"At the present time the country is in a critical stage-Sierra Leone is now a country that is engulfed by increasing lawlessness that is more significant than any coup, rebel incursion, or episodic experiment in democracy, a lawlessness that signals a country where criminal anarchy is emerging as the real ‘’strategic’’ danger."
By Pierre Lightfoot-Boston.
Since the 1960s more than fifty elections have been conducted in Africa, but unfortunately that has not led to any meaningful political or economical development.
Sierra Leone, a small country in West Africa which is endowed with numerous natural resources was once referred to as the Athens of West Africa- because of their educational achievements— with the highest number of elites in West Africa, and also a nation that thrived off a strong agricultural economy, but after decades of widespread corruption and chronic mismanagement has retrogressed to a wretched nation which faces challenges of an unprecedented scale, complexity and importance---a wretched nation engulfed in an environment bedeviled by a culture of corruption, fraud, financial mismanagement, scandals, civil service apathy, a marginalized rural population, rural-urban on a massive scale, deep social inequality, environmental degradation, haphazard supply of electricity, an underdeveloped financial system, falling schools, decline in intellectual capital, an inadequate health care system, marginalization of the armed forces and ethnicity.
Sierra Leone will be holding presidential and parliamentary elections in August 2007. The presidential election in particular, due on August 2007, is supposed to herald a new chapter in Sierra Leone’s democratic advancement, marking the first time since independence in 1961 that a civilian president , Ahmed Tejan Kabbah would hand over to his elected successor. That may still happen, but at a dreadful price.
The lengths to which Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the ruling SLPP party has gone to cling to power, have resulted in loss of lives [ sporadic bombardments during 1997 approved by the ATK government in exile] and has also undermined and discredited so many of Sierra Leone’s institutions and office-holders that the country seems more a prisoner of its bleak past than a beacon of its future.
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah has profoundly, deeply and consistently failed the people of Sierra Leone-failing to meet all his promises (He asked Diaspora based Sierra Leoneans to return home in a thirty-four paragraph speech , but he failed to provided the incentives that would encourage S/Leoneans in the diaspora to return).
— -Lungi Bridge
He(Kabbah) will be leaving office without the Lungi bridge or premature plans to build one of similar nature that will enhance effective transportation,
— -1997 coup d’etat
Kabbah was warned before the coup-failed to take preemptive steps to abort the coup, but fled the country with the presidential staff and left the citizenry to perish, donor funds-disappeared into thin air-no benefit to the country and its people.
— National Revenue Authority NRA-Jobs for SLPP boys, very ineffective.
— - Down-sizing the military and/or early retirement and poor retirements packages to personnel thereby endangering national security,
— -Giving away of Yenga to the Guineans, so he can retire in Guinea-This automatically qualifies ATK as enemy of the state.
— -Truth and Reconciliation Commission-recommendations not implemented.
— -Food security plan-Not achieved
Rigging of August 2007 elections
It is very clear and obvious at this point that the ruling party will embark on an organized vote-rigging and fraud, so that they can secure the presidency and also gain a majority in parliament. The SLPP government led by ATK has demonstrated the act of organized rigging and fraud in the past-Ahmed Tejan-Kabbah pursued a highly partisan campaign by manipulating and abusing the very institutions, such as the elections commission and the anti-corruption agency that were touted as paragons of his reforms-his unscrupulous ways led to the resignation of Eugene Davies-former head of INEC in the 2001 elections and a damning report from the DFID- Department for International Development-[an agency in the U.K], on his government’s inability to tackle corruption.
Sadly, it seems as if it will be easy for the SLPP to cling on to power-ample resources at Berewa’s disposal, very easy for a ruling party to manipulate and abuse institutions that should ensure that elections are free and fair, advanced knowledge and know-how being offered by Obasanjo during his recent visit to the country.
This is a very critical time for all Sierra Leoneans at home and abroad-everyone has to take a proactive approach to ensure that the August 2007 elections are free and fair[The constitution states that elections should be free and fair, but it cannot guarantee that elections will be free and fair-only the Sierra Leonean people can guarantee that the elections are free and fair]
On the other hand one can assume that the planned rigging of the elections is currently at an embryonic stage, the opposition parties, and most importantly the sierra leonean people at home should take a preemptive action and make it clear to the current government, that since they have failed to provide an environment with good governance and economic prosperity for all, this time around the sierra Leone people demand a change- and they will not wait for it be handed them to them, but they are ready to take it . In short’’ give me free and fair elections or give me death’’.
Some skeptics will say I am personally advocating loss of lives-my response to those skeptics is that history has shown us that desperate circumstances require drastic measures-the first black republic, Haiti, did not gain its independence in 1804 as something handed over to them by their oppressors, it was taken by the people and sadly some lives were lost, but for a very worthy cause.
Ahmed Tejan Kabbah will understand this perfectly-he was once asked by Robin White on BBC during 1997 while his government was in exile as to how he would justify the loss of lives which was due to the sporadic bombardment approved by his government---- his response was that the people were sacrificing their lives for democracy-which of course, was an absolute fallacy.
To the incoming government officials, the people of sierra leone should send this message loud and clear -do your job or commit suicide. At this point readers will be wondering whether the current SLPP government will go scot free after years of widespread corruption and chronic mismanagement.
This is where it gets interesting: If the August 2007 elections are free and fair, its obvious at this point that the APC will emerge as the victors [ the incumbent SLPP has a strong advantage going into these elections and maintains its traditional support in the south and part of the eastern part of the country; however, population has dramatically increased in the northern part of the country and in the western area, where Freetown is located .
Charles Margai’s PMDC will ultimately shatter the dreams of the ruling SLPP party in winning the elections in August 2007, because it will draw support away from the SLPP. After carefully examining the dynamics, the outcome of the elections will unfold as follow: —the APC will emerge victorious in the next elections during the second round of voting- the SLPP will remain strong in the south and certain parts of the eastern province, while the APC will remain strong in the north and western area.
In previous elections SLPP won the south and parts of the eastern province, but with Mr Margai in the picture- that will definitely change- Margai will split the votes among the Mendes in the south and parts of the east. While APC wins the north.
Freetown and Kono Have been the tie-breakers for elections in the country for several years. The SLPP is currently very unpopular in the Western Area and this was largely demonstrated by the residents of the Western Area when they decided to elect members of the APC in the Last local government elections, which led to the dismal failure of the SLPP. APC will win Kono- —there has been a large migration in the Kono area- most of the migrants are from the north. Moreover,traditionally, the city of Koidu votes for APC.]
The APC party should start making plans for a comprehensive commission of enquiry which will conduct extensive investigations of the current SLPP government and this commission should be operational within 72 hours after the elections. The various opposition parties should be very vigilant of possible signs of rigging and fraud, which will include scenarios such as-people prevented from voting, INEC officials not arriving at polling stations in opposition strongholds, INEC officials arriving two or three hours late before the polling station closes with inadequate materials, notably a register, to let voting begin, thereby preventing voting in that area, use of mobs to scare away people from the polls [RUF used this strategy effectively during the 1996 elections], incidents where in the number of registered voters will exceed the number of people who cast votes on elections day-especially in the ruling party strongholds. Main opposition parites should respond to this looming danger by devising plans to prevent this from happening.
Having lost the present, will Sierra Leone lose the future?- Sierra Leone has the youngest population in the world- a young population engulfed in a society where there are falling schools, rising promiscuity and lewd behavior among teens, no system in place to attract, develop and retain talent, lack of appropriate organizational structures, processes, resources and management style that would make it possible for its workforce to perform to the best of their talents and skills.
Graduates from the the country’s universities are not trained to deal with the country’s problems . A united nations development program study group few months ago reported that the country’s principal training institute IPAM[ Institue for public administration and management] ‘’ is claiming to have the capacity to meet ninety percent of the training requirements of the public service despite the fact that there has been no training assessment done for the public service .’’
What is crystal clear, is that the ability of the universities and IPAM to meet national training needs is non-existent or very limited which is due to financial constraints, lack of qualified faculty, inadequate resources etc. If anything it is certain that if difficult reforms are not taken, ninety-two percent of the 4 or 5 million people may be doomed to spend another generation or so in misery.
One of Sierra Leone’s most critical challenges is that of nurturing a new generation of leaders who are skilled, honest, committed to public service and accountable to the people as a whole. Unless reforms are taken to produce or retain such leaders, Sierra Leone is looking at a hopeless future. For much of Sierra Leone’s history, the government has never genuinely tried to tap the country’s best and brightest. The public service commission[PSC] has no proven system in place for identifying the talented ; if it claims to have one, its under-utilized, and is a sort of a merit based route to social advancement.
Instead the fastest path to government service is personal connections and keen political skills. There is a lot of political influence in the appointment of senior civil servants. The political leadership has a final say in the appointment of permanent secretaries. One can say that the recruitment and promotion process is based on several factors including, seniority, sex, politics, merit and ethnicity.
Also, the size of the public service is still unnecessarily bloated, especially at lower levels for political and patronage reasons. In short the civil service is in a free fall, reaching a new low as each day passes by. The civil service is currently at the lowest of low which is due to the corrupt SLPP administration. Many talented sierra Leoneans are choosing to pursue careers abroad where there are opportunities for them. Due to very low salaries, poor working conditions and to a large extent, political interference with the professionalism of the public service, senior experienced civil servants have left the service for the private sector, international organizations and greener pastures in other countries.
Worse, many Sierra Leoneans who remain, and the few returning home after many years abroad to accept government or political appointment, become corrupt, eroding the government’s effectiveness and feeding popular discontent within the system. On the other hand there are individuals who have returned home and proved to be very hard-working, with a high level of professionalism and honesty-individuals such as, Aiah Gbakima-currently heading Fourah Bay college, James Jonah---former minister of finance, etc.
Unfortunately these people are unable to create a positive change within their establishment because corruption is so ingrained in the society that it turns out to be a losing battle before the fight begins.
If a bin no na-in de las. ‘if i had known always come too late-Its obvious that the problems facing Sierra Leone are of massive proportions, that’s why its imperative that difficult reforms are taken that ultimately will pay in high returns in stability and prosperity for all Sierra Leoneans. On the other hand if these problems are left to fester and not addressed the results will be very apocalyptic. At the present time the country is in a critical stage-Sierra Leone is now a country that is engulfed by increasing lawlessness that is more significant than any coup, rebel incursion, or episodic experiment in democracy, a lawlessness that signals a country where criminal anarchy is emerging as the real ‘’strategic’’ danger.
That unfortunate nation,Sierra Leone, will be marked by the withering away of the central government, the rise of tribal and regional domains, the unchecked spread of disease and the growing pervasiveness of war if reforms are not taken to change the course of events. We should remain hopeful, because we can change the situation. To all Sierra Leoneans and non Sierra Leonean readers-I’m just telling it as it is. I love my country dearly and if you cut at this moment I will bleed green, white and blue.
Photo:President Kabbah of Sierra Leone.
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