In just over a month the government of president
Koroma will be expecting the people of Sierra Leone
to stampede to the Miatta Conference Hall in
Freetown, to 'navel gaze'.
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After 50 years of independence, a conference - dubbed;
the 'Sierra Leone Conference on Development and
Transformation' is being organised by president
Koroma, inviting all Sierra Leoneans to answer the
million dollar question:
'why are Sierra Leoneans poor, and how to develop
and govern the country?'
With a population of 6 million, and an abundance of
natural resources and fertile land, Sierra Leone is
still classed as one of the poorest nations in the
world.
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Yet after four years in power and ten months away to
general elections, president Koroma’s government is
still not clear about the economic, social and
political problems facing the country, and how best
to tackle those problems.
In 2009 faced with similar confusion and quandary,
president Koroma was lampooned by the opposition and
the media for "calling on divine intervention" to
solve the myriad of economic and social problems
bedevilling the nation.
For those criticising the government’s ineptitude, it
is difficult to understand why after eleven years of
the implementation of a strategy referred to as the
'Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper' and latterly –
the 'Agenda for Change', Sierra Leoneans are still
confused as to why the country is so poor and badly
governed.
Sierra Leone has never been short on strategy
documents and donor cash to help implement those
strategies.
It is estimated that since the end of the war in 2001,
international community aid donors have spent not
less than £10 Billion to help fix Sierra Leone’s
economic, social and political infrastructure, which
was to have brought an end to poverty.
But ten years on, the people of Sierra Leone are
having to make do with average daily income of less
than a Dollar, which can barely provide one square
meal for a family of four.
Unemployment is estimated at 80%, especially among
the youth. Child mortality is still very high,
despite the introduction of a free health care
programme for children under five years old. The
majority of newly born continues to die before their
fifth birthday.
Adult mortality reads like a roll-call on the
country’s radio stations, as daily obituary
announcements give their own grim statistics. Most
young people are unlikely to live to celebrate their
50th birthday. Adult mortality rate is 47 years and
has been so for decades.
But one thing is certain, Sierra Leoneans do not
need scarce resources spent on a national
conference, estimated to cost over $2 Million, to
tell them what is wrong with the country; why they
are poor; and what can be done to tackle the
economic, social and political problems facing the
nation - most of which are created and perpetuated
by the very politicians, who come round once every
five years asking for the peoples’ votes.
What
next after four years of agenda for
change? |
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President Koroma takes great delight in
his success implementing his Agenda for
Change, which according to the
government, encapsulates the key
strategies needed to turn the nation’s
economic and social ills around.
After four years in power, the
government says that it has performed
very well in turning the country around.
Be that as it may, why then does the
government need a national conference to
tell them what the country’s priorities
should be and how best to address them?
Is
this not an admission of failure and
incompetence?
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Something is certainly not right, especially with
general elections just less than a year away. What
is president Koroma’s hidden agenda?
Today the government starts a two day pre-national
conference technical workshop at the Bintumani
Conference Centre. It says that the workshop will
"analyze data, ideas and suggestions collected so
far, in order to formulate options for policy and
programme recommendations to be discussed in the
January 12 to 14 National Conference to be held at
the Miatta Conference Centre in Freetown".
For the next two days in Freetown, as part of the
grand planning for the national conference taking
place in January 2012, technocrats in the country
will be discussing:
"Issues that emerged from the review of previous
documents such as Vision 2025, Poverty Reduction
Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the Agenda for Change."
They will also be examining "academic papers on the
opportunities and challenges to be encountered by a
rapidly transforming Sierra Leone, the wide ranging
Focus Group Discussions (FDS), text Messages and
phone – in calls received during nation wide
community radio conference programmes, as well as
information gathered through the Secretariat’s
website and Facebook pages".
But is this not what the APC party and government
ministers ought to be doing themselves to prepare
their manifesto for the 2012 elections?
Why should tax payers' and precious international
donor funds be used to pay for a conference that
will – by all intents and purposes - be branded as
an APC pre-elections national conference to produce
their manifesto?
In 2007, immediately after president Koroma won the
elections, he and his entire inner circle now
forming his government, went to the village of
Bintumani in the north of the country for a weekend
retreat.
At the Bintumani retreat, the government with the
help of key British Labour government former
ministers – Hillary Armstrong and Tony Blair’s
Advisers, discussed the Agenda for Change and agreed
its implementation strategy.
The government was seriously convinced that with the
implementation of its Agenda for Change, Sierra
Leone will be transformed from a basket case and
donor recipient, to an economic miracle.
It is four years since that Bumbuna retreat, and
today we are being told by president Koroma to
prepare for a national conference that will tell
him" 'how to develop and govern the country'.
Does president Koroma really deserve another five
years term in office, if after four years he is
still groping in the dark - in search of answers to
the country's woes?
The government says that; "the January Conference
will bring together Sierra Leonean specialists both
within the country and in the Diaspora, complemented
by internationally reputed development
practitioners, and in consultation with a cross
section of the population to rethink the development
process and provide options for the country’s
immediate, medium term and long term development
needs".
But for a government that prides itself in its
philosophy of running the country like a business,
it ought to know that a business does not change its
corporate business plan after four years of
implementation and go back to the drawing board.
What a business would do is to internally review
what has ben achieved so far, and set new goals -
based on what remains to be done to transform the
business and achieve its mission.
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Under normal circumstances, the idea of a national
conference to discuss the formulation of a National
Economic Development Plan that will have the
broadest political consensus is not a bad idea.
But the people of Sierra Leone are just ten months
away to deciding whether to return president Koroma
to power for another five years – or not.
Early this year, president Koroma declared 2011
as the year of implementation of a plethora of
economic and social programmes and projects.
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And Tony Blair said that president Koroma will win
or lose the 2012 elections based on his record in
office.
One would therefore expect this to be his key priority
for the rest of his term in office, rather than
engaging the poor people of Sierra Leone in painful
navel gazing, as to why they are one of the poorest
nations in the world.
Two weeks ago, the finance minister told parliament
and the country that, GDP is set to rise by a
massive 50% next year. With such success and
optimism, why is the government giving an impression
of ineptitude and incompetence?
What happened to the recently announced new 'Agenda
for Growth', which the government was hoping to
unveil shortly before the elections next year?
Is the government hoping that the output and
outcomes of the national conference will inform the
contents of their APC party 2012 national elections
manifesto?
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