The high cost of false
pretence incurred in 2007
Austin Thomas
21 November 2011
How do you feel when duped by someone who tells you
that he is selling an 18 carat gold and after
parting with your cash, turns out to be fake? Some
will definitely be enraged and will confront the
seller if they can get hold of him, while others may
simply move on and console themselves – perhaps with
the belief and hope that it will not happen again.
Today in Sierra Leone, we are faced with the same
conundrum created by our politicians who promise to
deliver prosperity in return for our votes. In 2007
we were presented with an alternative government,
packaged and sold to us as the best crop of
politicians to replace the incumbent SLPP.
President Koroma |
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But it is obvious now that we were duped
by sleek presentation and smooth words,
youthful appearance and hopeless
promises. What we have received in
return for our trust, faith and votes is
a battered economy, the worst education
since independence and a political class
that is making corruption into an
art-form.
Was this what we bargained for in 2007?
Was this the results we were looking
for? These questions are now cutting
through our veins as students, parents,
lecturers and teachers are all
disappointed that the cost of bringing
APC back into government - after 15
years in the doldrums is the biggest
mistake made by the electorate,
desperate for change in Sierra Leone.
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Let’s start with education: The universities and
colleges are yet to open since closing last July,
due to strike action by lecturers and academic
staff, coupled with the most embarrassing fact that
the education department has run out of funds.
University students do not have paper to write on,
in order to take their exams. This is a serious
indictment of the government's inept management of
the country’s affairs, and just cannot get any
worse.
No country on planet earth can ever develop
industrially, economically or socially without
investing in its education system and
infrastructure. Former president Siaka Stevens
planted into the psyche of Sierra Leoneans that it
is 'cool and preferable' not to be educated. And it
seems the present APC government of Bai Koroma is
doing exactly the same.
The Krio phrase - 'den say Bailor Barrie (a wealthy
uneducated businessman) you say Davidson Nicol (a
not so prosperous genius and educationist)' has been
attributed to the Stevens’ APC philosophy. It seems
that successive APC governments are out to kill
education in Sierra Leone.
Bailor Barrie, Jamil Sahid and other legendary
entrepreneurs were the backbone of the then APC
party - with little or no education. But they had
immense access to and enjoyed numerous favours from
the Stevens government. Although they built business
empires, let us look around today and see how many
of their businesses are still functioning: Hardly
any.
The main reason the empires created by these men
were unsustainable was their lack of formal
educational acumen required for the building and
development of enterprises that lasts. Most of their
businesses died with them, and today their names are
not even recorded in our history books.
What I am trying to drive at is that there is no way
the current government will be successful in
bringing change to Sierra Leone, with the rate at
which the declining education system is being
bastardised by those in power.
We need to develop our middle manpower so that we
can enhance growth in all sectors. The only way we
can get that done is by making sure we have a
skilled population, and large numbers of relevantly
qualified graduates from our universities and
colleges that will work in these sectors.
If we take a look at the employment figures in the
new mining companies, we will discover that 90% of
the employment created is aimed at low-skilled and
semi-literate workers.
The country simply does not have the available
educated and skilled labour to fill the upper and
middle manpower requirements of those companies.
Instead, foreign companies are importing their
management and technical staff from abroad to fill
local vacancies.
Is this the success that the government is proud
about, when it shouts that they have created a lot
of jobs for its citizens since taking up office in
2007? President Koroma is happy to tell the world
that he has succeeded in his first term implementing
his 'AGENDA FOR CHANGE', and will be launching his
'AGENDA FOR GROWTH' during his second term.
But we are yet to witness the positive change that
he promised and we envisaged in 2007. The prices of
all basic commodities have risen by more than 100%
and counting in the last four years; there are more
drop outs from our schools than before; the so
called free maternal and child health care is
getting worse; nor has the much talked about
electricity and clean water supplies meeting the
expectations of the many that live in darkness.
Now that the country has 250 tractors against the 20
he inherited in 2007, the country’s rice production
is worse than before. So where is the evidence of
success in delivering the Agenda for Change?
Well, certainly not all change can be positive and
not all movement means forward. We wait to listen to
the speeches and sound bites regarding the
government’s new 'Agenda for Growth' in the coming
months.
Will President Koroma be attending the annual
convocation ceremony to award degrees to university
students next month, after behaving like an
illiterate who doesn’t care about education? Perhaps
he may well decide not to have a university degree
award convocation ceremony this year, after failing
to meet the minimum standards expected by the
students.
Sierra
Leone's foreign minister - J.B.Dauda |
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For the past four years the country has
had to put up with shame as our
appointed ambassadors continue to
disgrace the country abroad. Now and
then, ambassadors are being recalled and
sacked for different reasons. Is this
the kind of foreign policy that was
handed over to this government four
years ago? I guess not.
The ambassador of Russia has been
expelled by the Russian government for
alleged rape by his son. The ambassador
in China too had been recalled after
allegedly beating a woman said to be his
mistress. A full investigation by the
Chinese police was conducted.
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Presently, the ambassador and his deputy in China
have been again recalled because of disturbing
reports of corruption. There have been other
allegations in Belgium and Guinea involving our
diplomats.
It seems our ambassadors are fast becoming a
national disgrace. They are definitely hindering any
effort to rebrand the country and encourage
investors into the country. The former ambassadors
had been of immense value to the country and were
highly respectable. They performed their duties with
credit, devoid of political partisanship.
Today, we have a National Agency for Social Security
(NASSIT) in the country because of Ambassador Ali
Bangura who did everything in his power for Sierra
Leone to adopt Ghana’s social security blue print
and human resource to build a viable NASSIT in
Sierra Leone. He was also responsible for bringing
Regimanuel Gray - a Ghanaian private sector housing
estate developer to help increase the supply of
housing in the country.
He also made sure that when Ports Authority was in a
mess the SLPP government sought the expertise of
Ghanaian government to help restructure the
institution to what it is today. These institutions
are today operating and employing hundreds of Sierra
Leoneans - not as unskilled workers, but skilled
middle and senior management employees.
This is what is expected of our country’s
ambassadors and diplomats working overseas: to help
promote the country and attract foreign investments,
and definitely not to embarrass us. President Koroma
has been appointing the wrong people as ambassadors
because of the immense contribution that they made
financially to his 2007 election success.
The earlier we rethink how best to correct our 2007
electoral mistake the better it will be for Sierra
Leone’s development, peace and stability.
Electioneering has once again become a violent
affair since APC came to power and there are fears
of widespread thuggery next year, when the people
once again go out to elect a new government. It
seems the ruling APC party may want to hang on to
power at all cost.
As for the economy, Sierra Leoneans are really
feeling the pinch because of the government’s dogged
road construction programme, which is now taking up
the majority of public sector spending. The
government has virtually allowed the economy to go
downhill by increasing taxes and introducing a Goods
and Services Tax. Corruption has become legal in
many sectors of the economy.
Workers are being paid appalling levels of salary,
which ministers themselves cannot live on. Workers
across every sector are trying to cope in meeting
their domestic obligations, by whatever possible
means - whether corrupt or legal. The
Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) boss is trying all
he could, but he should understand that with such a
low base economy, tackling corruption is definitely
going to be a daunting task.
Teachers and lecturers do not wish to be tainted by
corruption that is why they have been asking for
improved conditions of service and increased pay.
Ministers and MPs are paid more than $2,000 a month.
The ACC boss receives more than $8,000 a month, but
the teachers and lecturers who made these people
what they are today are treated with no iota of
respect.
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In parliament there are many MPs that
have never said a word or made a
contribution to debates since 2007; the
reason being that they are not educated
sufficiently to be able to do so. Yet
they are receiving millions of Leones in
salaries, massive interest free loans –
which we know they will never pay back,
and enjoying political immunity.
How can we expect a family of four to
survive on an income of five hundred
thousand Leones, when a bag of rice
costs Le150,000, school fees are there
to be paid, daily transportation costs
and prices of basic commodities going up
almost daily? Will that family live in
peace? It is difficult for many of us. |
Since president Koroma’s government took power in
2007 and with all the noise about success, people
simply need to visit the Mountain villages just
seven miles off the city, and see if there is any
electricity or clean drinking water. And if these
villages that are so close to the capital are unable
to gain access to basic amenities, then what hope do
the people of the provincial districts have?
Sierra Leoneans are at the cross roads of either
continuing in a state of rot created by this
government, or look forward to a brighter future
with confidence. But only us can make the decision
to pull the country out of the depth of economic
decadence it is now in.
The current cost of suffering and abject poverty is
just too high for us to bear. We have brought upon
ourselves hunger, anger, frustration and untimely
death (average age of adult mortality is still 47).
We can change the present if we believe in
ourselves. We can say enough is enough, and we can
draw a line on the past to achieve a brighter
future.
Let us not make the same mistake twice, because if
the 'agenda for change' can bring our education
system to its knees – not even writing paper is
available for students to take their exams, what
will happen when the government’s new 'agenda for
growth' is launched?
Let us not allow the cost of false pretence
incurred in 2007, to blind our judgments nor
continue to lead us in the path of darkness - into
2012 and beyond.
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