Alpha Amadu Jalloh: Sierra Leone Telegraph: 19 August 2024:
Every generation of a nation carries the torch of hope, striving to build a future that surpasses the present. The foundation of this aspiration lies in the investments made today in the children who will inherit tomorrow.
For most nations, this means nurturing an environment where the young can grow, learn, and eventually lead their country toward progress and prosperity. But as we stand at the crossroads of Sierra Leone’s future, one must ask: What future are we bequeathing to our children?
With the current state of mal-administration, rampant corruption, misinformation, nepotism, and the myriads of societal ills plaguing Sierra Leone, it is difficult to envision a bright future.
The decay has set in so deeply that it is not just about poor governance but a wholesale abandonment of the very values that should bind us as a nation. When a people begin to sell their rights for a sack of rice – often not even of healthy quality- what future can be expected for their children?
In Sierra Leone today, leadership has become synonymous with self-serving interests. The sacred oaths of office, meant to bind leaders to the principles of service and accountability, have become mere formalities. There is no fear of Almighty Allah or reverence for the divine mandates that should guide moral governance.
Our religious leaders – pastors, reverends, imams, and sheikhs – who once stood as the moral compass of our society, are now, more often than not, available to the highest bidder. Truth, it seems, was buried long ago.
The presidency, the highest office in the land, has been transformed into a fortress of privilege. The president and his family are treated as if they are demigods, above the laws that govern mere mortals. They act with impunity, and those who dare to question their actions face the wrath of a security apparatus that seems to exist solely for the protection of those in power.
Our so-called “Fountain of Honour” has no respect for the rule of law, and those who should be guardians of our democracy – our elders – are too busy fighting for their own survival to hold leaders accountable.
Ministers, members of parliament, the police, the army – these institutions, meant to serve the people, have been bequeathed to the president and his cronies.
Party loyalists, blind to the long-term consequences, would even sell their own children to protect those in power, all in the name of survival. It is a grotesque inversion of the social contract, where the people are meant to be the masters, not the slaves of their leaders.
But as much as the leadership can be blamed, we, the people of Sierra Leone, are not without fault. Gone are the days when parents would sacrifice to ensure their children received the education and moral guidance needed to become future leaders.
Today, many of us are more concerned with protecting politicians who have no interest in our future or that of our children. We have become complicit in our own oppression, content to live in a system that suppresses us with poverty, hunger, and starvation, while a few lost souls are given crumbs to create the illusion that democracy is functioning in Sierra Leone.
This system is rigged, and it is rigged against the future of our children. As Sierra Leoneans, we are busy clamouring and clapping for those who plunder the wealth of our nation, siphoning it off for their families and cronies.
Meanwhile, the international community, with its vested interests, has little desire to intervene on our behalf. It is in their interest that Sierra Leone remains as it is today – a nation kept in perpetual bondage, with leaders who are anything but honest.
From its inception as a British colony, Sierra Leone has been saddled with leaders more concerned with their own power and wealth than with the well-being of their people.
Our history is littered with missed opportunities and betrayed hopes. And now, we stand at a precipice.
What legacy are we leaving for our children? Are we content to hand them a future of despair, where the cycle of corruption, poverty, and oppression continues unabated?
The answer lies in our collective hands. We must begin by reclaiming our rights and responsibilities as citizens. We must demand more from our leaders and from ourselves.
Our children deserve better than the future we are currently shaping for them. They deserve a Sierra Leone where truth, justice, and integrity are not just words, but the foundation of our society. They deserve a future where they can dream of more than mere survival, where they can aspire to greatness without fear of being crushed by the weight of a corrupt system.
It is time for Sierra Leoneans to rise up, not with weapons or violence, but with the power of our voices, our votes, and our unwavering commitment to building a better future. For if we do not act now, we will have no one to blame but ourselves. When our children ask us, “What about our future?” And what will we tell them then? That we were too busy protecting the very forces that robbed them of their dreams?
The future of Sierra Leone depends on the actions we take today. Let us not fail our children. Let us not fail ourselves.
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