The date 27th April is reminiscent of the 1898 Protectorate House Tax War against the British Colonial Administration. It articulates the long, bitter struggle and hunger for freedom, independence, national sovereignty, and pride.
Each 27th of April, every year, Sierra Leoneans commemorate Independence Day with mixed feelings. Eventually, they become saddened and fumed at Independent Day because there is nothing to celebrate and, if there is anything, then there is nothing good to write home about, considering the state our political leaders have plunged into the country. The country is suffering from foreign dominance, and yet we say the country is independent. The country faces myriad challenges: poverty and hardships, economic woes, lack of infrastructure, scanty electricity and water supply, poor conditions of service, high cost of living, inflation, housing, road networks, education, health and sanitation, and food security, among others.
Since Independence, governments have consistently failed at their promises to make life better for Sierra Leoneans. They tell us beautiful lies, making flamboyant promises and making us believe that they will provide us electricity, pipe-borne water, good roads, better education, food security, good health care, and employment. Since independence, the promise of stable electricity and social amenities remains stillborn in 2024. The country has been built on an unstable foundation, some have tried to keep the foundation from falling, others have allowed it to crashing with bad governance practices, disrespect for the constitution, poor service delivery, corruption, divisions and lack of love for the country.
The sustenance and survival of the country should not be limited to one political party, whether you are an incumbent or opposition. Political parties should work hand in glove to achieve the common end, which, among other things, is to improve the lives of citizens. The success of improving lives depends on the creation and ability of Sierra Leoneans to provide good leaders, public servants, and politicians for nation-building.
Sierra Leone’s @63 speaks volumes about unemployed youth, the Kush generation, where accessibility to electricity is conservatively 37%. Electricity, in general, is a failure, with high tariffs imposed on the people. The water supply is adequately inadequate, the road network is poor, and the country’s economy is in shambles.
Working along the street without talking to people, I realized that almost everyone talks about our 63 Independence Day in agony. The lives of ordinary citizens are still crawling, and the elite are divided on political lines. Sierra Leone at 63 is entangled; both our leaders, citizens and security forces are not safe; youth adduction of Kush has left many dying naked on the streets and buried in mass graves. Tribalism, regionalism, nepotism, favouritism, inequality, and justice are still existing problems at six decades of independence.
It is shameful that Sierra Leone @63 is still dominated by foreigners, who control every aspect of the lives of citizens. The country’s economy is exclusively in their hands, with the Chinese and Lebanese controlling the country’s economy at the expense of ordinary citizens. Rice, the country’s stable food, is monopolistically imported into the country by CTC importation. The management of Freetown International Airport is in the hands of a Turkish company. Due to a lack of electricity infrastructure, the country depends on the Karpowership for electricity generation and supply. They can shut the country to darkness if they so desire, as they did recently due to the inability of the government to pay its accumulated debt. They owned the Turkish Karpowership over the years for electricity supply. The Chinese managed the Toll Gate and owned many mining companies in the country. The mining sector, be it diamond, gold, Iron ore, rutile, or bauxite, is predominantly mined by foreign companies. The provision of mobile network services in the country is in the hands of foreigners; all three mobile companies operating there are exclusively foreign-owned. Our only telecommunication company, Sierratel Ltd, a cable and satellite company, has been crumbled by some corrupt individuals, but we see them walk in the streets shoulder-high.
Foreign companies manage the country’s passport, and foreigners dominate the importation of foodstuffs, the banking sector, fishing, hotel management, private hospitals or health care centres, and the transport sector, including the importation of cars, tricycles, and even Waka Fine transport.
In all of those mentioned above, there is nothing we can write home about as Sierra Leoneans. Six decades later, citizens have been suffering from scanty water and electricity supply, even though the country has always had a government and is virtually blessed with natural resources. If our government had used our resources accordingly, we could have got enough to catapult the country to the crescendo of achievement and make citizens’ lives better in paradise. However, of bad governance and selfish leadership, citizens are still caught in the middle between the devil and the deep blue sea, making Sierra Leone a hell rather than paradise, where state coffers bleed dry, causing economic hardship in the lives of ordinary citizens.
Political demagogues like firebrands, orators, agitators, and crowd pleasers who came to power through the ballot box or the barrel of the gun came with Sham promises. They played political gymnastics, manoeuvring, manipulations, intrigues, injustice, corruption, state aggression against unarmed civilians, tribalism, and nepotism to consolidate political power from independence to the present day. These vices have left Sierra Leoneans in shattered dreams and anguish with enduring pains, frustrations, quagmires and retrogression to agree with the assertion ‘’Yesterday, better pass tiday’’
Our presidents, together, are the catalysts for our predicament as a failed nation and for subjecting Sierra Leoneans to mere hardship, poverty, and suffering. They are believed not to go scotched-free, no matter how long the world takes to end. Like the Civil War, those who took greatest responsibility suffered the greatest brunt.
As we observe 63 years of independence as a nation, it is crystal clear that certain things could have been done to improve citizens’ lives, but our governments turn blind eyes and deaf ears to such areas.
Party politics and ‘politrics’ catalyse the current problems in Sierra Leone immersed by the two dominant political parties in Sierra Leone APC and SLPP. They have imposed themselves to outdo each other and enrich themselves at the expense of the ordinary citizens. They have foisted a mixture of authoritarianism and liberal democratic models of governance for the icing of the cake, which in turn has degenerated into irreconcilable differences. The APC and the SLPP pitched themselves into two ends poles of a magnet, polarising and dividing the country. This seed of discord was nursed on the eve of independence following the arrests and detention of the leadership of the APC, including Siaka Stevens and 43 others. The trend has resurfaced again in recent times with the frequent arrests and detention of opposition members in recent times for the best and worst reasons.
The irreconcilable differences have pitched the leadership of the APC and the SLPP against themselves, and it has boiled down to their supporters, thereby intensifying the struggle to retain political power at all costs. They are not in a hurry to catch up with time and do what is needed to better the lives of their people but rather aspire to capture political power, exert political authority and appropriate themselves to enviable positions, using influence, affluence and privileges of office to accumulate wealth at the expense of citizens, who languished in poverty and hardship; as if they are strangers in another man’s country. We have seen the ruling class and politicians accruing wealth with impunity, and no one dared ask a question while they bled state coffers dry.
Today’s reality is that party politics in Sierra Leone is full of tricks, intrigues and manipulation, suspicion and distrust. In the period preceding independence, political parties under the United National Front (UNF) under Sir Milton Margai, the First Prime Minister of Sierra Leone, were the prime force in the struggle for independence. Still, ironically shocking was that after independence was granted, they became sources of authoritarianism, instability, unconstitutionality, bad governance and undemocratic policies, which undermined socioeconomic development in the country. Our political party system in the country revolves around mass political parties, which are often driven by ideologies to perpetuate leadership in office rather than forging a common front with the opposition to achieve a common ground that is geared towards development and reconciling the mindboggling and conflicting issues, irreconcilable differences and values irrespective of party affiliations.
Another area of concern where the government could have done what was needed to impact the lives of Sierra Leoneans is providing effective service delivery of goods and services. MDAs are charged with the provision of socio-economic services in all sectors that are germane to the existence of citizens. Every government is expected to do more to ensure effective local and public service delivery, which is often clouded by acute service delivery. Still, due to the lack of accountability and transparency in the awarding of contracts and implementation, effective service delivery has been a failure. The lack of service delivery is a catalyst for why Sierra Leone has lagged in meeting changing times and bettering the lives of Sierra Leoneans since independence in 1961. Had our governments embarked on effective service delivery, the country could not have been on its present state of economic shambles. A government is expected to embark on effective provisions for basic social amenities to improve the lives of citizens through ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs).
‘’Public and local Service delivery signifies any contact between the public and the government during which citizens become the beneficiaries of services which are normally delivered in an effective, predictable and reliable manner. Such services may be related to education, health and sanitation, water supply, electricity, and food security and are usually development-oriented and essential for improvement in the living conditions of the people.  Public service delivery is essential in ensuring progress toward sustainable development, but for inequality, lack of transparency and corruption, local and public service delivery has been poor. This, in turn, means that groups or individuals may lack access to quality services like water and sanitation, education, health care and infrastructure. The provision of public services and facilities in the urban environment significantly impacts the quality of life that residents and others enjoy. Good quality of local public services, including education and training opportunities, health care and community facilities, are identified as one of the key elements for a Sustainable Community Plan connected with social and economic improvement and community safety’’ I alluded in my thesis: Participatory Governance, Accountability and Responsiveness: A Comparative Study of Local and Public Service Provisions in Urban Freetown.’’ (2023)
Given the above, every government should ensure the provision of local and public services to protect the economy and citizens from exploitation by foreign companies to provide social and economic services. For this reason, the government should not leave certain areas in the hands of foreigners. Today, our economy is in shambles because it is in the hands of foreign companies.
See Part 2 in Next Edition
