, promotes human development, and reduces abject poverty. Agriculture is also vital to industrial development.
Sierra Leone used to export rice but became a net importer of the staple food when the diamond boom of the mid-1950s and early 1960s attracted hundreds of thousands of people to the diamond mines in Kono and Kenema Districts. We consume more rice than we grow, and therefore import more of it. As Renner-Thomas rightly noted in his book, two-thirds of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture which accounts for 49 percent of the national income. Only about 9 percent of the country’s arable land is under cultivation. Even though agriculture accounts for nearly half of the national income, it is still small in scale.
Waterloo: Police versus Squatters
While agriculture remains central to land use, an increasing number of Sierra Leoneans are purchasing land for the construction of homes. As the former chief justice points out, independent Sierra Leone inherited a dual British-customary land tenure system that mirrored the then Colony-Protectorate divide. Even more vexing is the fact that after 50 years of independence, the country still labors under this dual land tenure system. The country lacks a comprehensive land use, management, and registration policy for the various districts and chiefdoms. This has given rise to numerable instances of squatting, land-grabbing, illegal and fraudulent land sales, and unregulated construction of structures.
Anecdotal evidence points to interminable delays in the adjudication of land disputes in the courts. In the absence of a transparent and effective mechanism for the adjudication of land disputes, a number of citizens have resorted to the use or the threat of the use violence to vindicate claims to land ownership. Even the First lady of Sierra Leone, Mrs. Sia N. Koroma, and prominent attorney Charles F. Margai, leader of the People’s Movement for Democratic Change (PMDC), have been caught up in a land dispute, with the latter reportedly threatening to summon civil war-era civil defense forces to Freetown to back up his land claims.
This brings me to a series of incidents in May of this year in which angry citizens allegedly attacked police stations in Waterloo, Lumpa, and other neighboring police locations. According to eye-witness accounts, an individual had purchased a piece of land in the Waterloo area. While the purchaser was away, an unknown person or persons decided to build a structure on the property. After discovering the structure on the property, the purchaser called upon the police to sort out the matter. Instead of resolving the dispute peacefully an angry group of citizens, some on motorbikes and armed with machetes, sticks, and stones descended upon the Waterloo police station. Finding soldiers there, the mob moved on and descended upon Lumpa and other police stations where they damaged the roofs of the police stations, broke windows and doors, and stole exhibits (including money, television sets, generators, and other personal property) in police custody. Without weapons or other forms of protection, the police officers ran for their lives.
These attacks against the police raise a couple of important issues. First, it is apparent that police officers, especially those serving outside Freetown, do not have the means and wherewithal to protect themselves against angry citizens in increasingly volatile land disputes. If so, how do we expect them to protect us and themselves from unruly mobs and land grabbers? Are the police “A Force for Good” as they proudly proclaim on their website? What can we do, as citizens, to help increase the readiness of the police who are constitutionally mandated to maintain internal security, including the protection of life and property?
To answer these and other pertinent questions requires that the government of Sierra Leone (GoSL) continue what it began toward the end of the civil war, which is to train and equip the men and women of the Sierra Leone Police (SLP). At the end of the conflict in 2002, the GoSL made conflict resolution and security sector reform (SSR) key components of reconstruction and state-building. Reform of the country’s internal and external security infrastructure was critical in the process of restoring political stability and democratic governance. It involved the creation of professional, non-partisan police and military forces.
In particular, the UK government assisted in police training and provision of new equipment under the Commonwealth Police Development Task Force. The goal was to train about 7,000 police officers in three years (2000-3). A British national, Keith Biddle (1999-2003), headed the Sierra Leone Police and oversaw the initial phase of the police training and equipment program before handing over responsibility to the then Inspector General of Police, Brima Acha Kamara (2003-2010). While the SLP keeps adding officers to its rolls, it must also ensure adequate training and equipment for the men and women so that they can continue to carry out their constitutional functions without fear or favor.
Reform the Land Tenure System and Law
As the honorable Ade Renner-Thomas declared, rather forcefully and compellingly, the time is long overdue for integration of the dual system of land tenure in Sierra Leone. He wrote:
The main advantage of unification of the legal system is that it not only eliminates the choice of law problems and the inevitable uncertainties and complexities of dualism, but it should provide an opportunity to create a single national land law, compounded of rules drawn from the two existing systems, but shorn of the objectionable features in each system, such as the undue technicalities of the rules of the received English land law on the one hand and the uncertainties of the rules of customary law on the other (p. 308).
In 2007, then presidential candidate Ernest Bai Koroma ran on a platform that included a pledge to amend or repeal the 1927 Protectorate Land Ordinance (which vested land in tribal authorities, among other provisions) and its attendant tenure system by creating a National Uniform Land Tenure System in an effort to maximize economic development and democratize land ownership. In the 2012 All People’s Congress (APC) manifesto, President Koroma reported on a National Land Policy that had yet to be “validated,” a private and public land management database, a Land Registration Project (LRP) for the Western Area, and a global positioning System (GPS), presumably to track land use.
With these initiatives in place, one would expect a decrease in land disputes, but the Margai-Koroma tussle referred to above suggests that the problems are far from being resolved. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a national land policy that will ensure prompt registration of land sales throughout the country. Certainty in the law of property and the contractual obligations emanating therefrom will allow for the orderly development of land for agricultural and other purposes subject only to reasonable regulations to protect the public health, safety, and welfare. This change will significantly increase the amount of land under cultivation. It will also stem the tide of land grabbing and squatting, illegal and fraudulent land sales, disputes and litigation, and land-related violence.
Land reform should also include land use or zoning laws that set aside specific areas for residential, industrial, commercial, educational, and mixed use purposes, complete with water and sewage facilities to protect the public health, safety, and welfare. A quick look at Freetown and its environs will reveal the enormity of the problem generated by unplanned construction of settlements and structures without access to roads, water, sanitation, and electricity. Therefore, a national public works program to build or repair basic infrastructure can also be a source of significant employment in a country with more than 70 percent youth unemployment.
Conclusion
More than fifty years after independence, we are still bedeviled by a dual land tenure system and laws that once mirrored the colony-protectorate divide. Independence was meant to bridge this gap and usher in a new Sierra Leone, complete with unity and justice for all. Independence also involves not only a change of government from colonial officials to indigenous ones, but also better management of our land resources.
Failure to draw up a comprehensive national land sale and use policy has wreaked havoc on our ability to plan residential and other forms of settlements, not to mention the deleterious effects it has had on our ability to engage in sustainable agriculture. As recent events have shown, a lack of attention to the land issue has given rise to violence or the threat of the use of violence by aggrieved parties in land disputes. The police, constitutionally mandated to protect life and property, are ill-equipped to deal with the growing spate of land-related violence in the country. Maybe, with the First Lady now embroiled in a land dispute with Mr. Margai, Parliament, in its wisdom, will seize the moment to debate and pass the National Land Policy President Koroma promised in his 2012 re-election manifesto.
Top photo: Squatters hang their washing at the old Fourah Bay College building at Cline Town in Freetown.
The author, Dr. Peter Dumbuya
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