Random musing
Timbergate: a ‘looter’ continua
Raymond Dele Awoonor-Gordon
29 November 2011
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In the midst of the verifiable
achievements and the pillaging and abuse
of the past years, there is a compelling
need, like Sorious Samura has done in
the current 'Timbergate scandal', to
gainfully redirect the consciousness of
Sierra Leoneans.
Because from all indications, it appears
ninety percent of Sierra Leoneans are
'munkus'; five percent are 'semi-munkus'
and the remaining five percent are the
smart ones 'using' the rest of us as
pawns and playing games with our lives,
resources and common wealth.
We have always known that corruption is
one of the biggest afflictions that this
country suffers.
Worst of all, those in positions of
power and authority have always been the
worst perpetrators of this heinous
crime, while making a fetish of their
affirmed readiness and willingness to
checkmate the scourge. |
But the fact is that the ruling class is founded on
corruption and thrives on the vice; which is the
principal means of acquiring economic and political
power. If you look around you, what you’ll see is
that four years into the life of this
administration, the most thriving industry is
corruption.
Evidently, the precepts and actions of our leaders
stand poles apart. And we discover that more than
anything else, what they - our so-called leaders -
need, is a SAT NAV to show them where their
conscience is or should be.
I have always stressed that I just cannot accept,
that the 'miraculous transformation' of the
appearance and worldly possessions of those in power
is an accident or the result of prudent spending of
their hard-earned salary. On the contrary - I am
very much inclined to believe that it is the result
of very opulent conditions made available by public
funds and dubious transactions.
This is what those who jump on the bandwagon of
defending the indefensible should set out to
counter.
Transparency and accountability are two principal
components of public service all over the world and
when these cardinal elements are missing, society
suffers stagnation.
Vice
president Sumana facing anti-corruption
investigation |
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There are so many questions arising
from the 'Timbergate' documentary - such
as:
(a) Is there an iota of truth in the
entire programme at all?
(b) Does the VP know the two gentlemen
purporting to operate in his name and in
what capacity as well as to what extent
is their relationship?
(c) Why did the nation’s number 2 man
even entertain such a discussion knowing
fully well what the government policy
was and the fact that a ban agreed by
the cabinet in which he is a prominent
member was less than 24hours away?
(d) Why did the VP promise to speak to
the Agriculture minister?
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(e) Aside the hogwash that it was because that
ministry deals with timber issues; does it occur to
him that such intervention and subtle pressure is a
tacit endorsement of bending the rules?
(f) If the VP saw the team as genuine investors, why
did he not discuss other veritable ventures that
will be of benefit to a dying economy?
(g) Does it really matter where the meeting took
place or the fact that it took place at all
especially at a time that the economy is bleeding?
I cannot for the life of me believe that SLBC,
funded by tax payers’ money could devote precious
airtime to thrash that tries to cast aspersions on
mundane aspects of the timbergate exposé, rather
than debate the highlights and consequences of the
revelation.
Instead of leaving no stone unturned in the
protection of the sovereign wealth of the people and
the constitutional and social responsibility of
keeping an eye on governance, some segment of the
mass media in an open display of depravity that
borders on lunacy, degenerated to pettiness.
That for you is the 21st century journalism - in our
dear country, and little wonder that we have
continued to eat our future in the present, without
any added value to governance.
So what the programme and its subsequent furore have
done is to show what is still inherent in our
society; that despite the lip service by this and
previous administrations, the political class and
the media are: 'six and half a dozen' respectively -
when it comes to graft.
Today and amongst the people, those who were
carried away by the pretensions and noise about
anti-corruption when they were elevated to a state
policy, have come to realise that the semblance of
action on Kemoh Sesay and Afsatu Kabbah, were mere
flukes designed to divert attention from the make
believe.
For the avoidance of any doubt, I am not talking of
those suffering from misplaced hysteria or who
hero-worship and point accusing fingers for the sake
of a plate of ‘ebbeh’ in whatever shape or form it
comes, but those who have seen through the veil of
deception and can smell the stinking dunghill. The
stench has been pervasive for sometime but now, it
is oozing without let or hindrance.
Timbergate is the opening salvo. That is why there
is a dreary and discreditable pattern of denial and
delay.
In one of my much earlier piece when the trumpet of
the war against corruption first sounded, I wrote
inter alia:
President Koroma and vice president
Sumana |
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"President Koroma may mean well and may
be zealously determined to fight
corruption, but the powers against the
fight are formidable. Within his
government and party alone, they
surround him.
"Those who sold their houses to ensure
an APC war chest; those who dabbled into
unwholesome activities to raise money
and those who sold their very soul in an
enormous sacrifice were not blind
pitching; they were making investments.
Back in the real world, everything
appears calculated because the approach
to minimising corruption is not
systematic.
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"If the messenger in a small office is corrupt,
should we begin the fight from that level or from
the top?
The answer of course is from the top because before
the messenger can be brazenly corrupt, the boss must
be corrupt. If the subordinates know that the boss
does not condone that sort of thing, they will take
caution."
(RANDOM MUSING: THE POLITICS OF ANTI-CORRUPTION.
3/11/2008)
Analyse the timbergate scandal and you’ll see what I
mean. Those using the VeePee’s name obviously are
aware that when the purported investors meet him,
nothing different will come out of Israel as he
demonstrated by his lack of judgement
Earlier that year, I had similarly written that:
"While he is not likely to wear a garment of greed
like most of our past leaders, Koroma should realise
that one of the problem is that if a person becomes
a public office holder by being dishonest, which
includes buying position, there is no way he is
going to become a saint when he gets there; no
matter what piece of contract paper he signs as the
President is mistakenly assuming.
"All that will happen is that he becomes more
ingenious - because it is for that very reason that
he invested heavily in being influential.
"If you put a saint in a whorehouse, it will take
the grace of God for him to remain one. If you
employ a thief as security officer it is you who has
given the nod for your possessions to do a vanishing
act.
"As for corruption, the truth is that whether you
open ACC offices in every household or not, nothing
will change except the very fabric of our society
changes.
"True the country is seething with corruption and it
is deep as it is wide. But it is as much pervasive
in the highest level as it is in the lowest. The
trouble is that the social, cultural and political
disposition, about to be employed in fighting the
cankerworm called corruption will at best, be like
spitting in the air – it doesn’t go farther than the
mouth". (RANDOM MUSING: 2/3/2008)
For my writings, I was labelled and called all
sorts of names - some unprintable.
But apart from confirming the presence of the
elephant in the room that we refuse to acknowledge,
what the scandal has also revealed, is that fifty
years after we cut the umbilical cord with our
colonial masters, the only area we are truly
independent, is in treasury looting, kleptomania and
political deceit.
As it is, there is a general mistrust about public
office holders because of the scandalous and
unedifying antecedents of many individuals. These
trends seem to be undermining the credibility of the
few exemplary individuals, who have maintained
sufficient moral decency in discharging their public
responsibilities.
But fundamentally, the celebration of public office
holders while in office is an anomaly that breeds
corruption especially when twinned with the absence
of an assessment process for public office holders
during and after their tenures.
We therefore need to ensure that the masses have a
role to play in ensuring that corruption is
eradicated in the society. We need to keep drumming
it into them and showing them evidence like the
'Timbergate' TV documentary why they should not just
celebrate people because they are in public office.
We need to let them appreciate the fact that it is
their right to assess public office holders when
they are in office and not to run after them with
awards they do not deserve in the first place.
But then we cannot ignore one factor why our leaders
have elevated corruption to a way of life: POVERTY.
CORRUPTION has a mother called "POVERTY" and a
father named "GREED". The maternal is the lineage of
the masses, while the paternal has its umbilical
cord in our top echelon of leadership across board.
Having been so traumatized that he has lost every
sense of hard work and reward values, the ordinary
Sierra Leonean finds it so easy to sing and dance on
the street during political rallies and government
functions for fees, crumbs and political
appointments, than to bother about what is being
done in his name. Those in power know this and play
on it.
Our resources have been sold to foreigners at
pittance and for generations unborn; yet it goes
unchallenged by those who now find it convenient to
debase a report that points to the unwholesome
behaviour of some of those we entrusted our future
to.
To tackle the graft malaise head-on, requires a
root-canal cure. Let's focus on the right way to
clip the wings of this cankerworm that has
misdirected state money into private pockets at the
detriment of the economy of our nation. No one, and
I repeat, no one in government, especially those who
refuse to openly declare their assets, is immune
from suspicion.
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Corruption will stop when politicians
and political office holders are not
treated as special class of humans and
the rest of us considered second class
citizens; when politics is not
considered a higher profession than
other services rendered by the rest of
us - and politicians are seen as
servants and not masters.
There will be an end to graft when no
sacred cow truly exists and just
punishment is meted out irrespective of
class, status, position or contact.
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When the goddess of justice acts with the blindfold
on her face and strikes with the drawn sword no
matter who enters the arena of justice and when
every body - big or small, rich or poor, tall or
short, dark or fair, Temne, Limba, Creole, or Mende,
Lebanese or alien - are truly equal before the law.
When discrimination is considered unconstitutional
and equity and justice allowed to take its course in
the scheme of things, our society will experience a
renaissance. When the thief is called by his name
and not given a rousing welcome home with red carpet
and celebrated like a hero from battle.
When we reorder our values and condemn what is
condemnable and praise what is praise-worthy and
Government becomes sincere about the fight against
corruption, then corruption will become the
exception and not the rule - and corrupt persons
will feel ashamed for being identified with the
accursed word.
Let me conclude with another reminder of a
previous piece:
"Fighting corruption requires a very strong political
will. The abuse of public office for private gains
is and has been a scourge of politics. And in this
age of dependence on foreign aid and reliance on
international organisations and companies with money
to burn, the opportunity for corruption has taken a
more sinister image.
"Tackling the scourge will be the start of a long
sanitization process. But how long do we want our
society to continue to feel and smell dirty with the
putrid smell of corruption? We all have to demand an
end to the looting of our collective inheritance
starting with those in the corridors of power, the
helm of affairs, and in charge of our tills coming
to the table with clean and equitable hands.
"The compelling burden of having to establish beyond
reasonable doubt, that he is out to run a government
of his beliefs and convictions, including fighting
an inherently corrupt political, social and economic
machinery, is basically Ernest Koroma’s; but one
thing is clear, we must stop singing from the
hymnbook of fraud and dining with the notorious
agents of corruption so that Sierra Leone can at
least begin to purr into life". (RANDOM MUSING:
ERNEST KOROMA: DARE TO BE DIFFERENT PART 4:
(2/3/2008)
Whether Koroma will succeed in steering the ship
of state to a place of honour is not only the
challenge of the moment but a critical benchmark, in
the choice of where we go from here - come 2012.
awogordon@yahoo.co.uk
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