May 24, 2021
By: James Kamara-Manneh
Sierra Leone is slightly over seven million population and half of them are said to be illiterate, half-baked or semi-Literate. While this is so, people are believed to be mentally imbalance or unstable.
A Local mental practitioner once estimated that half of Sierra Leoneans are living with such condition. However, our country is blessed with countless precious minerals, land, and marine resources. Added to these are paradisiac beaches, hills, mountains, and other touristic attractions. It is always the expectations of foreign and local development and economic experts that the country’s natural beauty should be more than enough to adequately address the socio-economic welfare.
Sierra Leone over the last six decades has been struggling to stand on its own; on the face value we seem independent but in reality we are not. The West has more control over our resources and they to some extent dictate the flow of our political system; or do I need to elaborate further on how this is done? There is vivid handwriting on the wall! Our country is experiencing economic and developmental deficiencies in all sectors, while our admirable experts are glowing. Ironically we are rich but practically we survive below one United States dollar a day.
On the contrary, the West are not responsible for our present state, even though they rip us off our minerals they will come in a disguised form to lend us huge sum of money with little or no interest. There are multi-faceted factors which are responsible for the underdevelopment of this great nation that was grown grand colony by the British in 1808; and gained independence 60 years ago.
However, 60yrs down the drain politics has eaten into every fabric of this nation. Our freaky thinking mentality has been so small to an extent that it is now visibly expressed politically. The nation has been divided regionally and on party lines. The north-west which is predominantly occupied by the Themne and Limba ethnic groups which hugely support the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) while the south-east predominantly occupied by the Mendes and Sherbros largely favor the ruling Sierra Leoneans Peoples Party (SLPP). The unfortunate aspect of this ethno-regional political patronage is that a majority of the members and supporters perceive these political parties as their property. They most often support blindly and religiously.
Fanatics of these two major parties can be so political affiliated to the extent that one will start thinking whether APC and SLPP are tissues running in their blood vessels. Such religious supports can be detrimental to the developmental strides of a nation.
During elections, members of certain ethnic groups are used by these political parties to go and talk to their people to vote for certain political party. So the focus is tribe, region and party which are breeding grounds for incompetence and syndicated corruption in the public service.
To survive in this country is based on political connections. Graduates are seldom recruited by merit, if you are not a card career of a political party forget it. If the regime in power is not from your region or tribe or you are not a supporter of the system, a Sierra Leonean will find pleasure in obstructing the agendas of the state.
Food crisis is another major area where governments work assiduously to attain food sufficiency. It is rather unfortunate after government would have given tractors, seeds, fertilizers and other agricultural apparatus, farmers will do well at times to make good use of them. But at the end of harvesting the crops they most times export them to neighboring countries, at the detriment of fellow citizens. Worst of it all traders make use of season to hike food prices with reckless abandon. This applies to even the home grown crops; their reason invariably is that the U.S dollar is fluctuating, “it is affecting petrol prices.”
Sometimes they can be genuine another time they will make comments against the ruling government which can be very unfortunate. ‘If my vote doesn’t reflects my wish I will make sure that wherever or what I do will hinder the agenda of the government.’ This is the syndrome we are all into…negativity, pulling down and unprogressive one. If government fails in perfecting its manifesto and cannot bring developments to our door steps, it us the masses (our children-children) that suffer the most; not the politicians… I consider this mentality to be very poor and archaic and bad for the country.
On the other hand, almost all the food stuff consumed in the country is imported especially rice – Sierra Leone’s staple food. The nation has no shortage of fertile land but there continue to be an increase in the prices of agricultural produces. Governments have not been thinking big to establish large State farms across the country.
While 15% on our staple food has been reduction, but it has not been realized, what if it should come to reality, will private business people abide to this? Has the government been in discussion with them?
Let us say three State farms are created in every district and farmers are adequately assisted by the central government. That will be the end to food insufficiency. But the food sufficiency has always been on paper, while the traders are adding on the suffering of the people.
It is quite unfortunate to see people in the capital, struggling for transportation; in the sense of fighting and sustaining major injuries just to board commercial vehicles when moving from one place to the other. Sometimes when you see the stampede for transportation, we would be tempted to ask if it is the Sierra Leone that attained 60 years of independence.
Top public officials would only take a look at such scenes, smile and drive off in their luxurious cars mostly bought with tax-payers money. They would not think of bringing like five hundred brand new durable buses they would greatly mitigate the sufferings of people for transportation. While commercial drivers fixed their own prices from one distance to another, and also passengers also suggest what they will pay during rush hours. Their thinking: if you cannot abide to my price; get your own vehicle, government did not buy my vehicle so am free to decide prices. “E na di driver e motorcar if government want mek den bring den yone bus dem,” this is the driver’s own vehicle; government can bring theirs. This is our mentality forgetting that government has the constitutional and legal rights to dictate the happenings in its state.
60yrs down the line we have been grappling with our educational system, before now we were being admired by other Africa countries while praises were heaped on us. Where have we gone wrong over the years?
However, the new direction government has come to power with new free quality education scheme for all and they are boasting of it significant development in this sector of the country. Evidences of whether the time they use to explain using jaw-breaking and flowery words on the transformation of public schools and colleges, are the realities. Just go to those schools and gather your evidences. You will see congested classrooms, insufficient furniture, ill-equipped libraries and laboratories, untrained and unqualified teachers and inadequate teaching and learning materials.
With the support of 50 school buses to cushion the transportation struggle of pupils and parent , yet there are still places in the country where pupils have to work miles to access learning facilities because the thereby schools are located miles off their villages. In public exams private schools take the top positions and a good number of pupils in public schools cannot speak proper English even at the verge of entering university. It is rarely to see the children of top government officials attending the public schools which they praise; they prefer schooling overseas. Upon all these unfortunate realities in the educational sector, government will always paint a picture as if everything is rosy.
This is the land where citizens have become so wicked to themselves thinking the politicians are the ones that are feeling the pinch. It is in this country you will find heartless fools tampering with electricity cables, cutting them for reasons they best known. While the government is trying to make electricity easy and affordable for all, heartless, barbaric and unpatriotic elements are saying no by their actions. There are places in the capital, Freetown where people experience blackout for weeks if not months. President Julius Maada Bio led government is said to have made inroads but the issue of intermittent supply of electricity or blackout is still a common phenomenon. His government is making great inroads into all districts, towns and villages to enjoy affordable, but they can only succeed if we stop thinking politics but Sierra Leone.
Hence, the government have a role to play we cannot continue to wallow in poverty and underdevelopment after 60 yrs. This is the time to right our wrongs as a nation; but this can only be possible if we stop the pull-down syndrome, the politicking, and the barbaric act towards our nation.