By:- Alpha Omar Jabbie (Concerned Sierra Leonean)
As we usher in the year 2015 and as the Ebola crisis and other pertinent issues continue to plague my beloved birth country, Sierra Leone, I have pondered on the current condition of the land that I love, the one-time envy of Africa and the anthens of West Africa.
Alpha Omar Jabbie
What will become of my beloved country in 2015 and beyond? What if my beloved Sierra Leone was still under British colonial rule today and what would have become of Sierra Leone?
I strongly believe, without question, that our economy would have been comparable to similarly situated African countries with a plethora of opportunities and investments from companies around the world including, but not limited to, British companies.
Our economic development would have surpassed what it is today. Our schools and universities, formally the education basin of British West Africa, could have been producing talents and future leaders of Africa and the world as we once were.
The current education curricula and systems in Sierra Leone are not beneficial to the students as it does not directly correlate to the prevailing economic activities outside the school system.
As the world has progressed and moved to a more robust and advanced system of education, our educational system continues to focus on theory rather than providing practical skills to students, which will in turn generate more professionals.
Such education systems impart literary and general education without sufficient practical content. The end result of such a system has resulted in the production of individuals whose skills do not support the current economic trends in the Sierra Leone job market.
Given the fact that the education curriculum in Sierra Leone does not consist of industrial skills which are needed to build and sustain an economic engine good enough to support our people, our current education system produces many graduates with non- transferable or irrelevant skills.
Furthermore, the all-inclusive policy at secondary and post-secondary schools has increased unemployment rates for the educated, because they are only trained for common white collar employment rather than entrepreneurship or industrialized jobs.
For instance, when African Minerals and London mining companies were in full operation, most of their skilled jobs were occupied by foreigners and expatriates. Due to this failed system, the path lands the majority of our graduates in the office behind desks writing policies without providing the manpower to support the implementation of such policies.
This in turn has created a failed economic system that does not support its graduates and the lifestyle of its’ government officials who have no choice but to turn to corruption.
If Sierra Leone was still under the British rule, our educational system would still be the envy of the world. andour educational system would have been producing future leaders capable of making a real positive difference in the lives of our suffering people today, as it once did.
Our iconic Fourah Bay College, known for producing leaders, would have been producing leaders of the world. However, today our education system is left to crumble while our political leaders benefit from the privilege of sending their children to top schools around the world. When questioned, if at all, they claim to offer free education which is not good enough to send their own children.
Lack of employment opportunities in Sierra Leone is directly linked to bad leadership and corrupt attitudes of the individuals in power. Money embezzlement for meaningful projects is prevalent, which could have created employment opportunities for our youth.
Long retention in our civil service system prevents growth and potential new ideas that may have been able to propel growth. The corrupt practices have created room for negligence and monotonous lack of innovative thinking stifle new ideas that can meet the challenges of the 21st century.
In addition, our educators, doctors, CPA’s, project managers, entrepreneurs, technocrats and trained and skilled individuals, under good prevailing circumstances, should be thinking about entrepreneurship, rather than moving or staying in the diaspora in search of greener pastures .
If the land that I love so dearly was still under British rule, unemployment, especially amongst our youth, may have been handled and addressed as a national emergency.
Corruption has long existed in Sierra Leone, but has become more the norm as proper democratic governance was eroded after independence by our “so called” founding fathers of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) and All Peoples Congress (APC).
Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain on April 7, 1961, under the leadership of Sir Milton Margai of the SLPP. Shortly after Sierra Leone’s independence, Sir Milton was succeeded by his brother Sir Albert Margai. After Albert Margai’s death in 1964, begins the assault or at least the attempted assault and descends on our democratic principles.
After Sir Albert’s failed attempts to manipulate the Sierra Leone constitution into a one-party rule and lost the 1967 election to Siaka Stevens in the early 1970’s, the real assault on our political system began and the country becomes a de facto one-party state.
In 1978 it became a de jure one-party state after a referendum orchestrated by Siaka Stevens and his All Peoples Congress. As Executive President, Stevens’ power grew and corruption became the order of the day with such scandals as the Voucher gate, Squander gate and Million gate, to name a few.
The pervasive corruption led to scandals which depleted the country’s national reserve, impoverished the people and bred discontent among the citizenry. The effects of such mismanagement, abuse and corruption largely contributed to a decade of civil war which lasted from March 1991 to January 2002 and destroyed thousands of lives and properties.
Our leaders have constantly failed us. As President Obama stated during his visit to Accra, Ghana, “No country is going to create wealth if its leaders exploit the economy to enrich themselves, or police can be bought off by drug traffickers (unscrupulous and shady business men).”
I believe that if my beloved country was still under the British rule, a system of checks and balances would have been put into place and the blatant misuse of public resources and trust given to our founding fathers could have been prevented.
As corruption becomes the order of the day amongst our leaders, the breakdown of law and order from high to low level public officials has led to the existing corruption. For any society to flourish and realize it full potential, fair laws must be established, respected by the people and enforced by the government.
For example, in western societies, a citizen who violates a traffic law may face consequences such as sanctions or even criminal prosecution. However, in contrast, in Sierra Leone, basic laws are not enforced nor does order exist because the people do not have faith in the ability of the country’s leaders to ensure that their basic rights are upheld.
If Sierra Leone was still under British rule, basic rights and privileges may have been respected. Let’s face it, what difference does it really make, especially for those of us living abroad. We are living under British, US, and western law rules and discipline and our rights are even better protected in most cases than it is in our birth country land that we all love, Sierra Leone.
As the breakdown of law and order engulf the land, basic infrastructures continue to crumble and Freetown, once the envy of the west for its’ beauty and natural harbor, becomes the darkest city in world. Further, our leaders have reduced us to a mere laughing stock around the world.
Our power generation capacity has been hampered by the corruption and lack of accountability by our leaders. Sierra Leone currently experiences frequent blackouts. In the capital city of Freetown, supply is available to the general public only for a few hours per day.
Most areas in the interior of the country are wholly or largely without access electricity. If we were still under British rule today, at minimum we would have been guaranteed 24/7 access to electricity in Freetown.
Water supply in Sierra Leone is plagued by limited access to safe drinking water. Despite efforts by successive government and numerous non-governmental organizations, access has not improved much, stagnating at about 50% and even declining or is non-existent in rural parts of Sierra Leone.
In the capital city, Freetown, running water sources are very low. Under British rule, our renowned water system, the great Guma Valley Water Company (GVWC) which is responsible for water supply in Greater Freetown would have been distributing clean and drinkable water for our people.
However, today in Sierra Leone, the water is not portable or drinkable nor readily available to the people in most part of Freetown. My beloved country is endowed with so many natural resources, capable of building huge metropolitan cities similar to New York City, Atlanta, Georgia or any major city around the world two or three times over, but due to decades of mismanagement and corruption the country’s potential has not been realized.
If the British were running our country, the road networks and transportation systems may have been superior or at least comparable to other emerging African countries.I do understand that every nation has some level of corruption, however, the corruption and the lack of accountability in Sierra Leone is appalling.
Government officials have readily misused, mismanaged and embezzled public funds and resources with impunity.
Our healthcare system was deplorable prior to the Ebola crisis, yet the country’s leaders were bragging about free health care for women and children as one of their greatest achievement for Sierra Leoneans while drugs and supplies meant to be a part of the so called “free healthcare” end up in private pharmacies and private hospitals.
Officials bragged about how improved our health care system was prior to Ebola, however, when these same leaders required medical attention, they would seek such care overseas at the expense of our beloved people.
The chance of our people acquiring medical attention in Sierra Leone (only for those who can afford it) has been dashed by the current Ebola epidemic with our doctors and nurses being systematically wiped out and the healthcare system in shambles.
Under British rule, remarkable hospitals such as the legendary Connaught Hospital, which was capable of treating any disease in the world, and had talented doctors and nurses, may have been in full operation. In our current fight against Ebola, we may have stood a chance.
Prior to Sierra Leone’s independence from the Great Britain, Sierra Leone had a reliable and consistent network of transportation which existed throughout the country or at least in the provincial headquarter towns that linked Freetown and the provinces.
During that time, the network served the people well and there was no need for people that lived in the provinces to move and settled in Freetown, because traveling to Freetown was easy and convenient. The Sierra Leone Railway service provided transportation and also provided employment for hundreds of families.
After independence, our leaders decided to discontinue the once robust railway service. If we were still under British rule today, our transportation system would have been capable of serving the people of Sierra Leone.
I can go on and on regarding how much Sierra Leone would have been a lot better off if the land that I love was still under our British rule.
Many Sierra Leoneans, especially those who are benefiting from the status quo, or those lining up to assume the mantle of leadership the next go around or even those of us living abroad who enjoy the comfort of 24 hours electricity, good hospitals and medical facilities, reliable and solid basic infrastructures in their various communities may take offense to my view.
However, if we are truly honest with ourselves, we will realize that after over 50 years of self-rule, things have not gotten any better for our people.
I ask the basic questions, “ARE WE BETTER OFF TODAY THAN WE WERE 53 YEARS AGO? If the answer is YES, let stays with the status quo but if NO, let’s take a radical approach to change.
There are some who will blame the lack of progress on our brutal civil war and some will go further to say that our economic growth was on the move and blame the current Ebola pandemic for our lack of growth.
However the economy was in disarray before the civil war. Further corruption and lack of faith in our Leaders started, if not, ignited the civil war. Lack of strong leadership from our two political
parties are what led and continue to undermine our current fight against Ebola.
There are those who will say the problem should be attributed to the APC or SLPP; others say this is the NEW APC or the NEW SLPP, “ we will do better just give my ‘thief’ a chance this time around and things will be better.” I say to them we have been there already.
Prior to Ebola, there were rumors in certain circles about his Excellency Ernest Bai Koroma’s plans for a constitutional review committee to manipulate our people and change our constitution to extend his term for another 2 – 5 years.
I strongly believe if that was to come true, he will surely be making history, but for the wrong reasons. If the President truly wants to be iconic and forever be remembered as the transformational
leader he once dreamt of, I urge him to use his party’s majority in the Sierra Leone Parliament to enact laws and change our Constitution transition back to a parliamentary system of government with the a Prime Minister as head of government and the Queen of England as Head of State rather than trying to stay in power longer than the current constitution allows which will further breed hardship and discontent.
Finally, British Rule 2.0 in the 21st century will mean a parliamentary democracy with a Prime Minister as the head of government. For instance, the Bahamas is an independent country and as a former British colony it is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
Political and legal traditions closely follow those of the United Kingdom. Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state, but executive power is exercised by the cabinet. In other words, with such systems, there may be minimal checks and balances that would have prevented what has happened and continues to plague our people and country over the last 50 years.
How much more do our leaders have to fail to realize that they do not have what it takes to run an effective city let alone a country in the 21st century?
Until we take a hard honest look at ourselves as a nation, the past and current failures of those trusted in public office, and then we could see the writing on the wall.
I hope our pride and ego as a people will not get in the way of doing that which will be good for our people, I say British rule 2.0 – a parliamentary system of government with a Prime Minister and the Queen of England as Head of State. What do you say?
Let start the debate!